©2008 by Marie Helen Turner
Tyler had a loose tooth. He wiggled it while he and Lisa-Mom bought fish and fruit and vegetables at Pike Place Market. He wiggled it in the bus on the way to the Seattle ferry terminal. He wiggled it on the ferry boat on the way to Bainbridge Island, and he wiggled it in the car while Lisa-Mom drove home.
Home was a sky-blue house with a sunshine-yellow front door. Tyler helped Lisa-Mom carry the groceries into the kitchen. Cassie and Kailey-Mom came in from the backyard, black streaks on their hands and faces.
“How was the bike ride?” Lisa-Mom asked them.
“Fun!” Cassie said. “My bike chain came loose, and I helped fix it!”
“My tooth is REALLY loose now,” Tyler said. “Lisa-Mom said when it comes out, I should put it under my pillow for the tooth ferry boat.”
Cassie laughed. “Not ferry BOAT,” she said. “Fairy, F-A-I-R-Y. You know, the kind with wings. I bet she’s pretty, with a blue and silver dress that sparkles when she flies. I tried to stay awake to see her both times when one of my teeth came out, but I fell asleep.”
Cassie was two years older than Tyler, and she had lived in three foster homes before Lisa-Mom and Kailey-Mom adopted her, so she thought she knew everything. Tyler had only lived in one foster home, but he’d ridden on ferry boats lots of times since he moved in with his forever family on Bainbridge Island. And he’d never once seen a fairy. He stuck out his chin.
“It’s a ferry BOAT!” he said. “Not a fairy with wings!”
“It is too a fairy with wings!” Cassie said. “Isn’t it, Kailey-Mom?”
Kailey-Mom smiled. “I never stayed awake long enough to find out, either. Did you, Lisa?”
Lisa-Mom shook her head. “No, I didn’t. Mmmm! Those strawberries smell so good my mouth’s watering. Why don’t we wash a few to eat with our lunch and save the rest for dinnertime?”
All afternoon, Tyler wiggled his tooth, and it got looser and looser. At dinnertime, he ate his fish and mashed potato carefully, so he wouldn’t accidentally swallow his tooth. Then, while he was eating a big ripe strawberry dipped in yogurt, his tooth came out!
Tyler poked his tongue in the empty space between his teeth. The gum felt soft, but it wasn’t sore. He showed the tooth to Cassie and his moms. Kailey-Mom took a picture of it, and another one of his gappy smile.
“For your special-day scrapbook,” she said. “Now, wrap that tooth in a tissue and put it under your pillow.”
At bedtime, after baths and stories, Tyler checked to make sure his tooth was still under his pillow. It was. He slid into bed, and Cassie and Lisa-Mom and Kailey-Mom kissed him good night. Tyler wanted to stay awake and see the tooth ferry boat, but his eyes wouldn’t stay open.
The next thing he knew, it was morning. Tyler felt under his pillow. His tooth was gone, and in its place was a tiny blue and silver ferry boat! He ran to show it to Cassie.
“We were both right!” he said. “The tooth fairy brought me a tooth ferry!”
Marie Helen Turner lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband. A retired preschool teacher, she began writing for children while still teaching, and many of her stories and poems have been published in magazines. She has just completed a middle-grade mystery novel, volunteers at an elementary school and as an ESL tutor, and looks forward to exchanging visits with her daughter and her partner and their three adopted grandchildren in California.
