Pain.  I’m nearing Emma’s house and all I can think about is the pain. The pain that is in every inch of my body, right down to my teeth.  I wonder if Sundance is still in pain, and I hope she isn’t.  It’s not really her fault that she was hurt and I couldn’t take her on what could possibly be classified as the worst run I’ve ever had.  Maybe it’s Teaspoon’s fault.  After all, he’s the one who insisted I take this run, even though I wasn’t really up, and all the while knowing my usual horse was lame.  So I got stuck with this barely broke, skittish horse that’s been fighting with me the entire time.  See like right now, he fought me on going around a log in our path and instead gave an odd little jump over it, sending more pain coursing through my body as I landed awkwardly in the saddle and clanked my teeth together.

Can’t think about my teeth, gotta keep up the avoidance trick I developed on this run.  Think about anything, blame anyone else for my situation, but above all don’t think about my teeth.  Dangit.  Did it again.  My teeth hurt.  More specifically, one tooth hurts and it hurts something fierce.  My head 
is splitting because of the infernal pounding of this ride and the tooth that has been festering for a couple of days.

I’ve managed to hide the discomfort from the rest, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to much longer.  Hopefully there will be something soft and relatively easy to eat when I get to the station, because I haven’t been able to eat the tough jerked beef packed in my saddlebags. 

Finally, there’s the station.  I’ve never seen a more welcome sight. Ignoring the pain I know it will cause, because I’m anxious to be off this beast, I kick the horse in the sides and send him racing into the yard.  Passing off the pouch, I pull up the horse and quickly get off.  I’ve never been so saddle sore in my life I think as my feet finally land on solid ground.  Gratefully handing the reins to Ike, I resist the urge to cradle my jaw until he’s safely out of sight.  Taking a deep breath, I smell the savory aroma of Emma’s cooking drifting from the bunkhouse and hurry to clean up so I go inside.

Bless Emma’s heart, she’s made mashed potatoes, peas, and the softest, flakiest biscuits around.  I load my plate up and then pick the smallest piece of meat I can find from the plate Cody hands me.  I try to take a few bites of meat, but it hurts something awful as I try to chew and so I happily eat forkful after forkful of mashed potatoes and all the biscuits I can safely take and not cause suspicion.

There they all are.  Spread out in front of me, blocking any escape and advancing, forcing me back.  Teaspoon gathered them all together, I know it.  This morning I couldn’t hide the pain any longer and grimaced as I took a bite of the hotcakes Emma made for breakfast.  He gave me an odd look and went to say something, but I bolted from the table, saying I wasn’t hungry and wanted to get an early jump on the chores.

Now they’re all in front of me, and I gotta get away.  I can’t let them see my tooth, and I certainly can’t let them pull it.  This pain’s gotta go away soon.  In the meantime I just gotta keep ‘em at bay.  Except that Kid’s got this idiot grin plastered on his face while he’s clucking like a stupid chicken and twirling a lasso over his head.  It’s distracting, because I resent being called chicken and I want to make him take it back, but I ain’t got the time to argue.  Maybe I can slip through the corral and get away that way.

A shovel!  This’ll keep ‘em back.  I grab it and turn swinging.  Ha!  They step back and contemplate moving closer. 

“I’m warnin’ ya, leave me be.”  Boy that hurt saying that.

“Just calm down Jimmy.  We ain’t gonna hurt ya.  I just wanna get a look at it, that’s all,” Teaspoon says, like he’s talking to a five-year-old. 

I ain’t no five year old, I just don’t want him lookin’ at my tooth.  So I swing the shovel again, causing him to step back.  “I don’t want ya lookin’ at it!”

“Aw come on Jimmy.  Don’t be yella,” Cody says sounding like he’s exasperated.  I’ll show him exasperated.

Swinging the shovel directly at him I say, “get away from me Cody.” 

Good, he’s backing up again.  Swinging again I continue, “or so help me God I’ll knock you into next week.”  Maybe I can hit him in the jaw and see how he likes that.

Gotta run.  They’re getting too close.  The shovel ain’t gonna work anymore.  So I weigh my options.  Kid’s on the right with that stupid rope and the same stupid grin, so I break the other way and head straight for Ike.  Maybe I can catch him off guard and bowl him over. 

Looking up at the sky with Cody holding my nose trying to force my mouth open I’m still stunned by the strength of Ike.  He caught me low and knocked me right off my feet.  So much for trying to find the weak side of the chain.  Can’t breathe…but must keep mouth closed…but can’t breathe…need air…hang on Hickok…no good.  I open my mouth to gulp in a breath of air and Ike grabs my jaw, holding my mouth open.

