Delectica: Part 3: The DDS Incident
A building on Rock City Boulevard in East Inlandsville, third floor...
"Open wide."
The hygienist inserted yet another implement of oral torture into Chalia's mouth. They seemed to enjoy seeing how many things they could stick in at once. This must be part of the sick fetish that lures people to being dentists. Chalia supposed that the sick fetish, at least, had a positive impact on society. Everything has its reason. Everything has its place.
Chalia came from poor family. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree. Cellular Biology with a minor in Mathematics. Full scholarship. Now, she was making some money and she had the luxury to spend some on herself. It was not long after her first paycheck that she went straight to the orthodontist to take care of her poor arrangement of teeth. They had bothered her throughout her life. She was quite pretty, but people seemed turned off when they saw the state of her mouth. And so, at the age of twenty-six, she endured a mouthful of metal hardware. It was well worth the pain and embarrassment. Well worth it indeed.
The hygienist had finished scraping and scratching Chalia's roots and she was polishing the last few bicuspids.
"OK. Rinse please."
Chalia took the paper cup that the hygienist handed her, sucked in a big mouthful of water, and started sloshing it around in her mouth. That was the moment that Chalia's life changed forever.
A lab on Vine Street in Inlandsville...
"So... here's a brief history of MolecuLox glue and its inventor." The Professor paced, barefoot, about the lab as she talked. Apprentice Seychelle sat at a table with a pad of paper jotting down notes.
"MolecuLox Glue was invented by Dr. T.N.T. Pound, entrepreneuer and founder of the Sticky Tools corporation. His friends called him 'Dr. Dynamite' for obvious reasons. He discovered a substance that was deemed to be too effective in bonding items together. This substance became known as MolecuLox Glue. Some would claim it bonds so tightly, that it's permanent. After some bad accidents, Dr. Pound himself declared that MolecuLox Glue was too dangerous. Most existing stores were destroyed along with the manufacturing process. That was twelve years ago..."
The Professor drank a large gulp of water and continued. "Dr. Pound had a wife and a daughter. Ten years ago the daughter, Kite Leigh Pound - aged 16 at the time, was killed in a chemical accident at the Sticky Tools Lab. Dr. and Mrs. Pound were devastated, of course. They became very reclusive and five years ago they died of carbon monoxide poisoning on a boathouse. No evidence of foul play was found."
"Such a tragic story," Chelle said. Her face pinched and distressed. She bit a cuticle and jotted a few things down on the paper pad.
"Now get this... Dr. Pound and his wife had no heirs. They specified in their will that their vast fortune should be split 246 ways and given away randomly to people around the planet. They had detailed rules that specified how the people were to be selected. Sure enough, within five years of their death, 246 random people suddenly received a hefty sum. Around $500k after taxes."
"I never win at the lottery!" Chelle exclaimed.
A building on Rock City Boulevard in East Inlandsville, third floor...
Slosh, slosh, slo... Chalia stopped sloshing her mouthful of water for a second. Something felt very odd in her mouth. The water seemed to be coagulating. She leaned over to the sink on the side of the chair to spit. Her lips would not open. They seemed to be sealed somehow. Chalia's next reflex was to swallow, but it was too late. Whatever was in her mouth was no longer in liquid form.
"Mmmm!"
She imagined how the water had sloshed around her teeth, around the wires and springs of her dental work, between her cheeks and gums, underneath her tongue...
"MMMM!"
Now it was just one solid, hardened mass.
The hygienist turned around to Chalia. "You may spit now."
"MMM! MMMM!"
"Excuse me?"
"MMMMM!" Chalia was using her fingers to try to pry apart her lips.
"Oh, my! Doctor!... Doctor!" The hygienist ran from the room. The paper cup slipped from Chalia's hand and fell to the floor with a clacking sound.
Two hours later...
"I want every employee and every patient of this office to be questioned immediately!" The Chief Inspector's face was red, her hair pulled back in a disheveled ponytail. Chalia had been rushed off to the hospital. "What do you think Professor? Was it MolecuLox?"
The Professor stood quietly pulling at her lip, holding a baggy containing the paper cup Chalia had used to rinse with. The bottom third of the cup was hard and solid. "We need to see the lab results to be sure, but it doesn't look good."
"Professor! Chief! Look!" Apprentice Seychelle was on the floor underneath the dentist chair. The two women joined her and looked to where she was pointing. On the bottom side of the chair, scribbled in wax pencil was a single word... "Delectica".
"Damn! What to do? What to do?" The Chief stood up neurotically pulling at the hem of her untucked shirt.
The Professor rolled her eyes, annoyed. "Security cameras! Do any of the buildings around here have security cameras?"
Four and a half hours later...
The hospital on Dearborn Avenue in downtown Inlandsville...
"All the security cameras in a one block radius were burgled two nights ago," the Professor stated slowly. "We have no leads... But we'll know what to look for next time."
Seychelle's arms were folded tightly together. Her shoulders hunched and her face looked long. She turned to the doctor. "Is Chalia going to be OK?"
"She's not in mortal danger," the doctor explained. "Luckily, the glue did not cover her throat. She won't open her mouth ever again though. She'll have to be fed through a tube down her nose."
Chelle shivered. "Though it is only the beginning of summer, it's now like autumn. Each day another leaf, once full of dreams, drops from its perch - slowly covering Inlandsville in a blanket of evil."
To be continued...