"Bye, Ms. Miller. And do remember, do not eat before the narcotic is gone completely. Ms. Lenz will give you a new appointment."

Full of relief, Michael Plitz accompanied his last patient to the door.

Finally the weekend had come. Or hadn’t it? At the reception, he saw a man who looked somehow familiar. Now he turned round to him and looked at the dentist.

Michael started to feel uncomfortable.

"Doctor, this man comes to you as the representative of Dr. Rentz. He suffers from severe pains. Could we maybe treat him?“ 

With a deep sigh, Michael opened the door for the man.

"Well, let’s see. Have you got his file, Ms. Lenz?“

One look and Michael knew the truth. Chickencook, for sure there was no second person with this name in town. The mean little face, the piercing eyes and the grim mouth. Fate had sent his old sports teacher to his dental chair. Michael hid a wicked smile behind his mask.  

"Plitz, another turn around the ground. Motion is good for you. Do not hang on the bar as a wet sack. Plitz if you do not finally wake up, nothing will ever come out of you.”

 
Well, Chickencook had been wrong here. Even the D he had given him in his last notes which spoiled his numerous clauses had made no change. This was what he called poetic justice.

„Let me have a closer look now. Where does it hurt?"

Michael took mirror and instrument. Actually the question was quite unnecessary. In Chickencook’s left lower premolar there was a significant hole. So Michael started to investigate every single tooth in the upper right corner.

"Ohoh, this does not look good at all.“

With the instruments in his mouth Chickencook could only utter an incomprehensible murmur.

„Has Dr. Rentz not told you that a root canal treatment is urgently required here? Otherwise these three teeth will not even last for another year.”

Michael shook his head with a sympathetic smile. In the meantime, Ms. Lenz had entered the room

"Do you still need me, Doctor?"
"No no, I am getting along on my own. Just go home, Otherwise you will miss your train.”

 
Industriously Michael kept poking at one or the other parondontis point while outside the door closed behind Ms. Lenz.

"And I’m afraid this tooth cannot be rescued. I’ll need to extract it.”

 
In his mind Michael already saw the completely healthy front tooth dangling on his pliers. He licked his lips with pleasure. Finally he had reached the actual root of the evil. A deep hole. Just as deep as the one in which he had liked to disappear in every sports lesson. Here he had to take a closer look.

 
Chickencook moaned and grumbled as good as he could.

 
"I know, I know. That hurts, but I need to check what we have got here. Atishoo! Oh sorry, I hope this does not happen during the treatment, I could easily slip then.”

I had always been able to sneeze on command . But Chickencook would not remember this after all those years. Still holding his patient’s mouth open with his left hand he groped for the sucker with his right. This would immobilize his patient for a while. Full of satisfaction he saw the panic in Chickencooks eyes. Did something finally dawn to the man?

For sure he would not remember his name after all those years. But wasn’t it logical that certain teachers feared exactly this situation for the rest of their life?
 

Michael grapped the drill and made it roar for a try. Although the mask hid his happy smile it could not cover the lunatic hatred in his eyes. Chickencook started to flounce in the dental chair full of panic. His breath came percussively, his eyes rolled and he seemed tob e close to a collaps.

 
This put an end to he fun. Nobody was worth risking ones admission as a dentist, not even this pig.

 
"Well it’s fine, Mr. Chickencook, maybe I should give you an anastesia first, this may become quite painful.”

Michael patted his patient’s hand reassuringly.
 

„Don’t you worry, I’ll be really careful. And for the other problems, you can consult Dr. Rentz.

Fifteen minutes later Michael led Chickencook out of his surgery. He shook his hand with a warm smile. For sure he would never see this man again, in particular not in his surgery. But it had been a good experience, the perfect weekend starter