We’re In Luck
I was re-reading Lucy Corin’s fantastic story “My Favorite Dentist” and wanted to share it with you, and lo and behold, it’s the Red Room excerpt for her 2007 collection The Entire Predicament:
You are my favorite dentist. You don’t look on my chart and ask me how my job is. You never duped me into listing my hobbies, not six months ago, and not six months before that. You never even tried. You say, “Look at this. Anything new?” and hand me a laminated list of diseases, symptoms, and reasons to be hospitalized. I’m reclining in the sprawling chair and you’re on your wheeled stool beside me. We can both see out the window, where you’ve placed a birdhouse. It’s fall. During my spring appointment I could see the birds fluttering around, framed. This year they were bluebirds. You’re such a grown-up, I think. You never lecture about floss. You say, and it’s a fact, “You should floss more.” Well put.
