Calling All Dentists (Calling All... Book 2), page 22
“Yes it is but thank you so much for coming Josie. You’ve travelled such a long way today,” replied Alex as Grant slipped his arm around her waist. “And you two, of course,” she said, smiling at Daniel and Ali. “Drive carefully and please text me when you get home.”
“Sure will,” said Josie before doing the rounds of cuddles and pecks of cheeks to every member of the Frey family who was standing in the room, waiting to wave her off. Daniel walked to the door first, shoved along by his dearly beloved, shifty looking, artful Ali. Josie followed behind them, turning and waving, several times, as she went. Then they were gone – as quickly as they had arrived.
Grandma had remained seated on the recliner chair, teetering on the edge and looking like she was about to fall off at any minute, as Josie and the others left. Absent minded and weary she looked up and smiled here and there (when she thought she ought to) but actually everyone had noticed that she wasn’t really engaging with anything and her smiles were randomly misplaced. The pain and grief showed in her grey eyes and everyone felt quite worried about her ability to go back to her own home eventually, to continue her life alone as a widow.
The Frey household slowly started to return to some sort of normality. Joe and Tiffany left an hour or so after Josie. Jack went to pack up his things, ready for his return journey in the morning and Emma grabbed her overnight bag. She kissed everyone goodbye, cuddled Jack and then reminded her mum of their appointment at the dentist tomorrow.
“Oh yes, what time was it?” asked her mum, still somewhat subdued from the day’s events.
“Err… in the afternoon. I’ll ring you when I get back home and check the appointment card. You never told me Aunt Josie had false teeth,” whispered Emma as they approached the porch.
“I didn’t know she had!”
Emma eyed her mum suspiciously and then opened the front door. “Right I’m going now but don’t tell Aunt Josie that I told you that. Ok?”
“Ok,” said her mum, looking genuinely surprised, “See you tomorrow love.”
Hi Colin, I won’t be in tomorrow, have major toothache. I’ve managed to get an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. I’m really sorry to keep messing you around. I’ve been in the wars it seems, just lately. Emma She hesitated before pressing the send button, did it sound ok? Sighing, Emma held her thumb down and then watched the little envelope animation until the words, ‘message sent’ appeared. She knew she couldn’t keep hiding away from everyone for ever – she had to return to work on Wednesday.
Lying in her bed, Emma listened to the faint noises coming from the bathroom. She’d hardly spoken to Ruby all evening, except for a short conversation about the funeral and how the day went, while Ruby sat pensively on the edge of the sofa, clasping her hands together as if she was praying and blinking away genuine tears of sympathy. The familiar sound of the toilet flushing and the ancient plumbing rattling and humming, throughout the flat, signaled Ruby’s departure from the bathroom. Crossing paths in the hallway, they said goodnight, smiled and gave each other a ‘high-five’ as they went their separate ways.
Emma returned to her bedroom, turning the hall light off as she went. Slumping down onto her bed she picked up the old mobile and looked at it – she thought she’d heard it go off while she was in the bathroom.
Hello Emma, you have been in my thoughts today. I hope it went as well as it could. Andy xx
Thank you Andy, the service was a lovely tribute to my grandad. Em xxx
Let me know if and/or when you would feel ok to meet up again. Very vague text message but you know what I mean. Good night Emma, miss you a lot xx
Ditto xxx Emma cringed, maybe that wasn’t a good enough reply, she thought to herself as she held the phone tightly and watched the screen. Before she knew it, Emma had slipped into a slumber where the creature from the murky lagoon was waiting for her, once again.
Chapter 20
Thanks for letting me know Emma. You’ve been through a tough time lately. Can you let me know tonight, if you’re back tomorrow or not (we may need to get cover for you). Regards Colin.
