Chapter 3: The Party Chapter 3: The Party
Ronny Faber vs The Tooth Faerie
by bkMarcusWhen his mom came for his empty dinner tray, Ronny said, "Mommy, I invited Zack to my party."
She screwed up her face and said, "Ronny, you should have asked me first."
"Zack's my friend."
"I don't think he should come."
If he had known they were going to fight about it, Ronny would have waited until the movie was over before saying anything. "But I already invited him."
"You had no right to do that, Ronny!"
"But it's my party, isn't it?"
"He'll be older than all your other friends." All his other friends was about three or four kids. Most kids Ronny knew from school went somewhere else for the summer. His birthday parties were smaller than the ones that other kids had during the school year.
"So? So what? Why do you care how old he is?"
"I just don't think it will work, Ronny. I really wish you had asked me first."
"It's my birthday party. I never have it on my birthday, but it's still my party. And Zack is my friend. And he said that his dad would buy me a birthday present."
"Oh, I don't have the ENERGY!" She screamed the last word at the ceiling, then turned and pounded off before Ronny realized the argument was over. He heard her slamming things around in the kitchen. Ronny turned up the volume on the TV, even though it was only a commercial.
#
The first kids to arrive at his birthday party were Angela and Melissa. Angela was a Hispanic girl whose mother worked with Ronny's mom at Teacher's College. He liked Angela OK, but she wasn't really Ronny's friend. His mom didn't want Melissa to be the only girl at the party. Melissa was a blond girl from Ronny's old nursery school. He hadn't seen her in almost a year, but when his mom asked him to think of a girl to invite to the party, Melissa's was the only name he could come up with.
He had been happy that Melissa was coming to his party, but when she got there, she felt like a stranger to him. "Hi!" he said when she came in through the door, but she acted shy and suddenly Ronny felt very shy himself. She looked much taller, a little thinner, and a bit less blond. Her mom told her to say hi, but she said it very quietly and then turned into her mom's dress. Her mom handed a gift-wrapped box to Melissa and told her to give it to Ronny. She held it forward without comment. "Thanks." She still said nothing. Angela gave Ronny a big box too, and Ronny had to hug the two presents to his body to hold on to them.
His mom invited the girls' moms in for coffee, but they both begged off and left before Zack arrived. Zack came in with a big gift-wrapped box of his own. "Here's your present, Favor." He gave the box to Ronny and winked. Ronny tried to wink back but he always closed both his eyes when he tried to close just one. Zack usually laughed at him when he did it, but this time he just smiled quietly. Zack looked different, too. His hair was combed down, and his face looked cleaner than usual. Everyone was subdued today. Ronny couldn't wait for Floyd to get there. Floyd would liven things up.
They were all in the living room singing along to a Sesame Street record that his mom had bought just for the party, when the doorbell rang. Ronny abandoned his guests and went running down the hall yelling "Floyd is here! Floyd is here!"
"Don't run!" his mom called after him as she ran down the hall behind him.
Ronny opened the door before his mom caught up.
"Hey, Ronny!" said Floyd.
"Happy Birthday, my man," said T.
"Hi," said Shondra.
"Oh," said his mom from behind him.
"How come you're --?"
"Come in, come in," his mom interrupted. But Ronny could tell she was caught off guard, too. But when his mom got flustered, she just talked more and smiled a lot. Ronny wanted to know what the hell was going on. He hadn't invited T and Shondra. He liked T more than enough to have invited him, but then he would have had to invite Shondra, too, and Shondra he didn't like so much.
T handed him a small box, wrapped in the newspaper comic strip page.
"Just one?"
"Ronny! Shush!"
"It's from all of us," T explained.
It's so small. It better be good! But Ronny knew better than to say anything out loud. His mom was already angry with him. But Ronny was angry, too. Why did Shondra get to come to his party, if he didn't invite her, if she didn't even bring him her own birthday present? T didn't really bring his own present either, but Ronny liked T enough to overlook it. The sister was another story.
