Mihret and Her Mysterious Lost Tooth
30+ years ago
The Todd House
Evansville, Indiana
There I was, sitting at the kitchen table in our small house in Evansville. I was eating the last of my Cheerios and planning out the rest of my day without a care in the world. Sesame Street. I had to make sure to watch Sesame Street. And the Death Star was probably going to be blown up. Again. And there was a good chance I was going to wind up playing with some neighbor kids.
It was going to be an epic day. But that wouldn’t have been very much of a surprise. Every day was epic.
As I chugged down the remaining milk from my cereal bowl, I was shocked at what I had discovered. I felt a funny gap in my mouth and poked around with my tongue. Then I finally realized what had happened: I had lost a tooth! The wait was finally over. The tooth was free! I couldn’t wait to put that tooth in my Tooth Pillow for the Tooth Fairy that night. I was going to be rolling in the dough the next morning.
There was one problem. I couldn’t find my tooth. I looked everywhere and it was nowhere to be found. The tooth was gone. Heartbroken, I told mom that I had lost my tooth and couldn’t find it anywhere.
“You probably swallowed it,” she explained. “But that’s OK. We’ll write a note to the Tooth Fairy and explain what happened. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
We did.
And she did.
And all was right with the world.
Easter, 2014
The Ooley Homestead
Mooresville, Indiana
“Mom! Dad! Come in here!” Aly shouted from another room. I couldn’t tell if she was happy or worried. “Mihret lost her tooth!”
After weeks of asking us every five minutes (you think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. She was relentless) when her wiggly tooth was going to come out, Mihret FINALLY lost a tooth! With all that blood on her chin, it sure looks like it was a violent event that caused her to finally lose it. I promise, it wasn’t nearly as exciting. She just kept wiggling it and wiggling it and it finally fell out. She lost her tooth.
No. Really. It was lost.
We looked all over the place for it. It was nowhere to be found. We eventually decided to call off the search and rescue mission and came to the conclusion that she probably swallowed her tooth. Much like my mom did 30+ years ago, Christy swooped in and saved the day.
“We’ll write a note to the Tooth Fairy when we get home. I’m sure she’ll understand,” she said.
And so they did. Mihret dictated the note. Christy wrote it. Mihret signed it and they put it in the Tooth Pillow that Christy used when she was giving her tooth offerings to the Tooth Fairy.
The Tooth Fairy more than willingly accepted this offering. And she left Mihret a $5 bill, the going rate in the Todd household for a first lost tooth. Fortunately, she remembered to make the switch this time.
Epilogue
That other tooth that she refers to in the note is pretty wiggly. It’s ready to come out. And, just like with the first one, she’s asking when it’s going to come out. But she doesn’t stop there.
“I’m gonna CATCH IT this time!”
I wonder if I should do something like this to help make sure she does catch it this time…
Of course, if I did that, I’d be able to knock out #88 and #89 on My List. I think I may be on to something here.
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Today’s Tooth Fairy sure pays a lot better than when I was a kid. lol 🙂
Yeah. Same here.
The first tooth has always cost a bundle. And part of the reason why is because the other two lost their first teeth at Papaw’s house. I guess the Tooth Fairy feels more generous when she’s visiting that house.