Shit, thought Emma. She had been off work for a while now and the invoices and unpaid bills would be mounting up on her desk. She had to get back to work and deal with everything – including the possibility of ridicule that she might receive from the office staff (and in particular, Dave), when they noticed her missing tooth. There was no point in hiding away. There was nothing the dentist could do to temporarily ‘fix’ the gap anyway.
Also, if she didn’t want to lose Andrew, she would have to see him sooner or later. Perhaps she could tell him that she’d had a fight with Ruby, just after the last time she saw him and her face was healing now. How absolutely ridiculous – Ruby wouldn’t fight with a flea, even if her life depended on it. Emma tutted and rolled her eyes at how bloody pathetic she was being…
Trust you’re back at work today? Just wanted to say good morning before I go off to work, talk later. Andy xx
Good morning, yes back at work today. Hope to see you soon. Love Em xxx p.s. where do you work lol? It felt so wrong to lie but Emma succumbed to her poised thumb and pressed ‘send’.
It was busier than the last time she was here, Emma noticed as she waited in the small queue at the reception desk. The Medical Centre was filled with people of all ages. Some waited to see one of the six doctors on duty others were seated in the dentist area nearby. A stream of young mothers carrying babies in one arm while pushing buggies, laden with ‘basic-baby-baggage’, strolled into the ‘Tuesday – Mother and Baby Group’ room on one side of the building.
“Emma Frey. I have an appointment,” said Emma, swallowing the lump in her throat.
“Have a seat,” smiled the receptionist, pointing to the few remaining chairs in the dentistry waiting area. Emma smiled back and just for a moment, thought that the woman looked oddly familiar. She wasn’t the same receptionist as the last time Emma was here.
“Well done – see, you’ve done it yourself now. Next time you’ll be able to do it all on your own,” said Emma’s mum.
“Mum, will you keep your voice down, I don’t want everyone to hear you!” whispered Emma, frowning with annoyance at her mum’s lack of discretion.
“Ok, I’m just saying”
“Yes I know – Ok!” Emma forced a tight lipped smile and then huffed as she folded her arms across her lap. She knew her mum was only trying to be supportive but Emma couldn’t help feeling angst about the whole situation, what a great start to the new year this was turning out to be.
The dentist turned around and smiled and then he offered the chair to Emma, “Hello again. Okay Emma, today you’ll be having an x-ray. Are you happy to go ahead?” Emma nodded and stared at her mum.
The nurse looked up from the notes she’d been scribbling, “Would you like to come through to the imaging room?” she said as she walked towards the door. Emma dragged herself back off the chair and followed her mum and the nurse. “Could you wait outside?” the nurse asked her mum as she steered Emma in through another door.
In the centre of the room stood an odd looking x-ray machine, hanging from the far wall. The nurse guided Emma towards the hood of the machine, “Ok, I need you to bite down on this,” she said, pointing to a plastic piece, jutting out of the machine, “and rest your chin here.” Once the necessary checks and procedures had been completed, the nurse began to walk out of the room, “You need to keep really still,” she said before she disappeared. The machine began to whirr and slowly it moved around Emma’s head as she stood perfectly still and gripped on to the plastic tube, in her mouth. Emma’s nerves jangled as the large arm of the x-ray machine circled her head entirely but she tried to think about something else (Andrew) until it was over.
Returning to the dentist’s room, Emma and her mum sat back down and waited for Dr Davey to turn around from his computer screen. Expeditiously he tapped away on the keyboard then he stopped, grabbed the mouse, guided the cursor around the screen and then he began to type again, while Emma watched him from behind. After a minute or so, she became bored and turned around to sit in the chair correctly, wondering just when he might be ready to see her.
Moments later, Emma’s mum began frantically pointing in the direction of the computer screen, gesticulating to Emma to turn around and have another look.
