Part 3: Danielle
Danielle Govindra pulled into the parking space, turned off the car, and slumped against the steering wheel. There was just so much happening, and she couldn't keep up with it. Tracy's graduation was just a few days away, Mark had to stay late at work all week, and to top it off, Angela had called yesterday, saying that she was on summer vacation and could she please spend it with her big sister?
It was a hell of a time for a toothache.
So, here she was, at the new dentist's office. The dentist she'd gone to before had left town, for some unknown reason. So it was "Dr. Joseph" for her.
She got out of her car and walked over to the office. Her tooth gave another sharp twinge. "Ow!" she said, clutching at her cheek and staggering just a little. The sooner this was over, the better.
"Oh hiiii!" said the receptionist who sat behind the counter to her right. Danielle winced, both from the pain of her toothache, and the annoyingness of the receptionist-bimbo.
Oddly enough, given that she was a bimbo, the receptionist looked Arabic. The girl would certainly be the least-dressed Arab Danielle had ever seen, if that was true.
"Um, like, welcome to... um, Dr. Joseph's office," the receptionist said. "I'm, uh, Noor, and do you have an appointment?" The bimbo - who was, indeed, Arabic - sounded like she was reading from cue cards.
"Yes, I'm Danielle Govindra, I called this morning about an emergency." Noor the bimbo nodded, and started tapping away at the computer in front of her. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, as though the task of typing on a computer took all of her brainpower.
There followed two awkward minutes, while Noor figured out how to type in Danielle's name. She seemed to be sounding it out, but having to backtrack multiple times. Meanwhile, Danielle stood there, tooth aching like hell, waiting for this goddamn bimbo to get her shit together.
"Ohhh, okay!" Noor said, finally. "Hi, Dani! Dr. Joseph says you oughta go to room 5, okay? Have fun!" She giggled and waved at Danielle.
For a moment, Danielle considered replying to that by saying that she wasn't here to have fun, but responding would just be pointless. Noor, the dumb bimbo, probably wouldn't understand. So, instead, Danielle walked into the back of the office, towards room 5. Maybe the rest of the office would be different.
Her hopes for a smarter office vanished when she entered room 5 to find that her hygienist was a Chinese bimbo. The hygienist-bimbo giggled and said, "Oh hiiiii! I'm Ming, and I'm gonna be, like, your hygiene lady today! How are ya?"
"Ow!" Danielle said, clutching her cheek. She meant to say more than that, but Ming pouted at her. "Aww, you gotta toothache! Poor wittle Dani! We gonna make it all better!" She grabbed Danielle's shoulders and sat her down in the chair. Danielle tried to object, but Ming pulled out an array of dental tools and started poking around in Danielle's mouth.
"So, where does it, like, hurt?" she said. Apparently, Ming saw no real problem with the fact that Danielle's mouth was currently wide open, with pointy metal things inside.
That problem, though, became moot when Ming touched Danielle's second premolar, and a jolt of pain shot through her mouth. She winced, and if she'd been able to, she would've said something foul-mouthed.
"Awww, does da wittle toof, like, hurt a bunch?" Ming cooed, touching it again. Danielle wanted to scream out loud at this fucking bimbo, but she couldn't.
"We're gonna need to do X-rays, aren't we?" Ming said, and stuffed something into Danielle's mouth. "You just, like, hold that in there and don't, like, move, or anything."
"Mummph mmph mmmm," Danielle said, trying not to move whatever Ming had stuck in there. This was the fucking worst dentist's office she'd ever been to. What kind of asshole employed nothing but bimbos?
As she fumed to herself, Danielle smelled something odd. It was a strong smell, a musky scent, one that seemed to permeate the whole room. There was something sweet about it, too. It seemed familiar, in a certain way.
When Ming turned back, carrying a lead-lined apron to lay over Danielle's chest, Danielle realized that the smell was coming from Ming. Or maybe not. But she certainly smelled like whatever it was that had filled the room with its scent.
She couldn't say anything about it to Ming, not while she was getting X-rayed. So she lay there, as Ming set things up, and just smelled that smell. That marvelous, fantastic smell. Whatever it was, she wanted to smell more of it.
Even once Ming had finished the X-rays and cleared Danielle's mouth, the hygienist-bimbo made it impossible to ask a question, because she babbled constantly. At a certain point, Danielle just stopped listening completely, and let the sensations sweep over her. It was all very Zen.
