Memories of the Dentist

Another day of sun. And a day at home. OLeif worked from the couch for awhile at his trusty old laptop.

It was also a day, or evening, for Collette to visit the dentist. Visiting the dentist wasn’t like the good old days when she was just a tike. It had been fun then – a bright new toothbrush, choice of fun flavored toothpastes, dental floss, a rubber ball from the little machine in the hallway, and then a plastic bag with a smiling tooth (or something fun like that) which could be filled with her choice of little toys from the buckets by the receptionist’s desk (likely placed there so that the receptionist could monitor any children set on “toy overload”). There were also the photo albums in the waiting room full of pictures, pictures of every patient on their first visit throughout the years. There was even a picture of Dad as a little boy in the 60’s when he had first come to have his teeth cleaned by Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Dalin. All the Snicketts had their teeth cleaned by the same dentists throughout the years. Fun stuff.

OLeif came home and made giant grilled cheeses for lunch.

“That was not a good thing for me to eat,” he said later. “I got back to work and I could almost feel my arteries clogging.”

And after lunch, Collette decided that the dentist could wait for another day. There were some sorts of days that Collette didn’t feel like having her teeth cleaned, and that day was one of those days.

Meanwhile, Puck enjoyed climbing walls and couches for the rest of the afternoon, giggling with his two pearly whites at anything Collette did that he thought was remotely funny. Apparently this included most things.

OLeif returned for dinner.

“Alfonso walked up to my desk today to ask me a question,” he said. “I was busy, so as usual, I didn’t hear what he said the first time. So I said, ‘What did you say?’ Alfonso laughed and said, ‘Sometimes I just walk up and mumble nonsense, because I know you won’t hear me the first time. Then I ask you the real question.’ He’s a good sport about that.”

Collette laughed. It was a common occurrence for OLeif to completely not hear questions or comments addressed the first time. Collette had never been able to decide whether it was a “guy thing” or a “computer guy thing”.

Back on the ranch, Joe had agreed to draw Collette a few pages of stick figures which she would attach to her “Amazing Daddy Pea and Incredible Side-Kick, Awesome” story. Joe had a knack for drawing funny stick figures. Or Pickle Breath Monsters, which he had sketched for years on every single birthday card of Collette’s. Collette, up until January of that year, had never intentionally eaten a pickle in her life, so the fact that Joe and Rose had often enjoyed labeling her as a Pickle Breath Monster, was ironic.

On the other hand of the day, there had been disheartening news about Grandpa. He had fallen twice. If he hit his head, it wouldn’t fare well for him. Decisions had to be made soon. Life passed in the blink of an eye, and Collette knew that this reality was weighing more heavily on Grandpa those days.