The images on the screen were crystal clear and they clearly showed the x-ray pictures of Emma’s teeth and her one gap. She strained to look closer, over the dentist’s shoulder, as he leaned over his desk appearing to study the images intensely. Then he swivelled round on his stool and scooted over to Emma’s right side. Reclining her chair, he peered over her, “Okay Emma, can I take another look?” he asked in a gentle tone. Using his gloved fingers the dentist wiggled each tooth in turn, while reeling off a list of dentistry terminology. Some of her teeth hurt as he pinched hold of each one and wiggled it slightly and some of them didn’t, but Emma remained calmly seated in the chair, feeling rather brave.
“Okay, well, I’m afraid it’s as we suspected Emma. You are in the final stage of periodontitis,” he sighed and then continued. “This means you are losing your teeth. It will take extensive treatment to save them but I can’t guarantee we can save them all. The disease has eaten away at your jaw bone. Here, take a look…” Dr Davey turned around and pointed to several areas on the image and Emma’s mum stood up from her chair and stepped forward to take a closer look. “This is an area of great concern,” he said, pointing to her lower jaw bone. “There are possibly 3 or 4mm of bone damage and loss here.”
“Can I be put to sleep and have them all taken out?” asked Emma, speaking before she’d even thought about what she was saying. Her mum gasped and the dentist turned around and stared hard at her.
“I may have to remove some of them, like I said befo…”
“No – I mean take them all out.”
“Emma! Dr Davey might be able to save most of them,” her mum said, pointing to the dentist.
“No. I want them all taken out – I want to have false teeth. You don’t understand what it’s like Mum.” Emma turned her head and stared pleadingly at the dentist.
“Emma, no,” said her mum.
“Sit down Mum, please.”
Emma’s mum sat back in her chair and cupped her hands around her mouth, shaking her head as if she was saying ‘No… no… no’.
“I want false teeth, can you sort it out?” Emma had suddenly become very determined and direct in her requests. She knew exactly what she wanted.
“Hey, that’s a little drastic Emma. You have a very good set of teeth there,” he said, pointing to her mouth, “Unfortunately you just don’t have the anchors to keep them there.”
“Exactly – so I want them gone altogether!”
“I can refer you to the hospital for an appointment to see a specialist to see what their opinion is,” said Dr Davey, rubbing his brow and looking to the nurse who stood at the side, still scribbling things down onto a form. She nodded to him and picked up another sheet of paper.
“How long will it take?”
“They can see patients within 10 weeks of the referral…”
“Ten weeks! Could it not be done any sooner?” Emma’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped open.
“Quite often it’s sooner than that,” said the nurse, “Most of our patients only wait about 6 weeks.”
Emma stared into the middle-distance feeling like she had left the room in an out-of-body experience. Her mind wandered and images flickered through her mind of Andrew and her work colleagues.
“And if the specialist did agree that you should have them all removed, it would take a further 3 weekly appointments to make a set of dentures for you as well. That’s once you had an appointment for the extractions.” The nurse was clearly trying to be helpful and informative as she possibly could but Emma sat dazed and silent.
“Ok, thank you,” said Emma’s mum, standing up again. “Does Emma need to make another appointment?”
“Not at the present time if she is set on seeing a specialist, we’ll get the referral sent off,” said the dentist, “Emma you’ll need to book another appointment with us once you have been to the hospital for your initial examination and have a date for your next appointment with them, okay?” Dr Davey looked rather despondent, “However, don’t be surprised if the specialist recommends that you don’t have dentures fitted for at least 9 months after the extractions.”
“What?” Emma shrieked, “I’m not walking around for 9 months with no teeth!”
“It is usually their recommendation as problems can arise after having so many extractions but they have to deal with many people like yourself and would possibly fit your plates immediately for you, if you insisted. They just would not advise it.”
“Oh good – I really couldn’t be without teeth for that amount of time – certainly not in my job.”
“Okay, so all you have to do now then, is wait for your appointment to come through.” Dr Davey raised his eyebrows over the rim of his glasses and feigned a smile as Emma nodded and slid off the chair.
