I recline in the chair, hazy and apprehensive.

“So…what will happen today?” I ask on this third visit to tackle my wayward tooth.

“So, Dr. Mike will check the tooth, and if it looks good, he will insert one of these — obviously without the handle.”

It looks like a toothpick with a small bulb at the end.  Surely the bulb goes IN and the toothpick part is the handle?

Nope.  The toothpick-like structure is the part that gets slipped into the tube-like canal behind the tooth.

I am sitting in a dentist chair, mouth gaping, praying that the numbing agent doesn’t wear off.

It’s a solitary moment in one’s life.

Bantering dental jargon flies over my head.

My thoughts swing like a pendulum between those prayers and the plans I have to process buckets of cucumbers from the garden later today.

I’ll be chopping and slicing cukes and filling the refrigerator with pickle jars.

For lunch we will eat cukes and dip, and other finger foods. Without toothpicks.

Solitary“>