The New Dentists

Laurence Roxas

The car wouldn’t start. I tried turning the key again as my foot pumped the gas pedal encouragingly.  “Come on. You can do it.”  Miraculously the engine springs to life. Crisis averted. I back out of my parking slot and drive up the ramp. The security guard at the exit smiles at me as I roll down my window. “G’evening, Harold. How are the kids?”

“Good evening, Mr. Wilkes. Oh they’re wonderful, sir. They love that new laptop you sent over.” He takes off his cap and runs his hands through his thinning hair. “Going home, sir? You’re earlier than usual.”

“Yes well I have to. The wife will kill me if I’m late to my own daughter’s birthday.” I ruefully shake my head as he politely laughs.

“Better not take the highway then, sir. I hear they’ve been bumper to bumper for hours.”

“It’s fine. I know a shortcut.” I roll up my window and give him a nod of goodbye as I exit the parking complex. I drive around the huge grey building and onto the main road of my company’s compound.

Skyscrapers fill my windshield’s view. The giant structures of glass and steel tower over me as I drive between them. Each in competition to be the most impressive, the most intimidating edifice. Even after thirty years it still takes my breath away. T.W. Enterprises has been the leading electronics and technology firm practically from its first day. It’s worth more than several third world countries’ GDP combined. Every piece of hardware you use from your phone to your microwave, we’ve had a hand in creating or improving. Your wireless chargers? We invented those. Your computer’s holographic display? Us too. Those new clean cars that don’t spew pollution at all? You’re welcome, Mother Nature. T.W. Enterprises is the company of tomorrow and I was its visionary leader.

I finally reached the big imposing gates at the end of our grounds. It opens for me automatically, of course. After all, what’s the use of being a tech company if you can’t show it off through little things like mechanized gates? I drive on through the gap as it closes behind me. As a child, our house was somewhere in these parts so I knew the area like it was my own backyard. I drive for a while until I see the old burnt tree that marked my shortcut. I make a right turn onto the dirt road beside. In the distance I see old Angel’s Hill. The only remaining natural land mark in the countryside that we haven’t bought and built over. Local legend has it that the angels fly down from heaven and dance there at night. I knew better. 

I was born Thomas George Wilkes in 1962. Back then no one called me Mr. Wilkes or Sir, I was simply Tommy. I had a sister and a brother as well, Jillian Grace Wilkes and John Michael Wilkes. We lived in a little country cottage with our grandfather whom we called Papa. Our mother died when she gave birth to me and our father was a seaman in the Navy. We only saw him on holidays but he provided for us as best he could. He worked hard to support us. We weren’t rich but we lived well enough. We always had three meals a day and new clothes on our birthdays. It was a simple life and a happy one.

One summer, my brother came home from watching an old pirate movie with a schoolmate of his. I don’t even remember the title of the movie anymore. It was probably something exciting but vague. My brother always liked action flicks. He entered our house brandishing an old stick he picked up on the street and he was swinging it through the air like it was a sword.

“What’re you doing with that filthy stick, Johnny?” asked my lovely sister. She was sitting on the floor, carefully rearranging her dolls along an appropriately sized table. Have you ever seen Barbie dolls reenact the last supper? There’s something absurdly funny about it.

“I’m not Johnny! I’m Jack the Pirate! And this is my pirate sword!” My brother jumped on the couch and jabbed at the air with his fallen branch. “Arr!”

Jill took one look at him then glanced at me sprawled on the floor next to her and gave a sigh of frustration. She went back to playing with her Barbies and pointedly ignored us for the rest of the night. I myself was too young to offer any dissenting opinion then, preoccupied as I was with sucking my thumb.

And so just like that my brother became Jack.

Spring was my favorite time. My brother would lead my sister and me into the woods near our place and we would have the most wonderful afternoons. We would slay dragons and save princesses, be cowboys and Indians, fight entire wars and yet still be home by dinnertime. Sometimes if Jill whined enough we played house too. Inevitably one of us would get bored and the games would degenerate into running tickle fights that left us on the ground wheezing with laughter.

“I shall slay you, foul beast!” My brother poked me with a long leaf that was serving as a makeshift lance.

“Rowr!” I said. I squinted my eyes and tried to look more like a menacing dragon as I prowled around my sister.

“Jack! This is boring! I don’t want to be the princess! It’s booooring.” She stretched out the last word. She knew it annoyed Jack.

