Open Wide

by Nancy Krulik

  “Okay now, open wide. Let Dr. Sang take a peek at your teeth,” Mrs. Shine told Matthew.

  Matthew clenched his teeth tight.

  Katie knew just how he felt. She hated when Dr. Sang poked around in her mouth. And when she was little, she clenched her mouth shut the same way.

  But she was the dentist now. And that meant she had to get Matthew to open his mouth.

  Suddenly, Katie’s eyes fell on a white sock puppet. It had big button eyes, an orange button nose, bright red lips made of felt, and big white cardboard teeth.

  Quickly, Katie raced over and put the puppet on her hand. “Hi there, I’m Flossie,” she made the puppet say. “What a nice smile you have, Matthew.”

  Matthew just sat there with his arms crossed and his teeth clenched tight.

  Katie frowned. This wasn’t going very well.

  “You want to hear a joke?” she made Flossie the sock puppet ask Matthew. “What did the tooth say when the dentist left the room?”

  “What?” Matthew asked through his clenched teeth.

  “Fill me in when you get back,” Katie said. She laughed. Emma and Mrs. Shine laughed, too.

  “I don’t get it,” Matthew insisted.

  “You know, the tooth wants to be filled in. Like a cavity,” Katie explained.

  “A cavity!” Matthew exclaimed, leaping out of the chair. “The kind you use a drill for?” He burst into tears.

  Katie frowned. This was so not good.

  Chapter 9

  “Dr. Sang, I don’t think it’s a good idea to joke with Matthew,” Mrs. Shine whispered.

  “I . . . um . . . I guess I wasn’t thinking,” Katie replied.

  Mrs. Shine shook her head slightly. It was obvious that she noticed that Dr. Sang was acting kind of odd. She just didn’t know why.

  And Katie sure wasn’t going to tell her!

  Mrs. Shine turned her attention to Matthew. “You know,” she told him, “I have some really great prizes in my desk. But they’re only for brave children who let Dr. Sang look at their teeth.”

  “P-p-prizes?” Matthew asked, stopping his crying and gasping for air. “What kind of prizes?”

  “Things I think you’ll like,” Mrs. Shine told him. “But you only get to pick one if you hop back into that chair.”

  “Okay,” Matthew agreed. He climbed back into the big dental chair and leaned his head back.

  “Good boy,” Mrs. Shine said. “Now, I’m just going to run out to the waiting room so when your mom gets here, I can tell her we’ve gotten started.”

  “But you’re coming back, right?” Matthew asked nervously.

  Katie frowned. Matthew liked Mrs. Shine better than he liked her. That kind of hurt her feelings.

  “Of course,” Mrs. Shine assured him with a smile as she left the office. “And your big sister is going to stay here with you, too.”

  “That’s right,” Emma told him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Katie bit her lip nervously. Now she was really going to have to look into Matthew’s mouth and pick at his teeth. She was going to have to act like a real dentist.

  How hard could it be? After all, Dr. Sang had examined Katie’s mouth lots of times. She’d just do what he did.

  That meant putting on those rubber gloves. Katie reached into the box and pulled out a pair. Then she took one of Dr. Sang’s paper masks and put it over her mouth and nose.

  “Okay, Matthew, open wide,” she said.

  Matthew opened his mouth. Katie looked down at the tray of dental tools Mrs. Shine had laid out for Dr. Sang. Now which one did Dr. Sang usually use first?

  Oh, yeah. That round-mirror-on-a-stick thing.

  Katie picked up the tool and stuck it in Matthew’s mouth. But she still couldn’t see his teeth really well.

  “Wow, it sure is dark in there!” Katie shouted into Matthew’s mouth.

  “You forgot to turn on the light,” Emma said, pointing to the big overhead lamp.

  “Oh, yeah,” Katie said, blushing. “Sorry.” She reached up and turned on the light. “Oh, that’s better!”

  “Ach ite is koo grite,” Matthew said.

  “What?” Katie asked him.

  “Ach ite is koo grite,” he repeated.

