All These Years

Who would have guessed that October could be so cold?

The thought had crossed his mind that morning, as he set out for work. He had noted the wind against his weather-worn cheeks, the stinging chill of the car handle against his bare fingers, and the frigid breeze blowing about his gradually greying hair. He didn’t mind though, he liked the cold. He liked all seasons for that matter, but he had a particular soft spot for winter and its beauty, a beauty pure and delicate like the snowflakes which blanketed the earth. Where he had grown up, snow didn’t exist.

He sat in the dentist’s office, in his operatory. He had just bid farewell his patient and was taking off the latex gloves; they were ever so slightly speckled with droplets of blood. He tossed them in the trash. He often wondered why he hadn’t just become a surgeon. An oral surgeon, a brain surgeon, any surgeon honestly, he just seemed to have a raw fascination and knack for that sort of work. Sure, he loved being a dentist and, at the end of the day, he was grateful to have a means of supporting his family. Still though, it was the tooth extractions which he really excelled at. His wife, an English teacher, grimaced at the mere thought of teeth being pulled out.  

With a grimace, he slipped on a fresh pair of latex gloves. Even after twenty years, he hadn’t gotten used to smell. He found it rather unpleasant.

“Excuse me?”

The dentist looked up at the sound of the young voice. Standing in the doorway was a boy of around sixteen or seventeen years old. He wore a black hoodie and track pants. He had his hands in his pockets and looked slightly nervous. He spoke in a slightly husky voice.

“Uh, the receptionist told me I could come see you now. She said you've finished with your other patient?”

The dentist smiled, “Yes, that’s right. Come on in and have a seat!” he gestured to the ever famous dentist chair, sitting demurely in the centre of the room. “Were you already given the painkiller?” the boy nodded. “Ok, great! I’ll be right with you in a couple minutes, then. You have a seat.”

“Ok.”

The boy swung his legs slightly clumsily onto the seat. Over six feet tall, his long legs hung over the edge of the seat. As he waited for the dentist to return, he thought about school. He thought about the midterm assignment he had to complete the next day. He could have had the due date moved but his teacher had said that if they didn’t have time to fit in a makeup date somewhere, the weight of the assignment would be moved to the exam. He didn’t like the idea of a Physics exam worth 50% of his mark.

True to his word, the dentist returned after a couple of minutes. He smiled at the boy, “Alright, here we go.”

The man pressed a button and the chair slowly began to lean back. Conversationally, the dentist asked, “So, how’s school?”

“Not bad. I have a midterm assignment tomorrow, though.”

“Right after a tooth extraction? That doesn’t sound fun…or fair.”

“Well, it was either that or possibly have my exam be worth 50%. I’d rather not.”

The dentist chuckled, “Fair enough.”

The procedure didn’t take more than 15 minutes. After years of experience, the dentist no longer needed to concentrate 100% of his attention to the task, it had evolved into a rather automatic process. As he finished sewing up the boy’s gums, he thought of his ill daughter at home. She was recovering from a fever and needed a little cheering up. He would pick up some food for her on the way home, probably a burger. I could use a burger myself, he thought.

Finished, the dentist ran the boy through the list of “dos” and “don’ts”. Unable to speak, the boy replied with a thumbs up. With a pat on the back, the dentist said, “You go get some rest now, son. Good luck on that midterm!”

The dentist escorted the boy to the exit and, as he did, he glanced up at the clock in the office. His shift ended in a few minutes. He had just dealt with his last patient for the day. It was time to head home.

He headed back into the operatory and began to clean up. A sudden small pang of sadness struck him as he contemplated how much he would miss this place when he grew too old to work. He finished rinsing the tools and packed up. He let the two receptionists, who happened to be sisters, know that he was leaving and stepped out into the cold.

The wind had died down a bit but there was still a frostiness in the air. It wouldn’t surprise him if winter came early that year.

A sudden gust of wind returned and stung the man’s eyes as he squinted, looking for his car. Where had he parked it? The lot was completely full, most cars likely belonging to workers like himself.

At last, he spied his car, the blue Nissan he had purchased a few years back. It was an older model but it did its job and that was all that mattered to him. The cold had begun to numb his toes so, briskly, the man made his way over to the car.

