Demon Dentist Read online

  “My what?” said Alfie.

  “Teet!”

  “My teet?” replied Alfie, confused.

  “Yes, boy…” said the social worker in a frustrated tone. “YOUR TEET!”

  “I think Winnie means your teeth…” ventured Dad.

  “Yes, that’s what I said!” implored the lady. “TEET! T, E, E, T, H, TEET!”

  “All right, all right. What about my teet, I mean teeth?” asked Alfie, before quickly closing his mouth to hide them. He knew he wasn’t going to be asked to star in a toothpaste advert anytime soon, but they hadn’t all fallen out. Yet.

  “No no no, that won’t do. Oh, my word! That won’t do at all. As your social worker, the first thing I am going to do for you…”

  “Yes…?” gulped the boy, guessing what might be coming.

  “…is make you an appointment with the dentist!”

  7

  Secrets

  Alfie gave his father a look, imploring him to throw this annoying lady out. Now. However, Dad turned to face her, squinting a little at the riot of colour. “I think that’s a very good idea, Winnie. I don’t want any more of his teeth falling out before his thirteenth birthday.”

  “Ha ha! No!” laughed Winnie. “We don’t want that. A quick trip to the dentist will sort the boy out!”

  Without asking, she helped herself to her third chocolate biscuit. It was the last one on the plate. Even though it had a hint of mould, Alfie had been eyeing up that biscuit for the last ten minutes. That was all he was going to eat this evening for his dinner. The woman wolfed it down whole, and took another deafening slurp of her tea.

  “SSSSLLLLLLLUU UUUURRRRRPPPPPP!!!!”

  She smacked her lips together again, and then let out another sigh.

  “Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!”

  It was only the second time she had done the slurpyaah* routine in front of him, but Alfie couldn’t hide how deeply annoying he found it.

  * * *

  *Made-up word ALERT

  * * *

  Dad broke the uncomfortable silence. “Oh, it’s so nice to have a visitor, isn’t it, Alfie?”

  The boy said nothing.

  Winnie slurped and aahed again before enquiring, “Have you got any more of these yummy biscuits, ha ha?” She laughed at the end of her own sentences, in that irritating way jolly people often do.

  “Yes,” said Dad. “We should have another biscuit in the tin, shouldn’t we, Alfie?”

  Still the boy sat in silence, staring at this multicoloured munching machine.

  “Well…?” prompted Dad. “Go and bring another biscuit for the nice lady.”

  “Another chocolate one if you have it please, ha ha!” added Winnie brightly. “Naughty, I know! Have to watch my figure! But I do love choccy biccies!”

  Slowly Alfie stood up and trudged to the kitchen. He knew there was one last chocolate biscuit in the tin, but he had been saving that for their dinner tomorrow night. Half each. As he passed the scratched and mottled mirror in the hall, Alfie paused for a moment. He needed to pluck the larger fragments of spit-sodden biscuit that had sprayed out of the social worker’s mouth from his hair.

  “You must be very proud of him, Mr Griffit,” said Winnie. Alfie could hear them from the hall.

  “It’s Griffith…”

  “That’s what I said! Griffit.”

  “Griffith…” repeated Dad.

  “Yes!” said the woman in an exasperated tone. “G, R, I, F, F, I, T, H. Griffit!”

  “Well, erm, yes of course I’m very proud of my pup,” wheezed Dad. Long sentences sometimes got the better of him.

  “Your pup…?”

  “Yes, that’s what I call him sometimes.”

  “I see.”

  “Over the years he’s looked after me so well. His whole life he has been looking after me. But…” Dad’s voice lowered to nearly a whisper now, “I didn’t tell him but I had a fall last week while he was at school. I didn’t want to worry him.”

  “Mmm, yes. I can understand that.”

  Alfie shifted his weight so he was standing nearer the door. The boy listened intently as the grown-ups talked.

