The girl’s father schedules an appointment to get his daughter defanged. There’s no malice here, not like you’d expect, just concern. The whole family is extremely concerned about the girl’s fangs, which have begun to press into her soft lips and draw blood. Because of her long incisors, the girl has trouble eating. She snakes her tongue free from her monster of a mouth and slides it up the backs of drippy popsicles. The eroticism of this gestures makes her family very uncomfortable. She laps her tongue against bowls of pureed soup or milky porridge. The animalism of this gesture makes her family afraid. Her teeth are changing her mouth into an unsmiling cage, and she can only speak in a low, sexy whisper. The girl doesn’t mind so much. The monster mouth makes her feel protected and secure. When the surgeon uproots the fangs he leaves ragged, bloody caverns behind. The girl rolls her tongue inside the openings until the surgeon solders them shut against new, inescapably human teeth.