He stopped in his tracks.

The window to the passenger seat had been smashed in. Remnants of glass had been scattered dangerously nearby the vehicle. Someone had broken in.

Alarmed, the dentist hurried over to his car, expecting to find valuable belongs taken.

He was stopped again in his tracks. He blinked once, then twice, wondering if his eyes were deceiving them. Stunned, he stared at the smashed window and the passenger seat. His mouth was open in shock but no words came out.

There, in the passenger seat, was a very young boy, no older than four or five years old. He had a full head of soft brown hair and wore a striped red shirt. He was curled up and appeared to be asleep. The dentist stared and watched as the chest of the small boy rose and fell peacefully.

“What in the…” the dentist murmured at last, his eyes transfixed on the child. How had he broken in? Had somebody placed him there? Where was the boy’s mother or father?

The dentist looked about, helplessly. He expected a mother or father to suddenly come rushing over to him, apologizing profusely or maybe even accusing him of abducting the child. No one came.

The man turned back around to face the inexplicable sight. The little boy continued to sleep, oblivious to the bewilderment of the dentist. He looked small and helpless, lost in his own world. A sharp gust of wind struck the man’s face and it appeared to wake him up to reality. He headed back into the dentist’s office.

The two receptionists were slipping on their coats when the dentist walked in. They looked at him in surprise. Before they could speak, the dentist said,

“There’s a child in my car. Someone smashed my car window and I found him inside. He’s asleep.”

For a solid thirty seconds, the receptionists stared at one another, stunned in silence. At last, one spoke,

“A child? But…”

The other receptionist cut her off and hurriedly began to slip on her coat. She addressed the dentist,

“We’re coming. Please go make sure the boy is safe."

In a few moments, the receptionists had joined the dentist and the trio gathered around the vehicle. The receptionists stared in astonishment at the sight of sleeping child.

“Somebody had to have placed him in here,” the first receptionist said, and looked about the plaza, in search of the potential person. “There is physically no way that such a small child could have broken this window.”

“Unless they had a heavy object,” the other receptionist said, and she suddenly pointed to something beside the child. “Look!”

What the dentist hadn’t noticed before was that the boy was curled up beside an object. A heavy and rather large baseball.

“Does that belong to you?” the same receptionist asked and the dentist shook his head.

“No, that has to belong to the boy. If hurled with enough effort, it could certainly smash open the window,” the dentist mused. “Actually, these windows don’t require that much force to break. They’ve been broken a couple of times before. That was the only thing I hadn’t liked about this car but I had gotten it for a good deal. I suppose the boy must have smashed the window with the baseball.”

"Poor boy,” said the first receptionist, as she watched the boy sleep. “I wonder why he decided to hop inside, though? Why didn’t he just head inside a store or return to his parent or parents?”

“Speaking of parents, they must be worried sick,” pointed out the second receptionist. “I think each of us should head inside these stores and ask if there is a mother and/or father looking for a missing young boy.”

The three split up and checked with the storekeeper of each building in the plaza. The storekeepers were astonished by the story and one immediately said, “You should go the police.” None, however, were able to report a parent or parents looking for a lost child.

The dentist and two receptionists met up again at the blue Nissan. They were joined by a couple of intrigued storekeepers who came to see the child for themselves. One of them, a young man in his early twenties, said, “I’ve already notified the police. They said they should be here in a few minutes.”

The dentist nodded and ran a tired set of fingers through his hair. “Thanks. Man, I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before. It’s crazy.”

“What I would like to know is how this child ended up here,” declared the other storekeeper, a woman who also appeared to be in her twenties. One of the receptionists commented on the baseball theory and the woman said, “Well now, that’s strange all the same! Why did the boy feel the need to enter the car? Was he trying to retrieve the ball? Even so, how did the poor kid end up falling asleep?” She shook her head, unable to make sense of the whole thing.

The group suddenly looked up at the sound of sirens. A police car had pulled into the parking lot. A middle aged officer came out of the car and headed over to them. The dentist explained the situation.

