More than meets the eye

Andoni ended the year splitting his tooth during a game of jausting at the Wings Center.

I missed the call, so I got an email with the message transcribed into text, courtesy of Google Voice. Let’s just say their voicemail transcription system has a long ways to go before reaching perfection. I got pretty freaked out when I read about mountains and pieces of teeth still in Andoni. In the end, it wasn’t a matter of life and death. He broke the tooth around 4 pm, we picked him up at 4:30, and thanks to our dentist (who drove back to the office after hours), Andoni’s mouth was back to normal before 7 pm.

Luckily, the nerve wasn’t damaged and the broken piece had stayed inside his mouth, so the dentist was able to easily glue it back on. He used a tiny piece of fishing rod across the broken tooth and the two adjacent ones to stabolize it. However, you can’t even notice unless you’re two inches away from his face.

I started the new year breaking a tiny bit more inside. But just as it happens with Andoni’s teeth, I also seem fine when you look from a distance.

Eventually, Andoni will get a crown if his tooth doesn’t hold.

Me, I’m on my own.

• ← Land of the Ancient Basques, a 1968 article by National Geographic
• 8 Probintziak, the radio station on Basque diaspora: January broadcast →