Isle of Dogs

Just then, the old black telephone rang inside the clinic. The phone dated from the days when cords were covered with cloth insulation, and as usual, there was a lot of static.

"Clinic," Dr. Faux answered.

"I need to talk at Fo

"That you, Hurricane?" the dentist asked Fo

"Let me talk at Fo

"It's for you," Dr. Faux said to his patient.

Fo

"Look a' here! Lock up the door tight as an arster!" Fo

"Yass! He wouldn't do nothing to me, Daddy!" Fo

"Well, don't you be out of heart," his father said, encouraging his son not to be depressed or discouraged. "We go

"Oh my blessed!" Fo

He was not entirely clear about why he was supposed to trap Dr. Faux inside the clinic, but that durned dentist deserved what was coming and it was exciting that something was happening. Tangier was very boring for its young, and Fo

"Sit in the chair thar and mind your step!" Fo

"I need to get the cotton out of your mouth," Dr. Faux reminded his patient. "You need to sit in the chair, then

I'll sit in it after we're finished, if you want." Dr. Faux supposed the lidocaine had agitated Fo

Even the most experienced dentist couldn't be sure how certain drugs might affect some patients, and Dr. Faux always inquired if the person had any allergies or adverse reactions to medications. But the Islanders were so rarely sedated or subjected to even the mildest anesthesia or mood-altering substances, except for the alcohol they weren't allowed to drink, that Dr. Faux's patients were rather virginal and perfectly suited for blind studies with placebos and other concoctions that various pharmaceutical companies wanted the FDA to approve and were happy to donate to Dr. Faux for experimental purposes. The dentist slid gloved fingers around inside Fo

"You didn't swallow it again, did you?" Dr. Faux worried.

"Yass."

"Well, you may be a little constipated for a few days. How come you locked the door and what did you do with the key?"

Fo

"Ouch!" Dr. Faux cried out in surprise and pain. "Now why did you do that?" he asked as the watermen yelled for Fo

"I can't!" he yelled back to them. "I ain't got holt of the key! I disremembered where I put it at!"

"Why did you hit me?" Dr. Faux was shocked and upset as he dabbed his nose with a tissue.

Fo

"He-ey! You have to broke the door!" he shouted to the angry mob.

The watermen did and thundered inside, waving their oars and tongs.

"Down with Virginia! Down with Virginia!" was their furious battle cry. "You daren't go back to the main, Dr. Faux, hear? You're wer prisoner!"

"You're going to catch it!"

"That's right! That's right!"

"Heeey thar, Dr. Faux. How feels it, you being the one stuck in that thar chair?"

"Give him the dickens!"

"I did!" Fo

"We should yank out ever one of his teeth! Look at all the teeth a' ours he always a' pullin'!"

"Take him potting, we should! And tie 'im up good and feed 'im to the crabs!"

"And that ain't no way to go, I tell you!"

"Durn it, if it ain't what he got comin'! Hear?"

"Wait a minute!" Dr. Faux protested loudly enough to briefly silence the watermen as he cowered in the dentist's chair and rubbed his nose. "I do hear! And what I'm hearing is first you're mad at Virginia, and now you've suddenly turned on me! Make up your mind!"

"We mad at ever one of you on the main," someone decided. "There's neither one from the main who don't take our advantage."

"Well, if you're fully decided on kidnapping me," Dr. Faux thought quickly and with fraudulent intent, "then your plan will only work if you send notice to the governor. Otherwise, no one will know I'm here and what good will it do to lock me up? And as for your unfair and ungrateful accusations about how I've taken care of your dental needs, I must point out that I have come here for many years with nothing but goodness in my heart, and without me you would have no dentist at all."

"Better none than you."

"My wife, she would still be with all her teeth. And I get the ache in my tooth when it gets right airish out. A tooth you fixed!"

"Well, maybe we should have another mind about this." One of the watermen had second thoughts and leaned his oar against a wall. "We don't want neither trouble."

"Exactly," Dr. Faux agreed. "You watermen are projecting. You're furious with the governor, and I can't say as I blame you. Clearly, you're being persecuted and discriminated against as usual, and I'm not sure what these painted lines are about, but they weren't put there with your best interest in mind."

"Nah, neither interest that might be a good turn for us."

"Don't listen to him talking at us!" It was Fo

"I'll swagger! What's in your head to make you notion him spying on us, honey boy?" Fo

"Spying on potting and drudging and then he go telling untruths about jimmies and sooks and arysters. Soon enough, they'll make the law that we have no business follering the water," Fo

"This one thar let on that to you?" Fo

"Yass. Durn if he didn't!"

"What words did he put to you?"

Fo

"Can't be taking no chances," another waterman spoke up.

"Nah."

"Nah. That's right."

"The governor already's cut our crabbing to the wick, and now that arster drudging is pretty near on us, what if are told to leave that off, too? Why, there'll be nothing in our pockets, neither a red cent."