Open Wide (5 page)
Authors: Nancy Krulik
Matthew just sat there with his arms crossed and his teeth clenched tight.
Katie frowned. This wasn’t going very well.
“You want to hear a joke?” she made Flossie the sock puppet ask Matthew. “What did the tooth say when the dentist left the room?”
“What?” Matthew asked through his clenched teeth.
“Fill me in when you get back,” Katie said. She laughed. Emma and Mrs. Shine laughed, too.
“I don’t get it,” Matthew insisted.
“You know, the tooth wants to be
filled
in. Like a cavity,” Katie explained.
filled
in. Like a cavity,” Katie explained.
“A cavity!” Matthew exclaimed, leaping out of the chair. “The kind you use a drill for?” He burst into tears.
Katie frowned. This was
so
not good.
so
not good.
Chapter 9
“Dr. Sang, I don’t think it’s a good idea to joke with Matthew,” Mrs. Shine whispered.
“I . . . um . . . I guess I wasn’t thinking,” Katie replied.
Mrs. Shine shook her head slightly. It was obvious that she noticed that Dr. Sang was acting kind of odd. She just didn’t know why.
And Katie sure wasn’t going to tell her!
Mrs. Shine turned her attention to Matthew. “You know,” she told him, “I have some really great prizes in my desk. But they’re only for brave children who let Dr. Sang look at their teeth.”
“P-p-prizes?” Matthew asked, stopping his crying and gasping for air. “What kind of prizes?”
“Things I think you’ll like,” Mrs. Shine told him. “But you only get to pick one if you hop back into that chair.”
“Okay,” Matthew agreed. He climbed back into the big dental chair and leaned his head back.
“Good boy,” Mrs. Shine said. “Now, I’m just going to run out to the waiting room so when your mom gets here, I can tell her we’ve gotten started.”
“But you’re coming back, right?” Matthew asked nervously.
Katie frowned. Matthew liked Mrs. Shine better than he liked her. That kind of hurt her feelings.
“Of course,” Mrs. Shine assured him with a smile as she left the office. “And your big sister is going to stay here with you, too.”
“That’s right,” Emma told him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Katie bit her lip nervously. Now she was really going to have to look into Matthew’s mouth and pick at his teeth. She was going to have to act like a real dentist.
How hard could it be? After all, Dr. Sang had examined Katie’s mouth lots of times. She’d just do what he did.
That meant putting on those rubber gloves. Katie reached into the box and pulled out a pair. Then she took one of Dr. Sang’s paper masks and put it over her mouth and nose.
“Okay, Matthew, open wide,” she said.
Matthew opened his mouth. Katie looked down at the tray of dental tools Mrs. Shine had laid out for Dr. Sang. Now which one did Dr. Sang usually use first?
Oh, yeah. That round-mirror-on-a-stick thing.
Katie picked up the tool and stuck it in Matthew’s mouth. But she still couldn’t see his teeth really well.
“Wow, it sure is dark in there!” Katie shouted into Matthew’s mouth.
“You forgot to turn on the light,” Emma said, pointing to the big overhead lamp.
“Oh, yeah,” Katie said, blushing. “Sorry.” She reached up and turned on the light. “Oh, that’s better!”
“Ach ite is koo grite,” Matthew said.
“What?” Katie asked him.
“Ach ite is koo grite,” he repeated.
“Sorry, I don’t understand you,” Katie said.
Matthew closed his mouth suddenly.
“Ow!” Katie shouted, yanking her hand out of Matthew’s mouth. “You bit my finger!”
“The light is too bright,” Matthew said. “I didn’t mean to bite you. It’s just that I had to close my mouth to talk.”
Katie frowned. Dr. Sang always understood what she said when her mouth was wide open. Maybe it was something dentists learned in dental school.
“Well, close your eyes,” Katie told Matthew as she shook her finger a little until the bite pain went away. “And open wide. Then afterward you’ll get your prize.”
Matthew did as he was told.
Once again, Katie stuck the mirror on a stick into Matthew’s mouth and began to look around. She made a face as she examined his back teeth. There was a piece of corn stuck between two of the teeth, and a little bit of gummy candy on another tooth.
“Ick,” Katie remarked. “How gross.”
