Slimy Fish, Blood, Bad Poetry, and Other Things of Annoyance
Author: Frannyglass
I was in the parking lot of a shopping center when I decided I would go to a restaurant to get dinner. The only restaurant in the shopping center didn't have a sign, so I figured I'd try my luck and just go in. Inside, it was dark. There was an open kitchen, and Iron Chef Japanese was cooking a fish dinner. There were also three other guys behind the counter, helping the Iron Chef. They looked almost exactly like him.
I figured I would order the Iron Chef's dinner, just to be polite. There were a bunch of teenagers in the restaurant, and they were ordering all the side dishes but not the Iron Chef's dinner. I figured I would bring the fish stuff home to my non-vegetarian family.
I waited for a few minutes, then was handed the fish dinner on a large platter. It was a big ring of white fish, only half-cooked and still very slimy. A few leaves were used as a garnish. I hoped my family would like it.
I paid for it and headed out of the restaurant, wondering how the cooks survived in such a dark place all day. There were no windows and almost no lights.
I went outside. It was raining. I got in my car and started driving around aimlessly, eventually hitting the highway and taking a very roundabout way home.
I ended up in a field somewhere near my house. I was supposed to be taking a class there, and I was writing poetry. We were working on acrostic poems, where each first letter of the lines would spell out a word. Everyone in the class thought my name was Victoria. I decided I would use a cutesy nickname to serve as the word in my acrostic poem. I used "Vick," but I couldn't think of anything for the "k." By the time I realized that "Victoria" would work better, it was time for class to let out for the day.
Later, I was in my parents' bathroom, opening my mouth and looking at my teeth. I decided I needed to floss. My dad came in and said I needed to replace my false tooth.
I said, "I have a false tooth?"
He took hold of one of my bottom front teeth and yanked it out. I was surprised to see it was made of plaster. My mouth went numb and started bleeding. I became lightheaded as my mouth filled with blood. Then my dad took a tube of Aquafresh toothpaste and squeezed a glob of it in my mouth where the false tooth had been. He said I should let it dry like that for a while. I noticed that the toothpaste has begun to form the shape of a tooth. Of course, it had red and green stripes on it, but I hoped nobody would notice. I stuck a brown washcloth in my mouth to catch the blood, and then I said something about going off to work.
