Page 73 of Dead & Breakfast
Arthur and Salvatore took their time leaning their bike against the back of the office—the building had no bike rack—and languidly dragged themselves up the front steps, not particularly eager to face McMartin again after last night. Arthur felt the tightness of anxiety creeping into his chest the closer they got, the impending news of Brody’s condition like a storm cloud that had followed them from the Iris Inn, even though it was another fine spring day.
Arthur wasn’t used to feeling so antsy when entering a dentist’s office, a place he usually associated with cleanliness and order, but he doubted he would ever be able to get his teeth cleaned withoutseeing Brody’s unconscious form or Dr.Young’s face, red and screaming. Salvatore took his hand before they walked inside, and Arthur felt a little braver.
His apprehension fell away when he saw Lore in the waiting room instead of McMartin. She was hunched over her phone, picking neon nail polish from her fingers with precision. When she saw them, she jumped up and a smile lit her face, but the sunny expression was short-lived.
“Good to see you two,” she said as her eyes flicked from Arthur to Sal and back again. “Sure wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
“Better circumstances?” Arthur quirked a brow, searching her face for answers. “Where’s McMartin?”
“Where’s thedentist?” A dour look crossed Sal’s face.
“Don’t worry. Dr.Young isn’t here.” She patted Sal on the arm. “The sheriff just went to the restroom; he’ll be back in a minute. He wants me to compare your dentals to the wound on Brody’s neck.”
“Weren’t you supposed to compare Sal’s to the bite on Mayor Roth already?” Arthur asked.
“Unfortunately, that one was too torn to be conclusive, but the bite on Brody was quite…precise, for lack of a better word. This should be fairly quick, and then we’ll have a definitive answer.”
“Well, that’s a relief!” Sal’s gloomy demeanor melted away into outright glee. “No way he can pin this on us with such incontrovertible proof.”
“How is Brody?” Arthur asked in a low voice. He wished he could replicate his husband’s easy mood, but the thought of the injured boy lying in the hospital kept him from celebrating just yet.
“Stable, but…” Lore sighed. “The doctor isn’t sure when he’ll wake up, or if he ever will. I expect they’ll move him to anotherhospital soon. Folks out here don’t have much experience with paranormal-type injuries and he’ll be better off with a specialist if he really did sustain a vampire bite.”
“How dreadful.” Salvatore didn’t sound like he found it dreadful at all. In fact, his next words were far more filled with anticipation. “Well, let’s get this awful business with our teeth over with so I can get my prize.”
“Your prize?” Lore asked.
“Naturally. Whenever Arthur makes me go to the dentist, I get a prize afterward. There’s usually a drawer full of sugar-free gum or action figures and the like—does Dr.Young not do that? It’s the only good thing about dentistry. Honestly, more dentists should turn their practices into candy stores.”
“That would defeat the purpose, Sal,” Arthur said, squeezing his hand. Maybe Salvatore had taken his hand to begin with partially to chase away some of his own fears.
“One of Dr.Young’s hygienists set everything up for me.” Lore gestured toward the exam door, then lowered her voice. “For obvious reasons, he won’t be the one performing the exam.”
“Well, that’s a relief, I suppose,” Arthur said, Dr.Young’s livid expression from the night before not far from his mind.
“What are you all loitering about for?” McMartin asked, stepping into the hallway. He wiped his still-wet hands on his pant leg, leaving damp marks on the fabric. “Get a move on. Some of us have places to be.”
Lore nodded stiffly and gestured for Salvatore and Arthur to follow her to the exam room. A large reclining chair sat in the middle of the room, with a tray full of instruments positioned just next to it. Everything was set up exactly as Arthur remembered from his first cleaning with Dr.Young. He’d booked an appointment duringtheir second week in Trident Falls, even though he hadn’t been due for another until March. It was important, he’d reasoned when Sal accused him of being a sadist, to orient oneself in a new town and establish relationships with all the key health providers. He’d scheduled a checkup with a doctor, a vision test, and a colonoscopy in quick succession after.
“Let’s get this over with,” the sheriff said, positioning himself in the doorway with his arms crossed.
“Do you, uh, have much experience with dentistry?” Sal asked Lore, eyes glued to the tray of instruments.
“Not in the usual sense.”
Salvatore took a step back into Arthur as Lore reached for the tray. He was going to hate this.
“Don’t worry!” Lore held a hand out toward the chair, as if welcoming Sal to lie down. “I’ve taken a lot of dental impressions for autopsies and such, although this’ll be my first time doing it on a live person.”
“I daresay it won’t!” Salvatore stood up straighter and eyed Lore with trepidation.
“Sal, don’t make this harder.” Arthur tried to guide him forward, but Sal stubbornly held his ground. “Let Lore do her job and then we can go home.”
“What? I just meant because we’re undead—technically, we’re not alive either.”
“You seem pretty lively to me.” Lore beckoned him toward the chair. “Come on, it’ll only take a few minutes.”
Sal narrowed his eyes, freezing for a moment before he ripped his hand from Arthur’s and pushed his husband forward. “You go first.”
