Here are a couple of ideas I came up with.

1) The main character volunteers at a care home. One of the residents is a retired orthodontist. Around a game of snakes and ladders, several residents flashback to their time in braces.

2) the main character may or may not have braces and goes to a game store looking for games to play. The clerk and possibly one or more customers had or has braces. Use your imagination for the rest.

Snakes and Ladders in the Care Home

I could not imagine a worse person to set me up with a girl than Grandma, but somehow I would look back on that week and realize she had accidentally done just that, and it was a pretty good setup.  I guess maybe I was not visiting Grandma as frequently as I should have been.  Since last visit, I could see the change in mental capability.  She was losing her nouns, as many do in their senior years, and this sometimes made her descriptions of things she wanted to talk about rather mysterious and sometimes hard to fathom.  And having her repeating hearsay from others in the home meant it was also second or third hand information.  It shouldn't have done much harm.  All I had to do was listen to her ramblings and then change the subject.  She did so enjoy recounting the things she repeated to me.  I guess with little else to occupy her, she spent a lot of time letting other residents do the same thing to her.

And this is why she was talking about girls my age to me.  She was telling me about the granddaughter of Missis Hawthorne, with great concern about all kinds of seemingly unimportant things, "Snake," she used what she thought was my preferred nickname, when in actual fact it was 'Snook', "We have been so worried about Constance.  She was always such a pretty little girl, and fairly smart, but last year apparently she had more brains grow in."  I questioned what she meant and she explained, "Well, dear, in middle school all your baby teeth get replaced as adults grow in.  But the... oh, there's another name for them, but I can't recall it... 'Brains' is all I can think of.  They come in quite late in some kids.  Constance would be almost twenty now.  They pushed her teeth forward and now they look... oh what is it Missus Hawthorne called them... but they have become bigger at the front."  I pictured a pretty girl having teeth grow at the back and the front ones growing, too.  Something like a vampire with fangs?  She continued as I held this vision in my mind, "But the girl was taken to the office... uh, what 'a they call them kind of dentist, them that harness the front teeth.  Anyway, she was here last week and there are now ladders all over that pretty smile she used to have.  And it's now a lot bigger than when she was in school.  And she's got them snakes as well, to haul them big front teeth back again."  My vision was now fangs sticking right out of the mouth and onto the chin, with strings of saliva hanging off them.  Grandma now just hummed in thought as she seemed to be preparing to give me more unfathomable descriptions of someone else's problems.

I tried to change the subject, "Grandma, do you remember I told you about my upcoming date last time I visited you?"  It was more pleasant talking about my love life than listening to hearsay about other residents' families.

She said, "Oh yes, Snake.  You were to go out with girl with the tracks."

I'd confided in Grandma last time that I had met a really great girl, that I so wanted to date a girl in braces, but Grandma could not remember that noun now.  She seemed to be using part of the slang from her youth for braces, 'train tracks'.  In fact, the 'ladders' that she referred to on Constance might also be braces, considering the enlarging front teeth she was describing.  I recounted the evening quickly and then summarized, "But Grandma, she got her braces off earlier that day.  She was so proud of her smile, but frankly, it was pretty boring without the braces.  We didn't hit it off."

Grandma thought for a bit and then reassured me, "Never mind that, Snake, within a day she'll get a thick kind of ladder and crab to keep it."  'Crab' was probably her word for a retainer and she was back to ladders for braces.  She continued, "And if you still find it boring, I bet Constance will be pretty again later this year as the ladders and snakes fix her ivories.  She used to be so pretty in school.  Maybe she would take her scaffolding off for a date."  That last comment worried me.  If 'ladders' were braces, then what was 'scaffolding'.

We had lunch and then I had to get going to get home for dinner in time.  It was a pity Grandma lived so far away from me.  I was trying, during my drive home, to understand what Grandma had been trying to tell me about the Hawthorne granddaughter.  She thought I might find her smile to be less boring than the date I told her about.  But what about the vision I got of vampire tusks and snakes of saliva?  The long drive allowed my head to clear and I was back to thinking about the job we were starting the next day at work.  We would need to use ladders for that one because it was not possible to use scaffolding, as there was no suitable base to set it up on around the house.

