Alanna Faulman (flighty_munk) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-09-13 17:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-26 |
Going to the dentist
Who: Alanna, Cheyenne and Jeannie (NPC)
Where: Dentist office
When: Afternoon
“Jeannie, come on! We are going to be late. Baby mommy is running late “ Cheyenne called, pulling her daughter away from the growing stack of drawings that she was making. She had scheduled Jeannie for her first dentist’s appointment and she didn’t want to be late. While she brushed Jeannie’s hair and slipped her shoes on, she thought about motherhood. Her stash of cash was depleting fast. Jeannie was already three years old! pretty soon she would need to go get shots at the doctors and she would go to school eventually. She didn’t have any insurance and this visit was going to cost her a arm in leg. Well she supposed she would worry about that after the bill came. She scooped Jeannie up, grabbed her purse, and quickly locked up before walking out the door.
“Now Jeannie, I know you may be feeling scared and I just want you to-” she started to say but her daughter, ever contrary, decided to interrupt and assert herself.
“I’m not scawed Mommy! I a big durl!”She said angrily, scrunching her little fists in indignation. “Yes you are sweety, but I just want you to know what is going to happen.” Cheyenne explained patiently. She loved being a mother but god did it try her patience sometimes. On the bus ride to the dentist’s office, Cheyenne explained everything to her daughter, until Jeannie got bored and they played I-spy.
Once they reached the office, Jeannie clearly got a lot more scared than she claimed to be. She clung to Cheyenne like glue and Cheyenne could feel her trembling on her chest. She silently pleaded with whatever gods their were that Jeannie would find some way to not be afraid. The last thing she wanted was for a three year old to have a panic attack in the middle of a busy office.
Working was a wonderful way to keep Alanna’s mind off of everything. Falling into the routine of stubborn patients and the ones who went along with everything easily... this was what she liked to do, this was what she did best. See, I’ll be a great dentist, she told herself as she finished wiping off the chair for the next patient. Okay, so it got more difficult once she was doing more than cleanings and basic check-ups but Dr. Kessel thought she had a wonderful future ahead of her so long as she could keep hold of that touching thing. Touching thing, Alanna thought with a frown as she washed her hands. Gloves helped a lot but every now and again someone would brush against her and she would flinch away or worse, jump, and then there would be apologies and an uncomfortable silence... ugh, hopefully the next person would be better...
“Jeannie Prior?” Alanna called, poking her head out into the waiting room. Sounded like a good name. Maybe it was some regular girl who would sit there for her cleaning and everything would - wait. Three-years-old? If she bites me then I am going to go home and not come back for a week. “Why don’t you come on back and we’ll get you looked at?” She was probably going to want the bright, colorful apron that they had for the kids. Alanna liked that one too, secretly.
“Come on baby girl, that’s you.” Cheyenne said, tickling Jeannie as they went to the back. Jeannie seemed to be doing okay. She wasn’t shaking with fear anymore, so that was a bonus.
Thank god for small favors. Cheyenne thought calmly on their way back. She looked at the woman who would be cleaning her daughter’s teeth and sighed in relief. The woman looked young and friendly, and most importantly, not anything like the scary dentists on the cartoons Jeannie watched.
“Hi! I’m Cheyenne. This lump of pink clinging to my chest is Jeannie. She is just a little scared. It’s her first time here.” She said apologetically. She was sure that it must be hard for the poor woman to deal with small children in her kind of work. While Cheyenne was talking, Jeannie was surreptitiously peeking out from the safety of her mother’s arms at the woman.
First visit, of course it was her first visit. This was totally the sort of thing that Dr. Kessel should be seeing to himself. Unfortunately he had a root canal going on and so these little things - a child’s first teeth cleaning qualified as ‘little’ - had to be handled by the intern. Who happened to hate those cartoons that had dentists in them. Why did they have to be the bad guys, huh? Just because the ‘good guy’ had a mouthful of cavities... not that that mattered for someone as little as Jeannie. She still had all of her baby teeth and so this was just a cleaning, a sort of way to get her used to have to go to the dentist when she was little so that she could learn it was nothing to be afraid of. Alanna approved even if it was not her favorite thing in the world to be the one doing the introducing.
“Nice to meet you Cheyenne, and you too, Jeannie! That’s a really pretty name.” Alanna gave her best smile, keeping her hands clasps behind her back. “My name’s Alanna and I’m going to be taking care of your teeth, if that’s okay with you.” Baby talk was not her thing and besides, Jeannie was three and that was old enough to understand regular words just fine, right? “Just going to come right back here with me and sit in that fancy chair, put your little apron on so you don’t get water on your pretty clothes... that sort of thing.” Alanna glanced up at Cheyenne. “It is her first visit, right?”
Jeannie sat up and studied Alanna carefully for a few minutes before deciding that the woman was not going to chop her up into little pieces and feed her to anything. Once she heard Alanna speak, all fear went away and was quickly replaced with chatter and curiosity. “Dank you. I wike your dress. It’s pwetty.” Jeannie exclaimed pointing at Alanna’s apron.
Cheyenne breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her daughter thaw out. She set the girl in the chair and took a seat on the other side of the room. “Yes it is her first visit. She seems to have calmed down a bit though, she shouldn’t be too much trouble.” She said hopefully. She really needed a day away from Jeannie, some grown up time. She was almost starting to forget what it was like to talk to adults.
