‘Now,’ he said cheerfully, ‘we couldn’t stay in business if we hurt people.’ All the time he talked he was busying himself with metal hidden under a towel, and great machinery being wheeled in almost silently behind her. ‘We couldn’t stay in business at all,’ he said. ‘All you’ve got to worry about is telling us all your secrets while you’re asleep. Want to watch out for that, you know. Lower molar?’ he said to the nurse.

‘Lower molar, doctor,’ she said.

Then they put the metal-tasting rubber mask over her face and the dentist said, ‘You know,’ two or three times absent-mindedly while she could still see him over the mask. The nurse said, ‘Relax your hands, dear,’ and after a long time she felt her fingers relaxing.

First of all things get so far away, she thought, remember this. And remember the metallic sound and taste of all of it. And the outrage.

And then the whirling music, the ringing confusedly loud music that went on and on, around and around, and she was running as fast as she could down a long horribly clear hallway with doors on both sides and at the end of the hallway was Jim, holding out his hands and laughing, and calling something she could never hear because of the loud music, and she was running and then she said, ‘I’m not afraid,’ and someone from the door next to her took her arm and pulled her through and the world widened alarmingly until it would never stop and then it stopped with the head of the dentist looking down at her and the window dropped into place in front of her and the nurse was holding her arm.

‘Why did you pull me back?’ she said, and her mouth was full of blood. ‘I wanted to go on.’

‘I didn’t pull you,’ the nurse said, but the dentist said, ‘She’s not out of it yet.’

She began to cry without moving and felt the tears rolling down her face and the nurse wiped them off with a towel. There was no blood anywhere around except in her mouth; everything was as clean as before. The dentist was gone, suddenly, and the nurse put out her arm and helped her out of the chair. ‘Did I talk?’ she asked suddenly, anxiously. ‘Did I say anything?’

‘You said, “I’m not afraid,” ’ the nurse said soothingly. ‘Just as you were coming out of it.’

‘No,’ she said, stopping to pull at the arm around her. ‘Did I say anything? Did I say where he is?’

‘You didn’t say anything,’ the nurse said. ‘The doctor was only teasing you.’

‘Where’s my tooth?’ she asked suddenly, and the nurse laughed and said, ‘All gone. Never bother you again.’