About this story
Everything he knows he learned by doing it. Sunday brings one furious extraction, a maid with a broom and too much curiosity, and then Marcus Schouler over dinner, mentioning that his cousin Trina has a bad tooth and wants someone she can trust. You choose which instruments she should see. The knock comes early.
Who you’ll meet
Trina Sieppe at the parlour door with her own hand held against her aching cheek, Marcus Schouler a full stride off mid-introduction, and Maria Macapa watching from the inner doorway with her broom — the three people in the room the reader's dentist cannot be shown in.
How it opens
Sunday found your dental rooms smelling of cheap disinfectant above busy Polk Street.
A gilt tooth swung outside while inside the plaster models collected another layer of dust.
Dental PatientYou said the aching would stop after the second pull.
Dental PatientI need the tooth gone, doctor, not another explanation.
Maria MacapaThe hallway heard him before the people downstairs did.
Choose
Sit still and the next attempt will finish it.
I can numb the gum again before proceeding.