I had a sore tooth and it was getting hard to live so I told my boss I needed the morning off and took myself to the dentist. How can I help you today? she asked. I have a sore tooth and it’s getting hard to live, I told her. Let’s have a look. She pressed me back in a chair and switched on a bright lamp. Ah, there is it. Yes it’s completely rotted, black as death, stinking too, and crumbling like fish bones. It will have to come out. She turned the light off and sat me up. The girl at the desk will book you in. I was stunned. It sounds really bad. Can’t you take it out today? I asked. Unfortunately not. This is just a consultation, she said. The extraction will have to happen another time. But why?Because this is only a consultation. First we book the patient for a consultation. There’s a two hundred dollar fee to be seen. Then, once we identify the issue, we book for the procedure. In your case we’re looking at surgery. I told her I understood that typically that was how it worked, but I was in a lot of pain and it was getting hard to live. Can’t you make an exception and take it out today? I pleaded. I was starting to feel desperate. She looked down at her watch and back at me. I’ll have to do it very fast. We’ll  have no time to numb you. But when it’s over, the pain will be gone, okay? I said that was fine and went to sign papers at the front desk.The receptionist brought out a wheelchair and sat me down and pushed me to the bathroom. Here, take off your clothes and put on this. She handed me a hospital gown. We’ll need urine and stool samples before we can move on. You’ll find vials and little plastic jars with scoops in the washroom.But it’s just a bad tooth! I protested. She’d walked away so I went in, took my clothes off, and sat down on the toilet. What could I give her? I had nothing inside me. But when I pushed all the nothing came out and I filled dozens of vials and a hundred jars. I was so relieved I forgot all about my tooth! I put on the gown and cracked the door and called I’m ready! When she came back I showed her what I’d done. She was so proud of me. She gathered it all in a basket, carefully, like eggs. Then I sat in my wheelchair and she rolled me to the dentist. I lay on a thin layer of tissue. The dentist had a clothespin on her nose. It’s going to stink, she said excitedly. I nodded and shut my eyes. I felt her pinch the tooth with her pliers. The exoskeleton crumbled away and she caught the worm who’d been living in my tooth and pulled. It screeched with pain. She pulled and pulled until she was in the hall. Then she was down the hallway and the thing was still not all out. This is going to cost you extra! I heard her say from across the street. I could feel it unwinding first from the knot it had round my mouth and jaw down into my neck, the noose it had on my belly, and by the time she finished she’d plucked ten rooted knots up, one from each toe. It broke away like a rusted coil. She came back spooling it like yarn. Good news, she said. It’s out! Your other teeth will all fall out within twenty four hours, but they’ll grow back if you swallow them. Do you want to take this home or can I keep it? She licked her fingers.I told her I wanted it. It was mine. She handed me the dying worm that was once my tooth. It coughed and looked up pathetically. I wrapped it in the gown and walked back down the hall naked to the washroom. The pain was gone but I had a baby to care for. When I washed it in the sink I almost lost it down the drain. My baby the tooth, the worm. How could I be so clumsy? Every time I dropped it it got smaller. I dressed and went back to the desk. How are you feeling? The receptionist asked. Better, I think. The pain’s gone. She pointed to it. Congratulations! Do you have a name? I thought about it while I paid her all the money in my bank account. It wasn’t enough but she told me I could come back with more every day for the rest of my life. It has the same name as me, I said. That’s nice, she said. It was nice. I walked outside and the firmament of the heavens was low enough so my head was in the clouds and the spinning planets followed me like a swarm of bees.