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Show 132 "At our tender age." "Yeah, to have it all over with so early." "I don't know. Maybe this is just the beginning. That was just a rehearsal." She looked directly into my eyes and smiled. It was the same merry smile I'd known for years, dampened now by sadness, subdued but still one which raced my heart. I flipped out my partial and made it turn somersaults in my mouth. Click, click. "Maybe so," she said, and I fled to the kitchen for another drink. While I was there, when I started to work that bridge around to snap it back in, it stuck on something. It wouldn't move. I put down my drink and poked a finger in. The prongs which curve around the adjoining teeth to hold it are pointed, sharply, and somehow one of them had stuck into the inside of my cheek. I tugged a little, and since the thing is curved, I think it sank in more deeply. I was getting ready to open wide and stick both hands in when Kate came out to the kitchen. I closed my mouth and hummed a tune. "Sure you don' wan' a drink?" I couldn't talk normally. "I was thinking of that. Maybe a little one." "Comun up." She looked at me funny, then watched me pour. I kept it small. "Chess, you say it's nice in Fris--in San Francisco. Would I like it there?" "I thung so." "You sure you haven't had enough to drink?" Carefully I swallowed saliva, and when I spoke I kept my mouth mostly closed to minimize movement in there, spoke through barely parted teeth like Bogart. "I'm just started, babe." I took a big swallow: maybe the thing would wash out. |