Loothing Diamondth...

It was a week ago tonight. The recent cold keeping us indoors, the monotony of quotidian routine, and basically, i'm just getting fat...i threw every child jack into Odysseus and made for the local cellulite collection and distribution center. I wanted [scratch that] NEEDED to play some volleyball...and the Royals needed the pool. So off we went...merrily, merrily.

The Queen and i had decided to just meet there and she would procure the evening rations at the only sandwich shoppe in town worth our money. By the time she arrived, it had already happened...

It was still cold, but i doubt any of us really cared, they had visions of warm,chlorine spiked bliss and mine, well just a ball and a net would do, players would be bonus. We entered the pool area and the Royals began shedding clothes before we ever found a dry spot to put them. Fortunately, i had the forethought to have them put their swimsuits on underneath their clothes. They could hardly contain themselves enough to get the exterior clothing off before they hit the water. Mission accomplished, they submerged into the depths like little fingerling trout into a cool mountain lake...wait a second, got one returning already? She didn't make it halfway acro...

"Hey Daddy!" [as HRH exits the pool, water cascading and splashing all around, and on, me]
"Look at THIS!" She is holding on to the other front tooth that had been dangling for the better part of two weeks, but still connected, somehow, in her gaping mouth.

"OOCHK AH ISS!" Taking another couple steps toward me she now begins TWISTING the incumbent incisor...one twist...two twists...pull! Good Lord! The child just pulled her own tooth! After the crucible we went through just days before...she just smiles and hands it to me!

"Can you keep this so we can show it to Mama? Eeew...i got blood on my fingers, what do i do?"

"Just go wash'em off in the pool...it ain't much."

"Is my mouth bleeding?"

"Not really...just go get back in the pool."

"Don't lose that Daddy, i want Mama to see it...do you think the Tooth Fairy will take this one?"

"I don't know...i need to wash it off a little."

"Can i wash it?"

"NO...you'll lose it." At which point she returns to the cool mountain lake to supervise and then off to test the new oral valve system.

Flash forward to later that night...

We had returned home and i wanted to get some cooking done for a meal i was helping to provide for a family the next day...and i realized i didn't have enough onions and was going to have to go BACK out,

"DAG GONNIT!"

"Whatsamatter Daddy?"

"Nothing...its ok."

"Can i see my tooth, i wanna look at it."

"I...uhhh... remember when i washed it in the pool?"

Eyes widen...slow nod.

"I dropped it."

Nod slows...stare glazes to hardened ice...elongated pause...she quietly turns, visibly angry and proceeds out of the kitchen, i wink at The Queen witnessing the entire event, knowing EXACTLY where the cache is, she forms a sardonic smile...

"HEY!"

HRH stops, turns with piqued tears slowly welling in her eyes...

"I'm kidding...Mama has it." She smiles with the realization and looks to the genial Queen, who extracts it from her coinpurse like a diamond from a mine.

This is the smile we witnessed...