Mollymemoir

The Tooth and the Pliers My eyes fluttered open as the sun seeped through my eyelids. The day began just like any other summer day; little did I know that this feeling of normalcy would not last for much longer. I stretched like a cat, and yawned like a lion. When I closed my mouth something felt out of place, wrong, and then it dawned on me. My tooth was still loose. // Strange that it hasn’t fallen out yet //, I thought to myself as I climbed out of my bed and began preparing myself for the day ahead of me. “Molly!” My mother hollered down the hallway. “Come here!” I finished dressing in a flash and raced into the family room just as my mother was hanging up the phone. “Yes, Mommy?” “Your Grandma just called, and she wants to take you and your cousins to Beef and Boards to see Once Upon a Mattress this evening,” she answered with a smile. “Yay!” I exclaimed like the little girl that I was. “That sounds like so much fun!” I continued bouncing around the room, causing it to shake, as if there was an earthquake. I was a bunny rabbit, hopping into the air and almost hitting my head on the ceiling. “Calm down, Molly,” laughed my mother, “I figured you would be excited.” My mother could not even begin to understand just how excited I was. Despite the fact that since my grandfather passed away, our family spends almost every weekend together, it seemed like it had been forever since I had last seen my cousins, Audrey and Jessica. They lived up in Lafayette so they were not always present at the weekly dinner at Grandma’s. I continued to dance around the family room until my dad walked in. I almost danced right into him. “Daddy, guess what?” I screeched, “Grandma is taking me, Jamie, Jessica, Sherri, and Audrey to the theater to see Once Upon a Mattress!” I counted off each name with my fingers. “That sounds like fun,” he smiled, after a short pause he continued. “Molly, has that tooth of yours fallen out yet?” I shook my head, my eyes downcast. I knew where this conversation was headed. When our teeth didn’t fall out of their own accord, daddy pulled them out with the pliers. He was never fond of tying one end of a string to the tooth and the other to a door knob and then slamming the door. I would have preferred this to the pliers because when they did it in the movies it was seriously funny. But no, daddy had to do the dirty work himself. “I think we should pull out that tooth before you go over to grandma’s house,” he stated with all seriousness. “You know the drill, in the kitchen.” He added pointing in that direction. “But Daddy!” I wailed, following him solemnly into the kitchen. “I don’t like it when you use the pliers. It hurts.” I slammed the pantry door closed with a BANG as I passed by. The delicious aroma of bacon and eggs still lingered in the kitchen as I walked through, causing my mouth to water and my stomach to growl. “Oh, it won’t hurt a bit,” he replied cynically. Tears streaming down my face, I sat at the table, and sniffled, waiting for the inevitable. I watched as the wooden door opened allowing my father and the dreaded pliers access into the house. I sprung from my seat and backed away from him like a trapped cat. I crouched down in the corner and quivered like a quill on a terrified porcupine. Pliers in hand, my father slowly made his way towards me in my corner. The pliers mocked me as they inched closer to my face. Through my haze of tears, the pliers were tree trimmers, larger than anything that had ever been in my mouth before. I sat huddled in my corner for what seemed like hours with my mouth open wide, just waiting for the pliers and the pain. The teeth of the pliers gripped my loosened tooth firmly, and my father held the back of my head securely with his left hand. The tears were now streaming down my face like twin waterfalls, making it nearly impossible to see. I knew how badly this was going to hurt, and I became even more afraid than I was before. With a firm yank, and a resounding pop the canine came flying clear out of my mouth. Before the pliers had even cleared my mouth, a blood curdling scream erupted from deep within me. I hadn’t thought it possible, but the tears did indeed fall harder than they had before. When I tried to take a breath, I choked on the blood that slid down my throat. The coppery taste was so unpleasant I immediately coughed it up. A red mist flew from my mouth, causing both my parents to jump backwards. My father laughed, “See that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He remarked sarcastically. My crying ceased immediately and I glared at him through lashes drenched with tears. I panted, trying to catch the breath I had lost crying and screaming. When I was finally able to breathe normally again, my mother brought me a glass of salt water to stop the bleeding. The bitter salty water tasted horrible in my mouth and made me gag. After swishing it around in my mouth for the required allotment of time, I quickly spit the now pink tinted water into the sink, before taking another sip. I repeated the process until the water was no longer tinted when I spit it down the drain. “Yuck!” I exclaimed and thoroughly rinsed my mouth out with normal water. Once the salty taste was completely removed from my mouth and the bleeding had ceased, I toweled my mouth dry and turned to my parents. “Now can I go to grandma’s house?” My mother laughed at the sudden change in my mood. “Yes sweetie, you can go to grandma’s house.” “Don’t forget to put that tooth under your pillow for the tooth fairy!” My dad hollered after me sarcastically. I whipped around and glared at him with eyes that flashed wildly. He laughed at my expression and I continued out of the room.