Friday 10 February 2012

Encounter with a Transylvanian.

I went to the dentist today for a routine scale and polish. The regular hygienist wasn’t there; she’d been called away to another surgery to cover a staff shortage. In her place was a pretty young woman with long, raven-black hair and eyes that hinted at East European origin. I asked a couple of questions, and it turned out that she was:

a) Not a hygienist, but a young (presumably newly qualified) dentist who was covering the regular hygienist’s absence.

b) Romanian, specifically Transylvanian, she said.

Romanian? Transylvanian? Vlad Dracul, otherwise know as Vlad the Impaler? Count Dracula? Get the picture?

Ah, the Children of the Night.
What music they make.

The hygienist at my previous practice used to sit sedately while she was doing the work. This young woman (I think the receptionist said her name was Medea) preferred to stand. And so did the woman who was on nurse duty doing the sucky stuff with the plastic tube.

They went to work, and soon there were two women towering over me like carrion crows about to feast on a dead rabbit, both with dental implements poised and one of them looking like a mistress of the good Count. She was the one who kept pulling my head back and forth to get a better view. And she was wearing latex gloves!

I’m a sensitive chap, you know? I get affected by things like that. I’m imaginative, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine a brooding sense of impending retribution for past misdemeanours.

Medea didn’t sprout wings and flit about the room, but she might if I’m unlucky enough to dream about her tonight.

6 comments:

andrea kiss said...

Perhaps she became interested in dentistry in order to work on fangs. I like the name Medea. Wasn't Medea a witch? And i believe there is a Penelope connection there.

JJ said...

I think Medea was the wife of one of the Greek heroes, Jason maybe, who got a bit cross when her husband jilted her for another woman and became vengeful. And I believe she is generally seen as being a witch (a dark one, that is.)

This Medea didn't have any fangs as far as I could tell. Maybe they sprout after nightfall.

Anthropomorphica said...

Vampire dentists! Fantastic Jeff, I love your world!
She apparently dispatched her children, Medea not your Transylvanian maiden.

JJ said...

So who would call their daughter Medea? A Transylvanian?

andrea kiss said...

There are some movies about a woman named Medea here in the US. They're comedies about the overweight matriarch of a black family. Medea is played by a man, Tyler Perry. I've never seen them but people seem to love them.

JJ said...

I'd never heard the name before, except as a character in Greek myth.