Mouth Off

Story Sent in by James:

Whenever there was a conversational lull during my dinner date with Sherri, she just sat there with her mouth open like she was trying to catch bugs. I asked her if she was okay and she told me that she had been x-rayed at the dentist's earlier that day and that it had affected her mind.

She went on to assure me that it was only a temporary situation and that she'd be back to normal "in a week."

On one hand, she was able to carry on a conversation and move her mouth just fine when she was talking. It's just that when she wasn't speaking, her mouth hung open like she had some sort of mental disability. At first it was amusing, but when we were eating, it became problematic. Finally I snapped, "Can you close your mouth, please?"

She said, "The x-rays. I explained it to you."

I said, "I'm pretty sure that x-rays don't make you lose ordinary mouth-function."

"How would you know? Are you a dentist?"

I picked up a grain of rice from my plate and asked her, "Can I try to toss this into your mouth? That way this'll at least be fun for me."

"No!" she said, but it was too tempting for me to stop myself.

I tossed the rice across the table and right into her mouth. "Bullseye!" I crowed.

She turned away. "Don't!" she said, "It's not funny!"

I didn't do it anymore, but it was worth it to have done it the once. I never found out if she was able to close her mouth again, as we didn't go out a second time.