The nurse gave her some forms to complete and told her to pay her treatment bill at the reception desk, then she left the room, followed by Emma and her mum who both walked out in silence, after nodding and mouthing a ‘thank you’ to Dr Davey.
As they walked slowly along the corridor back to the reception desk, Emma cupped her hands to her face and began to cry.
“I’ll go and pay the bill honey,” said her mum, putting an arm around her shoulder, “Go straight out to the car and wait for me – here’s the key.”
Emma took the bunch of keys and stuffed them in to her pocket. Aware that someone was walking towards them, she shrugged her mum’s arm from her shoulder and then looked up to see the figure of a tall man dressed in the usual blue dentist uniform, as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Inhaling a sharp intake of breath that sent her head spinning and her stomach churning, Emma felt a veil of burning heat engulf her face, her ears, her eyes…
Her heart thumped frighteningly fast, deep within her chest and her legs became weak and useless as she held her breath and stared in disbelief…
Standing directly in front of her, looking rather shocked and worried by Emma’s reaction was Andrew. He mouthed words to her that she could not hear or understand. As the strength returned to her legs, Emma pushed past him and hurried along the corridor, through the waiting area and out to the car park with her mum trailing behind.
“Emma, what the bloody hell is going on?” her mum said as she reached the car where Emma was crouched over, clutching her knees and breathing heavily.
“Let’s go Mum, please. Now.”
“I need to pay your bill Em…”
“Go then, hurry. I’ll wait here,” Emma opened the car door and slipped inside. Sliding down the seat, she felt like she was bursting as a sombre bubble of pent-up emotions popped and began to pour out and kept on pouring out. She hadn’t cried like this since she was very young. Her worst nightmares were becoming real.
As her mum pulled out of the car park, Emma turned to look back at the entrance to see if Andrew was there but there was no sign of him. Tears fell from her cheeks and she sniffed hard as she reached for a tissue from the glove compartment. Her mind was numb from the frazzled fragments of thought that darted around. A thumping pain began to pound in her head and she stared out of the windscreen absent mindedly, while her mum’s questions floated around in the air above her.
“Emma!” her mum shouted, “Will you tell me what the hell is wrong with you? Why did you run out like that?”
“Andrew…” Emma continued to gaze through the traffic ahead, “That was Andrew.”
“Oh my goodness, was it really? I saw him looking around the waiting room and then a nurse called him back in to the treatment corridor.”
Weaving the car through the two lanes of traffic, Emma’s mum headed for her own home, “Come back to mine Em, we’ll have a coffee and talk about this.”
He was a dentist. How could he be a dentist? Surely he wasn’t really a dentist… was he? Emma had spent the last 2 hours crying – crying about her teeth, sobbing over Andrew, grieving for her grandad and everything else that she could possibly think of to cry, sob or grieve about. Her puffy, red eyes and blotchy nose fitted well with her thumping muddled head and buzzing ears. He was a dentist.
Emma’s phone had made a sound earlier but it remained deep inside her bag, unanswered. She guessed it would be Andrew, pleading to talk to her. Or worse still, begging to see her after her strange reaction to his presence in the corridor earlier. He was a dentist. How could he be?
Grandma hadn’t quite understood the absurdity of the whole situation and sat listening to the story, while mumbling and muttering about the youngsters of today and how they had things far too easy… and in her day, it was so much harder and how Emma should just deal with things one step at a time.
“You’re really not being very helpful Mother. You can see how upset she is about this,” said her mum.
But they just really didn’t understand – either of them. He was a dentist. It was over. It was finished before it had really ever begun.
“Well I’d be more upset about my teeth than I would a man.” Grandma had said.
“She is upset about her teeth, of course she is but she also likes Andrew, very much. You must understand how difficult it is for her, knowing he is a dentist and he works at the very practice that she now feels comfortable with.”
Emma had sat with her head propped up in her hands while she listened to her mum and grandma battling it out as if she wasn’t there.
