Fiction Reviews: Tooth (Shirley Jackson)

 

A woman with her husband is waiting for a bus to New York City to meet a dentist to treat a very annoying abscess. The couple is speaking about their son Johnny and Mrs. Lang, their housemaid. In her pockets there are two kinds of pills, those for abscess and some sedatives. Because of the pain Clare realizes that her socks are torn, she will change them at the destination.

During the journey the bus makes several stops, where she falls asleep.

In an anonymous restaurant she meets a mysterious man, which does not go unnoticed.

At the railway station she falls asleep, when she wakes up sees the mysterious man in a blue suit, his name is Jim.

Clare takes an elevator to reach the dentist's studios, close to her there is Jim who handles her pearls.

The diagnosis is clear the tooth must be removed, to take it off is necessary anesthesia.

Clare imagines to be in the middle of a long corridor, it's dark, on its sides there are many closed doors.

Clare and Jim meet in a bar, he asks her to wash her face, Clare obeys.

She uses wet wipes to freshen up, she looks up and doesn't recognize her face.

She comes back to the table, where Jim is waiting for her, she dreams of running with him on the warm sand.