Short Story No. 1

The dentist who loved chocolate

This is the story of Mr Milligan and his wonderful world of chocolate.

Mr Milligan lived in a quiet home in the South Kensington. He was famous for many things, some of which might surprise you and others which are very unsurprising. Mr Milligan worked in the business of dentistry, owning a very successful clinic two doors down from his own home. Much like big Hollywood itself, people from everywhere marched down to the clinic to have their teeth fixed or whitened by the dentist artisan extraordinaire, Mr James Milligan. “He’s as single as my fixed tooth, but he makes up for it. All those years of dentistry have payed off and in big money too.” Some used to say. Yet no one knew  that after  8 years of studying ,3 years working in a surgery for Doctor Dill White and then later on going on to buy his own dentistry, knew that he was already bored and tired of his sadistic profession. In his eyes, his office had always been like a hell trap for teeth. He was a fairly nice person, but he has become rather bored looking into people’s mouths and all those cavities and fixtures and what not....

One bright sunny day in July, he woke up with a sad feeling in his throat. It wasn’t pleasing and soon the more it felt bad the more it diverged into his brain and lower back were it stuck like a pin to a notice board, reminding him that he was feeling pain and sadness, and that he had to feel pain and sadness. Within two seconds he had already decided that he wasn’t going to work that day and if this feeling persisted, he would have rather miss a whole month. And he was right, this sad feeling of pain persisted on for the days that had to come and he soon sought medical attention. It was then that he was directed to a psychiatrist, Dr Bruce for an hourly therapy session every other Monday.

"Good morning Mr Milligan, please take a seat.” Said Mr Bruce while he shook his hand and ushered him gently to a chair across the room while he sat down in a chair at his own desk.

“So how are you feeling today James?”

“What a ridiculous question. If I was good I wouldn't be here right now.” complained Mr Milligan. “And please, I don’t want to be on first name basis with my psychiatrist, it’s downright unhealthy I say.”

“Moving on...” said Dr Bruce ignoring his patient’s rude comment.

“Let’s get down to it, shall we?”Mr Milligan responded feverishly.

“Get down to what exactly Mr Milligan? You refuse to answer my question and you have told me nothing yet besides that you’re a toffee nosed snob.”

“Whatever anyway.... won’t a prescription or a note work?” the man said.

“If it makes you happy enough to leave then yes.” replied Dr Bruce as he scribbled away a note.

He then handed the note to Mr Milligan and turned around to face his desk to resume his work. Mr Milligan looked at the note suspiciously and then said disgustingly “Is this some kind of error? This is the address to Mariel’s Mental Institution."

“No, no error” Dr Bruce simply implied, feeling no urge to turn around and beckon the voice of the croaky man. “It’s simply clear, you have a problem.”

“No, no I don’t Doctor Bruce.” Mr Milligan said slightly pleading.

Then Mr Bruce turned around to face him and said calmly right into his eyes “When you’re ready to talk like a man, Mr Milligan, give me call.” And then he turned back again.

Mr Milligan stood in the room, feeling outraged by this man’s attitude. Psychiatrists... they were something he thought. Unlike psychiatrists of course, dentists were nice warm people, and the least snobbish profession related to medicine.

After his last appointment with Dr Bruce, Mr Milligan continued feeling very sad about his pain and so he decided to give another shot and call Dr Bruce to have another appointment.

“Good morning Mr Milligan.” Dr Bruce said as he welcomed him in and shook his hand on that beloved Monday morning. “Please take a seat”

They sat down in two armchairs which Mr Milligan didn’t have the time to cherish and appreciate it’s comfortableness in their last appointment.

“Now let’s start fresh Mr Milligan. Why are you here today?” asked Dr Bruce politely.

“The truth is, Doctor, I’ve been having  aches in my throat and it’s been causing me pain, both in my brain and throat, not to mention that I’ve been feeling rather sad.”

“What do you think is causing all this?” the doctor asked while he scribbled some notes down.

“I don’t really know doctor, that’s why I came to you.”Mr Milligan said helplessly.

“Ok then.” He replied.” Now, I need to ask you a set of questions and I want the honest truth. How are you doing in your job Mr Milligan?”

“Fine I guess. It gets a bit boring sometime.  And tiring too.” The patient replied.

“How often do you experience this?”

“Most of the time.” The dentist said.

“Okay then. Do you work overtime? “The doctor asked curiously

“Yes, most of the time.”

“Yes okay. How are you financially if I may ask?”

“I’m ok, I mean I used to earn much more before and I used to get a very good salary. But now, I don’t really do anymore.”

“I understand you Mr Milligan.” Doctor Bruce said after a while thinking.”I think you might be suffering from some issues like stress and even clinical depression. Can that be an answer to some of the reasons James?

“It might be doc.” replied Mr Milligan.

“You see, it might be because you’re in a confide space, maybe not earning enough money, things are all the same. It might be for all the right reasons and bad ones Mr Milligan. Do you have any particular hobby?” asked Mr Bruce

“No. I used to like crosswords, but that even tires me now.”

“What about going on a date with a woman your age? There are certainly a lot of nice women in London.” persisted and suggested Doctor Bruce.

“No not really. Never been quite engaged in talking to women.” said Mr Milligan flatly.

“Not even a guilty pleasure Mr Milligan?”

“There is one.”  he responded rather shyly.

“Yes? Yes? What is it?” asked Dr Bruce slightly jumpy.

“Chocolate.” The patient replied.

“That’s rather peculiar, but interesting. Ever considered doing something with this pleasure?” Dr Bruce asked.

“No, not really. I like money too. But I guess everyone likes that.” he said rather proud.

“Mhmmmm...... Chocolate and a dentist? Mhmmmm... It can somehow work.” Dr Bruce muttered to himself.

“What can work doc?” asked Mr Milligan

“Hold on a sec  James please.” replied Doctor Bruce.”I have an idea.”

**This wasn't the full story, sorry guys, but i write a lot. If anyone wants to know how the story ended feel free to ask, in the mean time, you are free to explore your own imagination, to what happened later on.

Thanks for reading,

Love

Rachel

xoxo