Though the boy would end up being tearfully reunited with his mother ,who had been in the bathroom when the boy decided to take off, the dentist would think about the incident every once in a while over the next decade.  

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How old he had grown.

Not too long ago, his strong hands would be performing delicate cleanings or forceful tooth extractions. Now, though, those same strong hands had grown feeble and at the age of sixty-five, he was no longer a dentist.

Ironically, it was his turn to get an extraction. He had a tooth, one of those bottom teeth, that simply wouldn’t quit hurting him. He had to get it pulled out.  

Slowly, he entered the dentist’s office, the same one where he had worked for thirty years. It had changed now. The walls, once blue, were painted a calming beige colour. The two receptionists had retired, too, and were replaced by two much younger women. Not too long after his entry, the old man was bid over to the dentist’s operatory. A new dentist had joined the company and he, the former dentist, would be among his first patients.

The new dentist was a young man, no more than thirty, though his youthful face made him appear at least five years younger. His hair was brown, like his eyes, and he stood tall at around six foot four. He smiled at the former dentist,

“Hi there! Please have a seat. I’ll be there with you in a couple minutes.”

The former dentist nodded and, refusing the assistance of the young man, helped himself to sit down. A couple minutes later, the young dentist returned. He slipped on a pair of latex gloves.

“Just the one tooth at the back, correct?”

“That’s correct,” the old man nodded.

Right. Ok, I’m just going to give you a couple of quick injections. Just to numb your gums.”

The old man smiled, “I was once a dentist, son, don’t worry. I know the procedure.”

The young man looked a little sheepish, “Were you? I’m sorry. Well then, you know the drill…no pun intended.”

The old man chuckled and opened his mouth so that the young dentist could inject him. Almost immediately, the corner of the old man’s mouth began to go numb.

“Strong stuff,” he mumbled as the young dentist moved away.

“Effective, though.”

As the two waited for the numbing to fully kick in, the young dentist said with a smile. “So, you were a dentist?”

The old man nodded, “Right at this office, too. Worked here for thirty years.”

“That’s quite a longtime,” he paused and laughed, “Did you know that when I had been a child, a dentist that worked here found me asleep in his car? I remember exactly what happened, I-are you okay?”

The old man stared at the young dentist. He stared at his brown hair, soft and thick like it had been when he had found him as a child. He stared at the boy’s face, it had retained the shape and features he had developed as a child. At last, the old man said, “Son, do you remember being found in the parking lot of this plaza, in a blue Nissan, an older model?”

The young dentist looked at him in astonishment. For a full minute, neither of them spoke. At last, the young dentist said,

“Was that your car? You mean you were the dentist who had found me?”

The old man nodded. They stared at each other, stunned into silence by this twist of fate.

“Wow…I can’t believe it. You were the one who had found me? Wow. I never would have guessed that I’d be extracting your teeth years later,” the young dentist laughed then shook his head, still in shock. “Wow…my mom had been crying when they had returned me to her. Poor mom. I remember it still. She needed to use the bathroom. I got bored of waiting so I decided to head outside with my baseball and toss it around a bit. I ended up breaking your window…sorry about that. I never told my mom I had broken it. She would certainly have paid for it.”

The old man shook off his apology with the wave of a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I was just glad to hear you were returned safely home.”

“Thanks. Well, I needed to get my baseball because it had been thrown inside your car. I remember somehow being able to reach my hand in and unlock the door. I went inside. I thought that you had a really cool car and uh, well, I wanted to stay inside it until my mom finished. Next thing I knew, I had fallen asleep.”

The old man chuckled, an odd sensation with his numbed gums. “So that’s what happened! I had always wondered. Glad I know now.”

The young dentist grinned.

“Not mad about your car?”

The old man laughed, “No, you were only what…five? Yeah? Exactly, you didn’t know any better.” With a wink, he added, “you can repay me by doing a fantastic job on my tooth.”

“You got it.”

As the young dentist reached for another needle, he said, “You know, my mom and dad would still love to thank you, I’m sure. How about the four of us head out to dinner when you’ve recovered? I’ll leave you my cell number.”

Mouth completely numbed, the old dentist gave two thumbs up to indicate his approval.

With that, the tooth extraction began.