"What! What do you mean fashebow? What's that?" Jon immediately grabs his moms arm and looks at the nurse. He wasn't sure if he grabbed his mom for comfort, or in anger, and quickly lets go. "I thought this wash it." Her mom brushes her fingers through her daughters hair and shakes her head. "Oh settle down sweetie. It won't be that bad. Yes, they're making a headgear appliance?" She phrases the second half as a question as she looks at miss pink scrubs.
"Yes ma'am. It'll take care of Marie's overbite, and help make some space in there for your teeth to line up." She smiles as she directs the second part to Jon.
Jon just shakes her head. "Isn't there shomething elshe we could do?"
The nurse puts her hands on her hips and speaks sweetly to her. "Weeeell, the only other option is to remove a whole bunch of teeth, even your adult teeth, and I don't think you want that." She spares a knowing glance and a smile to Ms. Gibson before continuing. "We'd probably have to take as many as 8 teeth if you want to go that route."
Jon bunches up her lips in agitation, and has half a mind to tell her yesh... er.. yes, but relents. "Well, what about that shpring thing you were talking to the doctor about?"
She looks up as if thinking. "Yes, that's a possibility too, but we wouldn't even be able to start until the time where you wouldn't need the headgear anyway, and it's important to start as soon as possible at this age. Your bones get stiffer with time. Besides, we'd also have to drill some screws into the roof of your mouth, and I don't think you'd want that." Her voice is whiny, and annoying, and she addresses Jon as if she's talking to a child. It's all too frustrating for the frumpy girl who just throws her arms up and walks to the car. Ms. Gibson thanks the assistant as she leaves.
Shortly after, the two sit quietly in the car. "Can we go already?" Jon pleads.
"No ma'am. I don't think so." Ms. Gibson turns her mothers gaze on her daughter. "You begged me, just begged me, for braces to fix your teeth, and now that you have them you're going to be rude to me and the nurse? That's not ok. You know as well as I do that it's for the best, and you're coping an attitude over it?" She points her finger at her daughter. "When we come here tomorrow, I want you to apologize to her. Do you understand me?"
Jon's clenches her jaw, which only causes the aching to worsen. "No!" She thinks to herself. "I never asked for this, it was the wish!" But even as she considers that she realizes that because of the wish, she probably doesn't have a choice in the matter. "Ok, fine." She states plainly.
"excuse me?"
"Fine, yesh ma'am!" Jon says with exasperation. "Can we pleashe go get shome food now?"
Ms.Gibson's eyes are wide and intense as she stares at her daughter for a few more seconds, then relents and drives them on their way. The mood slowly settles down and her mom turns on the radio.
As they pull up to the frozen yogurt stop, she breaks the silence. "Keep in mind sweetie, the orthodontist said you'd have some trouble swallowing with the expander... It's just your body telling you that something's in the way. You'll get used to it with time."
Jon sighs. Things just keep getting better and better... At least she knows how the stone interpreted Sarah's "worst ugly braces" wish now, and hey, frozen yogurt, that's always good. Jon laughs in spite of it all as she gets out of the car with her mother. Ms Gibson interprets the laugh as a sign that everything's alright again and smiles happily at her daughter once again.
As they settle into their seats with their treats, Jon can't help but notice a nickle taste on her tongue as she sucks on a spoonfull of yogurt. Scrunching up her face in disgust she tries to swallow only to have it get stop half way down her throat. She covers her mouth and begins hacking up the treat. "Yes..." she confirms to herself. "It is hard to swallow." Her mom begins rubbing her back.
"Are you ok sweetie?"
Jon just nods as she coughs again. "It's like... like my tongue forgetsh how to shwallow half way through." She shudders, and takes a drink of water. It's a little easier to get down.
"You'll get better at it." Ms.Gisbon says encouragingly. "I'll make sure to fix soups and pasta's and mac and cheese for this first week."
Jon nods appreciatively, and realizes that yes, she really is appreciative. Just because Sarah was a bitch doesn't mean that she should take it out on her mom. She's just doing what she thinks is best for her daughter. A pregnant pause fills the air. "Shorry I wash rude to you mom. I jusht didn't expect thish mush. I thought it would be jusht regular brashes." While technically true, she probably meant it completely differently than her mom understood it, and that was just fine.
She accepts the apology, and before long the pair are headed back to the house. In spite of herself Jon is still terribly hungry. Her stomach grumbles angrily as she passes a burger joint. She scrunches up her face as she wonders how long it'll be before she can get a burger down. She grasps the stone in her pocket again.
"I wish I could at leasht talk normally..." Beyond the lisp, everything sounded round and awkward, like she was learning how to talk all over again. Her k's and g's sounded messy and her vowels sounded open... Maybe she was just overly critical of herself, or maybe she was just tired. It was only 2:00 but she was already emotionally drained. She couldn't wait for Karen to meet her after school.
