|
|
|
by Andy Oldfield
Fantasy, 24 pages.
Originally Published in Neo-opsis, 2004
Rate this Story
Bryn wished that he hadn’t said anything. But it was too late now. Camilla let out a heavy sigh and slowly turned her head away from the TV. ‘Tooth fairy! How old are you?’ she said, sounding more like his teacher than his sister. It was irritating when she tried to act like a grown-up. She was just eight and a half, only a year older than him, but already she was even bossier than their older sister, Emma.
‘Oh forget it,’ he said. Not that he expected her to. Not after he’d interrupted ER.
‘It’s simple,’ Camilla said. ‘There is no such thing as the tooth fairy. Only a baby would ask.’
‘But dad...’ Bryn started to say.
‘And if dad tells you there is such a thing, you can bet that there isn’t. He’s worse than any kid, he’s absolutely mad.’
‘But...’
‘Isn’t it time you went to bed?’
Ambulance sirens blared from the television and Camilla swivelled back to it, leaving Bryn with his thoughts. He pressed his tongue into the space where his tooth had been before it fell out. The gap seemed massive. He put his hand in his pocket and felt the bumpy outline of a tooth wrapped up in a tissue parcel. It felt far too small to fit into the hole his tongue was exploring.
He ran his tongue along the back of his upper teeth until he got to the last one on the left-hand side. As his tongue rested on it, the tooth moved forwards. He pressed a little harder and felt it move even more. It seemed to swing about a mile forwards, and then when he let go of it, it snapped a mile back again.
When a tooth wobbled like that, it meant it wouldn’t be long before it came out – Bryn was becoming an expert on losing teeth. If it came out before the weekend, he’d have enough money to buy the comic book he’d been drooling over in the shop.
The living room door swished open and a man’s deep voice boomed out. ‘Medical shows. Junk,’ said dad. ‘Robin Hood’s on the other side. Where’s the remote?’
Bryn saw his sister trying to slide it under the sofa. ‘There it is dad,’ he pointed and smirked as Camilla scowled at him.
Dad picked up the remote, and zapped the medics into oblivion. A mist-shrouded forest filled the screen. A horned figure loomed out of the mist and approached a kneeling bowman. ‘More like it,’ said dad.
When the adverts came on he and his dad had a sword fight with imaginary magical swords. Camilla yawned loudly and left the room.
In the bathroom, with the smell of soap and hot water in his nose and the taste of toothpaste in his mouth, Bryn brushed his teeth. He was gentle with the wobbly one though – it wasn’t ready to come out just yet. Another day or two, then it would be ready to go under his pillow at night. In the morning it would be gone – a shiny silver coin taking its place.
Sitting up in bed, Bryn looked out of the window. The moon was bright and larger than any silver coin he’d ever seen. Every now and then dark shapes flitted across it. The smaller shapes were probably bats, he thought. The big one was definitely an owl.
He clutched the tooth that had come out during the day, held it up against the moonlight. ‘I’m going to stay awake,’ he said. ‘I’ll find out the truth. Is it dad or the fairies giving me the money?’ He feared his sister might be right, the ‘tooth fairy’ being his dad. Not that his dad had ever shown any signs of sprouting wings and flying round the garden. He hoped Camilla was wrong.
As he thought about it, he felt his head flopping forward until his chin rested on his chest. The tooth slipped out from between his fingers and bounced onto the carpet next to a squadron of plastic space soldiers and a purple dinosaur with two heads. Thoughts began to swirl through his mind. Animals and creatures from his favourite cartoons shows seemed to dance before his eyes as he struggled to keep them open. I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute, he yawned to himself.
When he noticed that his room was flooded with sunlight, he blinked and looked around. Then he remembered that he was supposed to have stayed awake. The tooth had gone and in its place on the carpet was a silver coin on top of a medium-sized yellow square of paper. Bryn scooped them both up, pocketed the money and looked at the paper. Writing sprawled across the paper like a line of blue spiders holding each other’s legs. ‘Thanks for the tooth. It’ll look good polished up as part of the new castle building project.’ It was signed ‘Tooth Faerie’ which Bryn thought looked a bit odd, but he presumed that the tooth fairy knew how to spell its own name.
At the breakfast table, Bryn tried to act cool. He put the money on the table. As Emma and Camilla slopped cereals and milk into dishes and onto the table cloth, they tried desperately to ignore the coin, but eventually Camilla could not contain her curiosity any longer. ‘Where’d you get the money?’ she asked.
‘I got it for my tooth,’ he said, fix -- [End of Preview.]