Invisible Women

Women & Eyes 1

The woman down the hall received an oracle that told her that the fetus she was not yet carrying would one day grow to kill her husband and violently rape her. The oracle then said that she would bear another son — at once son and grandson — who would avenge his grandfather’s murder by slaying her husband-son during the act of fornication.

At this, the woman down the hall laughed and laughed until her teeth fell out one at a time. She looked at the fortuneteller, the oracle, and asked, Now who will love me? You fool!

The fortuneteller said nothing but closed her eyes. And the woman’s teeth grew back, each one as painful as the first emergence of bone drilling its way through all that fleshy, pink gum.