“Yep, just what I thought,” Teaspoon says as he looks in my mouth.  “She turned on you son.  Whole jaw’s swollen.”

I coulda told him that.  I noticed it this morning when I was shaving, which hurt something awful too since I was hurrying to avoid Buck coming up to the wash basin.

“You ain’t gonna pull it!” I growl at him, trying to sound as fierce as I can while being pinned to the ground and having Kid tie my legs like I’m some calf at brandin’ time.

“Of course not,” he replies.  “What with modern medical care, that tooth can be as good as new.  Let him up boys.”

Finally.  I sit up, trying to dust myself off, and contemplating how I can get them all back for this.  If only my legs still weren’t tied together. 

“You mean you know a cure?” I ask Teaspoon.  I’ll gladly take a cure, if it means they won’t have to pull my tooth.  I instantly regret that thought as he puts a pouch around my neck with the most awful smelling substance inside it.  Something about ground pigs’ feet and cloves. 

Maybe the cure is I’ll pass out from this awful smell under my nose and then I won’t feel any pain.  Everyone backs away from me, and I know it’s from the smell.  Maybe there’s another advantage of this pouch.  Nobody will dare come near me again as long as I’m wearing it.  Glaring at Kid, he finally unties my legs and I haul myself to my feet and storm away, grateful to finally be away from that idiot grin that has permanently fixed itself to his face.  Instead of Cody, I shoulda hit him with the shovel.  At least he wouldn’t be smilin’ now.

Ain’t no way.  Ain’t no way I’m gonna go to the dentist.  He’ll pull my tooth.  And all my so-called friends are laughing it up at my expense.  Teaspoon, Buck, Lou all trying to get me over to Dr. Luckett’s all because during lunch today I sat there and miserably dribbled broth into the right side of my mouth.  Well, they can say all they want; I still ain’t goin’.

I know that inside Tompkins’ store he’s got different powders and medicines.  All I gotta do is find one for toothaches.  I try to casually walk through the store lookin’ at different things while holding Teaspoon’s pouch to my cheek.  It gives me an excuse to hold it after I played the fool, slapping it to convince the others that my tooth was feeling much better and I didn’t need to go to the dentist. Maybe they’ll just think the tears that came to my eyes was simply ‘cause it was bright outside.  And that half grimace, well that was simply me squintin’ because I wasn’t in any pain.

Throwing a quick glance over my shoulder I see that the others are occupied, so I take the lid off the jars the packets of different powders are in and try and find one for toothaches.  Sniffing one, I decide that no matter what it does it sure smells a lot better than this thing around my neck.  As I hold it up to the light I’m suddenly swarmed upon by Buck and Kid.  Dang them, can’t they just leave me be?

“What’s that?” Buck asks with a laugh as Kid snatches it from my hand.

I glance at them, and turn away, not sayin’ a thing.  Kid’s got that same stupid grin back on his face and I swear it just makes me want to wipe it off his face.  Roughly.

“Good for whooping cough,” Kid starts reading from the packet, “consumption, dysentery, asthma, toothache…”

Ah, toothache.  Well, finally Kid said something useful.

“…colic, pink eye and hives.  Your hives actin’ up again Jimmy?”

I shoot him a disgusted look and snatch the packet away.  Hives?  And that grin still stuck on his face is wearin’ on my last nerve.  Doesn’t he have a run soon?  Somethin’ to get him away from here and spread his annoying good mood somewhere else?  Maybe if I were real lucky, Katie would throw him in a patch of prickle bushes.  Hives?  Laugh it up Kid, ‘cause I swear, as soon as I’m not in pain anymore…

I’m goin’ to kill them.  If I live through this, I am goin’ to kill them.  That’s a promise.  Cody, Ike and Buck are half pushing, half pulling me down the street to Dr. Luckett’s office and half the town seems to be watchin’ the spectacle we’re making of ourselves.  I don’t care who’s watching, I just want to get away. 

“You can’t make me,” I yell once again in protest as we almost arrive at the office.

“Teaspoon says don’t come back ‘til you get that tooth yanked,” Cody grunts out as he tries to push me in the door. 

I’ve got my feet braced against the edge of the wooden walk, legs stiff so they can’t push me forward.  It’s three against one, but I’ve finally got some leverage and we’re stayin’ right where we are.

“I won’t,” I yell as they’re trying to get my legs up.  Buck says somethin’ back that I don’t quite catch, ‘cause I’m tryin’ to keep my legs on the ground.

