Now the Shots

I posted a quick photo of the dental light hanging right over my head.

No, I did not need to post that right now, I thought as I sat in the dentist chair awaiting the work it would take to get a crown put on my front top tooth. I’d just taken a quick set of pictures around the office. I guess I did it just in case I absolutely died sitting in this chair. Then people, would know where to start looking. If they wanted to. Like, if they weren’t too busy.

Dr. Cantu came back inside and set something on the dental tool tray. Then, she turned to me and removed the swab from my mouth. The numbing agent applicator. It had been a cold gel substance. I only felt it for moments.

“Now the shots,” she announced, positioning my chair.

I took a few deep breaths as my body reclined backward and lower.

Just fall asleep.

Try to fall into a meditative state.

But I couldn’t because all I could think about was the shot and the procedure.

And I was alone. No one to hold my hand or keep me from falling.

Nobody cares to know you are sitting in a dentist chair in New Mexico with tears streaming down your face because you feel the pinch of the needle as the local anesthetic runs through your veins and you can feel that, too, because the medicina is cold, like it just came out of a refrigerator, and it makes you want to sneeze, but you can’t because Maria Cantu is holding a big long needle into gums.

She pinched my upper lip between her fingers and flipped my lip around, trying to work the medicina into my system so she could get started with the procedure. She let go and sat up straight in her chair, turning toward the table of instruments and things. “I’m going to have to give you one more, right in the roof of your mouth,” she said calmly. “Some people say this one is worse than the first one.”

But I didn’t even feel it.

* * *

Within five minutes, Dr. Cantu started grinding away at my upper-right front tooth. It had been chipped for two years, since Algodones, but she had also detected a fracture in that tooth. The front tooth was a terrible place to have a fracture since it was a biting tooth.

While she worked to prepare my tooth for a crown, I thought about how I no longer had to worry about the tooth breaking at a time and place where I might not be able to find (or afford!) a dentist.

* * *

After the dentist, I walked around Puerto Palomas a little bit. I needed to return to the farmacia and buy that tea I’d seen the other day. When I got back and thought about the tag on it—29 pesos—I realized that was only a little over one U.S. dollar. That was a good price for a box of tea!

So I bought four boxes.

I also picked up a packet of Azithromyacin for my recent dental work, wanting to start the treatment that day in case I picked up any bacteria at the dentist.

Surprisingly, I don’t think I had any bleeding during this procedure. My mouth would have tasted the blood. But, I wanted to start a treatment just in case.

At Super Del Sol, the grocery store, I reached into the cooler for a few bottles of le agua de mineral…con limon y sal. I liked this sparkling water. When you twisted on the cap, it gave a hearty pop.

At the trinket store, I picked up a round pair of hippie sunglasses and a small orange pouch for the manicure set I kept in a plastic bag.

At the OXXO store, I picked up one dozen fresh Mexican eggs. No refrigeration needed. I’d been wanting to use the fresh pumpkin I had for pumpkin bread, but my fridge was broken again. The freezer worked, not the refrigerator. I pictured myself leisurely baking bread over a long weekend.

Only…the border patrol man—Wilson, on his badge—confiscated my eggs. “I’m sorry ma’am,” he said. “It’s some law about poultry. Nothing poultry crosses into the U.S. If it was just me, I’d say these eggs look fine, and I would eat them. But, they just don’t allow it.”

“I get it,” I said, trying to sound reasonable, “it could be cross contamination of something in the food supply. That’s okay.”

I could feel his remorse as he took the eggs from my package and set them aside.

With the weight of the packages hanging on my arms, I walked back across the border to the U.S. side, feeling the temporary crown with tip of my tongue.