Caught on Camera

This was inspired by a story I heard about an NHS dentist on a council estate being burnt
down by an arsonist and then attacked again when it was rebuilt.  Eventually the dentist
decided to abandon the new practice and to transfer the patients to an existing building
3 miles away.  This is an imaginary account of how such a thing might happen.

Mammy wants to take me to the dentist tomorrow.  I don't want to go.  I can think of one way
to solve the problem.  I've brought a box of matches and a paper notepad to this brand new
dentist's building in the middle of the night.  I'll strike one of the matches.  Ouch.  It's burning
my fingers.  If I can hold on to it just long enough to light the writing pad.  Now the metal wire
that holds the writing pad together is getting hot.  I'll throw it through the letter box.

Next morning we're having breakfast.  Mammy is watching the local news on the television.
There's a picture of the dentist's.  It's a burnt out shell.  Mammy won't be taking me to the
dentist's today.  She is very angry with me for collapsing in a fit of giggles.  It's not funny,
she says, not in the least.  I should think of the million pounds it cost to build the new dentist's.
I should think of all the dentists that will be on the dole.  I should think of all the people in this
town who can't afford a private dentist and eagerly awaited the building of the new NHS dentist.
Now they'll all have toothache, she says.

Another year goes by. I'm a big boy.  I'm 10 now.  There it is.  They've built it again.  It has
risen like a phoenix from the ashes in that book that everyone talks about but that nobody
ever reads.  I'm terrified of the dentist.  I think I have a phobia.  I have heard of a man who
has raging toothache but won't go to the dentist because he is scared.  I'm just as scared.
Mammy will book me an appointment again.  I know what to do.  Matches, notebook, up in
smoke.  I'll stay and watch it this time.  Such a little fire, how quickly it spreads, now it's a
towering inferno that's lighting up the night.  That window's just blown out.  The fire engines
are coming.  It's time I went home now.  As I turn around I notice something on the post
behind me.  Is it a camera?