Calling All Dentists (Calling All... Book 2), page 19
The morning dragged by seemingly endless as she scrubbed Ruby’s shoes, checked her mobile 14 times to make sure it was working properly and paced the carpets. She dreaded what the next dentist would say to her and what he/she would be like. If there was another petite woman with jet black hair sitting behind the patient’s chair, she had already decided that she was going to walk straight back out again.
Then she began to worry whether Andrew would get the letter? How long would she give him to contact her? A day? Two days? The weekend? What if she’d heard nothing by Monday? Then she made another decision. She’d wait until Sunday night and then drop another letter round, asking if he’d received the first one and if he had received the first one could he kindly let her know, one way or another, what his intentions were (even if it was bad news).
Chapter 17
The Medical Centre was right in the heart of town. A modern looking structure with two broad, domed turrets at either end, the building was three storeys high and each level had an identical row of small windows dotted along its length. As they pulled in to the car park, Emma could see that the main entrance was entirely made of smoked glass. A giant canopy which was attached from the top of the building by long, white poles, stretched all the way down to just above the sliding, glass double doors. It almost looked like a cross-section of a witch’s hat.
Emma shuddered. It appeared to be a very professional place – a place where lots of people came for treatment by one of the two practices residing there – a place where lots of people possibly had painful procedures done.
“Come on love, you’ll be ok.” Emma’s mum threw her arm around her shoulder as they walked towards the building of doom, as Emma saw it.
“No don’t Mum, you’ll make me cry,” whispered Emma as she scuttled out from under her arm. Just like the last visit to the dentist, Emma felt extremely emotional and over-sensitive and more so this time. She had visions in her head of walking in to the room and bursting in to tears and just having that image in her mind was enough to make her want to cry.
“You’ll be ok love.” Her mum tried to reassure her, but it wasn’t working.
The waiting room was full of patiently waiting patients. It consisted mainly of elderly people and young women with prams and tear-away toddlers. As they walked through the waiting room, towards the reception area on the right, Emma studied the woman sitting behind the counter who was having a jolly conversation with a little old lady. She laughed, smiled, chatted and then smiled again. She looked like she was a very nice person – but then she wouldn’t be peering in to Emma’s mouth.
“Hello, err, my daughter Emma Frey. She has an appointment,” said Emma’s mum, gesticulating and pointing to Emma, who was less than a metre behind her.
The woman looked down at the open book in front of her, “Ah yes. Hello Emma, are you feeling all right?” she almost whispered. “We have a very nice dentist that will see you today. He deals with all of our nervous patients.” Emma smiled tightly. Although she was in the right place for it, she didn’t want this nice woman to see her gap-toothed grin. “Take a seat,” said the woman and gave a smile that Emma thought looked quite genuinely sympathetic.
“She seems nice. Carol did say that they were very good here with people like you.”
“Shush Mum, keep your voice down, I don’t want everyone knowing I’m petrified,” whispered Emma.
“Sorry love,” her mum whispered back, “I think it will be all right here, don’t you?”
Emma shrugged her shoulders and then began to watch the comings and goings of so many different people – each with their own affliction or ailment – each with a different story to tell.
“Emma Frey,” a loud voice behind them startled Emma and brought her back from her thoughts. A nurse stood in the passageway looking around the room. She beamed as Emma walked towards her, “Emma?” Emma nodded and then she followed the portly nurse along the corridor, closely followed by her mum.
The third door on the right was slightly ajar and the nurse stopped outside then pushed it open, while ushering Emma and her mum to go in. Hesitantly, Emma walked in to the bright, fresh-looking room. The dentist sat on a swivel stool behind the patient’s chair, typing away at a computer, just like the little Chinese lady of the last time. Do all dentists do this, wondered Emma as she slowly edged closer as if it was an electric chair she was going to sit in, having just been given her last rites. The man looked quite young from behind, with his cropped brown hair and the arms of a pair of glasses curling around the back of each ear.