“I won’t,” I repeat.  “This ain’t legal.  Put me down,” I growl out as they manage to lift my legs up and then carry me into the dentist’s office.

I repeat: I’m goin’ to kill them all! 

I’ve just received the best news of these past few, miserable days.  The doc ain’t gonna pull my tooth.  “Modern dentistry has made great strides,” the doctor said.  He’s going to clean my tooth and fill the infected area.  Best news I ever heard.  I finally crack a smile and settle back into the chair some as I look up at Cody.

“This ain’t goin’ to be so bad after all is it?” I ask.  Suddenly I rethink that as the doc brings over some strange lookin’ contraption and starts workin’ a foot pedal.  “What’s that?”

“This is the very latest in modern dental technology.  We use it to clean the decayed area.  Open wide.”

He comes at my mouth with a long, sharp thing and I reach up and grab his arm, stopping him from comin’ closer.  “Is it gonna hurt?”

“Oh not a bit.  It’s virtually painless.”

I’m not entirely convinced.  The doc looks a little skittish to me, and has an even weirder smile than that one Kid’s been wearin’.

“You sure?”

“Positive.  Now just sit back and relax.”

“Alright,” I say warily.  I’m still not entirely convinced, but I’m gonna try.

He works the pedal some more, and slowly brings the silver thing toward my mouth.  Ike, Cody and Buck all crowd closer, tryin’ to get a look.  If they don’t back up some, they’ll find themselves pickin’ their own teeth off the floor.  With them all gawkin’ at me, I try and put on a brave face.  Until the most awful pain erupts in my mouth.  My mouth is on fire and I can feel the searing pain shooting down through my tooth, along my jaw and radiating out to my entire head.  I jerk my head back, trying to get away from this cruel torture device and scream loudly.  The dentist stops and looks down in surprise as he realizes my gun is cocked and aimed straight at his chest.

“Do that again, I’ll give you something else to fill.”  I keep my voice cold, a warning.

He looks so stunned, and then promptly faints landing in a heap on the floor.  Cody sighs and looks down at the doc and then at me.

“Emma ain’t gonna like this.”

I frankly don’t care what Emma likes.  It’s her fault I came to the doc in the first place.  She insisted on it, after she saw me at Lou’s ‘comin’ out party.’  Ah, now there was a sight to behold.  Emma caught me in that good mood and told me she wanted me to see the dentist.  I woulda told her I’d rope a star for her if she’d asked me right then.  Instead I ended up here in the barbershop and dental parlor.  Shoulda known that was a bad omen.  I mean, who puts a dental parlor in a barbershop? 

And painless?  That thing was not painless.  I think I would have less pain if I just pulled this stupid tooth myself.  I certainly don’t trust anyone else to do it now.  Not after this whole pain free experience.

“Ahhh!  Ahhh!”

The scream echoes through the bunkhouse, mingling with the reverberations of the crash caused by the trunk falling to the floor.  I look down and see my tooth lying on the floor, the string running from it up to the trunk’s handle.  I couldn’t take the pain anymore and had to do something.  So I grabbed Cody’s trunk, set it on the table and set to work.  I tied one end of the string to the handle, one to my tooth and pushed it off the table. 

I knew Cody’s trunk would be the best choice.  All those books and clothes of his made it pretty heavy and it fell to the floor with a terrific THUD.  Yanked my tooth right out.  Didn’t hurt at first, but that euphoria didn’t last long.

I lean over to retrieve my tooth and suddenly feel the blood in my mouth gushin’ out.  I hadn’t thought about there bein’ this much blood, so I desperately grab for something.  The first thing my fingers find just happens to be one of Emma’s napkins.  She’s gonna kill me.  But I figure it’s better than having blood all over my clothes and the floor.

I open the door, blinking as I step outside, and see Cody and Ike lookin’ at me like I’ve got a second head or somethin’.  Holding the napkin in my mouth, proudly displaying my tooth, I make some offhanded comment about teachin’ the tooth better than to mess with me.   I’m tryin’ not to speak, ‘cause it hurts, and there’s still all this blood.  Maybe I’m feelin’ a little lightheaded.

“I’m surprised he didn’t just shoot it out,” Cody says as he leans over to Ike.  Ike just grins and shakes in silent laughter.

With a touch of annoyance I stuff the napkin back in my mouth and blink rapidly as I cause pain to erupt in my mouth again.  I don’t really care though, ‘cause it’s out and it’s over.  So laugh it up Cody and anyone else. 

Now, I just gotta make sure Emma never finds this napkin.  ‘Cause she’ll kill me if she sees it…