Some indistinct amount of time later, someone tapped Danielle on the shoulder, and she jumped. "Sorry to startle you," said a male voice from behind her head, "but I'd like to introduce myself." He stepped out in front of the chair and continued, "I'm Dr. Joseph, and I'm pleased to meet you."
Danielle shook his hand, then winced as she noticed her toothache again. "So, you've got a toothache," Dr. Joseph said, turning over to the computer to Danielle's right. "Mmm hmm," he muttered. "Ahh, mmm."
"Is it, um, bad, Doctor?" Danielle asked.
"Not too bad," he said, stepping back in front of the chair. He had a very nice smile, which Danielle supposed every dentist should have. Other than that, he was really very ordinary. If you had a machine that made humans, and you asked it to give you a totally average white male, Dr. Joseph would be the result.
"You have a slight crack in your premolar," Dr. Joseph said, "and it looks like, unfortunately, it has penetrated deep enough to find a few nerve endings to irritate. But it shouldn't take radical measures to fix, or anything like that. When do you want to schedule a surgery?"
"Uh, as soon as possible, please," Danielle said.
"Right then. Ming, pull up the calendar. Hmm. Hmm." Dr. Joseph turned back towards the chair. "We can fit you in tomorrow, actually. Someone just cancelled on a set of family appointments, so I'll have the time for your surgery."
"What time?" She still had to come up with a graduation gift for Tracy, and if she was out of it all day, that would be hard.
"10:30," Dr. Joseph said.
"Well, uh, when's the next available slot?" she asked, hoping for a better answer.
"A week from today," came the answer.
Fuck. There was no way she could possibly wait a whole week to get this fixed. If it was a choice between spending tomorrow whacked on the aftereffects of anaesthesia or spending a whole week wincing in pain...
"I'll take the appointment tomorrow."
"Good, good," Dr. Joseph said. "Ming, go ahead and enter that on the schedule. You'll want to be here at least ten minutes before the surgery, so we can handle the paperwork, and get you under in a timely fashion."
"Am I going to need to have someone pick me up?" Danielle asked.
Dr. Joseph shook his head. "Actually, no. We use a form of anaesthesia that doesn't cause any substantial temporary impairment. You should be able to drive home."
"Wow," said Danielle. "How does that work? I've heard all sorts of horror stories about people on anaesthesia."
"You'd have to ask Erin, our resident anaesthetician. She's the brains behind it," Dr. Joseph said. "I'm a mere dentist. I'll take what I can get."
He extended a hand to her, once again. "It's been very nice talking to you, and I'm glad, once again, that you chose to come to my office. We'll be seeing you tomorrow, though, I suppose, so I'll wish you a good day, Danielle."
"Thank you for being so flexible," Danielle replied, levering herself up and out of the chair. She'd been thinking about asking Ming about something, but now she'd entirely forgotten.
"Is there anything I can take to deal with it between now and then?" she asked, as Dr. Joseph was at the door.
"Well, if you were waiting longer, I'd be inclined to give you a prescription for an analgesic of some kind," Dr. Joseph replied. "However, I think I can give you something less expensive, if you'll bring it back tomorrow."
Danielle nodded. "In that case," he said, opening a drawer mounted on the wall, "take this home with you." He handed her a cloth pouch filled with some kind of gel. "It should draw off some of the pain for a short while."
"Thank you, Dr. Joseph," Danielle said again. He nodded. "No problem. Will that be all for today?"
"Yes, it certainly will," Danielle said. With that, Dr. Joseph left, and Danielle shortly followed. Ming giggled and waved goodbye to her, and Danielle tried not to show open disdain. One more day, and she could find another dentist.
"Bye-bye!" Noor called out to Danielle as she walked towards the front door. Danielle gave a half-hearted smile and passed her without saying anything. Christ, what a fucking bimbo.
Tomorrow
"Hiiiiiii!" Noor said, as Danielle walked into Dr. Joseph's office. Danielle smiled at the receptionist-bimbo, feeling a bit more chipper this morning. Just like Dr. Joseph had promised, the pouch he'd given her had made her feel so much better.
"Hello, Noor," Danielle replied. "Where should I go today?"
"Dr. Joseph says you oughta go to room 69," Noor replied. "It's, like, right at the end of the hallway!" Giggle.
"Okay," Danielle said, a bit puzzled. Why "room 69"?