“Back dragon! You cannot defeat me!” Jack was still brandishing his plant. He was pretending not to hear my sister’s complaints.

“Rowr!”

“Have at thee, monster!”

“Rowr!”

“Why can’t I be the dragon? I’d make an excellent dragoooooooon!”

“Shut up Jill! You can’t be the dragon because you’re a girl!”

“Can to! What’s wrong with a girl dragon!”

“There aren’t any girl dragons!”

“Bet you there is!”

“Bet you there isn’t!”

“There is to!”

“No there isn’t!”

“Rowr?”

“Is to! Is to! Is toooooooo!” Jill stuck her tongue out at my brother and me. In retaliation, Jack threw his leaf at her and hit her square on her open mouth. My sister’s eyes widened as the horrible taste of the plant made itself known. She started spitting and sputtering, trying to get the taste out. It was hilarious. We couldn’t help it, Jack and I started laughing so hard our sides hurt and tears were welling up in our eyes.

We never saw her coming as she tackled both of us to the ground. For the next five minutes dust flew and sweat flowed as I fought in the most intense tickle fight of my entire life.

Afterwards we were all lying on the ground. Resting, looking at the sky and just listening to each other breathe. I turned to my brother. “Jack?”

“Yeah, Tommy?”

“Have you ever climbed Angel Hill?”

“Papa says it’s dangerous there!” Jill interjected.

“What’s so dangerous about some old hill?” He sat up with a glint in his eye. “What do you say little bro? Want to go up Angel’s hill with me?”

“We mustn’t, Jack! Besides Tommy’s too small to get all the way up. He’ll get tired.”

“I can do it.” I was caught up in Jack’s infectious sense of adventure.  He always had the uncanny ability to sweep people up in his thoughts and visions. He was very charismatic. It was his gift.

“There you go, Jill! If Tommy says he can do it then I believe him.” He stood up and brushed the bits of dirt that clung to his jeans. He helped me up as well. “Come on little bro! This is going to be fun!” We clasped hands and started walking towards the base of Angel’s Hill.

“I really don’t think this is a good idea!”

Jack stopped and glanced back at Jill who was now standing as well but remained rooted in her place. “No one’s forcing you to come, Jill. If you want, you can go back to the house by yourself.”

Jill watched as we slowly walked away. Even though we’ve only gone a short distance, the forest’s shadows already threatened to swallow us from view. She looked back at our faraway cottage then shot a worried glance at Angel’s Hill in the distance. Finally with a last shrug of resignation she started running towards Jack and I to catch up. 

“I think we should turn back, Jack. It’s getting pretty dark.” Jill was holding my hand, afraid that I might trip and hurt myself.

“I’m fine.” I wasn’t. My face was ashen and I was taking big gulps of air, thankful for the momentary stop as Jack hurried back to us to check on me.

“You okay, Tommy?” Jack wiped some sweat from my forehead.

“He’s tired, Jack. He’s too young for this,” repeated Jill.

Jack ignored her and gave me a drink from his water bottle. I quickly emptied it of its contents. “Feel better, little bro?”

I nod. I was too tired to even say anything anymore.

Jack glanced at my sister with a worried look on his face, “Even if we go back now, Tommy won’t be able to make it.”

“Why don’t we stay here and rest a bit before we trek back to Papa’s house?”

“Good idea. You guys wait here, I know that there’s a well at the top of Angel’s Hill. I’ll go on ahead and refill the bottle for poor Tommy. Then we can all head back together.”

We were already half way up the slope by then. Jill looked intently at the peak where she could faintly see the well. “I think there are people up there, Jack. I see lights flickering at the well.”

“That’s great! I can ask for their help, maybe they have some food for Tommy.” He started jogging up the trail, water bottle held firmly in his hand. “I’ll be back soon.”

Jill and I watched him go until the creeping darkness of the night hid him from view. She gave me a hug. “Rest, Tommy. Jack will get us water, then we’ll all have pie at Papa’s house okay?”

I smile and made myself comfortable in my sister’s embrace. It was getting a little cold.  I listened to the sounds of the night, the owl hooting and the crickets chirping as my sister’s hug kept me warm. I was about to drift off into sleep when suddenly a scream cuts through air.

Jill and I looked at each other with horrified expressions on our faces. The scream, it was Jack. There was no doubt about it. She took my hand. “Let’s go!”

