When Jimmy was five years old, he lost a tooth. I advised him to place it under his pillow when he went to bed so the tooth fairy would leave him a monetary gift. Jimmy was no dummy, but loved money and although dubious of tooth fairies, put his tooth under his pillow that night anyway. I went to bed much later with plans of getting up in the night and doing the tooth fairy’s job. I forgot!

Jimmy came to me early the next morning complaining that he did not get anything for his tooth. It was as though he was letting me know he knew there was no such thing as tooth fairies. A light bulb flashed and I had what I thought was a unique idea. I got a quarter from my purse, hid it in my hand and assured him that perhaps he just did not see it. He replied that he looked everywhere and there was no money anywhere in his bed.

I took him back to his room and went through the motions of searching. Alas! Miraculously, I found his quarter off to one side of his pillow. I told him he just did not look hard enough to find it. He looked at me with a knowing look and replied “Mama, you put it there. I know there was nothing there when I looked for it.” That ended tooth fairies leaving money for Jimmy’s lost teeth.