A FAIRY AND A GUN

IT SHOULD HAPPEN BY NOW…. “SHE’S SIX AND TWO DOWN”... 

“Umm, VERY LATE” said all the neighbours and friends…… Worried, we started pulling and pushing but to no avail. “Let me hit it with a sharp toy bhaiya” I rushed before she could club the plastic baseball bat into his face! Phew!! That was a narrow escape.

This is the story of the tooth that would not fall. Two new ones began cropping up behind, but this one in front refused to let his kingdom go! He stood firm like a soldier guarding the boundaries of his Motherland. So firm was he that we had to get expert opinion. Twice!

“Please remove it” cried the anxious mom. “Remove it doc, said the brave boy as he sat in the dentist’s chair. Excited, about his tooth extraction!! However, it was not meant to be. “It’s too early” said the dentist- “But he’s turning 7 in 2 months!”

The dentist smiled and explained about the laws of nature but all I understood was that this tooth needed someone else. Humph!! ” We shall go see that other one who did my root canal treatment.” “Ok mamma!”

The next week we were at another dentist’s clinic. I gave him my sweetest smile with the request to look at my boy’s teeth and please do the needful- i.e. “Pull it Out!” This doctor too believed we were over anxious- “6 months more we can wait” he said. If we waited six months the boy would have two set of teeth- a front layer and the one behind! No way! Time was running out. There was help at hand- Google always knows what to do. Each night we’d try something new to help the tooth loosen up. IT, however, refused to budge.

1 a.m. on a Saturday night after most of the guests had left from the house party. We sat curled up on the sofa with our dessert jars half empty- “Mamma! Mamma!” What happened? I thought the kids were asleep! Furious, I strode out to see who was hitting whom but, outside the bathroom door my anger turned to joy as I looked at the blood stained gap between his lower teeth.

The tooth had come out on its own. “It fell, it fell!  ”Yippee!” We jumped up and down in joy like we’d won a lottery.

“What’s up? “Said the bewildered couple who’d been kind enough to stay back and help with the clearing. Out came the entire tale of the tooth. “Another round of shots! Let’s celebrate!”

Celebrate we did but only till the next morning. There was a wail so loud it could have been the devil howling! Again we rushed to the kids’ room. What had happened that had turned the night’s happiness into despair on a bright Sunday morning?

“The tooth fairy did not come! “.  I kept my tooth under my pillow and it’s still there!! Boo Hoo Hoo!!

Blasted Peppa Pig!

I explained to him as to how would’ve the tooth fairy known that his first tooth had fallen? Just like we write to Santa Claus at Christmas time and ask him for presents, we need to write a letter to the tooth fairy telling her that she must come and visit to take the tooth under the pillow and replace it with a gift.

Wow! Pure Genius! The idea kept the brats busy through the Sunday morning. Writing a letter to the “tooth fairy” was an important mission!

DEAR TOOTH FAIRY. MY FIRST TOOTH FELL ON SATURDAY NIGHT. PLEASE COME AND TAKE IT... IT’S UNDER MY PILLOW. I NEED A NERF GUN. PLEASE, PLEASE TOOTH FAIRY GIVE ME AN “AUTOMATIC” NERF GUN.

“How will the tooth fairy carry the Nerf gun? How will she keep it under my pillow- it will be so big?” Rhetoric and incessant, this tooth fairy fantasy was beginning to turn into a nightmare!

At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning the tooth fairy went sneaking into the one toothless boy’s bedroom

and laid a brand new, glistening orange and white Nerf Gun beside his pillow. She took the letter and the broken tooth from underneath and disappeared.

It was a magical Tuesday when the little boy woke his parents unlike the reverse each morning.

Eyes gleaming and with a smile so wide I thought his mouth would tear- he held out a big plastic gun in his hand. “The tooth fairy came”!!

Nerf gun battles were played all through the week and the tooth fairy story retold to anyone who would care to hear. The fascination was contagious- soon the entire apartment was wishing their teeth would break and fall!

One day as we sat to do homework, with a mischievous toothless smile he says-“Ma, I know you were the tooth fairy”. I just smiled and slipped his tiny hand into mine squeezing it tight. It was a gesture of gratitude. Thank you darling for making me something I never imagined – A

Fairy with A Gun! J