"It would not have lasted past the first thing you chewed," Eric shouted. His command of dental Catteni was now comprehensive enough for such remarks.
In her role as part-time dental assistant, Sally arrived with a glass of water and a bowl for the man to spit into. She disliked that part of her job but was becoming inured to it. She did like appearing in the form-fitting white uniform that Eric had said went with the duties. The uniform had been one of the things Eric had stuffed in at the last moment at his office, and fortuitously it fit Sally very well indeed.
Zainal then noticed a slight figure who had been parading up and down the aisle most of the morning.
"May I help you?" he inquired politely, as he tapped the man on the shoulder.
The gray-skinned fellow, rather scrawny even for a Catteni, jumped and whirled, his hands up in a defensive position. "This is where the man who does teeth works?" he asked, slightly breathless.
"Yes."
"I wish to learn how to repair teeth. It would be a very good busi- ness for me to get into," he added. And indeed, Zainal noticed that his upper teeth protruded in such a way that he looked like a burrowing animal the Terrans called a rabbit. Catten had a similar burrowing vegetarian creature, named a sukey. Then the man fumbled in a pouch and held out for Zainal's inspection some odd objects-squarish at one end and broken off at the other.
"Teeth?" Zainal asked in surprise, remembering Ferris's recent brush with Kapash.
"Yes, I saw him," and he looked about, evidently for Ferris, who was away from the stall on his errand for Zainal. "He was here earlier, but I've seen him collecting broken teeth after a brawl in a drinking place. So I followed him. I have a friend who has loose teeth."
Ferris was still collecting teeth in the drinking pits? At least this fellow was anxious to avail himself of the service, rather than attack Ferris, and had found the right place.
"Training to be a dentist demands many years of studying and can only be learned on Terra."
"But he practices here," the man objected. "I am Tavis," he added by way of introduction. "I would do anything to learn such a profes-sion. And if he does, he teaches."
There was indeed a Catteni assumption that he who could do, could teach.
"I do not believe that the medical school where he learned is still functioning, and it is an expensive undertaking."
"But if he does, I could watch and learn." "Do you read Terran?"
"I do," said the man, and Zainal saw that, for all he was young in face, he was not a boy. "And I have studied much." There was a sud-den slump to his shoulders as he admitted, "Learning is all I can do."
"Learning is itself something that can be practiced. Have you ever considered being a tutor?"
The man shook his head. "Emassi and even Drassi find my ap-pearance laughable." He pointed to his teeth. "I heard that the tooth man is able to alter the shape of teeth while still in the mouth."
While Zainal had heard from Eric that orthodontics was possible, it required long hours of work and much money.
"He can, but it is a long process," Zainal said noncommittally, only now aware of how much he had absorbed of Eric's evening den-tallectures.
"But it is possible?" The man's hand traveled halfway to his mouth before he restrained the movement, dropping it self-consciously.
"I believe so, but you had best discuss this with the doctor. And how was your friend injured?"
"Took a fist right in the mouth. His teeth feel loose, he told me, and I thought of the tooth man."
"I am sure that Dr. Sachs," and Zainal paused to let that name sink in, "will be able to save his teeth. But sometimes the nerve in the tooth itself has been damaged and it is wiser to remove it before it can fester in the jaw"
Tavis blinked, as if that possibility had never occurred to him. In-deed, it would have been news to Zainal if he hadn't had a crewman once whose two front teeth, loosened in a marketplace brawl, had turned dark, with the gum above swelling from some unseen injury within the jaw. Zainal himself had had to yank the teeth before the man got some respite from the fierce pain in his mouth. There had been little nodes attached to the root of the teeth that smelled vile. So had the crewman's breath.
"First, bring your friend here." From Tavis's expression, this was not a suggestion that appealed to him. "Well, he will have to bring his teeth himself if they are still in his head," Zainal said a little impa-tiently.
Tavis nodded but was still lacking in confidence.
"Tell him Emassi Zainal requests his presence."
"Emassi Zainal requests his presence." Tavis considered this for a few moments and then drew himself up in resolve.
"You are doing your friend a favor. Fear not."
"I am not afraid of him," Tavis replied stoutly, as if convincing himself of that.
"Nor need to be, since you are doing him a favor."
"Yes, I am." With that, Tavis dashed off, leaving Zainal abruptly. Zainal shrugged and turned to other matters.
Chapter Sixteen
The day before, Chuck had exchanged a lump of their copper for a carton of Toyota brake linings and two cartons of spark plugs for truck transmissions. "We did promise Vitali we'd get such things," he had informed Zainal.
"I know. And we must prove reliable to the coord."
Indeed they must. And thanks to Ditsy's enterprise, they also had both a supply of power packs and more of the coveted lifts to bring back. Erbri had been useful in this sideline, as well, bringing in dam aged equipment that he also helped repair. So Erbri could be useful on Botany as well as Natchi, and Zainal had half decided that he'd bring the two veterans back to Retreat rather than leave them to live out their hand-to-mouth lives. In fact, Zainal thought he had done better, in many ways, for the Terrans than for the folk on Botany. He had thought they would have had more buyers for the metals, which Zainal knew were in short supply on Barevi, but considering the green coord's trade with him, they could use the remaining metals to better advantage on Earth.
Zainal enjoyed a moment of peaceful reflection, wondering how much advantage he might wring from such insights. Barevi's main function had always been as a trading planet and only secondarily as a place for long-haul spacemen to vent excess energy and for sporting Catteni to hunt live creatures. However, one of Kris's cryptic phrases came to mind: something about a mountain coming to a man.
"What is that you say about the mountain and a man?"
She blinked for a moment, shook her head, and then her expres-sion brightened. "If Mohammed won't come to the mountain, let the mountain come to Mohammed. Is that the one you mean?"
"The very one," and he smiled at her, just as a man stepped up to the stall.
"Excuse me, Zainal," she said and offered a cup to the Catteni. The man had a noticeable squint and an unpleasant expression on his face but, watching him for a moment as Kris explained how to prepare the bean properly, she seemed to have soothed him. He sipped the coffee and turned to survey those passing by. Kris gave an exas-perated look at Zainal but smiled pleasantly at the Catteni. Then he said he wanted to purchase a bag of beans and evidently could not make up his mind between the arabica and the robusta. Kris offered to give him a quantity of both so he could savor them in his own house. They meant to stop selling the beans as a separate commodity since they were better used as barter but, as in the case of this pom-pous person, it was easier to comply than deny. And they acquired sufficient Catteni coins to defray other costs.