Little Black Speck

Last night after brushing my teeth I spied in one of my rear molars a gigantic cavity the size of the ball in a ball-point pen. I started to panic. It hadn't been there the day before. Could cavities grow that fast? I have had no cavitities at all, and to suddenly have one this big! It didn't hurt. I pictured them having to remove the tooth. I pictured root canals and falsies, bridges, wooden teeth like George Washington. I began to pace and then to pick and gouge. Five minutes later the cavity became a piece of coffee bean from the espresso icecream I'd been eating earlier, wedged into the grooves. When it was finally on my fingertip and not on my tooth it was the most beautiful speck of black I'd ever seen.