  “I became short of breath and I just blacked out. I fell out of my wheelchair. Smacked straight on to the bathroom floor. I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. The doctors did a load of tests…”

  “Oh, yes…?” Winnie sounded very worried now.

  “Well, they um…” Dad was struggling to find the words.

  “Take your time, Mr Griffit.”

  “Well, the doctors told me my breathing was getting worse and worse. And fast…”

  “Oh no!” gasped Winnie.

  The boy could hear his dad crying. It was heartbreaking.

  “Here, Mr Griffit, have a tissue…” said the social worker softly.

  Alfie took a deep inhalation of breath. Hearing his dad cry made him want to cry. But the proud man was fighting it, and sniffing back up the tears.

  “We Griffiths are strong. Always have been. I worked down that mine for twenty years. As my dad did before me, and his dad before him. But I am a very ill man. And my poor little pup can’t cope all on his own…”

  “Very sensible of you, Mr Griffit,” replied Winnie. “I am glad you finally decided to call the council. I just wish you had sooner. And remember, I am here to help you, and your son…”

  Alfie stood frozen to the spot. Dad had a habit of keeping bad news from him. The rising debts, the TV and the fridge being repossessed, Dad’s worsening health. Alfie felt he was always the last to know.

  Indeed, despite their closeness, there were plenty of chapters in Alfie’s life that he kept from his father. The boy had his secrets too.

  That the bigger boys would bully him at school for ‘dressing like a tramp’.

  The detention Alfie received for not doing his homework when he had been too busy cleaning the bungalow the night before and hadn’t had time.

  When he was caught ‘bunking off’ by the headmaster. Actually he had had to leave school early to make it to the next town before the shops closed to collect a new wheel for his father’s wheelchair.

  Alfie felt his dad had more than enough things to worry about without worrying about him too.

  But overhearing the conversation from the living room, try as he might not to, the boy finally had to give in to his tears. He was a Griffith too. Strong and proud. But his tears had beaten him. Warm, salty drops ran down the boy’s face. Despite everything, Alfie had always believed that one day his dad would get better. Now he had to face the truth.

  8

  Teet

  “Alfie?” called Dad from the living room. “What about that biscuit for our new friend Winnie?”

  Hastily, Alfie tiptoed back across the hall to the kitchen, and busied himself there. He had heard something he was never meant to hear. And now he had to hide it.

  “I’ll go and check on him, Mr Griffit,” announced the lady.

  “By the way, Winnie, it’s Griffith,” said Dad.

  “That’s what I said,” corrected Winnie. “Griffit.”

  She thundered down the hallway. Alfie didn’t want this stranger to see him cry. He hated anyone seeing him upset. Growing up without a mum, Alfie’s life had been touched with more sadness than most children’s. As a result, he had learned to hide his feelings. To bury them somewhere deep within where no one could see. His heart was a fortress.

  Alfie hastily dabbed his eyes with the sleeve of his blazer, before attempting to wipe away the tears that had run down to the end of his nose.

  “Now, young Alfred, have you found any more biscuits?” enquired Winnie. The boy had his back to her, and didn’t turn around. He hoped that in a few more moments all trace of his tears would be gone, and his red and blotchy face would have returned to normal.

  Winnie could sense something was wrong. “Alfred? Alfred? Are you all right, young man?”

  The boy hastily grabbed the scratched-up old biscuit tin from the larder. St
ill not turning to face her, he passed it over roughly.

  “There you go. Eat the last one, why don’t you?!”

  Winnie slowly shook her head, then her eyes were drawn to the mountain of letters on top of the larder behind Alfie.

  “And what are all these…?” she asked.

  “All what?” replied the boy. Alfie turned round, and in a panic realised she meant all the dental appointment letters he had been hiding from his father for the past few years.

  “That’s just rubbish,” he lied.

  “Well, if it’s just rubbish, let me help you put it in the bin.” Winnie was a wise old bird. She reached up her hand to grab the letters. Before Alfie could say anything, her eyes started flickering through the pages. Soon his secret was out.