  “Sorry, I don’t understand you,” Katie said.

  Matthew closed his mouth suddenly.

  “Ow!” Katie shouted, yanking her hand out of Matthew’s mouth. “You bit my finger!”

  “The light is too bright,” Matthew said. “I didn’t mean to bite you. It’s just that I had to close my mouth to talk.”

  Katie frowned. Dr. Sang always understood what she said when her mouth was wide open. Maybe it was something dentists learned in dental school.

  “Well, close your eyes,” Katie told Matthew as she shook her finger a little until the bite pain went away. “And open wide. Then afterward you’ll get your prize.”

  Matthew did as he was told.

  Once again, Katie stuck the mirror on a stick into Matthew’s mouth and began to look around. She made a face as she examined his back teeth. There was a piece of corn stuck between two of the teeth, and a little bit of gummy candy on another tooth.

  “Ick,” Katie remarked. “How gross.”

  Emma stared at her in surprise. “Dr. Sang! That’s not nice,” she hissed.

  Katie blushed again. Emma was right. That had been kind of mean. But it just popped out.

  “I meant to say that I’m just going to clean out these back teeth,” she said quickly. She took the mirror out of Matthew’s mouth.

  She thought for a moment. How could she get the food out of Matthew’s teeth? At home, she used a water pick to clean out the food in her own mouth. Maybe Dr. Sang had one of those.

  Katie looked around the chair for a moment. Sure enough, there was a water pick attached to the small sink on the side of the chair. “We’ll just use this,” she told Matthew, as she picked up the water pick and turned the knob to “on.”

  “AAAAHHHHH!” Matthew screamed as a blast of icy cold water hit him in the eye.

  Matthew’s scream shocked Katie. She jumped backward with surprise. When she did, she accidentally stepped on the lever that moved the dental chair up and down.

  “WHOAAAA!” Matthew shouted as the chair shot up in the air.

  Bam! He flew out of the chair and landed right on his rear end.

  “I’m outta here!” Matthew screamed. He went for the door.

  “Matthew, wait!” Emma cried out.

  “Don’t go!” Katie shouted. She leaped in front of the door to block his path.

  Matthew tried ducking under her arm, but Katie stopped him.

  Matthew turned and ran back to the dental chair. He grabbed the water pick. Then he shot a big stream of water across the room.

  “Hey, stop that!” Katie shouted. She let go of the doorknob to wipe her face.

  Matthew zoomed across the room, opened the door, and darted into the waiting room.

  “Matthew, come back!” Emma cried, running after him.

  “I’m never coming back,” Matthew insisted. “I don’t care about the prize!”

  Chapter 10

  Katie stood there for a minute, alone in Dr. Sang’s office. She couldn’t believe what she had just done. Matthew had really freaked out.

  He’d probably never go to the dentist again. And not just to Dr. Sang, either. Any dentist. His teeth would get all gross and full of cavities. Then they would all fall out. Not just his baby teeth, either. Even his grown-up teeth would rot out of his mouth. And when he grew up, he’d have to wear those fake teeth she saw on TV commercials.

  And it was all her fault.

  Katie felt terrible. She could hear Mrs. Shine trying to comfort Matthew in the waiting room. But Matthew was still crying.

  Katie shut the door and sat down on the big chair. Yuck! The seat was all wet. What a mess!

  Just then, Katie felt a familiar breeze on the back of her neck. She didn’t even bother to see if any window
s were open or if the overhead fan was turning.

  She knew it wasn’t that kind of wind.

  This was the magic wind.

  The magic wind grew stronger, circling around Katie. The tornado whipped around wildly. It was so powerful that Katie was sure it was going to blow her away.

  And then it stopped. Just like that.

  The magic wind was gone. Katie was back.

  So was Dr. Sang. He was standing right beside her. And boy, did he look confused!

  “Katie,” he murmured, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. “What are you doing here?”

  “I . . . um . . . I just blew by to see if Emma needed any help with Matthew,” Katie explained. There. That wasn’t exactly a lie.