“Why thank you!” Alanna smiled at the compliment before holding up the one she was about to put on her. Gloves on her hands, very important that, and it was easy to convince herself that she was not really touching her. “Yours is much prettier though, don’t you think? Brighter colors.” Because little kids liked bright colors and Alanna absolutely despised the apron she had to wear. So dull and not what she would choose if she actually had a choice. But it was that or look like the receptionist, no thank you. “Well I don’t think she’ll be any trouble at all! Because good girls get a sucker when the whole thing is done.” Sugar-free of course, Alanna would be horrified at even the suggestion of giving a kid something chockfull of sugar after she cleaned their teeth. “So why don’t you open up and I’ll have a look see?” Smiling over at the mother as she started the basic look, something that she knew as just show for a kid, Alanna asked, “You guys new to town?”
Jeannie smiled too and clapped her hands at the prospect of getting something sweet. She opened her mouth wide and stayed as still as she could, trying to prove to Alanna and Her mom that she could be a ‘good girl’. Cheyenne was a little surprised at the mention of a sucker after a cleaning, but she figured it couldn’t be that bad coming from a dentist’s office. “We are sort of new here. We came here about a month ago. I really like it here. It seems like people are nice enough....If not a little odd. And I am a little worried about all the crime that’s going on right now.” She said grimacing at the memory of the news. The last few days of news were bad. It was amazing how much of the world you ignored when you were only concerned for yourself. Now she found herself watching the news every day with growing concern.
Surprised that the girl was actually keeping her mouth open without any urging past that, Alanna winced at the mention of crime. The news was not a happy place and the were tended to avoid watching it. She had enough things to worry about without adding vampires to it. And to think, she had once offered one of them her couch if it rained too hard! Mihai wouldn’t kill me though. Yeah, she was trying to convince herself of that while really just being grateful that she had not seen the pale young vampire since their last meeting. “It’s not normally that bad and I bet it’s going to get better. I mean... has to,” Alanna told Cheyenne as she reached over for the fluoride. “Now, Jeannie, do you like strawberry or lemon better?”
Cheyenne nodded at Alanna and hoped to god that the younger woman was right. She liked to believe that people were good at heart. She also liked to believe that it was just one vampire doing this and that not all vampires were bad. Jeannie wrinkled her brow in deep thought before answering Alanna. “Stawberry please. Lemon tastes like the stuff mommy dives me when I’m sick.” She said sticking out her tongue at the memory. Cheyenne watched with amusement and chucked. “So are you a fully practicing dentist, or are you still studying?” Cheyenne asked lightly, noting Alanna’s young appearance.
Strawberry tended to be the popular choice among the younger patients. And Alanna totally understood why it was. She preferred strawberry to lemon. “Strawberry it is! Now, tongue back in and open wide and we’ll get this in so your mouth is all nice and squeaky clean.” Nodding at Jeannie to ensure that she was telling the truth, Alanna got to work on that. Things like this did not even make her nervous anymore, which made her wonder if she would get that way with all the procedures eventually. Dr. Kessel hardly seemed to break a sweat when he was doing anything so she had to believe that, nervous by default or not, she would too. “I’m just an intern right now.” Alanna flushed a little, hoping she had not given off the pretense that went with being a dentist. “Couple of years until I get my degree, but don’t worry, totally know what I’m doing here.”
Cheyenne nodded. Noting that Jeannie was indeed being very good and calm for Alanna. Maybe we will stop by the store to get her something special on the way home. She deserves something new. Cheyenne mused. She was used to the finer things in life and she was sad that she couldn’t do the same things for her daughter. She broke herself out of her reverie as Alanna replied. “Oh No! I wasn’t worried about that. I was just curious. You definitely look like you know a lot about what you are doing. You just look young, so I was wondering.” She said, hoping that she hadn’t offended Alanna at all. She glanced over at Jeannie and saw that her small hands were drumming the arm of the chair. She was a little bored. Well, at least she isn’t terrified.
“I get that a lot.” Alanna knew she looked younger than she was but she was okay with it. Most of the time. Later it might bother her, when she was actually a doctor, but right then it rolled off her shoulders. “And okay Jeannie, you were a very good girl and that’s it! See, going to the dentist is easy as swinging.” Until she had to get a filling for a cavity and there were needles involved, but Alanna was just guessing at that. She had never had a cavity her life and intended on keeping it that way. “Now you just have to remember to brush your teeth.” They made toothbrushes and toothpaste for kids so they could get used to it. “And maybe even floss! Then it’ll always be that easy. Was there anything you wanted me to talk to her about or just the cleaning?”
Jeannie clapped her hands and shimmied her way off of the dentist’s chair and into her mother’s waiting arms. She settled herself in her Mom’s lap and tugged on Cheyenne’s shirt. “Mama? Do you tink dat we could buy me a tinkerbewl toofbwush?” She asked excitedly. Cheyenne smiled brightly and nodded at her daughter. “Sure baby, Maybe we can find some toothpaste to match! Would you like that?” and before she could get another word in her daughter squeezed all the breath out of her with a bone crushing hug. “I don’t think that there is anything....Although if you could tell her that chocolate is not one of the five food groups, just because it has chocolate in it. She doesn’t seem to believe me.” Cheyenne joked, making a face at her daughter.
That was one of the worst parts about kids, in Alanna’s opinion. They were so prone to stuffing themselves with sweet things. That had to be why they really had baby teeth that ended up falling out. Not because they were too small, oh no, it was because of all the sugar. “Some chocolate is alright,” Alanna said with a smile, though she was being totally serious. “But not all the time. Wouldn’t want to have to come back too soon would you? Thanks for bringing her in, Cheyenne, not enough people think to bring their kids to the dentist before they need to.”