Visiting a White-Suited Man

"Let's go somewhere fun today okay, 桦?"

桦was my Chinese name. I asked excitedly, "Where, mother? It is that fun, or it is just like the all fill with ugly green like the last park you took me to?"

"No, no, honey, it will be much more 'fun.' Trust me this time okay?" She said softly, kissed my forehead and walked back to the kitchen to make lunch before we head out. I was so thrilled that I jumped around my grandmother, then into the red leaves that started to fall. It is autumn in China now, the season I like the most so far. Everything around me looks so romantic like in the movie described. Everything started to slow down. It was a resting season for us, Chinese; resting after the excitement of summer vacation and before the coldness of winter emerged "Chun Jie" of spring (Lunar New Year).

The time came. My mother put a black and red stripes coat on me, I held her hands and we walked out. Living in China, a very different culture from Vietnam, was hard for my mother to adapt, even though we lived here for almost two months already. After fifteen minutes of walking, we arrived to a very big orange place with white fence around, I looked up and was amazed to see a red cross in the middle of the roof, which caused me a flashback of those scary movies I used to watch. These red crosses always appear in places where people get the limbs cut off or eyes scooped out. I halted, pulled my mother's hand back and yelped, "Mother, I am not stepping a foot in there, these people wearing white coats look very unfriendly. I am not going there." I immediately squad down to the ground and started to scream.  

"Be good, if we finished early, I will take you to the theater and watch some movies. How about that?" My mother hushed. "And I will offer you candies."

That offer was huge, so I slowly stopped crying and stood up with my pinky finger pointing up, I asked, "Pinky swear?"

After my mother walked in and did the registration, we went upstairs and waited in a red-yellow-blue plastic bench. I sat there alone while my mother started a conversation with other mothers who had their children taken here, too. I am a seven years old girl, but I wonder how women like my mother can start a conversation at any time or any place. Sitting there watching a child after another walking out with tears shredding down their chubby cheeks, I started to sweat a bit. I played with my beautiful coat, grabbing it and letting it go, thinking it will be okay, it is not that scary as you think so stop imagining about the horror movies. Now, my coat was wrinkled and I was frustrated that I could not make it straighten.

Out of the blue, a nurse stood at the door and called my name. I walked in without my mother by little steps. Then she put me on the chair that goes up and down and tied a blue bib around my chest. She told me to wait. I waited. The waiting time was so long that caused me to touch the metal sink and cup to my left and tools to my right. I started to notice that everything around me was so shiny, everything was made up of metal.

Before I even remember time was passing away, a white-suited man walked right up to me. He did not ask for my name, or what is my problem is. Looking at me for a few seconds and then he walked to the sink, washed his hands thoroughly with soap and put latex gloves on and a mask. He walked back to me. Now, I see his name's tag, it typed "WANG". I looked up, all I see is his black eye bags, dark and bold eyebrows and little hair on his head. However, I could tell that he was much taller than my father was and from what I experienced, tall people are not very friendly. They are creepy and weird with little friends to talk to.

 Now, he is talking. He asked with a very sweet voice, which every child would fall for it, "Open your mouth slowly," looking at the registration sheet, "桦."

I obeyed him, opened my mouth slowly. He continued, "You are having a ectopic eruption, which means a permanent tooth erupt your baby tooth. Another way to say that is you have two teeth in one spot."

After pushing all the dreaming with his voice away, I started to listen. Then I realized that is why it was so hard for me to chew food down my throat, it was the "two teeth in one spot". I asked back, "Can you fix this problem dentist WANG? It is very hurt, and I couldn't chew candy for a few days now. "

"My dear, that is why I am here, it won't be any longer for you to chew some sweet because I am going to take it out for you." He was now facing his back to me. I felt relieved for a moment. Dentist WANG turned back with a forceps and a needle with some purple anesthetic in it. My eyes were focused on it instantly. Everything was fade out from my eye view, only the needlepoint was growing larger and larger every second. I shrugged. Sweats started to fill my palms, my forehead and my back. He continued, "Now open your mouth again." Now, he was not the sweet doctor anymore, in my eye, his aura around him turned black, his mask started to felt off, his fangs started to showed out and he laughed very hard. I held my fist even tighter, kicking the chair so I could slide off at the tail. However, he added in, "If you don't obey well or open your mouth, I will put this in your tongue."

I could not think anymore, my mouth popped instantly and screamed. He shot the anesthetic in my gum, few second later, using the forceps, he picked the teeth off my gums. I was so glad the scary moments was over and I felt something weird with my tongue. The spot was missing a tooth, so it felt very soft and gooey. I felt weird

The white-suited man turned back into an angel, gave the teeth to me and said it was a souvenir since it was my first visit to. I said thank you and goodbye to dentist WANG and went out to my mother. I looked down my cheeks and not even a single drop of tear. I felt incredible. My mother and I went out of this place immediately and strolled back to the ugly green park again. She did not take me to any movies or buy me any candies.

First thing was that, and now I am sixteen, thinking about my past make me feel so strong. I think what make me felt so strong was that I walked into the room by myself, without even hesitating or pulling my mother in with me. I felt I had courage inside me, telling me that you should try everything and not to be afraid that something will goes wrong. That is when you complete big goals and gain success. I got a question, if I didn't open my mouth, then he couldn't shot my teeth neither my tongue right? Am I right?