Drama at the Dentist Office

Okay, so this morning I take Parker and Riley to the dentist for a check-up....Tennille has afternoon kindergarten, so she also comes along. The office is nice and clean and modern...flat screen t.v. mounted to the wall, clean toys, lots of current magazines. Tennille starts playing on the floor with some barn toy and accessories, near some empty chairs. Riley is across the room reading a book and Parker is next to me reading a magazine. Suffice it to say, my children have made themselves at home while they wait. I look up and in through the door comes a man in a red jumpsuit....everything is somewhat slow motion but at this point I am thinking he must be a construction worker of some sort...maybe a painter... who cares. Then my eyes register on the red flip-flops he is also sporting. It takes a second or two before I realize he also has coordinated the outfit with matching red handcuffs. At the same time that I am noticing the sheriff's officer walking behind him, I am also trying to fine tune my ventriloquist skills as I smile and tell Tennille to move her toys to the other side beside me. It is also not lost on me that the fellow's feet are shackled.
Thankfully, while my children might be loud at home, when in public in unfamiliar circumstances, they are silent as mice. Tennille quietly moves her toys away from the gentleman's feet, Riley glues her eyes to her book, and Parker reads the magazine while stealing glances.....all the time I am sitting there with a glued, plastic smile on my face while trying to be very interested in the "back-to-school fashions" segment airing on The Early Show.
For the first few minutes, I seriously think, "I could not care less"...this is an old man, with a trach no less, chatting casually with his police escort....I am thinking probably a DUI...maybe fishing without a license...perhaps even robbing a liquor store....harmless. Then I start feeling like 'prisoners' on field trips should probably have sticker labels stating their "alleged" transgression....I mean what if he is accused of child molestation...or what if he might have stabbed his wife while she was sleeping....that somehow changes how close I want my children in his proximity. I start looking to see if he is looking at my girls. And then I remember some crime show that Dave and I just watched with a convict escaping from a similar situation. Nevertheless, I just kept my "Stepford wife" smile pasted on and soon he was called in for his turn to see the dentist.
Not five minutes later, in through the door walks four "specials needs" friends, not physical difficulties per se, but mentally delayed (Tiffany, there were probably from Casa de Vida)...actually, I don't even know how I can write this blog with so much political correctness...anyway, I am plagued with morning sickness and all I am thinking is "please, please do not let one of them drool or I will lose it." (Yes, I am that shallow.) Apparently, Tennille had had enough because while she had played nicely next to the convict, she packed up everything when the others walked in and she went and sat by me.
As you can guess, we had a great discussion on the way home with two of the questions being, "why in the world would you need your feet handcuffed and what was the thing on his neck?" Suffice it to say I gave the "God Bless America" speech that isn't it lovely that despite making wrong choices that lead you to undesirable places, you are still entitled to good dental care.