Brenda turned the page over and frowned.

“It’s ten hours straight,” she said.

“Four patients before lunch, six after.

Back-to-back scaling and root planing.”

I reached into my jacket pocket, took out my canvas tool pouch, and unrolled it on the plastic table.

I took out my metal dental scaler and traced the sharp edge of the hook with my thumb while I thought about the heavy schedule.

“I’m used to long days,” I said.