The Barren Wasteland

OMG, what is going on here?

I had woken up, startled, feeling a strange numbness in my mouth. I thought I tasted blood. I didn’t feel my teeth. My tongue erred in the empty space like a creature, dashing around, lost, and exploring a barren wasteland. It was a landscape full of ridges but no peaks.

There were no two ways about it, I had to see what this empty, barren space was all about. I got up and went to look in the mirror. The sight it reflected hit me hard. Never would I have expected to see my mouth completely empty apart from my tongue either darting from side to side or sticking out. I opened and closed my mouth, resembling a fish more than a human being. No, there was no mistake. Nothing to see from my lips to the back of my throat.

What a pitiful sight. I looked so ugly without teeth. I didn’t believe it. Never had I looked like this. How did this happen? How was I ever going to smile or talk, let alone go out to work, shop or meet my friends? I would have to mumble and speak with my mouth practically closed. Maybe I was having a nightmare. No need to pinch myself, I knew I was awake as I was out of bed. There had to be another explanation.

Where the hell had my pearly whites gone overnight? Who had come in and remove them without me noticing? How was it possible not to feel any pain or anything in my sleep? It’s not as if I’m a heavy sleeper.

I was terribly baffled by the whole thing and my head was fuzzy. Hardly surprising as my gums were bare. I splashed some water on my face to awaken myself properly and saw a glass on a shelf above the sink. In it, I noticed a set of false teeth.

Silly me! 

 

How had I forgotten that yesterday I finally got my new dentures? I put them in and smiled at myself in the mirror. Suddenly my mouth was no longer a barren wasteland. In its place was a full set of perfectly aligned white teeth. After that, I didn’t stop grinning all day just to make sure people noticed I had new teeth…

 Régine Demuynck

Régine Demuynck originally from France, has a passion for the word and has written several poems and flash fiction. She is a linguist, a language teacher and lives in West Sussex.

Régine, who writes under the name of Andrée Roby, published her first novella called "Double Vision" in January 2019. It was voted "Book of the month for April 2019" by the publisher Tredition. It is a very good detective story. She is currently writing a sequel called "Failed Vision".