Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Secret to Happiness

2018; University of Missouri; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mis.2018.0038

1548-9930

Kyle S. Minor,

Empathy and Medical Education

The Secret to Happiness Kyle Minor (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Photo by Lauri Rantala [End Page 140] 1. Dayton She fucked the dentist in the hotel room, but then he didn't have any heroin after all, and what good is a dentist who doesn't have any heroin after all? "What do I do now?" she said. [End Page 141] She wanted to punch him when he said the offer to fix her teeth was still good. Once, a long time ago, at a middle school talent show, she'd seen a boy put a horsehair bow to a saw bent between his legs and play it like a violin. She wanted to tell the dentist that was what he reminded her of, flossing his teeth at the sink. The thing to do, the dentist told her, was drive to Dayton, Ohio. "They see Indiana tags," the dentist said, "they know why you're there." She was on probation, and her license was suspended, but she had the keys to a Cadillac belonging to a man who owned three barbeques, two laundromats, and a car wash. "Lacey, baby, do you want some walking-around money?" the dentist said. She said she didn't and took the five twenties from his hand. ________ In Ohio, a man with a silver front tooth handed her a tester through the driver's-side window of the Cadillac. "When you open that thing up," he said, "you'll find a little white piece of paper inside. This is very important. Are you listening to me? Don't lose that paper. It's got a phone number on it. You like the tester, you call that number, I'll get you more." "How much?" Lacey said. "How can you complain about free?" he said. "This is quality stuff. You'll see. You'll pay for quality." Then he was gone, and she memorized the phone number, threw the paper out the window, and shoplifted a few things from the convenience store. The fat lady at the counter gave her the bathroom key, which was attached to a wooden dowel carved with bamboo and panda bears, and when she shot up in the bathroom she was visited again by the three angels, the two fallen liars who whispered that everything was going to be OK and the god-sent one who let you hold in your body the secret to happiness but always took it right back just when you thought everything was going to be OK. She passed the state line at one o'clock in the morning, and then the county line, and then the blue lights were behind her. ________ In county lockup, the one woman rolled her fingertips first in black ink and then in the little black squares on the paper. The other woman sat behind the glass in the dispatch chair and hadn't even bothered to put on her uniform. [End Page 142] "What day is prom?" the uniformed woman said. "May fifth," the dispatch officer said. "I took my granddaughter shopping, and we didn't find nothing, but then we found the prettiest dress in a catalog, and do you know they gave the dress its own name? It's called the Glamorous Ruffle Sheer Hem Maxi Dress, Plus Size. How could you not remember that?" "Excuse me," Lacey said. "What?" the dispatch officer said. "You got something against prom?" "It's just it's been a long night," Lacey said. "Listen to this," the dispatch officer said. She held up a page from the department store catalog. "A modern take on Victorian romance," she read. "This sheath has the look of two pieces with a ruffle-trimmed bodice and a pencil skirt overlaid with sheer, dotted tulle." She put down the catalog page and gave Lacey one of those looks that pretended to be pity but also wanted you to know it was just pretend, because pity was a little more than you probably deserved. "What kind of dress did you wear to prom?" she said. "I wore my sister's red dress," Lacey said. The other officer led her to the...