Tooth Fairy

When Jenny reads this she'll likely delete it. So I'm here to post this while Jenny is semicomatose in some dentist's chair.

Jennifer is the paragon of dental hygiene. If she couldn't brush her teeth before bed, she wouldn't be able to sleep. She wears down a toothbrush quicker than she cycles through a gallon of milk.

So it came as a surprise to all when one day--probably about a month ago--we were sitting down at the dinner table when all of the sudden Jenny exclaims, "Whoa!" She dropped her fork and grew a very concerned look on her face. Quickly she had one had groping her dinner plate and the other tunneling through her mouth.

I was confused (she doesn't normally do that). "What's wrong?"

"Ah Thi Mah Thoo Boh."

"Huh?"

She removed her finger to inform me, "I think a part of my tooth just broke off . . . [continues searching] . . . yeah, look." She presents this tiny white spec like a gardener holding prized tulips freshly trampled by the neighbor kids. Sure enough, part of Jenny's tooth had indeed bitten the dust.

A few years ago Jenny had reported to dentists that she had a toothache. X-ray after x-ray failed to produce any diagnosis. Turns out that a filling two decades ago slowly weakened part of the tooth it was meant to fix.

So if there is a silver lining to this smear on her dental record (besides the new silver lining soon to be in her mouth), it is that Jenny has been vindicated.

(And for the record, I'm pretty sure Jenny cooked the meal that day.)

(Correction: I've just been reminded that it I cooked that injurious meal--meatloaf. I blame it on a new recipe I was trying. I was hoping this new take would be jaw-dropping, not jaw-breaking.)