  “Matthew Weber?” Dr. Sang repeated. “Oh, yes. I think he . . .” Dr. Sang stopped for a moment and felt the seat of his pants. “Why am I wet?” he wondered out loud.

  “You sat in the chair,” Katie told him. “And there’s water on it from when you sprayed that water-pick thingy in Matthew’s mouth.”

  “I did?” Dr. Sang asked her. He blinked his eyes hard, trying to remember. “I guess I did. I kind of remember it. It’s all sort of blurry.”

  Just then the door flew open. Emma’s mother stormed into the office. “Dr. Sang!” she exclaimed. “What happened in here? Matthew says you blasted him with water and sent him flying out of the chair.”

  “Are you okay, Dr. Sang?” Mrs. Shine asked him as she followed Mrs. Weber into the room.

  “Not really,” Dr. Sang admitted.

  “Well, I’m not okay, either,” Mrs. Weber told him angrily. “Matthew is refusing to go to the dentist ever again. What am I supposed to do about that?”

  “I’m not exactly sure. This has never happened here before. I’m usually so great with kids.” Dr. Sang looked very upset.

  Now Katie felt even worse. She didn’t love going to the dentist, but the funny thing was, once she got there, she always realized it wasn’t all that bad.

  If only there was a way Matthew could see that, too.

  Suddenly a big wave of braveness washed over Katie. She knew exactly what to do.

  “I can show Matthew it’s not so scary,” Katie assured Mrs. Weber.

  “I don’t think so, Katie,” Mrs. Weber said. Then she paused. “Wait a minute. How did you get in here?”

  “That’s what I was wondering,” Dr. Sang said. “She told me she just blew in to help with Matthew.”

  “You were so busy running after Matthew, you didn’t see me come in,” Katie told Mrs. Weber quickly. “Anyway, I really think I can help. All you have to do is get Matthew to stand in the doorway and watch. Dr. Sang and I will do the rest.”

  “We will?” Dr. Sang asked her.

  “Uh-huh.” Katie nodded. Then she took a deep breath and jumped up into the big dental chair. “I’m going to have my teeth checked while Matthew watches. That way he’ll see it’s not so bad.”

  “Hmmm. You know, that just might work,” Mrs. Weber said.

  “I think so, too,” Dr. Sang agreed. He smiled and picked up a clean mirror on a stick. “Okay, Katie, open wide.”

  Chapter 11

  “Boy, Katie, that was great, what you did,” Emma W. said as she and Katie walked through the mall on Saturday afternoon. “Matthew wasn’t scared after he saw Dr. Sang give you your exam. He even asked my mom to get him a toy dentist kit for his birthday.”

  “Dr. Sang told me I might have to get braces in a year or so,” Katie said.

  “Oh, braces are cool,” Emma assured her. “Lacey had them. She got to pick different colors for the wires. One month she had blue and pink. For Halloween she had orange. And then for Christmas she changed the colors to green and red.”

  “That does sort of seem like fun,” Katie admitted. “If Suzanne ever needs braces, she’ll probably try to get glittery wires.”

  Emma giggled. “Where is Suzanne, anyway?”

  “She’s around here somewhere,” Katie said. “With George. He needed her to carry some packages.”

  “She’s really been nice about helping George,” Emma remarked. “She carried his books to school every day this week and got his lunch for him, too. I heard she even did his spelling homework on Thursday because his ankle hurt so much, he couldn’t think.”

  Katie frowned. How could a pain in his ankle affect George’s brain? And George was supposed to do his own homework.

  “It’s taking his ankle a long time to heal,” Emma continued. “It’s been almost a week now.”

  “I know,” Katie agreed. “And it’s weird because his mom told my mom that it really wasn’t a bad sprain.”

  Just then, Katie spotted George standing outside of Hot Stuff, a store that sold really cool things like rubber bracelets, funky T-shirts, and rubber chickens. George was all by himself. And he was standing without his crutches.

  “Oh look, George must be feeling better,” Katie said happily. She waved in his direction.