Later that week, I tried telephoning grandma.  With her aging mind, I might soon not be able to have a conversation with even the confusion in her recent recounts of hearsay from last visit.  After I identified myself she said, "Oh, Snake, my dear boy, you really should come and visit me soon.  I haven't been able to chat with you in ever so long.  Missus Hawthorne's granddaughter comes every week to visit her.  She's coming next Monday.  I'll just have to sit and watch her get all the attention in the common lounge that day."  Grandma had her nouns that day, but apparently not her memory.  I said I would try to come again.  Her mind seemed to be much more erratic than in the past and I was afraid maybe she would soon degrade quickly, so made arrangements to make that visit.  I would make the trip right after rush hour Monday, but we usually started work at seven in the morning, so asked my boss if I could get off early that day:  nine o'clock.  He agreed but on the condition I worked long days the rest of the week.

Monday morning I almost lost track of the time.  My boss called over to me at five past nine and asked if I had cancelled my thing that day.  I panicked and just about slid down the ladder, jumped into my car and tried to make up time by snaking through the traffic by making frequent lane changes.  I asked myself after fifteen minutes what the rush was.  Grandma would likely have forgotten I said I would come that day and had no idea what time I would show.  Was I trying to compete with the Hawthorne granddaughter, Constance, whom Grandma praised for her frequent visits?  After mulling it over, I figured it out.  My sub-conscience was urging me to check out the ladders on her enlarging front teeth, which I suspected was Grandma's efforts to tell me she wore braces.  That fact alone would pique my interest in meeting this girl.  But how reliable was my information that she would be there that day?  Grandma might be confusing her days, or maybe she was just recounting what the daughter told Missis Hawthorne and it was all hearsay.

Arriving at the residence, I checked in at the front desk and they had one of the staff locate Grandma and get her to the common lounge for our visit.  Upon seeing me, Grandma exclaimed, "Snake!  What a surprise!"  She greeted me with a stroke on the arm as she was not able to get up quickly to give me a hug.  She turned to the lady on the couch across from her and then to me and said, "I don't think I've told you about this nice lady I have become friends with recently.  This is Missis Hawthorne."  She turned to the lady and said, "Well, today it is my turn to have a visitor."  I cringed slightly in shock: Was her granddaughter not visiting that day?  While Grandma was important to me, I had been anticipating seeing ladders and snakes and maybe even scaffolding that visit.  Grandma launched into a story about a supposed infestation in the care home.  There were apparently nests of snakes in the mechanical room in the basement and the workmen had to run ladders up to the top of the chimney outside to drag them all out.

Missis Hawthorne interrupted the story to correct her, "It was caulking my dear.  They were making sure this winter that the ice and snow does not all snake down the chimney.  That's why they were up the ladders."

Grandma changed the subject then.  "Say, speaking of ladders, when will I get a chance to introduce Snake, here to Constance?"  I took in a breath.  Was Grandma telling her friend that I was excited to see the braces on the friend's granddaughter?

The other resident twisted her face in confusion, gave me a nod and a crocked smile to indicate she had disregarded the craziness in Grandma's statement, and then replied, "Actually I'm expecting her here before lunch, so if Snake is hanging around that long, maybe he will run into her."  I was glad that the other resident had not decoded Grandma's twisted terminology.  She added, "She could not get here first thing because of her appointment.  She's not faring well with her treatment for her wisdom teeth."  I immediately thought 'orthodontist' and 'broken bracket' or 'adjustment', but for all I knew it was a TMJ specialist or maybe the appointment was not related to dentistry at all.

The first half of my visit that day went quite well, as Missis Hawthorne was able to supply about fourteen nouns to help in Grandma's recounts of things going on in the care home as well as things told to her by Missis Hawthorne that she needed to relay to me.  In fact twice, her friend took over the story to clarify and it made much more sense.  At one point the other lady got up and excused herself to go to the bathroom and to check the mail for that day.  Soon after that a girl came up to the couch.  She had her mouth closed and lips together.  I tended to notice such things for some reason when a pretty girl I didn't know approached.  Grandma made an exclamation and it drew my eyes from the girl just as she started to say, "Oh, Nana's not here?"

Grandma was lean on nouns that day but clarified that her Nana was just in the W.C. after forgetting the noun 'bathroom' and grasping at a replacement noun.  I looked back at the girl, jumping to the conclusion that she was the infamous granddaughter.  As I looked back at her, I noticed two front teeth peaking between lips, the lower of which seemed quite full and stretched forward a bit.  Grandma elbowed me and said, "Snake, this is Missis Hawthorne's granddaughter, uh, Conn... um, K..."