Emma stared at her in surprise. “Dr. Sang! That’s not nice,” she hissed.
Katie blushed again. Emma was right. That had been kind of mean. But it just popped out.
“I meant to say that I’m just going to clean out these back teeth,” she said quickly. She took the mirror out of Matthew’s mouth.
She thought for a moment. How could she get the food out of Matthew’s teeth? At home, she used a water pick to clean out the food in her own mouth. Maybe Dr. Sang had one of those.
Katie looked around the chair for a moment. Sure enough, there was a water pick attached to the small sink on the side of the chair. “We’ll just use this,” she told Matthew, as she picked up the water pick and turned the knob to “on.”
“AAAAHHHHH!” Matthew screamed as a blast of icy cold water hit him in the eye.
Matthew’s scream shocked Katie. She jumped backward with surprise. When she did, she accidentally stepped on the lever that moved the dental chair up and down.
“WHOAAAA!” Matthew shouted as the chair shot up in the air.
Bam!
He flew out of the chair and landed right on his rear end.
He flew out of the chair and landed right on his rear end.
“I’m outta here!” Matthew screamed. He went for the door.
“Matthew, wait!” Emma cried out.
“Don’t go!” Katie shouted. She leaped in front of the door to block his path.
Matthew tried ducking under her arm, but Katie stopped him.
Matthew turned and ran back to the dental chair. He grabbed the water pick. Then he shot a big stream of water across the room.
“Hey, stop that!” Katie shouted. She let go of the doorknob to wipe her face.
Matthew zoomed across the room, opened the door, and darted into the waiting room.
“Matthew, come back!” Emma cried, running after him.
“I’m never coming back,” Matthew insisted. “I don’t care about the prize!”
Chapter 10
Katie stood there for a minute, alone in Dr. Sang’s office. She couldn’t believe what she had just done. Matthew had really freaked out.
He’d probably never go to the dentist again. And not just to Dr. Sang, either. Any dentist. His teeth would get all gross and full of cavities. Then they would all fall out. Not just his baby teeth, either. Even his grown-up teeth would rot out of his mouth. And when he grew up, he’d have to wear those fake teeth she saw on TV commercials.
And it was all her fault.
Katie felt terrible. She could hear Mrs. Shine trying to comfort Matthew in the waiting room. But Matthew was still crying.
Katie shut the door and sat down on the big chair. Yuck! The seat was all wet. What a mess!
Just then, Katie felt a familiar breeze on the back of her neck. She didn’t even bother to see if any windows were open or if the overhead fan was turning.
She knew it wasn’t that kind of wind.
This was the magic wind.
The magic wind grew stronger, circling around Katie. The tornado whipped around wildly. It was so powerful that Katie was sure it was going to blow her away.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone. Katie was back.
So was Dr. Sang. He was standing right beside her. And boy, did he look confused!
“Katie,” he murmured, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. “What are you doing here?”
“I . . . um . . . I just blew by to see if Emma needed any help with Matthew,” Katie explained.
There. That wasn’t exactly a lie
.
There. That wasn’t exactly a lie
.
“Matthew Weber?” Dr. Sang repeated. “Oh, yes. I think he . . .” Dr. Sang stopped for a moment and felt the seat of his pants. “Why am I wet?” he wondered out loud.
“You sat in the chair,” Katie told him. “And there’s water on it from when you sprayed that water-pick thingy in Matthew’s mouth.”
“I did?” Dr. Sang asked her. He blinked his eyes hard, trying to remember. “I guess I did. I kind of remember it. It’s all sort of blurry.”
Just then the door flew open. Emma’s mother stormed into the office. “Dr. Sang!” she exclaimed. “What happened in here? Matthew says you blasted him with water and sent him flying out of the chair.”
“Are you okay, Dr. Sang?” Mrs. Shine asked him as she followed Mrs. Weber into the room.
“Not really,” Dr. Sang admitted.
“Well, I’m not okay, either,” Mrs. Weber told him angrily. “Matthew is refusing to go to the dentist ever again. What am I supposed to do about that?”
“I’m not exactly sure. This has never happened here before. I’m usually so great with kids.” Dr. Sang looked very upset.
Now Katie felt even worse. She didn’t love going to the dentist, but the funny thing was, once she got there, she always realized it wasn’t all that bad.
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