Yesterday a young relative on FB posted about almost being asleep when suddenly remembering the Tooth Fairy was supposed to visit. It reminded me of our own debacle many years ago.
I had put in a 14 hour day at the barn, cleaning stalls, working colts, teaching and foaling out a mare. It was just one of those days, and as always, followed by fixing dinner and doing dishes for the family. I had a couple of glasses of wine and fell fast asleep.
My oldest son woke me in the morning, distraught because his tooth remained under his pillow. Still groggy, I did my best to assure him that while rare, it was not an unheard of occurrence and he need only leave the tooth under his pillow and surely all would be made right.
Low and behold, that very afternoon, he got home from school and came running out of his room with an envelope in one hand and a note in the other. With incredulity he told me “There was a UNICORN!! IN. THIS. HOUSE!!!!”
The envelope had tiny little unicorn hoof prints and the note, written in very tiny script, explained that while heading to our house in the wee hours of the morning, a gust of wind blew the dollar out of her hand and underneath the troll’s bridge. It required the services of the mouse king and his army to get the dollar back. The skirmish took such a long time that the sun was high and it was very dangerous for her to travel. A unicorn kindly offered to fly her to his room, as the crows out back were surely planning to do her physical harm.
He was so excited and happy. Things had turned out so much better than if she had simply slipped in like usual and traded his tooth for a little money…or so I thought.
The following day I got a call from the Principal’s office. Apparently Matt had gotten in a fist fight in class with another student.
Unbeknownst to me, he had taken the note for show and tell, excited to share this knowledge and experience with the rest of the kids. (a trait he was known for. He once lugged a mare's afterbirth to school in a feed bucket) One of the kids challenged Matt and said there was no Tooth Fairy. To which he replied “Yes there is, isn’t there Mr ________?” His teacher hemmed and hawed and the fight began.
Remember well, the old saying, “oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”
One more reason I hate public education. Stupid peers.
A bread blog will be forthcoming.
Oh Kim, you gave me the biggest laugh this morning! I'm sorry Matt got in trouble for fighting, but I bet with hindsight he treasures that story!
ReplyDeleteWhen two of our daughters were 4 and 5, my 7 year-old son helped me perpetuate the story that their dolls in their dollhouses were Borrowers. They were so thrilled, though of course could never catch the Borrowers in the act of borrowing because as soon as a human stirred, they froze stiff & pretended to be dolls. They were loving the whole thing until their same-age, sophisticated cousins were about to visit. When I heard the 5 year-old exclaim that she couldn't wait to tell her cousins that their dolls were really Borrowers, I realized we had to fess up. Yes, what a tangled web! Thanks for sharing your great story--much better than bread!
Funny the things kids make us do!
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