And the pretty girl saved Grandma's lost noun by introducing herself, "Constance."  And then she smiled.  Ladders so beautiful that time seemed to stop so I could study all the rungs all the way around.  But actually what she had was protruding teeth with fixed metal braces across the arch with a slightly thickened arch wire but then there was another, thicker bar, going around her arch, mostly above the braces, but coming down at the front to where it was tied with ligature wire to the canines and then passed in front of the bottoms of the brackets right at the front.  I could see all the way to the back of her arch that moment she smiled big and could see the molar bands that the big arch wire was anchored to.  It was not quite clear, but I thought I caught tubes on the molar bands below where the big bar was anchored.  I had already supposed perhaps Grandma's reference to Scaffolding was headgear so maybe that was it.  And attached to that bar at the canines were also elastics which stretched down to the molars on the bottom jaw.  I told her I was pleased to meet her.  She had relaxed her mouth after the smile and her lower lip nestled below the front teeth and the bottoms of the braces and the big arch wire showed below her upper lip.

Grandma then asked her, "They removed the scaffolding at the appointment this morning?"

Constance blushed momentarily and glanced at me, and then answered Grandma maturely, "No, it was to put a thicker wire through the braces.  And they secured the bar lower down on the braces.  I was getting used to the headgear last visit but now I only have to wear it at home."  Missus Hawthorne rejoined us a moment later and it broke into two conversations.  When we had lunch, Grandma had me as her guest at the table, which she shared with Missis Hawthorne who had a guest of her own.  I got to eat lunch with the beautiful girl who had brains growing into her teeth to push them out so that ladders and snakes had to be used to harness them.

After lunch we had tea as a group and then Grandma saw they were arranging something in the card-room at one end.  We all strolled down there and found a table set up so the residents could play a board game.  Grandma remarked, "Oh, look:  Snakes and Ladders!"  It's the one game I can still play without getting confused."

Missis Hawthorne said to her granddaughter, "I'm sure you won't want to play this game with us.  I can duck out of the first session if you can stay longer."  Constance looked at her watch preparing to say how long she could stay and then squealed that she had missed her bus.  I asked her where she was going and to my surprise it was about a quarter hour from where I lived.

Grandma jumped in, "Oh, Snake, you simply must give the poor girl a... a... uh... a slide."  I overlooked the lame substitution for a forgotten noun, but was going to jump at the opportunity to give this beautifully snaked and laddered girl a 'slide' back to my place, or at least to hers.  After some claims from her I was going out of my way too much and a four way argument, I had secured the girl for the drive home.

So when the word count drew the story to a close, I felt I was just about to enter the good part, so maybe I will have to flesh this out into a longer story sometime.

Lovely story there!

I remember when I was younger, I used to enjoy reading short sci-fi stories. Their brevity meant that it had to be very much more to the point.... sometimes long stories can lose the point because the story IS long, and needs to be filled.... TV series are frequently like that!

Yes, it has been good to see so many writers take up the challenge this time. I'm sure I'll come up with something else in the future.

In the meantime, I finally got some inspiration, here's my "Snakes and Ladders" story:

------

Whilst I lived in Reading, I was currently in Basingstoke doing some shopping. I was there for a couple of reasons: first of all, there were a couple of specific shops I wanted to visit, and second, that's where mum and dad lived, so I planned in popping in to see them on my way home.

I was feeling dry, and was passing a nice independent café that I knew was rather nice, so went in for a coffee. Having got the drink, I was looking for a seat when I spotted a face... in fact several faces... that I recognised.

"Hey, Zac, not seen you for a while! Hello Bill, Anne, and...." I looked at the fourth face, and it took me a moment to realise that it was actually Zac's sister, Caitlin. A rather different Caitlin from the one I remembered. "... Caitlin!

Ok, a bit of history: Zac and I had been in the same class all the way through secondary school, and had become best friends. He was a tiny bit older than me: he was one of the eldest in the year, whilst I was one of the youngest, so about 9 or 10 months between us. Caitlin was about 9 months younger than me, and was in the year below us.

The Caitlin I remembered was... well, about 17, a bit chubby. Long messy hair. And a load of zits. And I'm sure she used to wear glasses too. Despite that, we used to get on really well. Ah, yes, she'd had braces as a kid, hadn't she? Yeah, and a headgear she wore at home! In fact, if I were to think about it, her braces were probably the trigger to my later love of braces. The Caitlin in front of me now was a very different girl: much slimmer, shorter well-kempt hair. Lovely complexion.

Whilst Zac and I were very close at school, our ways had parted when we went to different universities. We had got together in the first couple of holidays, but our paths had hardly crossed since. Ah, almost forgot, I had gone to his wedding, must be about seven or eight years ago now.

