Out and In

THE JAR

 

With a little smile and a bright red apple Mama wakes me from my afternoon nap. As she goes back down the stairs, I shine the apple on the edge of my bed sheet. It looks pretty and inviting. I sit on the edge of the bed and take a big bite, let the sweet juice run down my chin. It is so good I take another bite, look at the apple and it is red inside too. 'Ma,' I cry out. 'Help!' Not waiting for her, I run downstairs barefooted, wearing only my underpants. She isn't in the kitchen so must be in the bathroom. I try the door but it is locked. 'Mama, Mama,' I call her again.

 

The fast click of the lock opening calms me a little tiny bit. 'Sheila, what's wrong?' I blurt it out. 'Look, at the blood on my apple. My whole mouth is bleeding. Help me.' Ma looks in my gaping mouth and laughs out loud. 'Sheila, you are growing up. Your loose front tooth is missing. Your new one is already showing. Do you have the baby tooth?' 'No, Mama. ' We go back to my bedroom to look for it but can't find it. 'Don't worry, Sheila. It will come out by itself.' Ma, it can't. You just don't want to tell me but I bet Daddy will. I'll have to have my insides cut open. Right?' 'Wrong, Honey.' She brings me a piece of chocolate candy, the kind I sometimes sneak out of the medicine cabinet. In fact, she gives me two pieces and tells me to let the Ex Lax melt in my mouth. They taste very good and I ask for anther piece. Mama says, 'No. The candy will spoil your appetite.'

 

I throw the rest of the apple into the garbage can and go to get dressed for the afternoon games with my friends. 'Wear your new red beach pajamas today. Aunt Mollie told me Roz will wear her blue ones like yours. Maybe you can be partners in the hopscotch tournament.' As soon as I show her how pretty I look, Mama takes me downstairs to Daddy's waiting room. When Mrs. Frank, our butcher's wife comes out, of the office, Mama takes me in.
Look, Bob. Sheila lost her first baby tooth. I think she swallowed it. Her other one is loose too. Daddy lifts me onto his patient chair, pumps it up as high as it can go, and let's me down slowly until I am just where he wants me. 'Open your mouth all the way, Sweetheart. Daddy won't hurt you.' He waves his arms and loudly says, 'Open Sesame.' I feel him jiggle the loose tooth. 'Oh, Daddy, can I have it? Please let me have it.' He jiggles it again. I blink and he shows me the tooth in the palm of his hand. 'Please,' I ask again, 'can I have it?' Daddy says no and tells me to put it under my pillow. 'Maybe the Tooth Fairy will come get it and leave you a present.' Of course, I do that after I finish my prayers. In the morning the tooth is gone and a shiny quarter is in its place.

 

Wearing my new red beach pajamas I go outside to play. I show everybody how ugly my mouth looks. They make fun of me. Ira wants another look. He puts his finger in my mouth and tells me not to bite him. After he feels the empty space he asks me to feel the new teeth with my tongue. Ira is right. I do feel the new ones.

 

Supper time, before Jack Benny comes on at seven o'clock, I ask Daddy what the tooth fairy is going to do with my teeth. I know he hears me but gives no answer. I ask him every day until he gets angry and tells me to leave him alone. 'Daddy, look at my new tooth. It looks too big to me.' He is really angry and tells me he looks at teeth all day, every day, and doesn't want to see mine at supper.

 

In the morning my daddy looks happier. He holds both of my arms and swings me twice around his body. I feel dizzy. Daddy says, 'Come with me. I have a surprise for you.' He leads me to the locked door of his special room that he says is his laboratory. It's a room nobody can go in except Barney who comes in every Saturday morning. I watch him take the key to the door out of his back pants pocket, turn it and the door opens slowly. He shows me a long table that has false teeth he is making for patients. They look like Halloween teeth to me. There is a tray with pieces of gold he is going to melt for fillings. Cabinets something like his office ones have things in cups, glasses, little black boxes. He gets a small ladder and reaches the middle door, takes out something he hides behind his back. 'Sit down here, Sheila.' He points to a stool that I can spin around, unless he stops me.

 

'Close your eyes, Darling. Don't open them until I say so.' I close them as tight as I can and hear something that reminds me of when Mama opens a new mayonnaise jar. 'Look, Sheila! Look!' I look and see a big jar that is twice the size ofthe mayonnaise one mama uses. 'Sheila, these are all teeth, teeth I have pulled since I opened this office. 'Here, look at these two. They are special.' He hands me a thin pretty necklace that holds my two baby front teeth in a glass box hanging on a chain. 'Give me a hug, Sheila,' he says. I give him two and a kiss.

 

'Do you know where I got them, Honey? The tooth Fairy gave them to me for you. Now smile for me and let me see how pretty your mouth looks with your new teeth getting longer every day.' I show him.

 

When we go out of his laboratory, he locks the door, tries it to make sure it is safe and never takes me in there again.