Brian and the Tooth Fairy
By
Valerie L. Egar
When
Brian lost his first tooth, his father told him to put it under his pillow and
the Tooth Fairy would take the tooth and leave money in exchange. “Why would
she give me money for my tooth?” Brian asked.
“Not
sure,” said Dad, “but that’s what she does.”
“Have
you ever seen her?”
Dad
admitted he hadn’t.
“How
do you know the Tooth Fairy is a ‘she’?”
Dad
laughed. “That’s what my Mom, your Grandma told me.”
That
night, Brian slipped his tooth under the pillow and though he tried to stay
awake to see the Tooth Fairy, he soon fell asleep. When he woke the next
morning he found a quarter.
“Look
what I got!” he yelled.
Every
few months, Brian lost another tooth and slipped it under his pillow for the
Tooth Fairy. In the morning, he always found a quarter, but he still wanted to
know why the Tooth Fairy paid money for teeth.
“She
must have millions of teeth. What does she do with them?”
Dad
spent a few minutes searching. “Seems no one really knows. There’s lots of
different ideas about it.”
“Tell
me, ” asked Brian.
“Here’s
one— she makes necklaces for other fairies from them.”
“Gross,”
said Mom.
“Well,
another one says she turns them into stars.”
“That
doesn’t make any sense,” said Brian.
“Builds
fairy houses from them.”
“We
made fairy houses in school. Fairies like wood, moss, pine cones. Not teeth!”
“Well,
here’s the explanation I like best,” said Dad. “‘It’s a fairy secret!’ See, it
says it right there.” He pointed to the computer screen.
Brian
shook his head. “Maybe she collects them for the same reason you collect coins.
Because she likes them.”
Mom
laughed. “That sounds right to me.”
When
Brian’s Grandmother brought a few shark teeth home from Florida for him, Brian
had another question. Did the Tooth
Fairy collect teeth from other animals or just children?
“Just
children,” Dad said.
“I
think she’d know it wasn’t yours.”
“How
could she tell in the dark?”
“Fairies
can see in the dark.”
“I’m
going to try it.”
“Are
you sure you want to part with your shark’s tooth?”
“Uh
huh. I want to see what happens.”
That
night Brian put the smallest of the shark teeth under his pillow. In the morning,
he felt under his pillow to see if the tooth was still there. It was gone. In
its place, he felt a small can. He lifted his pillow to look. Sardines? Yuk!
Brian
ran downstairs to show his parents. “The Tooth Fairy took my shark’s tooth but
she left a can of sardines instead of a quarter!”
Dad
shrugged. “That’s probably what sharks like best. What would a shark do with a
quarter?”
“I
don’t like sardines.”
“You’re
not a shark. But I’d bet if you leave it under your pillow tonight, she’ll take
it back and leave you the shark’s tooth.”
Brian
slept that night with the can of sardines under his pillow. Sure enough, in the
morning, the shark tooth was back. Brian was happy to see it. He’d decided to start his own collection of teeth—
shark’s teeth! He knew he had a long way to go before he had even half as many
as the Tooth Fairy.
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Copyright 2019 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied, distributed or reproduced without permission from the author.
Published March 2, 2019, Biddeford Journal Tribune (Biddeford, ME)
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