Fairy tales

posted Sun, 08 May 2005

When I pulled into my carport, Julia Claire was in her front yard with her mother. “Miss Class Factotum,” she yelled as she ran toward me. “Look!” She held a box out to me and opened it.

“It’s empty,” I said.

“No it’s not!”

I looked closer. “Oh! You lost your first tooth! Did it hurt?”

Julia Claire shook her head. “Nope.”

“Was there blood?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Did you let your dad pull it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Did you make him beg first?”

Puzzled expression. “No.”

“How are you going to eat without a tooth? You can’t chew your food now. You’ll be like those old Eskimos that someone else has to chew the food for them or else they put them on an ice floe and push them out to sea. Do you think your mom will chew your food for you and then spit it in your mouth?”

Julia Claire answered indignantly, “I’ll eat my own food!”

I looked over at Karen. “So what’s the going rate for a tooth these days?”

She shrugged and said, “A quarter? A nice, new, shiny quarter?”

“Sounds good to me,” I answered. Karen and James fight the battle of having the only grandchild of two sets of grandparents who are determined to spoil Julia Claire rotten.

As they were walking in the house, I yelled, “Careful, Julia Claire! I hear that there were a lot of teeth lost today. I hope the tooth fairy can find you!”

I love having a kindergartner for a neighbor.