Upbeats

by Erin Sheena Byrne

  Chapter Seventeen

  "Don’t touch me!" Smithy yelled.

  "Just sit back down, Mr Smith: it’s only a dental clean, nothing to it, it’ll be over soon and you’ll be better for it," Gemini said, calmly.

  I could hear a struggling going on. Smithy was a very unreasonable patient. At least, today he was.

  "Nurse McMillan! Get a sedative!" Gemini called. He probably had Smithy pinned.

  "You can call me Brandi!" she replied in a giggly manner.

  "Just get the sedative from my office!" Gemini shouted back, impatient.

  "Anything for you, Gemmy, dear," she answered.

  Robyn couldn’t help but giggle in my mind.

  I replied.

  The handle started turning. Panic washed through me. Brandi was going to find me here and then what would she do?

  I ran straight into the wall. It was thick enough for me to hide in but I constantly feared going solid.

  I stuck my head out the wall, just enough so I could see the stout nurse stumble into the office. She headed straight to the corner of the room where the medical equipment was piled. She found the sedative in no time at all, so spared a few seconds and ran her eyes over the papers on Gemini’s desk. She obviously liked to keep up with his schedule.

  She found a scrap piece of paper and scanned it. She had a habit of moving her lips while reading.

  "Monica Mia!" she exclaimed aloud, indignantly.

  "NURSE MCMILLAN!!!" Gemini shouted.

  Brandi dropped the piece of paper and scurried out the office.

  Before I went over and picked up the piece of paper, I walked over to the other wall, stepped into it and stuck my head through the other side to see how Smithy was doing.

  (Fortunately, my head came out of a poster of a family smiling crazily with white, sparkling grins. So I just blended in. But it made me look like I wore pigtails and a polka dot dress.)

  Smithy was being pinned down by the receptionist and Gemini, as he waited for Brandi to bring the sedatives. Smithy lashed out and kicked and tried to squirm free but Gemini was stronger than him.

  Smithy’s eyes grew wide with real fear as he saw the sedative injections.

  "Here you go," Brandi said as she arrived.

  "Just use the strongest," Gemini ordered, tersely.

  Brandi read the labels on the injections and found the one Gemini required. She leaned in to inject Smithy. Now he was fighting for real. No one likes to be knocked unconscious.

  "No, let me go!" he cried.

  Brandi swiftly injected him without wasting a second of time. Smithy kept struggling for a minute but his eyelids started to grow heavy and his efforts were more subdued.

  Eventually, his head fell, limply, to the side.

  Gemini and the receptionist eased up. "I’m calling the boy’s parents," Gemini said. "This kid is a delinquent."

  Gemini brushed past Brandi to get to the phone. As he did, her eyelids fluttered. "Oh," she said.

  Brandi obviously forgot she was still clutching four other sedatives. She let her hand drop, accidently injecting herself in the thigh by so doing.

  She started swaying immediately, like a large, unstable building in a wild storm. She stumbled and then pitched forward. "Catch me, my love!" she exclaimed as she fell straight towards Gemini, flabby arms spread wide.

  Gemini was taller but about five times smaller than Brandi. As she came crashing down, Gemini was knocked backwards by the force, hidden by the huge mass of Nurse McMillan.

  He managed to stick his head out. "Don’t just stand there, you bumbling idiots: get her off of me!"

  The receptionist seemed to recover from her shock. She took one look at the bulk of Brandi crushing Gemini and decided to get some extra help. She left the room and called some nurses in to assist.

  Brandi was snoring as the receptionist and a few other nurses worked to get her off of poor Gemini who didn’t stand a chance.

  My time was up. We had to get out of there before Gemini or anyone else could call Smithy’s parents, whoever they were.

  I ran back through the wall into the office, picked up the note that Brandi had dropped, stuffed it into my pocket, darted through the door and into the room where all the commotion was going on.

  Smithy was lying unconscious on the laid back dentist chair, five staff members were working desperately to free Gemini and Gemini was trying to shove the limp body of Nurse McMillan off of him.

  Robyn walked in and gasped as she saw the hullabaloo.

  "What did I miss?" she asked me as I slipped past the staff that were so focussed on freeing their boss, they didn’t notice us.

  "Just grab Smithy and let’s get out of here!" I instructed as I lifted Smithy up by the armpits. Robyn got the idea and grabbed his feet. We heaved him off the chair and carried him through an exit further down the corridor.

  What do you think we were going to do? Walk out the front entrance?

  That little kid out there was already upset about going to the dentist’s, why add a new fear to the list?