We balik kampung to Sitiawan the other week and everyone – Irfan, Ain and I – lost one tooth each while there. Irfan extracted his own tooth even before we arrived at Atok & Opah’s house. He proudly showed his freshly drawn molars. He’s been doing it a lot with his baby teeth lately. Then, we thought we’d visit the government dentist for a check-up, because it’d be less expensive than going to a private clinic in Kuala Lumpur. Ain had a wonky tooth and she had that extracted. Come my turn and the dentist discovered a dead tooth. It was a different colour from other teeth and the top part was brittle. Ain had complained for a long time that my mouth had a strange smell – a rotten smell. A silvery, glistening needle was produced and I swallowed my fear, and allowed the cold metal to plunge into […]