Member-only story
A Prime Number of Teeth
Teeth Come in Even Numbers, So How Did I End Up With a Prime Number of Teeth?
When Nancy grinned widely at the other kids in class, she exposed the secret she had waited all weekend to show to her classmates. She had lost a tooth and couldn’t wait to share the details with her teacher and friends. The tooth in question had been loose for two weeks and the anticipation had been almost more than she could bear. When the same thing happened to me recently, I finally realized something that everyone already knows — a wiggly tooth that finally comes out is much cuter when you’re six years old than when you’re an adult.
My mother was afraid of dentists and I was determined to not follow in her footsteps. At the tender age of ten I called a dentist to make an appointment. I had a toothache and knew instinctively it was the right thing to do. When my mother and I showed up at the office a few days later the receptionist asked if I was the one who had called. I looked down at my shoes and nodded yes, it had been me. As I looked up slowly, my hair covering most of my face I could see her smiling.
“You’re a brave girl, Connie. What brings you in today?”
This was the beginning of the end of my childhood. I became the one who handled the things my mother could not. It was awkward at first…
