Extraction

 There must have been about three sets of hands around my face.

Two angling and pushing firmly, one trying their utmost to pull and twist my deep-set, back-left tooth out of its socket.

Someone on Reddit had commented on a tooth extraction thread about the slightly strange, uncomfortable, squeaky sounds that I was now experiencing, and how they tried imagining them as trees blowing in the wind. I began picturing the situation not as trees, but as myself being a scuba diver, scanning a shipwreck in the ocean depths, and coming across old chests and trying to pry them open.

Suddenly, after one huge last pull (they were truly struggling), it was out. As I bit down on some gauze to help with the bleeding, the dentist asked if I'd like to keep the tooth. It was so big.

"Four roots!" she told me. I asked her if that was normal. "Both normal and abnormal", she laughed.

Herein lies a gaping hold in the back of my mouth.