Green Oasis

I had a surreal appointment at the dentist this morning. I had the first appointment of the morning and showed up ten minutes early. My dentist pulled up seconds after I did in a candy-apple green VW bug with a drum-set sticker on the back. I walked into the waiting room and signed in. I finished and was turning around find a seat to wait when the dental assistant opened the door and called me back.

I sat down in the chair, made small talk as she put the bib around my neck. She left for a minute and returned with the dentist who commenced drilling after a perfunctory hihowareyou? A couple minutes of pain (notice that I haven’t mentioned novocaine) and he had replaced the filling that had popped out. The dentist assured me that it was no charge (it was his fault anyway). I sat up and followed the assistant out.

I waved goodbye to Janelle at the front desk (we know each other from high school) and walked out the front door one minute after my scheduled appointment time.

Did that really just happen? I didn’t even have the sensation of a fat lip to confirm my memory of the briefest dentist visit of my life.