The white shines through and you've always been proud of that because of all the trouble it took to get them this way. Aligned. Even. Straight. So it's a little unprecedented that you can feel things crawling around inside, tiny things and tiny movements, enough to take you to the mirror. So you open your mouth and look in and there's nothing really, just a speck of black wedged between two teeth. Then it moves. On an impulse you pull up your lip and press the gums underneath and a louse slides out like it's been squeezed through a nozzle. You press again and another comes out, then another and another, then they flow out of your mouth and into the room and everything is suddenly variegated, everything is dotted lines, everything is dash dot dash dot crawling around till it isn't anymore, till everything stops and you open your eyes.

And realise you should have brushed your teeth before bedtime last night.