"Hi Nick! It's been a while." replied Zac.

"Hello Nick," said Zac's dad. "Hey, why don't you grab a chair and join us?" I found a chair at a nearby table, and parked myself at the end of their table.

"So, what you doing here? And don't you have a wife?" I asked Zac.

"Well, it's Father’s Day tomorrow, and we're going to Dana's parents tomorrow, so I came here today. She's with the kids, they have a school fete today, so couldn't come with me. I guess you're back to visit your parents too?"

"Yeah, although I only live over in Reading, so I do come over quite a bit."

"You married yet? I'm assuming not, coz I've never had an invitation!"

"Not yet, no. There was one girl I got serious with, but it never quite got that far!". I looked over at Caitlin. "So, Caitlin, how are you? You look so... 'grown up' since I last saw you. And are you married yet?". Caitlin smiled, revealing a set of metal braces on her teeth. Not big ones like she had as a kid, but much smaller and more discrete. 

"A bit of a sore point: I was engaged up until last year, but after we started the actual planning for 'the big day' he got cold feet. But looking back, I think it was maybe for the best...." I decided not to push any further.

"So, what you up to now?" I asked her.

"Oh, I work in the offices over at the 'big banana shop'" she said, referring to the massive banana ripening warehouse over at Houndmills.

"You still living at home then?"

"No way! No, I moved out when...." she took a breath, "... when I moved in together with... Darius... Anyway, he left and I stayed in the flat." I assumed that Darius was her ex-fiancé. "So, what you doing now?"

"Oh, I work in IT, designing and building servers out in 'the cloud', for a variety of clients." I explained.

For the next 20 minutes, as I slowly drank my coffee, we all chatted, exchanging information about what we're been up to for the last 10 years. Yes, whilst I'd met Zac and Dana at their wedding, we never really got a chance to chat properly. Same with Caitlin, she was with some guy whose name I forget, but definitely not Darius. And the same with Bill and Anne, they were busy being 'parents of the groom'.

Finally, we all got up to go. "Hey, fancy meeting up for a drink sometime?" asked Caitlin as we left the café. "Reading's not THAT far away!"

"No, it's not, is it... and it would be great to catch up properly with you!" We exchanged phone numbers, and went on our ways.

----

It was only lunchtime on the Monday that my phone rang. "Hi Nick, it's Caitlin."

"Oh, hiya, great to hear from you". It actually was: I'd had a nice time chatting with her whole family the other day.

"You doing anything tomorrow, after work?"

"No..."

"In that case, would you like to come around and have dinner with me?". I remembered back to when I used to go around to visit Zac: sometimes I'd stay for tea, and on many occasions, Caitlin had actually cooked most of the food - she was a pretty reasonable cook.

"That sounds like a great idea, I'd love to!" She gave me her address, and I agreed to go there after work: given the fact that I would need to drive from Reading, that would give her time to get home and at least start doing the dinner.

----

The traffic out of Reading during rush hour was bad, and it took me almost an hour to get to her place, not helped by the fact that I worked on the 'wrong side' of Reading: going home would be a lot quicker. She lived in a fairly modern block of flats, and the car park even had a couple of 'visitors' spaces.

"Hey, Nick, nice to see you again, come on in!" she said. The flat was clearly not a big one, but for one person, or a couple, it was very adequate: whilst I didn't see it, there was a separate bedroom, a reasonably sized bathroom, and a large kitchen / diner / lounge. On one side was the kitchen area, with a kitchen bar separating it from the other part of the room, where there was a small table with 4 chairs, then a 2-seater sofa and 2 armchairs. Over the far side was what looked like an empty fish tank, but as I got closer, I realised it was actually a vivarium, although I couldn't see the animal in it. Next to the vivarium was a trendy set of shelves, looking a bit like a ladder with 5 shelves on it.

"So, what's in the tank then?" I asked.

"A small snake. Go take a look, see if you can spot him..." The tank was most of a metre wide, and had rough 'gravel' over much of the bottom, with several small plants growing through it. A small log at the back, a couple of bent branches arching upwards, with some large stones (small rocks?) in one corner. Finally, I spotted the snake, hiding in the corner: light brown with darker brown markings on the back, and maybe half a metre or so long.

"Oh, yes, very nice. So, what sort of snake is it?" I asked.

