5.
Late-May 2019
Called my grandpa W after the dentist one day.
Night sesh, second of the day. To finish up a cap my Medicaid-covered dental-student dentist Drew was taking his sweet-ass time on.
Cramming to get everything done by school year’s end, his finals. My itemized cavities-to-fill, crowns-to-crown, his sylla-bus.
Steadying that hand still in need of work.
And needling. Jamming that ’caine all up in there, over-shooting it every time ever since he’d undershot it once, and numbing my whole damn face.
Not even realizing how clumsily he was jamming it in till I felt how gracefully Dr. See, in periodontics, did it last week.
Unaware that it could feel different, till I felt how different she did it. How soft her touch.
~
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