New Utrecht High School - Comet Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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tithe Qlumet patients are here Maybe they're married. No, she's too ugly. An extraction ?,' the doctor asked. Ramon's mother nodded. Now, open upf' Ramon opened. His knees began to tremble. Don't be a baby. Ramon tried not to be a baby but failed. Bad tooth, bad tooth. Doctor, I want gas. Bad tooth, Mrs. -Mrs. . . Estados,,' Ramon supplied. We'll see. We'll see. You want gas? Is that O. K. Mrs. Estados ? She nodded sadly. The dentist whispered some instructions to the Nurse. She took the youth into an- other room. Again, the chair. Sit quietly. Itis nothing to be afraid of. just a second and it's all overf, She held one of his hands, angrily he pulled it away. She began to putter around a tank that looked like one of those things they bring soda water in. The dentist returned. 'lAll set, Miss Daly? Yes, Doctorf' Come, boy,', the dentist said, and put a piece of hard rubber into Ramon's mouth to keep it open. Then the Nurse clapped a round, red rubber thing on his face. The dentist said, Breathe in deeply. Ramon began to do so. He looked out of the den- tists window, watching the trolley cars and autos running down below. He kept on breathing deeply. Nothing happened. May- be gas could have no effect on his constitu- tion . . . he'd heard of such cases. He was looking at a car that was trying to stop. Suddenly a weight began to press on his head. The Nurse and the doctor began to fade away . . . the car stopped . . . oblivion . . . all was dark . . . Ramon heard a z-o-o-m, z-o-o-m in his head . . . a regular zoooom starting with increasing volume and then dy- ing out . . . zoooooom, zoooooom . . . then he noticed something . . . it was turing around in an orbit regularly . . . something like a planet . . . it began to turn faster . . faster, faster . . . it was whirling now . . . so speedily it was only a white dot . . . god, what if it should shoot out of its orbit . . . he was trying to hold on to it .... no, it was accelerating . . . going faster . . . faster . . . faster . . , suddenly he could control it no longer . . . it shot into space with a tremendous burst of speed .... RrKMON fell back in his chair. Doctor, doctor, the Nurse yelled, his heart has stopped beating. You're dreaming, Nora, give me more cotton. The tooth's bleeding terribly. I hope it's not a hemorrhage. More cotton. 'll tell you his heart's stopped. The dentist cocked his ear to listen to Ramon's heart. l'Gad, you're right. Quick, lay him on the floor. We've got to use artificial res- piration . I'll get a pump, meanwhile. Hur- ry, hurry, hurry. Ting on a soft mattress. Oh, mattress HE next thing Ramon knew he was ly- would be an unfair word. A million mat- tresses made of the softest feathers of pen- guin birds, of the down of ducks, of the breaths of a thousand zephyrs. He was ly- ing among it's billows . . . strangest of all . . . stark naked . . . not a shred of clothing on him. Where was he? . . . He looked out of the window: only clouds and blue sky . . . Oh, he was riding in the sky . . . in that little car he had dreamt was a planet a thousand eons ago in a dentists office . . . Where was he riding? . . . He did not know . . . Ramon felt .something .in .his .hand. . He .looked ...itwas...a... S even -.a

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RAMOINVS HEAVEN A SHORT STORY ,- - 4 I y X - X gr J M0r1'i.r :fu 3 ' Zolotow 'M 5' AMON moved his tongue around to the back of his mouth so he could feel the cavity. God, what a hole. And what a pain. A dull, even pain that made life a torture. That pain, God. Why don't I go to the dentist? Why, oh, why am I so yellow,'. Yes, that was it. Ra- mon was afraid, stark afraid of a dentistls office with all its shiny tools of torture, with its barber chair, its drill, and worst of all the forceps that went into your mouth . . . God . . . no, rather pain . . . no, the pain . . .' oh . . . Ramon pushed his tongue against the cavity, pressing, pressing, press- ing . . . trying to stop the pain . . . he ran his lingers through his hair, bit his lips . . . pain . . . oh, what pain. I can't stand it. It's driving me crazy . . . I'll go to that damn dentist . . . one minute and it's all over. One minute . . . but what a minute. I must go. I canlt live. I can't enjoy life with that pain. I'll go to the dentist. Illl . . . I'll take it out with