Saturday, December 03, 2011

Lauren Elizabeth Stewart

Me: Lauren you are not going to sleep with us tonight. You are going to sleep in the other room that used to be your mother’s.

Lauren: Yes because I have to be in my own bed. The tooth fairy is coming tonight.

Me: Really? When did you lose your tooth?

Lauren: Yesterday afternoon.

Me: Why didn't she take your tooth and leave you something? Did you forget to put it under your pillow?

Lauren: No, but Daddy says that once when he was little the tooth fairy did not come for five days. I think she was busy last night.

Me: I don’t think she was busy. I think she just forgot.

Lauren: The tooth fairy never forgets.

Me: Besides I don’t think she is coming tonight because you didn’t tell her you were sleeping over. She will go to your house, not find you, and if she is as inefficient, as I think she is, she will leave something under the pillow for your sister.

Lauren: She never makes mistakes because she is magic.

Me: How do you know she is magic? Have you ever seen her?”

Lauren: No, she is so tiny that nobody can see her.

Me: That doesn’t sound right to me. Where does she live?

Lauren: She lives in a castle in the sky.

Me: Does she have a moat around it with crocodiles?

Lauren: (Laugh, laugh). Of course not! And her castle is invisible.

Me: What does she bring you?

Lauren: She leaves me money?

Me: Where does she get it from?

Lauren: (giggle, giggle) She already has it and she keeps it in her castle.

Me: What does she do with the teeth?



Lauren: She makes necklaces.

Me: I don't think so. I think that with the scarcity of elephant ivory they use your teeth to make piano keys.

Lauren: That's silly, they can't make piano keys from our tiny teeth!

Me: How does she get to the houses she visits?

Lauren: She flies.

Me: In an airplane?

Lauren: (giggle, giggle) Of course not! She flies without an airplane. She is magic.

Me: I don’t think she knows you are here so she is not going to come.

Lauren: Tooth Fairy, I am spending the night with my grandparents at 5909 Athlone Street.

Me: I hope for your sake that she will come.

Lauren: She will. You're asking me too many questions!




Addendum: I really did not want to upset my granddaughter Lauren, 9, by telling her that in the Southern Hemisphere we have Ratón Perez (he is a mouse) who exchanges teeth for money. I didn't tell Lauren that with all the Spanish we speak here at Athlone Street there is a chance that the Tooth Fairy and Ratón Perez are currently fighting it out to determine whose territory it is.