The BAD GUYS

Late one night, I took my braces off in front of the huge mirror in the tiny efficiency apartment I shared with my grandmother. I was 11--my teeth looked straight to me. I didn't want to go back, so I smiled big with the door shut, yanked and twisted and pulled until the wire came out. Took my big silver spoon and chipped off the brackets, one by one, on each tooth. The cement was there for years.