By Pieter Thomassen

While the dental nurse, dressed in a harsh pink trouser suit with a wide white belt and platform shoes, takes him to the dentist chair, Axel left fist tightly grips Virgil Tracey, the Thunderbird 2 pilot. Casually using the foot pedal, dentist Lambermont lowers Axel onto his back, so that the patient resembles an upside down beetle, and can do nothing but study the strip lights attached to the prefab ceiling. Three humming fluorescent tubes, one blue with a white one on either side, cast the surgery in a brutal light. The tired dentist extinguishes his cigarette end on a cake plate, and shoots him a, sweet-smelling grin. From a distance the sound of children’s voices echoes from the Tarcisius schoolyard. Because Axel knows it will all be over on the count of one thousand, he starts counting. Twenty-four. Twenty-five. Twenty-six. ‘Well Axel, I was wondering, were you named after the nephew of this professor who journeyed to the centre of the earth? Well? Jules Verne, isn’t it? I know, you’re not really in a position to answer me back.’ Axel squeezes his eye lids together and a blue spot with a yellow edge appears in his vision. He doesn’t really register the subsequent monologue full of tut-tuts and hissing sounds, unlike the screeching sound which is followed by a lower rumbling when the dental drill exposes the root. Lambermont stretches his back and booms: ‘Here we have the mole! Thunderbirds are GO!’

© Pieter Thomassen
© Translation Holland Park Press

Axel 46 – Axel 45 – Axel 44 – Axel 43 – Axel 42 – Axel 41 – Axel 40 – Axel 39 – Axel 38 – Axel 37 – Axel 36 – Axel 35 – Axel 34 – Axel 33 – Axel 32 – Axel 31 – Axel 30 – Axel 29 – Axel 28 – Axel 27 – Axel 26 – Axel 25 – Axel 24 – Axel 23 – Axel 22 – Axel 21 – Axel 20 – Axel 19 – Axel 18 – Axel 17 – Axel 16 – Axel 15 – Axel 14 – Axel 13 – Axel 12 – Axel 11 – Axel 10 – Axel 9 – Axel 8 – Axel 7 – Axel 6 – Axel 5 – Axel 4 – Axel 3 – Axel 2 – Axel 1