Like Pulling
Teeth
By Claire Smith
"Got it!" Eric
held up the prize. In the playground, a crowd of first- graders
closed in to look.
"Gross, look at the
blood! Does it hurt?"
"My sister tied a
string round her tooth and made me tie the other end to the door
and slam it," he explained. "The tooth flew right across
the room!" one of the smaller boys exclaimed.
"Liar! That wouldn't
work," a tall girl scoffed. "The only way is grab and
pull."
A small shy girl sighed.
Sara was the last person in Grade One to lose a tooth. Everyone
she knew was losing teeth. Her nine-year-old sister Becky had
lost tons, her classmates had lost tons and even Sara's grandpa
had lost tons. He said the tooth fairy had taken them all. Sara
wasn't sure if she believed him.
At Sara's house, each tooth
was worth a whole dollar. Sara could spend a dollar on a delicious
fruit-shaped eraser. Sara could spend a dollar on Barbie stickers.
No! Sara would spend a dollar on Grandpa's birthday present.
For the last month, Sara
kept her room tidy, and saved three dollars for Grandpa's birthday
present. Grandpa liked useful presents. Sara wanted to get him
a flashlight key chain. It was four dollars at the hardware store,
so she still needed another dollar.
Sara flopped in her seat
in the noisy classroom and tried wiggling her teeth. Slowly, she
worked her way around. Nothing! Then her heart jumped. A bottom
front tooth moved, just a tiny bit, but it wiggled.
At recess, she ran to the
washroom to pull out her tooth. A thread in her skirt had been
tickling her. She tugged on it and a small piece broke off. It
was too short to reach the door, but Sara leaned over the cold
white sink and looped the thread around her tooth. It wasn't easy;
everything was backwards in the mirror.
She wrapped the thread around her finger and counted, "One,
two, three... Owww!"
Sara looked at her reflection; her tooth was still there. Like
lobster claws, she locked her fingers together on the slippery
little tooth. She breathed in and pulled again.
"Owww!" The tooth
wasn't ready.
Through math, through art,
through reading, she pushed with her tongue and pulled with her
finger. She wiggled and twisted and crunched and tugged. It made
her tongue sore and dented in her fingers. The tooth was loosening,
but it didn't come out.
Sara climbed up the dusty
black steps of the school bus. Eric was showing off his tooth
again. "Yeah, I knew it was ready, so I pulled and twisted
it!" he boasted for the hundredth time.
Sara rolled her eyes. Wiggly
teeth weren't all that great. Nobody told her chewing hurts with
wiggly teeth, your tongue hurts with sharp wiggly teeth and all
you can think about are wiggly teeth. Becky told her it lasts
for months. This morning she wanted to pull the tooth, this afternoon
Sara wished it had never moved.
"How was school?"
Mom asked, creaking open the screen door.
"Okay," Sara
said, looking down at her scuffed black sandals.
"What's wrong, honey?"
Mom asked.
"Wiggly tooth,"
Sara mumbled.
"That's good isn't
it?" Mom chuckled.
Sara went inside. "How
do you know when a tooth's ready to come out?" she asked
Becky, who was staring at the TV.
"A tooth's ripe when
it makes a sucking sound and you can move it with your tongue.
Why?" Becky said, still staring at the TV.
"No reason."
Sara replied.
"You can't have a
loose one, you're just a baby!" Becky said, looking at Sara
with her eyes narrowed.
"We're going shopping
for Grandpa's present tomorrow," Mom said at supper.
"What's for dessert?"
Becky asked, poking the vegetables on her plate.
"Sorry girls, I didn't
have time. Have some fruit."
"Yuk!" Becky
pulled one of her faces.
Sara reached for a perfect
speckled Granny Smith apple. These were her favorite. She crunched
into it. It was nice and sour.
"Mom! Look at Sara!"
cried Becky.
Sara quickly swallowed.
She felt a gap with her tongue. "Oh no! I swallowed my tooth!"
she cried.
"Don't panic!"
said Mom. "Maybe you didn't swallow it."
"It's not on the floor,"
mumbled Becky from under the table.
Sara looked down; her apple
was bloody. "My tooth's stuck in it," she said, surprised.
Sara couldn't wait for bedtime. She tried to watch TV, she tried
to read a story, she tried to play on her swing. Still it wasn't
bedtime. When Sara put her shiny tooth under her pillow and got
into bed, it was still light. In the morning, she woke and heard
birds singing. Then Sara remembered. She thundered downstairs
with her crisp dollar bill.
"The tooth fairy's
taken my tooth. Can we get Grandpa's present?"
Dr. Claire Smith
is a full-time dentist in Lucknow, Ontario, Canada. She has
caused the tooth fairy to visit on numerous occasions.