“Hey, Emma isn’t it?” the dentist drawled as he turned around and propped his glasses on to the top of his head. His American accent was smooth and calming, “Okay, we’re not going to do anything today Emma. I wanna take a look if you’re happy for me to do that.”
Emma nodded and half-smiled, she felt comfortable-ish and so far this dentist scored 10 out of 10 for ‘niceness’ and he hadn’t done anything yet. Her mum sat down in the visitors chair at the side of the room while Emma took the one, centre-stage.
“Okay, now then Emma, I can explain everything to you step by step if you’re happy for me to take that look inside your mouth. Anytime you want me to stop just put your hand up, okay?”
“Ok,” said Emma, her heart pounding in her throat.
“I’m going to tilt you backwards now Emma, just so that I can see up your nose, okay? Oh no… hey there’s no teeth up there Emma. Guess I’ll have to take a look in your mouth instead. Would that be all right?” Emma giggled and nodded. “Now I’ve got a small probe here,” he said, holding it in front of Emma’s eyes. “Would you like to feel it? The point on the end is not sharp. Here give me your finger.” Emma nodded again and held up her index finger. The instrument touched the tip of her finger in a very nondescript way. “Okay, are you ready to open wide?” Emma glanced across at her mum, smiled and then opened her mouth wide. Her hands gripped together like a vice.
Apart from one brief moment of sensitivity-shock when Emma wanted to cling to the ceiling by her fingernails, the examination was relatively pain-free and very informative at every stage. Emma actually liked this man and couldn’t believe she would ever have said that because he was one of those dreaded dentists. Raising the patient chair back up, he then swivelled on his stool, around to the right side and looked at her.
”Okay, so you know it’s not great news Emma. The options are limited. I take it, by the look on your face earlier that you really don’t want to go through with a long treatment programme.” Emma shook her head. “How about taking this one step at a time and seeing how it goes Emma? As you know, there’s no guarantee that we can save them all and you may end up having to have a partial plate of false teeth.”
Although she liked this man quite a lot and trusted him, she was still terrified of having anything done. No matter how nice he was or how many injections he might be able to give her – and that was even if she could face having any injections, she still couldn’t imagine going through any treatment at all.
“Okay, here’s what I would like you to do Emma. Make an appointment to come in next week for some x-rays. I would like to check the abscess then to make sure it’s clearing up satisfactorily. Does that sound okay?”
“So there’s nothing you can do to temporarily fill this gap,” asked Emma, pointing to her mouth.
“I’m afraid there isn’t. You have a pretty serious condition going on here from what I can see and sadly, the lost tooth is the least of your problems.” Emma looked on, horrified and truly devastated. “We’ll know more when you’ve had the x-ray but it’s not looking good, I have to say.”
“Ok,” said Emma, deflated and weary. Her mum stood up and thanked the dentist for his kind patience and understanding. Emma slid off the chair and smiled tightly, “Thank you,” she said to the American man and couldn’t quite believe she had thanked him as she noticed his name badge. It appeared that Dr Will Davey DDS-MDSc must be a very professional and well respected man in dentistry, judging by the amount of letters after his name. “Thank you Mr Davey,” she said before walking out of the room, feeling very brave indeed.
“Well, what did you think?”
“I’ve made another appointment, for next Tuesday haven’t I?” Emma snapped back.
“Look Emma, you knew it wasn’t going to be good news. And I didn’t for one minute think you would be able to get that missing tooth sorted out. He was a very nice man though.”
“Hmm,” Emma harrumphed, “Well, if Mr or Dr Davey, whoever he is, is that nice then I’ll ask him if I can be put to sleep and have them all taken out and get false ones.”
“Well they won’t do that by next week either and that’s a ridiculous idea for heaven’s sake Emma, you’re only 26!”
