I got my white coat and my dentist mirror and then I sneaked to the playroom and got out the sticky tape that is just for wrapping presents and definitely NOT for wasting.
I thought, Dad says sticky tape sticks everything.
I thought, I’ll just use a little bit.
But sticky tape is not really tasty and, also, it sticks your fingers together instead of your teeth.
My fingers would not move.
I thought, this is an emergency.
I thought, SOMEONE should be keeping an eye on me.
I thought, where is that sister of mine?
I called out, “Meg!” in my loudest voice.
Meg came racing up the stairs and burst into the room, all flimmity.
“Mabel!” she said.
“What’s the matter?”
“The thing is,” I told Meg in my calm-in-a-crisis dentist voice. “I’ve had a dental injury.”
I held out my stuck-together fingers and told Meg what had happened.
“Mabel!” said Meg, all breathless.
“You’re not allowed to play with the sticky tape.”
“I know THAT,” I said, all calm in a crisis.
“I haven’t been PLAYING. I do not have time to PLAY.
“I am in the middle of a dentist operation.”
Then I stopped being calm in a crisis and got all hot and stampy.
I shouted, “Can you unstick me please?”
I thought, it’s a good job SOMEONE in this house has their wits about them.
I thought, I wish Meg would get a move on.
Meg took me to the bathroom and she carefully peeled the sticky tape off my fingers and washed my hands with soapy water.
“Mabel,” said Meg. “Have you got a wobbly tooth?”
I shook my head and said, “NO.”
I said, “I am not going to lose any teeth because I’m not keen on the tooth fairy and I don’t even need the money.”
“But Mabel,” said Meg. “When I lose a tooth, the tooth fairy gives me two shiny pounds.
“Think of all the things you could buy with two shiny pounds.
“You could buy stickers and sweets or you could even start saving up for a snake all of your own.”
I thought, I like stickers and I also love sweets and the main thing about me is that I am very keen on having a pet of my own, especially a snake.
I thought, maybe losing a tooth will be OK.
But then I pictured that burglar tooth fairy breaking into my bedroom and sneaking under my pillow and I thought: NO.
I am NOT losing a tooth.
All that week, I tried to hold my tooth in with my tongue and I stuck to food that was easy to chew, like yoghurt and banana.
But my tooth kept on getting wobblier and wobblier and wobblier.
Then at supper time, when it was sausages, my tooth got so wobbly it FELL OUT.
I thought, why do bad things always happen to me, Mabel Chase?
I put my falled-out tooth in my pocket and I did not tell one single person that it had come out.
Then I wrote a letter to the tooth fairy in fairy code.
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Please do not visit me in my bedroom at night when I am all by myself on my own.
Please leave the money on the windowsill.
Please go away.
Love from Mabel Chase
I wrote ‘Please’ and ‘Love from’ so the tooth fairy would think I was a nice, polite girl, even though I wasn’t feeling polite and I wasn’t in a very nice mood either.
That night, I put my falled-out tooth on the windowsill and I stuck the letter on my bedroom window.
I lay in the dark for a long time.
It got very quiet.
Soon it was so quiet, I could hear that tooth fairy flying through the night.
I could hear her breaking into other people’s houses.
I could hear her getting very close to my bedroom window.
I thought, that tooth fairy is a menace.
I thought, why have I been left here all by myself on my own?
I raced to Meg’s room and got into bed with her.
In the morning, Meg came with me to see if the tooth fairy had come.
But my falled-out tooth was still on the windowsill and there was no money either.
I thought, that’s what you get for writing a nice letter.
I thought, now I’ll be tired and grumpy and it’s not even my fault.
But Meg said, “I know what the problem is.
“The tooth fairy only comes if you put the tooth under your pillow.”
I told Meg that I couldn’t do that because I didn’t want to be burgled while I was all alone in my room.
“Well I’m not afraid of the tooth fairy,” said Meg.
“You can put your tooth under MY pillow.”
I thought, that is very sensible of Meg and it is also a good idea.
I said, “But will I get the tooth fairy money or will you?”
Meg gave me a hug. “You’ll get the money, Mabel,” she said.
“Because it’s your tooth.”
And I thought, that is a good point.
The next night Meg put my tooth in a little silk purse and she put the little silk purse under her pillow.
I know this because I checked three times and I made her show me too.
Then I went to bed all happy because I knew the horrible tooth fairy was burgling Meg and not me.
I had a lovely long sleep and in the morning I wasn’t tired or grumpy.
I rushed to Meg’s room and I woke Meg up with one jump.
I said, “Can I have my money now?”
Meg rubbed her eyes and she looked under her pillow and she opened the silk purse and inside were two shiny gold pounds!
“See!” said Meg, handing me the coins.
“I told you the tooth fairy was nice.”
After breakfast, Dad took me to the shops and I felt all skippy.
“I’ve changed my mind about saving up for a snake,” I told Dad.
“I’m going to spend it all at once on lovely things that I love.”
Dad squeezed my hand.
In the shop I chose my favourite sweets and lots of animal stickers and a ball with an alien on it.
But then I spotted a pink