"It’s a 'Children's Python'" she replied. "Want to hold him? Don't worry, I fed him at the weekend, so he won't bite you!" she said with a bit of a smile, letting me see a bit of the metal in her mouth. She opened the front of the tank, then reached in and gently picked up the snake, who seemed to be quite ok with her handling him. "Hello beautiful!" she said to him. "Ok, hold your hands out like mine..." I did so, and she placed the snake gently into my hands. "So, don't grip him, just support him, and don't worry, he won't fall....". Knowing that snakes are cold-blooded, I expected him to feel cold and slimy, but he wasn't, he was quite dry and smooth, and slightly warm. It felt strange as he slowly slithered slightly up my arm.

"Does he have a name?"

"Yes, Monty, of course.". It took me a couple of moments to get the joke. I'd never been quite this close to a snake before, and thought I'd be a bit scared, but I felt strangely comfortable with holding Monty in my hands. "My ex introduced me to snakes, and whilst he took his snakes with him when he left, he left me Monty. They are so much easier to look after than things like rabbits or gerbils!". It was interesting to watch a snake so close: he was looking at me, and I'm sure he was sizing me up for his dinner next week! "Want me to put him back?" she asked me a couple of minutes later. I gently passed Monty back to her, and she in turn put him back into the vivarium.

"It's a nice place you have here..." I commented.

"Yes, I don't own it, I just rent it, but it's nice and new, doesn't cost much to heat, and it's a decent size too. Come on and let me show you the kitchen...." she said, half-jokingly. "Fancy a coffee? Dinner just went in the oven moments before you arrived, and should be ready in about 20 to 30 minutes: it's a beef and mushroom pie, and the veg is all ready to go into the microwave".

"Yes please!" I replied, all the time trying to get a decent look at her braces. With cups of fresh coffee in our hands, we went and sat in the lounge area, me on the settee, her in one of the chairs.

"I'm glad you bumped into us at the weekend... I'd only been thinking about you a few weeks ago, wondering where you were, and what you were up to. I really used to enjoy it when you came around to see Zac: you never ignored me, you were always willing to talk to me and include me in stuff you did."

"Well, you are almost the same age as me, and besides, you got on well with Zac too: I guess your close age helped a lot. But you've... well… you've 'grown up' a lot since back then."

"What you really mean is that I'm not as chubby as I used to be!"

"Yes, I guess I do. And I seem to remember you had bad problems with your skin." I wondered whether to say the next bit, but decided to do so. "And your braces were a bit more 'extreme' back then. How come you have them again?"

"So, a lot changed when I went off to Uni. When I was at school I got badly teased about my braces, and my acne, so I tended to be a bit of a 'loner', and ate badly. I started eating less, and better, which helped my skin, and I lost weight. That plus the lack of braces, and meeting new people made me a lot more self-confident."

"So why do you have braces again?"

"Ah, well, I guess I should have worn my retainers more. I was supposed to wear them all the time for the first few months, but hardly ever did, and after that, when I was supposed to wear them at night but never did. By the time I left Uni, they were starting to go crooked again. After I split up with Darius last year, I decided to do something for myself, and got the braces. This time I'll be wearing my retainers!"

"They definitely look less obvious than the ones you had the first time."

"Yes, they are. I could have had ceramic brackets, or even those 'invisible' ones, but they would have cost more, and what with having to pay for this place by myself, I needed to keep the costs down a bit. And this time I don't have to have that horrible headgear: you know, outside the family, you were the only person who ever saw me in my headgear." I started trying to remember what she used to look like in her headgear, so many years ago now: sadly, back then I didn't have the same sort of feelings about braces as I do now.

In the kitchen, a timer pinged. Caitlin went and checked on the pie, and put the veg in to cook. Five minutes later she was serving it up.

"Oh, nice, it's home-made!" I commented. As we sat at the table and ate it, I imagined the food getting stuck in her braces, so tried hard to make her smile, and was treated to a couple of nice smiles where I could indeed see food in her braces! After dinner, she excused herself, to brush her teeth.

After dinner, we watched the news together, and chatted.

"Nick, it has been so good to see you again, I really enjoyed this evening!"

"Yeah, me too! Would you like to get together again sometime? I could cook for you - although it won't be anywhere near as good as what you did tonight. Or I could take you out for a meal!"

Caitlin looked at me with a lovely smile that let me see her braces nicely. "Yes, I'd like that - very much!".

----

Back home, and in bed, I was having some very naughty thoughts, that involved Caitlin and myself, and her braces, and my tongue.... and I think I'll stop there, lest I break the rules of this forum!


 
The End