“Actually, that’s the answer Mum! I hate my teeth, I hate dentists – except, maybe Dr Davey, and I hate having bad dreams all the time, so if I get false ones then I’ll never have to worry about any of it again.” Pulling the phone from her pocket, Emma turned it back on and waited...
But there were still no messages.
Ruby had just got in when Emma arrived home, “Ooh, you’ve cleaned my shoes Emma. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. They’re a bit stained inside but I thought that once you put your feet in them no one will notice that they had once been plant pots.”
Ruby giggled. “Have you heard from Andrew yet?”
“Nope,” replied Emma, suddenly feeling sad again. “I expect he’s been at work all day.” She desperately hoped this was true and he just hadn’t had the time to text her yet.
“What does he do?” Ruby sipped her herbal tea and tucked her legs up under her, on the sofa.
“You know what? I don’t even know what he does for a living. I don’t know his last name. I don’t know much about him at all. I’m not even sure why I don’t know that much. I think we’ve been so wrapped up in each other that we haven’t managed to get past the lust stage yet.” Emma smiled and felt happy again as flashing images flickered around in her mind. “He’s so sexy Rue – I can’t keep my hands off him when I see him.” Ruby smiled coyly and lowered her head to gaze into her mug of herbal tea.
“It will be nice to meet him again.”
“When you’re sober do you mean?” Emma smirked, “Do you even remember what he looks like?”
“Vaguely…” Ruby lifted her nose from the mug, “He’s tall and he’s got dark hair. Is that right?”
“Yes, tall, dark and very handsome.” Emma looked up to the ceiling and sighed. “I really don’t know what to do about this though Rue,” she said, pointing to her partially opened mouth, “I just can’t see him again, like this can I?”
“Emma it really doesn’t look that bad. Did you go to the dentist today?”
“Yep and I’ve made another appointment for next week.” Ruby’s jaw dropped slightly as she stared, wide-eyed.
“Really?”
“Really,” said Emma as she sat down and very proudly, proceeded to tell her best friend all about her experience with Dr Will Davey – the American dentist.
***
Ok, so almost 72 hours is really getting to be an awful long time, thought Emma as she stared at the kitchen clock, despondently.
The morning was icy cold and the pathetic heating system chugged its heart out desperately, as it fought against the elements to warm the flat. Peering out of the window, Emma could see icicles hanging from the bird table, in the communal garden, making it look very picturesque. Smiling to herself, she remembered how excited Ruby had been when she brought the bird feeder from their DIY store and rushed home to fill it with nuts and seeds, last summer. She was not only a bookworm but also a keen bird watcher. Ruby knew the names of practically every type of bird that came into the garden and would often study them for hours through her cheap, seaside-purchase, binoculars.
Flicking the kettle on, Emma pulled the phone from her dressing gown pocket and checked again for any signs of life. There was nothing. She was far too obsessed.
Fiddling with the chattering, wind-up teeth in her hands, Emma looked down at them and pondered. They did look quite real. They were of a similar size to her teeth. Ok, they were a lot whiter than her ones, but would anyone notice that? Maybe she could discolour them, leave them soaking in a cup of black tea, overnight. How was she going to extract just one tooth from the plastic mould though? How was she going to fix a tooth into the gap in her mouth, even if she did manage to break just one of the plastic teeth off? How totally insane and haunted had she become? Superglue? How would she remove it again, even if she could do it with Superglue, before her trip to the dentist next week? What on earth would Dr Davey think of her if he knew what she was contemplating?
While all of the crazy thoughts were whirling around in Emma’s head, Ruby entered the room, wearing a towel turban and her new Dalmatian-dog onesie.
“What are you doing with those?” she said, looking horrified. Emma wondered, just for a moment, if Ruby could read her mind and grinned suspiciously.
“Just wondering who it was,” she said, holding the teeth in the air and studying them. “Have you any idea yet?”
“No, I’d forgotten about it to be honest, sorry Em.”
