The Writers Studio – Level 2b, Assignment #3
Preamble: Entertaining description of a place I wouldn’t have thought to write about. A place I have strong feelings about, maybe unpleasant. Not judgmental. Narrator doesn’t talk about himself but reveals himself through the description of the place. Either 1st or 3rd person. Have joy of language (don’t know about that one!). Tone: descriptive, flowing. Mood: anxious, paranoid.
waiting
With the delicate ballet any dentist performs, at
least the ones that got it down and I mean working
the rooms like a perverted honey bee splitting his
time between 5 flowers, he wouldn’t be able to fit in
an unexpected drilling. I would be safe, at least till
the scheduling. Reading recycled magazines with
the addresses ripped away in a comfy chair doesn’t
make the wait any easier. What if I had a cavity?
Then what, right there and then? What if the worst
will happen. The dreaded root canal. The reference
point of pain for any comedian.
Field and Stream. Relaxing enough. Wish I were
fishing right now. I turn the page to find it crinkled
in ways not common to regular reading but more
out of abject stress. Multiple shots of Novocain in
the gums. Shots with a needle. I didn’t know my
gums went that deep. Shots administered with
cheery precision. Drilling. Smokey whiffs rising up
out of my mouth. Smelling the essence of cavity.
Drilling, cracking, pulling, scraping. He doesn’t
break a sweat. His demeanor is unchanged. Like a
busy serial killer doing his thing. 5 at a time. Music
drowns out the buzzing and the cracking. The Fields
and Streams giving the hands something to do. The
eyes something to see. The waiting room to hell.
The free toothbrush.
