Tooth Fairy Hotline

So as a parent sometimes you must think fast on your feet. It was September of 2013 and my daughter had pulled her very first tooth. Not lost, pulled and there is a difference. It sort of stands as a rite of passage for getting more mature and growing up to pull one’s own tooth. My wife and I sang her praises as she was indeed “a big girl now.” After all she did not even cry which again is a monumental feat for a seven-year-old. We were in my Uncles Dental office when she pulled it out, which was the perfect place really. After applying a little gauze, she was proudly going to every patient and employee presenting her tiny perfect little white baby canine to the world. It was a big moment for her, and everyone she showed asked her the same question, “How much is the tooth fairy going to bring you!”

Excited of the prospects of a crisp Lincoln under the pillow my daughter was eager to get home. I loaded her and her brother into the car and drove to our home. As we traveled up the pea gravel driveway, I could hear gleeful conversations in the car seats and boosters behind me. Dreams of what five dollars would bring into her life. A small toy? Pokémon cards? My little pony figures? All these things made possible by her courage and strength as a “big girl,” pulling one of her own baby teeth. I unloaded the two kids from the car seats and led the way as we moved toward the front door as the fresh tiny gravel pieces crunched under our feet. I had just had fresh gravel delivered and it was thick, crunchy and very white. Suddenly I heard a heart stopping, blood curdling scream from behind.

I turned quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid the explosion of sobs now issuing from my daughter. I plead with her to tell me what is wrong? Where does it hurt? But she cannot respond, she is so distraught. As I look her over for wounds, cuts, or blood I see her outstretched empty hand. She had dropped her tooth in the gravel. In the white pea gravel, her white canine tooth was somewhere between her position and the truck in the, I cannot stress this enough, white fresh pea gravel. Soon my five-year-old son and I are on our hands and knees scouring every single piece of gravel picking up every rock and trying to remember the specific shape of her tooth. Suddenly every white piece looks like a white canine baby tooth as the desperation of the moment builds. During our search her tearful mourning wanes to quite sobbing. But still she cannot join the search, her eyes still filled with tears.

Finally, the odds come into focus, I will never find this tooth. The realization weigh’s heavy on me as I kneel before my precious little girl. I place a reassuring hand on her tiny shoulder. “Honey I am sorry, but we are never going to find that tooth.” I can see the emotions swell as she slowly forms the words, “what about the tooth fairy?” What I said next, I could not tell you where it came from. I always did have a smart remark or clever comment for every situation. I am the type of person who is never at a loss for words for better or worse. I pull my little girl close, embracing her as her tears fall on my shoulder. “I’ll call the tooth fairy hotline and explain the whole thing,” I say reassuringly. I put the two of them back in the car, it was closer than the house and call my wife. She works at the Dental office as a certified dental assistant, the same office where we were just at a mere half hour before. My daughter watches hopeful through the glass as I ask to speak to my wife. My baby girl cannot hear me, but I do my best to project confidence.

I explain the disaster to my wife, telling her that our beautiful girl thinks I am on the phone with the tooth fairy hotline. My wife is my perfect match and with barely a word knows exactly what I need from her. I hang up the phone and open the door to my daughter’s hopeful face. “I got her assistant,” I explain. She tilts her head with a quizzical expression. “She said the tooth fairy will call us right back,” I explain, and she settles back hopeful in the seat. Then the phone rings.

I put my daughter on the phone where the tooth fairy (my wife’s close friend at work) comforts my daughter. Her face brightens, her eyes wide as I watch the realization come to her face. She is on the phone with the tooth fairy! She giggles wiping the tears and taking one last large sniffle. She returns the phone to me satisfied that everything will be okay. To this day I am grateful for the dedicated people at the tooth fairy hotline whose fantastic service and quick turnaround saved the day and kept me from having the sein a thousand square yards of gravel. When you love your kids, it pays to be a little extra to be creative.