Disclaimer: If I owned M7 I probably would've lost it to a Mr. Standish in a poker game anyways. Also Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is used in text and for inspiration, don't own that either.
A/N I know a dental technician but I am not one so any mistakes are on me. Hopefully they don't distract from the story.
"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay."
-Robert Frost
The color was off, the fit was poor, and the clasps irritated his gums. As his tongue touched the offending tooth he felt tears prick at his eyes. He'd gotten the awful flipper yesterday. The boys that had laughed when they knocked out his tooth last week found even more pleasure at its atrocious replacement. His teeth had always been uniform and perfect. His mother Maude-appearances are everything-Standish had made sure of that. But his mother was not here; leaving him with some random relative who seemed couldn't be bothered to care how terrible the flipper looked. He wasn't theirs he was just a burden placed upon them till his mother came back for him. Until that time he would have to deal with his dreadful new tooth.
He'd seen the man before usually working on some strange machine. He didn't know what the man did; just that he had a lot of loud tools so Ezra usually walked by his house quickly. But today he heard no noise from the grinders or compressors or anything else. Today the man was standing quietly by his grinding machine talking on the phone. Naturally curious the boy listened as the man talked about dentures and crowns. Losing interest quickly as the horrible experience of the past week came back. Before he had left to face his guardian that fateful day he had looked up solutions to his predicament. His smartphone brought a few answers but even more questions. Hoping to get an implant crown that camouflaged into his teeth so no one was the wiser. Unfortunately he was too young, at eleven years old his mouth was still growing making the crown impossible. The horrific flipper he'd received today instead was the last straw. His fingers went to the replacement, once more tears sprang up in his eyes. Getting ready to run to the privacy of his relative's home he paused as one word stalled him, "gold."
Walking up closer to the man, who had finished on his phone, Ezra hesitated but then asked, "You make teeth out of gold?"
"Yep, but no stealing your grandmother's chompers," The man looked up smiling, seemingly unsurprised, "They're only really half gold. Could only get fifty or sixty dollars a tooth really."
Ezra looked at the strange ceramic looking teeth models on the table, "But would it not be cheaper and easier to make white teeth instead."
"Darrin," the man held out his callused hand. Ezra heisted a moment before taking his hand introducing himself to the man.
"Come here Ezra. I'll show you my lab," If he noticed the boy's red eyes and terrible tooth he didn't mention it. Ezra again hesitated but nevertheless followed Darrin into the remodeled garage.
"Gold is actually faster because I have to fire porcelain five or six times with different coatings to cover the metal," he explained pointing to a strange two boxed oven. Ezra looked around amazed at all the different machines and tools.
Darrin sat down at his desk pulling a plastic chair beside him. Offering it to Ezra he turned back to his work; waiting to see if the boy would sit. He poured powder and water into a rubber green bowl mixing it up to a paste with a spatula. Ezra came closer but refused the seat keeping just out of reach. The boy curiously watched Darrin's sure hands as he worked.
"You're staying with family right? The Jennings?" Darrin asked without looking up.
"Yes, my mother's cousin, while she is out of the country for business," Ezra explained vaguely.
"Let me see your flipper," The boy closed the space between them slowly before removing and handing over the disaster in his mouth.
The man asked without looking up from the tooth, "Take a seat this will just take a minute,"
Setting it aside on the cluttered desk Ezra began to protest. While he hated the thing it was the only one he had and he didn't want it contaminated. Darrin placed the paste like mixture on a small horseshoe shaped tray. Holding up a hand to silence the boy's growing complaint he lifted the tray. Realization dawned slowly; Ezra remembered a similar tray used by the dentist last week.
"Are you making me a gold tooth? I assure you sir I have the funds required for such an endeavor." Ezra asked almost smiling before he remembered the gap in his mouth.
Darrin once again held up his hand to silence the boy, "Now you're still too young for a crown. But I can make a better flipper then what you have," he assured the crestfallen boy before knocking the old flipper to the ground as a guarantee. Lifting the tray up once more, the technician got started with an impression.
It only took about an hour which truly surprised Ezra. The boy watched as the man carefully colored the tooth, comparing it to the ones in his mouth occasionally. There were no clamps or anything either which greatly confused Ezra. Darrin explained everything to the boy sitting next to him patiently as he worked. Finally completed Darrin handed it to Ezra for the boy's scrutiny.
Darrin explained, "You can keep it in for eating and stuff; just take it out to clean it," before with a surprisingly gentle hand he snapped it in place between the neighboring teeth. Darrin stood up and rummaged around in what looked like a tool box, bringing back a car rear view mirror handing it to the boy.
"I do not know what to say sir," Ezra ran his tongue over the new tooth examining its coloring in the mirror; it was perfect you couldn't even tell that it wasn't natural. But he expected a catch. People never did anything for free; they always expected something in return.
Darrin laid his work rough hand on the boy's shoulder, "Ezra you smile for the world- the people-your mom. Smile because your happy, smile for yourself."
As Ezra stood to leave Darrin called him back as he rummaged in a drawer. He placed a gold crown in the boy's hand telling him to look him up in a few more years to fit it. The dental technician smiled mirroring the boy's once again flawless smile
Ezra didn't know that when he walked out of the dental lab he would never see his new friend Darrin again. He didn't know as he walked back to where he was staying that his mother had returned to the states and was there waiting to take him away again. He was completely surprised when he went back to the remodeled garage at eighteen that he was years too late to get his gold crown fit. Darrin would die from a heart attack in less than two years from the time he gave the boy back his smile. The heart, that cared about everyone and made teeth for anyone from the poor widow to the downtrodden smoker and even the sad young boy with a poor fitting flipper without expecting anything but a smile in return, stopped beating abruptly. Ezra never really got to the chance to thank him, but every time he smiles a gold tooth shines.