WILL THE FAIRY COME?

‘Will the fairy come?’

‘Yes dear.’

‘But I lost it.’

‘It’s here only dear. Fairy will find it out and take it with her... Now you sleep.’ He believed my words and calmly went to sleep.

A few days ago we were overjoyed to come to the realisation that a new stage in the growth of our child had begun. The little one’s front tooth was moving. It was a fancy for him to show everyone his dangling tooth until the painful process followed. The mission was set to uproot it. We came up with many plans. As a matter of fact it is the custom to remove the old one to give way to the new one. So his sister suggested him to bite on a big apple. This is how she took her first tooth. But he said even the carrots in the curry were hurting his tooth. So the plan didn’t work. Then his father came up with his story. He asked him to move his tooth back and forth gently with his fingers. This is the way he used to pull his tooth out. In the course of time the tooth will come out without spilling a single drop of blood. And no pain. But our little hero was not ready to open his mouth. It seemed a hard nut to crack.

 At last I came with my story, though it was a fake one. I said, ‘Let’s tie a small thread on to your shaking tooth. The thread will hang out and you can lightly pull on it whenever you wish. And you don’t have to open your mouth either.’ It seemed he was somewhat convinced by my story. He went to take a thread. By that time his friend came there. Seeing the thread in his hand an idea popped into his friend’s mind. And he was kind enough to share his plan with our little hero. His friend explained to him, ‘To put it simple, you have to tie one end of the thread to the tooth and the other end to the door. There you go. Just shut the door.’ Hearing this our little hero started to cry. He ran inside and fell on to the bed with a thud. We never thought that it would become a disaster and sent his friend away. Without knowing what to do we all ran to the room. But we came out of the room with flying colours. The tooth lost the battle and it just dropped out of his mouth. There lay his tooth on the bed. By the force of that great fall his tooth came out, since it hit against the pillow. And our hero was happy too.

He was running around with his little milk tooth. Ever since his tooth started moving his sister had fantasized him with the stories of tooth fairy, who comes at night to collect the teeth of children from under the pillow and leaves a small gift in exchange. So he had been keeping his tooth clean, only then the tooth fairy would take his tooth and leave him wonderful gifts. He was waiting for the nightfall. He kept his tooth under the pillow. So the fairy could come and take it with her without any trouble. He was taking it every now and then to see whether it is clean. Out of luck once he slipped it from his hand. It fell on the floor and disappeared. The poor child searched it till night but couldn’t find it. Very tired and sad he went to bed. But he was unable to sleep. He asked me.

‘Will the fairy come?’

‘Yes dear.’

‘But I lost it.’

‘It is here only. Fairy will find it out and take it with her and will leave you the gift for keeping the tooth clean. Now you sleep.’ He believed my words and calmly went to sleep.

 Later I took the packet of chocolates his father brought to present him for removing his first little milk tooth. We wrapped it with a nice gift paper and kept it under his pillow. The next morning when he woke up he couldn’t believe his eyes. He came running to us showing the fairy’s gift. Buzzing with happiness he called his sister to open the gift pack. And they found in it their best-loved chocolates. We could see two bright white shining smiles; but one with a little gap.

Later one day I was surprised to see something in his cupboard. It was that very same wrap of the gift he got that day. He had kept it safely in his cupboard as a token of love. But little did the boy know who the real tooth fairy was!