  “Well, who would have thought it! They’re all letters from the dentist! Oh dear, Alfred, you haven’t been for years!” proclaimed the social worker. “Now I know a lot of children under my care are scared of the dentist, but trust me…”

  Alfie snatched the letters out of her hand.

  “Stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong!” he barked. “I love my dad and I look after him better than anyone else could. Better than you. Better than anyone. So why don’t you just walk out that door and never come back? Just leave us alone!”

  Winnie looked at Alfie, waiting for his white-hot anger to cool. Slowly, her head tilted to one side. In her job as a social worker she had met many troubled children over the years, but none quite as spirited as this boy. She took a breath, before saying, “Please, Alfred, believe me, I am here to help you and your dad. I know it’s not going to be easy for you to accept that. I know you probably hate me right now…”

  The boy’s silence was telling.

  “But who knows, Alfred, in time you may come to like me. One day we might even be friends…”

  Alfie scoffed at the thought.

  “Now, young man, why don’t we sit down and have a little talk…?”

  The boy couldn’t control his rage at this woman any longer.

  “There is nothing to talk to YOU about!” he shouted, before pushing past her out of the cramped kitchen.

  As he dashed along the hallway to his bedroom, Winnie called after him.

  “Please, Alfred…” she implored.

  But the boy simply ignored her, slammed his bedroom door shut behind him and locked it. Alfie slumped down on his bed. He shut his eyes tight in frustration. Just then he heard a gentle tapping on the door.

  TAP TAP TAP.

  Even the way she knocked on the door was annoying to him.

  “Alfred?” she whispered. “It’s Winnie!”

  Alfie said nothing.

  “Just to say, I am off now,” said Winnie, pretending nothing was wrong. “But I will call the dentist first thing tomorrow morning about your teet. I’ve heard a very nice lady has just taken over, by the name of Miss Root. Bub-bye!”

  Alfie gulped. Not Miss Root. Anyone but Miss Root…

  9

  Tell No One

  The next morning at school Alfie opened his locker to find a note that had been slipped under the door. It had been made from letters cut out of a newspaper, and there was no name at the bottom.

  The boiler room was deep within the vaults of the school. It was strictly out of bounds to all children. Alfie looked behind him to check no one saw him, as he sneaked down the spiral staircase that led to it from the playground.

  …read the sign. Slowly Alfie turned the handle and pushed open the heavy door. It creaked. It was dark inside, and the hiss and gurgle of the giant boiler was so loud no one upstairs could hear you. Not even if you screamed. Realising this suddenly, Alfie felt a shadow of fear passing over him. He was afraid. Perhaps being lured down here was some kind of trap. From behind the boiler, out stepped a figure. A short figure with dreadlocks.

  “Gabz!” said Alfie, as he breathed a sigh of relief. “Why are we meeting down here? We could get into big trouble if a teacher found us.”

  “Keep your voice down!” hushed the girl. “You don’t know who could be listening. Now, quickly, wedge that old blackboard up against the door so no one can come in…”

  Alfie did what he was told. Gabz double-checked the door was secure, and then rolled out a huge piece of paper she was carrying on the damp and dirty floor. They knelt down to study it. Soon Alfie realised this was a giant map of the town. Gabz had drawn it in some detail, and had written notes in coloured pens by certain homes. Urgently she pointed out places on the map as she spoke:

  “Two weeks ago. November 10th. Jack Brown, a wasps’ nest. November 12th. Lily Candy, cat poo. Same night. Eddie Larter, a dirty old verruca sock…”

  Alfie was bemused. “What is all this…?” he asked.

  “November 13th. A Friday. That was a busy night. Criss-crossed all over town. Rian Skinner, a dead adder.

  Twin sisters Jessie and Nell Godwin, a giant scab. Origin unknown. Might not have been human.

  Hardeep Singh, flying ants’ eggs. Woke up to his bedroom buzzing with thousands of them…”

  “I don’t understand,” said Alfie.