“It still pisses me off when I think about it Rue. And now I’m really going to be the laughing stock when I go back to work. I’ve got to do something.” Emma jumped up from the sofa and headed towards the bathroom, “Where are the nail clippers?” she called.
“What do you want them for?” Ruby’s worried voice replied.
“Found them,” Emma shouted, “Hammer?” She knew they had one in their cute little, pink tool box which had some very basic tools for those little odd jobs, that never got done.
“Emma, what are you doing?” Ruby followed her to the cupboard in the hallway.
“I’ve got an idea… wait and see.” An annoyingly, corny ringtone could be heard in the living room as Emma searched in the bottom of the rather over-filled cupboard.
“That’s my old phone – you’ve got a message Em.” Emma froze and stared up at Ruby from inside the cupboard. Then she raced through to the lounge and picked up the old mobile. Holding it in her hand, her heart thumped and she almost dared not look to see if it was Andrew because if it wasn’t, she would be truly gutted.
Bloody hell, I have just found your letter in the foyer. When did you post that? I was going to come round to your flat if I hadn’t heard from you by today. Andy xx
Emma’s blood ran cold. Today? He could not come round today; she had an important job to do.
I’m so sorry Andy. I dropped that note round to you, two nights ago. Are you ok? Emma xxx
Missing you but apart from that I’m ok. When can I see you? Can I call you?
Lost my voice, can’t talk. Emma had to think quickly. I really want to see you but all the family are coming tomorrow and I’m still not well. I was going to take it easy, so that I’m better for tomorrow. Could we wait until next week? Xxx
Emma hated lying but she feared talking to him in case he heard the slight whistle in her voice. She feared hearing his deep, sexy voice trying to persuade her to meet up. She feared her own sexual desire which could possibly take over her rational mind and lead her to him. She feared seeing him. She feared him seeing her… For heaven’s sake!
Yes of course we can. I understand you want to see your family. Are you ok though? xx
Ditto. Sorry Andy, yes I’m ok, just a really sore throat and sniffles. Miss you too xxx
“Is everything all right?” asked Ruby, hovering over Emma, who was sat on the floor, leaning back on the base of the sofa.
“Yeah. He wants to see me but there is no way that I can let him see me like this, at least not until I’ve sorted something out.”
Grabbing the hammer, Emma lifted it just enough to bring it back down with a soft blow on to the chattering teeth that she had placed on the floor, in front of her. The plastic toy bounced up and away under the force of the hammer, but remained intact. Again, Emma pounded the teeth but this time a little harder. Ping! The spring loaded dentures separated and the small, wind-up mechanism disintegrated into little bits, scattering across the floor.
“What are you doing?” said Ruby, utterly horrified. She began to worry about firstly, Emma’s violent act and secondly, why she might be doing it. “Why are you doing that Emma?”
“You’ll see…”
Could I perhaps call you tomorrow? Love Andy xx
I’ll text you when I get home from my mum’s. Things will be a bit better after the funeral. Lots of love and cuddles Emma xxx.
Examining the two rows of teeth, Emma decided that the teeth in the top row looked nearer the size of her own, as she held them against her exaggerated smile in the bathroom mirror.
Ruby flapped around in a disheveled state just outside the door. “You’re not going to do anything stupid are you Emma?”
“Like what?”
“Like… well… like pull all your teeth out and put those ones in their place.” Ruby gulped and removed the almost dried out towel from her head.
“No, don’t be daft. Oh my Goodness Rue, I think you’d better wet your hair down again.”
Ruby stepped into the bathroom, stood alongside Emma and then peered into the mirror. They both looked straight ahead at themselves, then they stared at Ruby’s wildly, over-grown spiked hair, sticking out of the top of her black and white spotted onesie, then glanced at Emma’s toothless gap and then simultaneously they gawped at the dentures, held up between their faces. Suddenly they both fell about laughing hysterically.
Ok, keep in touch and don’t scare me like that again. Love Andy xx p.s. Write my number down on a separate sheet of paper Lol xx
