A Visit to Dentist

On a bitterly cold winter morning, Nina trudged through a snow-clad road. She had a dentist appointment to keep. When she reached the dentist’s clinic, she found it closed. It was then that she checked the appointment cancellation message on her phone.

She wanted to rest for a while before trudging back home.

Nina found a bench; a thick layer of snow lay on it. With her glove-covered hands, she cleaned a part of the bench and sat there. At first, she thought nothing — her mind a blank canvas. Then a woman appeared on it. She was wearing a blue skirt and white top, with golden hoops in her ears. There was a mole on her chin. Her hair curly, her eyes dark brown. She looked so much like her dentist.

Nina rummaged through her memories, and tucked in the darkest corner, she found her. She was a little girl in that memory. It was like today — bitterly cold, roads buried in snow. Little Nina was holding the woman’s hand, who carried a suitcase in the other. The woman had bought her every chocolate she had demanded at a convenience store. They had walked through narrow lanes, legs deep in snow, and reached an imposing house with huge iron gates. At the gate, the woman had handed little Nina to another woman and walked away, empty-handed.

Nina began to gasp for breath and held herself in a tight embrace. She howled, as if a dam within her had burst open. She knew the dentist would lead her to the one who could answer her questions. She had heard her talk to her mother. Nina’s new appointment was three days later. She got up from the bench with a resolve to confront the truth.

Nina didn’t turn up three days later. She found a new dentist on the other side of town.

From Instagram page: Fiction on the Bench