  “And last night it got me. My tooth fell out, well, after I waggled it for weeks, so I put it under my pillow as I always do. What do you think I woke up to find?”

  “I, er, um, don’t know.”

  “A bat’s wing!”

  “No!”

  “Yes. Still flapping. Must have just been ripped off the poor beast.”

  Alfie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The girl was gathering pace now. There was no stopping her.

  “So I started asking around the school first thing this morning, and realised it was happening all over town. Kids here, here, here and here…” said Gabz, as she pointed out a number of houses or flats on the map, “…were all targeted last night. And the calling cards got worse. Much worse. A badger’s paw, a snail that had had its shell pulled off, hundreds of centipedes creeping and crawling under some poor girl’s pillow, a filthy, sticking plaster, sodden with pus…”

  The boy couldn’t help but shudder. “That’s disgusting!”

  “Whatever’s happening, this is just the beginning…”

  “Who is doing this?” asked Alfie.

  The little girl shook her head. Her dreadlocks followed soon after. “Nobody knows. None of the kids I have spoken to saw or heard a thing. First they knew of it was when they woke up in the morning expecting to find a shiny new coin.”

  “And you didn’t see anything last night?”

  “Nothing,” replied Gabz. “I lock my bedroom door at night, and I live on the seventeenth floor of a block of flats, so tell me, how did they get in…?”

  Alfie thought for a moment. “Well. They couldn’t have done…”

  “They did,” replied Gabz firmly. For a moment she looked lost in thought. “Maybe they flew in…”

  Alfie couldn’t help but laugh. As far as he was concerned the little girl’s imagination was now running away with her.

  “Come on, Gabz! That’s impossible!”

  Gabz looked at him. “Nothing’s impossible, Alfie.”

  Still he was not convinced. “Maybe we should take this map to the headmaster…”

  Now it was the girl’s turn to laugh. “Mr Grey?” she asked in a mocking tone. “He’s useless. Besides, he allowed that demon of a dentist into the school.”

  Alfie’s mind was whirring now.

  “You don’t think Miss Root could be involved somehow?”

  Gabz thought for a moment. “No. How could she? All these different houses all over town in one night. It’s just not possible for just one person…”

  “No, I suppose not…”

  “But there is something very strange about her…” said Gabz, as she stared off into space.

  “Whatever you do, don’t try her ‘MUMMY’S’ toothpaste. It burns through stone!”

  “What?” asked the girl. This was a new piece of the puzzle.

  “Yes. I dropped a t
iny bit of it and it went right through the bridge. I threw it into the canal and it killed all the fish.”

  “Glad I wasn’t stupid enough to take a tube…” proclaimed Gabz.

  Alfie didn’t like that one bit. “Gabz, Miss Root made me take it!”

  “Whatever!” The girl smiled. It was clear she enjoyed winding Alfie up.

  “Look, between us we’ve got a lot of evidence here,” said Alfie. “I say we forget the headmaster. Go straight to the police…”

  10

  Urgent Police Business

  “So, kiddy winkies, let me get this straight…” sighed PC Plank, “we are talking about some evil, flying, tooth-snatching monster?”

  The policeman was more used to dealing with speeding tickets and hedge disputes between neighbours. Unsurprisingly, he was not the least bit convinced by the children’s story. It was straight after school, and Alfie and Gabz had raced down to the police station as fast as their legs could carry them. Now they were sitting in a brightly lit interview room with a not-so-bright policeman.

  “I never said it was definitely one hundred per cent a monster!” replied the girl.

  Plank shook his head wearily. “But it could be a monster?”

  She nodded.

  “And nobody has seen it. Oh yes, and it only comes out at night!” PC Plank scoffed.

  “That’s right,” replied Gabz, trying to put a brave face on it. Quickly she unrolled her map. “Look, officer. Every one of these kids has woken up with something horrible under their pillow…”

  The policeman studied the map for a moment, but he couldn’t be swayed.

  “Probably just their older brother or sister’s idea of a joke!” replied Plank eventually.