  As soon as George spotted Katie, he got a pained look on his face. Then he began limping over to a nearby bench.

  Katie stared at George for a minute. Something wasn’t right. “Hey, Emma, which ankle did George sprain?” she asked.

  “His left one. Why?” Emma answered.

  “Because he’s limping like it’s his right ankle that’s hurting,” Katie noted.

  “Do you think he’s faking it?” Emma said.

  Before Katie could answer, Suzanne came stumbling out of Hot Stuff. She was carrying three heavy bags.

  “Okay, George,” Katie heard Suzanne say. “We’ve got everything you came to the mall for—even the big bottle of floor wax we bought before when we went to the cleaning-supply store.”

  “I told my mom I would pick that up for her as a favor,” George explained. “She was nice to drive us here. I didn’t think she should have to carry around that heavy bottle of floor wax, too.”

  “But I should?” Suzanne demanded.

  George looked down at his ankle. “Well, I certainly can’t carry it.”

  Katie frowned when she heard that. George was being really mean to Suzanne. She had a feeling Emma was right now. George was faking having a hurt ankle.

  But how could she prove it?

  “You know, I still want that hot dog and French fries,” Katie overheard George say.

  “Okay, so let’s go over to the food court,” Suzanne suggested.

  George sighed. “The food court is so far away. Can’t you go get my lunch for me?”

  Food! That was it! Katie knew exactly how to prove George was faking his injury! Quickly, she hurried over to the bench where he was sitting.

  “Hi, George. Hi, Suzanne,” she said, plop-ping down on the bench next to George.

  “Hi, you guys,” Suzanne sadly greeted Katie and Emma.

  “Suzanne, you look exhausted,” Emma told her.

  “Well, George has sort of had me running around and carrying a bunch of things,” Suzanne explained.

  “Wow. That’s awful,” Katie said sincerely.

  “Hey, what about me?” George demanded. “I’m the one who was hurt.”

  Katie kept talking to Suzanne. “Did you see the black-and-white hair clips they have inside Hot Stuff ?”

  “No,” Suzanne said. “But I didn’t get a chance to look at anything I wanted.”

  “Come on,” Katie said. “I’m sure George won’t mind.”

  “Yes, I would,” George said. “Suzanne was going to get me lunch.”

  “This will just take a minute,” Katie assured him.

  As the three girls walked toward the store, Katie began to speak loudly. She wanted to make sure George heard every word.

  “Guess what!” Katie said to Emma and Suzanne. “They’re having a hot-dog-eating contest in the food court. The first ten people to show up get all the hot dogs they can eat for free!”

  Katie made the girls turn around. George was already running off in the direction of the food court—without his crutche
s!

  “His ankle’s fine!” Suzanne exclaimed angrily. “He was just using me!”

  “Don’t worry,” Katie told her. “He’ll get his. There is no hot-dog-eating contest. I made that up. Boy, is he going to be disappointed.”

  “That’s not all he’s going to be! Just wait until I get ahold of him.” Suzanne ran off after George, waving her fists in the air.

  Katie laughed. She sure wouldn’t want to be George when Suzanne caught up to him.

  Come to think of it, Katie didn’t want to be anyone but Katie. Hopefully, the magic wind would stay away for a while. She wasn’t in the mood for another switcheroo. She was having far too much fun just being Katie Kazoo!

  Tell the tooth

  These are Dr. Sang’s favorite tooth facts. And they’re all the complete and total tooth!

  1. Sharks lose teeth each week. They get new teeth when they lose the old ones. They may grow over twenty thousand teeth in a lifetime.

  2. Your teeth start forming even before you are born.

  3. The elephant’s tusks are the longest teeth in the world.

  4. George Washington’s false teeth weren’t made of wood. However, he did have sets of dentures made from hippopotamus teeth, cow teeth, and sheep teeth.

  5. Dolphins have more teeth than any other animal. Some dolphins have over two hundred teeth.

  6. The hardest thing in your whole body is the enamel on your teeth.