The courtroom was stifling. The prosecutor looked relaxed. Sitting next to him was Rick, his lower jaw wrapped in bandages. Colin was pallid, though his wife looked hale. He was not a confident man.
Colin was a dentist. He had left work early one day for an insurance conference across town. He got there early, figuring he might as well since he was being paid for it. He parked round the back and walked into the coffee shop on the corner.
He ordered steamed milk - coffee stains the teeth - and sat outside in the terrace at a cast iron table facing the sun. He liked to face the street so he could watch the women clipping by in their tall heels, their narrow shadows leaping and loping beneath their feet. He liked to try to catch their eye. He was not a confident man, and the game required a certain amount of self-deception in order to keep it in motion.
He finished his milk quickly, drinking it with a straw - he had sensitive teeth. The street was quiet and birches lined the sidewalk, and the sidewalk was uneven where the birch-roots pushed through. Across the street was a bar decorated with crossbeams and an open front, in which were scattered trendy slender tables. By one of them a tall man in a grey suit was sipping lager. He wore a form-fitting white shirt, tight around his chest and arms, his sleeves rolled up carefully. He had hair; the type that stood up and back a little and looked careless while being entirely intentional. Even from across the street Colin could tell that the man’s watch was expensive; its faceted face caught the light so finely.
The bar was quiet with a few customers lunching in the back. Like Colin, the man was watching the women go by, until, as though hailed, he turned to someone in the bar and stood up. A tall, slender woman in a black skirt and a white blouse approached him. He pulled a stool for her and they sat down and shared a passionate kiss. He watched them for a moment, envious of the man. He was quick to notice the familiarity of the gestures the woman used, but slow to realize the woman was his wife. He sat, astounded. She was laughing and leaning into the man at everything he said, and the man was quick to smile; but only after she smiled, as those who are aware of their own charm are apt to do.
She excused herself to go the bathroom. The man watched her walk away, and when she was out of sight he raised a silver butter knife to his mouth and angled it as he smiled to check his teeth. When she came back, the man frowned at her and tapped the face of his watch with two fingers, indicating in jest that she had taken too long. She went straight to him and kissed him.
Colin barely made it through the conference. He drove home in a stupor. It was her, yet it was not her; she carried herself too well. She was as he had never seen her before; vital and incandescent like a balefire.
***
That night he confronted her. He told her he suspected she was sleeping with somebody else. She laughed at him, perhaps cruelly to hide her surprise. She told him there was nobody else, but that there might as well be, seeing as how things were between them. Hesitantly, he told her what he had seen at the café.
And that night Colin slept on the couch. How the hell could you accuse me of such a thing? Maybe if you paid a little more attention to me. Maybe if you loved me. He felt guilty and confused. He knew in his heart what he had seen, and in his heart he was relieved that she had lied to him, for he was not a confident man. He believed that she couldn’t help herself.
***
Six months later Colin walked into the waiting room and called out the name. Ferguson. A tall man in a grey suit grabbed his briefcase and stood up. He was talking on his cellphone, but he smiled at Colin. I have to go. Yep. You too. Ok, bye. He grabbed Colin’s hand eagerly and smiled with his eyes. Call me Rick.
He had the man sit in his chair. He checked the teeth. They were bright, but from the gums he could see that they were not healthy. They were fine in appearance only.
Colin gave him the local anesthetic. He went about preparing the tooth and the drill.
Ten minutes in, Colin asked him if he was doing okay. He was trying to be stoic, but he winced. Don’t worry, we’ll be done soon.
Rick rolled his eyes and raised his right arm and with two fingers he tapped the face of his watch on his left wrist, imitating in jest that he was keeping count.
It was a familiar gesture and Colin placed it at once. He froze with the drill still in Rick’s mouth. Rick looked up at him. Colin’s eyes were wide and his face was pallid. He seemed to stare through Rick.
They were locked in this stare for what must have been a minute. Colin looked drained and he swayed slightly. Rick, sensing that his dentist was about to passout, put his arms up and grabbed hold of the drill in the hope of getting it as far from his face as possible. Colin could smell Rick’s cologne and he felt the hands soft like a caress on his wrists as though from within an etherized sleep. And waking as one who kicks out in his sleep he jolted and pressed his weight on the butt of the drill. There was a wild fizz and a sickening crunch. Then silence. Rick was unconscious. Colin, wide-eyed and panting, slid down on the floor and dropped the drill, still fizzing. It had only taken a moment.
***
The trial was almost over and they all looked worn out. Before the judge pronounced the verdict, he reminded them all of the violence of the crime, and the unusual circumstances under which it had been committed. That it was reactionary. That it was instant. That there was no excuse. That the victim had almost been bored to death. The courtroom is no place for irony. In the back of the room the bitch smiled wryly. She couldn’t help herself.
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