Monday dawned warm and rainless. Au

Monday dawned warm and rainless. Aurelio Escovar, a dentist without a degree, and a very
early riser, opened his office at six. He took some false teeth, still mounted in their plaster
mold, out of the glass case and put on the table a fistful of instruments which he arranged in
size order, as if they were on display. He wore a collarless striped shirt, closed at the neck
with a golden stud, and pants held up by suspenders He was erect and skinny, with a look that
rarely corresponded to the situation, the way deaf people have of looking.
When he had things arranged on the table, he pulled the drill toward the dental chair and sat
down to polish the false teeth. He seemed not to be thinking about what he was doing, but
worked steadily, pumping the drill with his feet, even when he didn't need it.
After eight he stopped for a while to look at the sky through the window, and he saw two
pensive buzzards who were drying themselves in the sun on the ridgepole of the house next
door. He went on working with the idea that before lunch it would rain again. The shrill voice
of his eleven year-old son interrupted his concentration.