Black And White

Mr Black was 53 and white.
Mr White was 79 and black.
Mrs Grey was 56 and
just plain miserable.

She had toothache and the only dentist she would allow any where near her mouth was away in the Bahamas. Of all the places he could have gone he had had the audacity to holiday in the very place that had been at the top of her bucket list for 30 years.
She had hoped to honeymoon there, but Mr Grey had opted for Scarborough, and as he was paying and she had no money, she had gone along with idea and pretended that it had been a wonderful suggestion A very special place where their baby had been conceived. Although in actual fact she had been conceived in the back of a Fiat. But nobody had bothered to do the maths and she had got away with it.
Merry Alice Grey had been in a rush to be born and appeared after an emergency C section om Christmas Eve. The vicar who had come along to do the emergency baptism was also in a rush as he had to get to the carol servive and had misheard what Mrs Grey had said. The baby was supposed to be called Mary. But Merry she had been christened and merry she was in name and nature. Unlike her parents who were anything but merry that Christmas or any time after. Their little treasure was a poor sleeper and a poor eater and after ten months, Mr Grey was conveniently transferred to another office in Bromley 120 miles away.
He came home weekends, at first but Mrs Grey was so exhausted she hardly noticed and it took almost a year before she realised that her husband had actually left.
Oblivious to all this, Merry grew into a healthy child. survived her parents rather grotty divorce and left home at the age of 19 to work for a newspaper in London. Something that Mrs Grey was incredibly proud of.
However at the present moment in time the only think she could think about was her toothache and her irresponsible dentist.
Enter Mr White her neighbour, who innocently called round to see if she would like some tomato plants. Mrs Grey told him in no uncetain terms where he could put his plants and the poor man was so distraught he had hid himself in his greenhouse and wasn't found for 5 days. Even then he was reluctant to come out from behind the cucumbers, that were incidentally, coming on nicely.
Meanwhile, Mrs Grey could bear the pain no longer and rang the surgery to find that one dentist was available to see her. Although the receptionist got an earbashing too when Mrs Grey arrived and she politely reminded her that there was one person booked in ahead of her and she couldn't go straight in.
At last Mrs Grey was in the chair and found herself looking up into the eyes of the most handsome man she had ever seen. Howard Black, dentist, Chelsea fan and father of three.
Instantly Mrs Grey was transformed. Polite, sweet, thankful. The perfect patient. In fact a dentists dream. No complaints. No fears. Not even when the needle appeared, or when the drill was taken out of its holder. Mrs Grey was in love and smiled adoringly up at her hero. Well as adoringly as you can when you have just had a root canal filling.
Two days later armed with a little thank you gift of cufflinks, she put on her best dress and headed off to the surgery. Mulling the possible places Howard would take her on their first dinner date. She had rehearsed what she would say and knew just how Howard would respond. There was no doubting it, Mrs Grey was in dreamland. All those years of loneliness wre going to be forgotten in the arms of Howard Black.
Un fortunately it was the same receptionist on duty that day and it was she who had to break the news to Mrs Grey that Mr Black was away. He had taken some unexpected holiday. Apparently his father in law, had been the victim of a particularly nasty verbal attack by his neighbour and his nerves were shot to pieces. So Mr Black and his wife were taking him to the Bahamas. A trip of a lifetime.
Such a shame the receptionst said that everyone wasn't like Mrs Grey. Kind, thankful and caring.