We started running. We ran as fast and as hard as we could. My blood was pounding in my ears and my lungs felt like they were ready to burst. We were desperate to reach the well; afraid of what could’ve happened to Jack.

As we drew near the peak, the light that Jill first saw grew brighter. It bathed our surroundings and gave the ground an eerie glow. It didn’t give warmth but instead a sticky cold sensation. Finally we reached the top and what we saw I cannot explain, even now.

It was a ship. It was a large disk of silver with flashing lights all along its rim. The metal flowed and moved along the hull and yet remained solid, somehow keeping its shape. It looked shiny, like the silver spoons that Papa kept hidden at the top drawer in the kitchen, but I couldn’t make out any recognizable reflection on it. I had the odd feeling that it wasn’t really all there. It had three prongs extending from its body that served to anchor it to the ground. There was a triangular hole in its belly from where most of the light came from. A door.

I don’t know why I instinctively labeled it a ship in my mind. At the time I had not yet read of the so-called flying saucers. Nevertheless, I thought of it as a ship. The sheer impact of what I was seeing threatened to overwhelm me. I am thankful now that I was too young then to fully understand the implications of what I saw. If an adult had been the one in my place that night, he might’ve well gone insane. As it were, my young mind was still open enough to shield me from going crazy.

Shadowed against the light I saw three mysterious figures and a fourth familiar one, my brother Jack. The strangers were small creatures. They were all seemingly nude with bulbous heads and a grayish-green tint to their skin. The eyes were large and black and they had tiny nostrils. The mouth was nothing more than a slit. One of them was holding some kind of implement near Jack’s head. Another was restraining him while the third was holding some kind of handheld computer.

“Jack!” Jill called to our brother.

All four figures turned to us. Jill had alerted them to our presence. One of the creatures started toward us. In one hand, the small computer and in the other a device identical to the one being wielded by Jack’s captors.

“No!” Jack struggled mightily to free himself. “Jill! Tommy! Run!” With strength borne of panic, Jack breaks away and runs towards us. “Go! What’re you waiting for! Go! Go! Go!”

Jack reaches us and pushes us out of our stupor. We begin rapidly descending down the slope. We didn’t stop for anything. The stitch in my side started to hurt immensely, a side effect of the entire evening’s events. We never looked back. We continued straight on through the forest trail and towards the main road. It was only a few feet away. We were beginning to think we’ve gotten away.

There was a buzz in the air. So low that we all felt it instead of heard it. It was a deep sound that seemed to make my heart vibrate against my ribcage. Have you ever listened to a song with the bass turned all the way up? It was sort of like that, only a hundred times worse. Just then the source of the buzz showed itself, one of the creatures had caught up to us. The sound was his device charging an energy beam that shot right through my poor brother’s head. It burst like an over ripe watermelon, raining blood and brain bits all over. He dropped dead to the ground never knowing what hit him.

As Jack’s heart pumped blood uselessly to the stump that used to be his head, Jill had pushed me towards the ditch at the side of the road. It was from this hiding place that I witnessed what happened next. The creature laid down its weapon and computer on the ground and lunged at Jill. It held my struggling sister in its deceptively thin arms. She was alternately fighting and crying. I would have come to her aid but my sister was screaming for me to remain hidden. The creature then signaled its ship to come pick them up. The silver disc shot from the hill to where we were at astonishing speed and hovered over the three of them, the monster, my sister and my headless brother.

A blue beam shot down from the floating craft and they disappeared in its light. When the beam stopped, they were gone.  The ship rotated to reorient itself to face the sky and rocketed away. Its engines left a nearby tree burnt to a crisp from its exhaust.

After a while I gathered enough courage to leave my hole. I crept towards where my brother’s corpse used to be. I touch the dirt at my feet. It didn’t feel any different. There was no sign that anything ever happened. No scuffed earth, no scrap of my sister’s dress, not even a stray drop of blood. No Jack, no Jill, only a burnt tree.

Well, that’s not exactly correct. I found one other thing. Inexplicably, the creature had left its computer. I picked up the strange device and started the lonely walk home to Papa. 

I could see Angel’s Hill from my car now. The shortcut I took wound its way around the base of that accursed place. The place that took away my family but also gave me the key to my fortune. Out of nowhere I hear something that I haven’t heard for decades. A low buzz that I felt right down to my bones. Suddenly the buzz stops as my car is filled with a light so bright it blinds me.

Laurence is currently a senior at Ateneo De Manila taking up AB Interdisciplinary Studies.