Kaitlyn and the Tooth Fairy
On Saturday morning, while seven-year-old Kaitlyn was walking to the store for milk, she found a quarter on the sidewalk. Looking at the coin, she thought of the Nun who ran the orphanage where she lived. Sister Louise would want her to put the quarter in the collection basket on Sunday. But in front of the store was a gumball machine. Whenever Kaitlyn passed the store, she wished she had money to buy a piece of gum. Today she did. Feeling only a little guilty, she walked up to the machine, put the quarter into the slot and turned the handle. Feeling excited, she opened the candy door and immediately jumped back. What she saw in the tray was not the gumball she expected, but a human tooth. As she stood looking at the tooth, her feelings of revulsion passed and were replaced by curiosity. Walking back to the machine she reached into the tray, took the tooth, and then held it up to examine it closer. Something about it was very familiar.
Two days earlier, Kaitlyn had lost her first tooth. It had happened while she was eating lunch. She had taken the tooth to the girl’s room, washed it off, wrapped it in a tissue and put it in her pocket. She had hoped to prove Sister Louise wrong by leaving the tooth under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy. Sister Louise was a conservative Catholic and had told the girls, “There is no such thing as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. The only magic in this world are the miracles that God performs.”
But Kaitlyn could not help but believe there were many types of magic.
When she had returned to her room that day, she reached into her pocket for the tooth, but found her pocket empty. Reaching deeper, she found a hole in the bottom of her pocket where the tooth must have fallen through. She started to cry just as Sister Louise was walking past her room.
“What’s the matter Kaitlyn? Why are you crying?”
“I lost my tooth.”
Sister Louise looked into Kaitlin’s mouth and saw the gap between her teeth. Misunderstanding why Kaitlyn was upset she said, “Don’t cry. Everyone loses their teeth. Soon a new one will grow in its place. Now go wash up for dinner.”
Kaitlyn did as she was told and, even though she stopped crying and hid her feelings, she was still upset about the loss.
As she looked at the tooth from the gumball machine, she couldn’t help but think this was her tooth. But how would it have gotten into the machine? she wondered.
Remembering the hole in her pocket and not wanting to lose this tooth, Kaitlyn clenched it tightly in her fist and walked back to the orphanage. She went into the girl’s bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she held the tooth to the gap in her mouth.
The tooth was the right size and color. Could it really be the tooth she lost? she thought. Walking back to her room she wasted no time putting the tooth under her pillow.
Kaitlyn had trouble falling asleep that night. She kept feeling under her pillow, always finding the tooth. Finally, close to midnight, she fell asleep.
The next morning as she slowly woke, she remembered the tooth. She lifted her pillow and found the tooth was gone. In its place was a shiny new quarter. She smiled, feeling sure that, not only had the Tooth Fairy come and left the quarter, but somehow had arranged for her to get the tooth she lost back by putting it into the gumball machine.
The joy she felt came spilling out and she laughed and cried at the same time. With a big smile on her face, she got out of bed and started to dress for church.
During the Mass, when it was time for collection, Kaitlyn dropped the quarter into the basket, believing it was the right thing to do. As Mass ended, and Kaitlyn walked toward the exit, she looked up toward the ceiling and thought she saw a fairy looking creature, its wings flapping to keep it aloft, smiling down at her.
She smiled back believing that Gods miracles came in many different forms.
