Buck, The Tooth Fairy : The Story Behind those Buck$
“Hey, you guys!”
“Hey, you guys!”
Daddy sat straight up in bed. “Who is that calling us?” he thought!
And then he thought, “Was somebody really calling us?”
He sat there in bed, trying not to wake Mom, listening.
“Pssst…,” Daddy heard. Very softly. Coming from the hallway. “Come ‘ere!” He couldn’t see anything though. Slowly, he got up and went to the bedroom door.
As he got closer to the door, he heard, “Dad, we gotta talk.”
Dad was befuddled! That’s when he saw a tiny spark of light sitting on the railing of the stairs.
“We gotta talk – now!” the light said. And when it spoke, it got a little bit bigger. So did Daddy’s sleep-filled eyes. He was looking at a very tiny guy in a green jogging outfit. He wore a cool cap with an itty-bitty flashlight kind of thing on top.
“Who – what – who are you?” he said softly.
“You don’t know?” the sparky little fellow asked.
“I’m a little bummed by that,” he said.
Each time the spark spoke, it seemed to grow a little bigger. That’s when Daddy recognized The Voice. It was coming from the Tooth Fairy!
The little guy wasn’t much bigger than Daddy’s thumb. But it was definitely him.
“Whoa! You’re the Tooth Fairy!? I’ve never seen you in real life before! What’s going on? Why do we need to talk?” asked Daddy, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“And by the way, aren’t you supposed to be a girl?”
“Well, you see….it’s like this…”
And the Tooth Fairy started to explain things to Daddy.
His story went like this.
First, the Tooth Fairy told Daddy that his name was Buck. “You know,” he giggled, “like ‘buck teeth’ or like a couple bucks under the pillow.”
He went on to explain that he was one of several Tooth Fairies, boys and girls. He said that with all the kids losing all their teeth all the time, it was more than one fairy could handle.
That, Buck said, was why the fairies divvied up all the kids by either family or neighborhood. He also explained that it was usually better for the boy fairies to go into boys’ rooms, and for girl fairies to go into girls’ rooms at night.
“That makes good sense,” Dad replied. “But what do we need to talk about?” he asked.
So, Buck started to explain.
Buck reminded Dad that he had been to their house several time in the last few weeks. “Your little guy is losing a lot of teeth lately!”
That was fine and natural, but it was taking a lot of time. There had been a couple days when Buck didn’t get the news of another lost tooth until it was almost too late.
“Can you try to make sure that any more teeth come out earlier in the day so that I get my orders for that night?” Buck asked. Dad didn’t know that he had any options to get loose teeth out earlier, but he said that he’d try.
“You can always do the string-and-doorknob trick if you see ‘em getting loose,” Buck suggested. Dad nodded but knew that he would probably not do that! Probably.
Buck went on. “And by the way,” he added, “try to not have him lose any more for a while. If many more come out, he won’t be able to chew anything! That wouldn’t be good. He is growing, and…
He’s gotta eat!”
Then Buck told Dad something which Daddy had not thought about before. When his son lost his first tooth, Buck had slipped a $2 bill under his pillow.
A $2 bill! That was special!
Buck explained that he sometimes dropped off quarters, or $.50 pieces.
Usually, it was $1 bills. Only truly special kids got $2 bills. He was happy to know a guy like the kid in this house, so Buck had slipped a couple extra into Daddy’s car for the future – just in case he got notified too late to come some night. Buck asked Daddy if he had found the extra ones. Dad said yes, and he thanked Buck for the special dollars.
“Oh, and another thing,” Buck added. “I don’t carry cards.”
Dad’s sleepy head looked up, and a quizzical expression spread over his face.
“Huh?”
Buck explained that a lot of people don’t carry much cash anymore. Some kids have never seen real money.
He said that some families actually asked for gift cards for their kids’ teeth! Buck was happy to see that this family understood real money and knew that his $2 bill was different and special.
He was also happy to see the piggy bank in the boy’s bedroom. Buck knew that Daddy and Mommy were teaching their kids some good lessons.
Daddy thanked Buck yet again.
“Oh, one more thing,” Buck added again. “Grandpa.” To which Daddy again replied, “Huh?”
This time, Buck told Daddy that, usually, old guys don’t find anything under their pillows if they lose teeth. “They’re, um, you know — old. They’ve usually forgotten about all us Tooth Fairies. Sad, but good for us with all those kids out there.” Buck went on to say that he did slip a $1 under Grandpa’s pillow though, for old time’s sake.
This was a lot to take in in the middle of the night. Daddy wasn’t sure if he’d remember it all in the morning.
“One last thing,” Buck said for the last time. “It won’t be long until it’s your daughter’s turn. You son has a couple more to come out, but your daughter hasn’t even started yet! It’s going to be so much fun to slip rewards under HER pillow. It won’t be me, though, when that starts. It’ll probably be Sherri – Sherri Fairy. (Get it?! Share-y?)
She does most of the girls in your area.”
Dad thanked Buck for that heads-up. Then he added, “I appreciate everything you’ve done for the kids. But I do have a question for you, though. I have always wondered. What do you guys do with all those teeth you gather up?”
“Ah,” said Buck. “That both easy and hard to answer. For now, I’ll just give you the short version.”
Buck went on to explain that sometimes, moms and dads want to keep those teeth. They became souvenirs from when their kids were young. Some of the teeth were given to dentists just in case kid lost a tooth too soon and needed a replacement.
The last thing Buck told Daddy was that other times the tooth fairies would take them back to their tooth factory, polish and shape them up, and make some nice gifts – like bracelets or necklaces. Earrings, too. Buck said that they were all really quite nice and didn’t look at all like teeth anymore.
Then some of the fairy folks would sell them at markets, fairs, and places like that. He added that, nowadays, they were doing a lot more online sales, too. They invest the money they make so that they have enough to put all those dollars under kids’ pillows!
Dad was totally surprised. All he could say was, “Who knew?!”
“Well, I’m done here for tonight,” Buck said in closing. “Anything I can do for you before I go?”
Dad shook his head. “No, thank you.”
And with that, Buck’s light shrank back down to a tiny spark, flitted around the room, down the stairs and disappeared.
Daddy went back and climbed into bed.
The next morning, the kids jumped onto their parents’ bed. “Wake up!” they both shouted! Mom and Dad opened their groggy eyes and smiled!
“How are you guys this morning?” they asked at the same time.
“We’re great! We’re hungry!” And with that, they ran toward the kitchen.
Before she got up to fix breakfast, Mom rolled over and said to Dad, “You still look sleepy. How did you sleep last night?”
Dad said, “Oh, I slept fine. I had a strange dream, though, I think. I just can’t remember what it was about!”
Then he added, “Let me chew on it for a while. Maybe something will spark my memory!”
Then Mom and Dad heard their little boy call from downstairs,
“Hey Guys, I have another lose tooth!”
