2.5.01

I went to the dentist this morning. He's my same dentist but in a different office with a new computer system that doesn't recognize me I've been truant so long. The assistants asked where I've been and I didn't want to tell them the whole thing, the true thing, so I just said, yes when they asked if I was gone to Korea all this time. I went to the dentist this morning and not earlier because just in the last few weeks one of my fillings has grown a rough edge which I feared to be a sign of imminent release. My tongue can't stop testing its mettle against it and, yes, my memory recalls the power of a juvenile tongue on orthodontic device and the crumpled stainless steel the bewildered dentist removed with curt admonishment. So I went to the dentist this morning fearing decay and a prognosis of serial visits and mounting co-pays. In fact, the hygienist praised my dental habits, assuaging my guilty sugar love. X-rays showed no new breaches. And the new apprentice dentist, handsome even with his cheeks falling forward, diagnosed a cracked filling and promised only one return visit to fix it. Walked to work wearing whiter teeth, smooth and tarter-free.

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