The First Day

         Great it was her first full shift as a tooth fairy and already Orthodontia had lost her satchel of dream dust. Try as she might the memory of exactly where eluded her. Her visit to Tina began with one of her newly assigned wings clipped by a slamming window. It required much tugging and praying before she could wiggle free and the girl's explosive sneeze still rang in her ears.

         Granted she may have been a wee bit exuberant with the dream dust application. To be fair and accurate the bag slung over a shoulder has not been easy to access after the near escape. Forgetting her own strength she'd heaved when a sprinkle was all that had been needed. The ensuing cloud did sparkle though. She suspected that Tina would be groggy in the morning.

         Weaving and furiously fluttering just inches from the slobbering jaws of Timmy's Doberman until she flung a few granules in its red eyes sacrificed a wee bit. All that commotion failed to awaken the boy. Good thing too because the yellow tooth beneath his pillow seemed suspicious. Orthodontia could admit to being a rookie, but a canine's canine did not warrant a reward.

         Her third stopover of the night had been a heart-pounder. No one at the flight academy mentioned the possibility of a sticky something lurking in corners. She could still feel it cloying. All the frantic shaking left her temporarily dizzy. At the next roll call she'd be sure to ask about spiders.

         Orthodontia now knew for a fact that dream dust did not dissolve , mix, or clump in water. A few splashing encounters with lawn sprinklers proved this to be true. She smiled at the memory of her baptism. At the end of her rotation a repeat visit could be most cooling. Perhaps it wasn't too late to apply as a water nymph. She knew water droplets sparkled in a becoming fashion.

         It had required only a few return fly-byes and scrupulous squinting before she espied her misplaced satchel. It had come to no harm clutched in the wee hand of a slumbering thumb-sucker. Just a smidgen of the dream dust clung to one inner corner. Orthodontia wrestled the satchel free and waved it over the stirring child. A witness could never see her in action.

          It couldn't hurt to ask for a knapsack, could it? One shift like this was more than enough. Orthodontia did not wish for any more firsts. (411 words)