Maybe you have Rabies

As a girl, I was brushing my teeth and it seemed to me there was an excessive amount of toothpaste foam in my mouth. I asked my mother about it. She dismissed it but added that maybe I had rabies.

I imagine my mother's sense of humor was similar to how mine is today: dry and morbid. Only my mother was not a bit mean, as I can be.

I'm saying she didn't intend to plant a ridiculous fear into her daughter, nor was she evilly mocking. I don't remember how old I was; the only clue is I took her rabies remark dead literal.

For the longest time after that day, if toothpaste foam ran down my chin, I got a chilling fear that I had rabies.