My mother began twisting their heads off, tearing off their rigid pink bathrobes, and eating their soft curved bodies. Ursula reluctantly put her hand in the bowl. I lifted a specimen up by a long antenna and left it to rest in peace on my plate. My mother liked seafood so much, she rarely complained about our pickiness with it. The price per pound was high, even if she didn’t buy it in a store, but on the peer, as bait.

When Cecilia served the main course, our mother’s chin lifted habitually: rump roast, cream of wheat with sesame oil and thyme, mashed sweet potatoes with finely chopped raw onions. I pressed the cream of wheat through the prongs of my fork, and made a deep criss-cross design. Meat was rarely too hot to put in the mouth, though I often acted as if it was; if it could not prevent my eating it, it could at least delay it.

“Kate. Eat you meat. You need de red to replace what you lose.”

“With teeth like that, Olga, you know she’ll never get a man.”

I made a face to show them I didn’t want one, which amused, of all people, Ursula. It was the first time she laughed all day.

“You know the Minsky girls are getting them, too. Rosa and Lucy. Braces are really a must these days.”

“Please, Ursula, stop. You are ruining my appetite.”

Someone who hadn’t grown up with my mother might not understand what she meant, might think she simply shunned all that was related to the teeth, or those forlorn days with a man. I, her eldest child, could explain. My mother had thought that braces were going to do most of the work like an electric hedge-trimmer and that it would be like buying one at K-Mart on sale for $19.99, for braces were not even a handful of stainless steel, when you can get a casserole for under five bucks. She had not been prepared to part with two thousand dollars of hardworking money for abstract dental services. For that price, one could purchase a used vehicle and in her mental balance, a used Buick versus a palm full of metal bands were no more comparable than a feather and a lead-heavy life of sin. My mother would never consider an orthodontist’s know-how as work, as he did not sweat. The consultation which started out friendly enough had ended up otherwise, and that was what was ruining her appetite.

“De damn crook. He wan’s to cheat me, all ’lone in de world wit’ two chil’ren, two tousand dollars, an’ on top, he tinks I have nothin’ to do dan go over de bridge, back an’ fort’, one hour ev’ry week, de traffic, my gas, den wait more hours of my precious time so he can take her five minute an’ look in her mouth to say ev’ryting is a’kay?! Fin’ another sucker!”

Ursula watched me block my nose to swallow my meat. I used my milk as mouthwash.