It’s the end of the day for Joy and the end of a long dream for Justin. Justin rarely gets to tuck Joy in and tell her a story, but today he did.
Suzy and I sit in our living room when he walks in.
“Is she asleep?” Suzy asks.
He nods and sits on the sofa next to Suzy. I look at him from my Archie Bunker Chair.
He holds out his closed fist and opens it.
“What’s that?” I lean in. It’s really small.
“It’s her tooth,” Suzy nods, not needing a second look. “She gave it to you?”
“She made it permanent,” he says. “When I disappear, you take this and you keep it in a jar or something.”
Suzy nods again. Justin leans back. “She told me she didn’t want to show it to me the whole day.”
“But why?” I ask. “She was dying to get all her teeth knocked out of her mouth to see the Tooth Fairy.” This is what I’ve seen her do, after all, for the last two and a half years.
“It’s her last tooth,” Justin says, his voice full of emotion. “I didn’t think about that. It’s the last time she gets to have an adventure with the Tooth Fairy. She’s growing up,” and suddenly he finds it hard to talk and looks aside. He wipes a tear from his eye.
Suzy holds his arm. “They grow up. You two grew up. It’s what kids do.”
“It was just the two of us in my dream, Mom. Now she’s a kid in a world full of dreams. And now she’ll be a teenager in the Dream. Then an adult in the Dream. How will she live like that? It’s not fair!”
We all fall into silence, thinking.
Suddenly, Justin bursts out crying. “She’s going to leave me, Mom. She’s going to leave.”
He leans in and Suzy hugs him. “She will, son. She will. But not for a few years yet. Not for a few years yet.”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt