Baby Teeth, Boxed
20250123
Prompt from DailyPrompt.com.
“Mum?”
“Mm?” Polly finished shutting the oven door before turning to her child hovering in the doorway.
“It’s out!” Carlos held up the little ivory lump and gave a wide gappy grin.
“Finally.” Polly grinned back and patted his head. “That one just wouldn’t let go, would it? Let’s put it in the box.”
She opened the latched iron cupboard, extracted the leaded silk pouch, and Carlos skipped behind her as she walked into the living room to The Shelf.
The pouch held a key. The key unlocked the glass doors. The glass doors eased open with a waft of incense and ash.
In the front of the middle of the middle shelf was a pretty heart-shaped pink box. It was embossed to look like a ribbon wrapped around it, but in truth only a little silver latch held it shut.
Polly pulled it out and eased it open so Carlos could drop his tooth inside. Immediately lost and anonymous amongst its crowd of discarded fellows.
“There!” Polly carefully put the box back, checking the latch, then shut The Shelf and locked it. The key went back in the pouch, the pouch would go back in the cupboard, and that would be securely latched too.
“Now the tooth fairy can’t get me.” Carlos patted the side of the cupboard with a grateful gappy grin.
“That’s right.” Polly stooped to kiss his forehead. “We won’t let any fairy get hold of you, poppet.”
Losing one child had been a harsh lesson. Two would be too much to bear.
Prompt was “In a heart-shaped box, a mother keeps her children’s teeth.”