gas. Ah, there was an idea. Gas. Why hadn't it struck him before? He puts something on your face, you fall asleep and when you wake up it's all over. Gas. The idea made Ramon happy, so happy that he forgot about Six the pain and tried to concentrate on the square root of something or other . . . the was in agmathematics classj . . . Gas . . . I'l1 go today. Hallelujah. I can enjoy life. . . . Gas . . .. GG OM, come with me to the den- M - is . . . Its about time. You should have had it pulled months ago. I'll pull it out by gasf' l'Don't talk foolish. The dentist knows what's best. He'll use novocainef' No, gas. I can't stand the pain. He paralyzes your nerve. lt's no painf, No, gasf, I know a case where a person died from taking gas . . No, gas. Come, Ramon, let us go. THE nurse was a smiling Irish lass with red hair and a protruding front tooth. She took off the chattering Ramon's coat. Put it heref she said. Ye-e-e-es,', Ramon said. Don't be afraid,'l his mother whispered. ln heref' she motioned, smilingly. He went, turning a cautious eye to see if his mother was following. She was following. The nurse lfi him to the barber's chair. Now, sit down. The Doctor'll be down in a minutef' The doctor was finishing a cigarette. He was a fat, oily man with waxed moustaches and a bald head. Ramon thought, as the doctor's face was bent over him, I won- der what he does to the Nurse when no

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Ghz Qllumet THE Nurse was holding Ramon's hand, moving it up and down. Come on, Nora, keep on pumping. ls he coming around ? No, but I've known it to take two hours some: imes. We've only been at it two minutes. Keep on pumping. All right, doctor. IT was a book . . . but what a book... a book with covers of soft velvet stamped with pure gold and silver . . . with wide margins . . . beautiful woodcuts. . .letters a quarter of an inch wide and in blue . . . what a book! . . . he turned his head . . . there was a whole stack of books . . . hun- dreds, perhaps thousands . . . all of them as beautiful as this . . . enough to read for an eternity . . . and that was how long he'd be riding here on this interstellar ship, an eternity . . . But what to eat? . . . He turned again . . . he saw thin, fragile china dishes, holding delicately browned toasted sand- wiches, cut slantywise . . . he took one . . . it was filled with fairies' eggs . . . it tasted like whipped cream . . . soft, munchless, delicious . . . he saw next to the sand- wiches bowl after bowl of turquoise, onyx, mother of pearl, ebony, sandalwood, woods, glass, jewelry of all colors, full to the brim with perfect-fruit: pears of the right size, that were brownish-green and tasted divine- ly, peaches that had no furry feeling, no pits and that were as large as small grape-fruits, apples, oranges, grapes, all with no pits . . . God, how satisfied he was . . . he began to munch a pear and started to read the book . . . lt was Boccacio's, Decameron. GGWELL, doctor, how is he F In 10 minutes more he ought to have reached this side of heaven. We'll pull him throughf' Eight Gawd, l'm glad. Keep on pumping, Nursef, i'Doctor, his heartls starting to beat. Keep on pumping. RAMON dug himself deeper into the mattress . . . he was half through with the Decameron . . . how fast one read in this strange airship . . . how wonderful life was . . . he kicked his feet which were resting in a small pool filled with moss-greened pebbles and munched another toasted sand- wich . . . suddenly the sandwich faded, the books, the fruit, the pool . . . all began to grow dim . . . G6 ANOTHER second and we'll have him fit to . .. U l'm half dead, Doctor. A Keep on pumping, Nora. He's begun to breathef' . Good stuff. Good stuff. Keep it up. THE AIRSHIP was again a dot . .. whirling in a black void as fast as be- fore .. .then it began to go slower . . . the regular humming in Ramonis brain started again . . . then got lower and lower and be- gan to die out . . . the dot began to grow bigger and . . . soon it was a planet . . . the orbit stopped .... the planet grew bigger and bigger and became . . . the Doctor's face. RAMON clutched at the doctor's sleeve. D Where . . . am . . Sh, take it easy, the dentist said, sooth- ingly. Heres a glass of water. Rinse your mouth, said the Nurse. His head was in a whirl as he spat a bloody mass from his mouth. Don't worry. The tooth is out. But we had a close call, said the Nurse. fC0:zfi:z.'1ed 012 Page 111 L i