"This is good," said his mom, walking them all back to the living room. "Now we have three boys and three girls."
"Four boys," said Ronny.
"I was only counting your guests, sweetheart."
#
Ronny wanted to open his presents immediately, but his mom told him he'd have to wait until after the birthday cake.
"Why?"
"Because," Angela explained, "you're not really six until after you've had your cake."
"Nuh uh!"
"And you can't have your presents until you after you've turned six."
"I'm six right now!"
"No you're not," she insisted.
"His birthday was really last week," said Zack.
"Did you have cake?" Angela asked him.
"Yes," he lied. "So I'm already six and I should get to open my presents."
Shondra grinned at him, showing all her teeth. "Then you better not eat any birthday cake today or else you'll turn seven."
"That's not true," said Floyd. "He'll be six until we're in second grade."
Shondra pointed to Angela. "Don't tell me, it's her rule."
Ronny knew this was all nonsense, but he had to get Angela to take it back or he wouldn't enjoy his cake. His mom had given him a little cupcake in New Jersey, but that wasn't the same. A big chocolate birthday cake only happened at birthday parties and he didn't want Angela and Shondra ruining this one for him.
Melissa was shy, Angela was a know-it-all, and he just plain disliked Shondra. Why did his mom make him invite girls?
"Mommy? How old will I be after I eat the cake?" His mom was coming back into the living room with a folded card table.
"You'll be six years, six days, and six hours, sweetheart."
The kids all stared at her.
Melissa broke her silence. "Is that really true?"
"Pretty close," said his mom.
"Hey," said Zack. "You should wait another six minutes and six seconds. Then you'll have five sixes."
"What makes six sixes?" asked Shondra, too loudly.
"What do you mean?"
"What comes after seconds?"
"Thirds!" said T.
Floyd fell down laughing.
"Shut up, T!" said Shondra. Ronny had noticed that Floyd's family was always telling each other to shut up.
His mom's answer had distracted him from his argument with Angela. He wanted to point out to her that he wouldn't be seven just because he ate some chocolate cake, but the moment had passed.
The kids were gathering around the card table as him mom unfolded it and spread a paper tablecloth over it.
What was stupid about Angela's rule was that he didn't even have to eat cake on his birthday. He wanted to, but he didn't really have to. He could eat pie or ice cream or some other dessert. Or even just potato chips, or popcorn, something that wasn't even sweet. He could, technically speaking, never eat anything but TV dinners for the rest of his life, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and according to Angela, he'd never grow older, because he'd never eat cake. He'd be six for the rest of his life, never making it to second grade, never getting any taller, or stronger, or all stubbly like Don.
Angela was stupid.
#
His mom put five regular chairs and two folding chairs around the table, told each kid where to sit, and went back to the kitchen for the birthday cake. Because he was the birthday boy, he got one side to himself, with two kids each on the remaining three sides of the table.
To his left were Floyd and then T. Shondra and Zack sat opposite him. To his right were Melissa and Angela. T and Shondra shared a corner of the table and had the two folding chairs his mom had retrieved from a closet.
"Why our chairs are different?" Shondra whispered loudly to T. "They all got them comfortable chairs. This one is hard!"
T said "She didn't know we were coming."
So, thought Ronny, You guys didn't misunderstand the invitation. Your momma just wants to get rid of you for a few hours so she sent you to my party. He wondered if his own mom understood what was going on, that these uninvited, trouble-making, no-birthday-present-giving kids were forced on the party so that their momma could have some peace and quiet for a change.
Ronny loved Floyd and worshipped T, but the females in their family were something else. He had met their mother once when she insisted that Ronny had to visit at least once before Floyd would be allowed to visit Ronny's house again. Ronny's mom was upset when Floyd told her this, but she only complained to Ronny about it, not to Floyd's momma. Cat Faber was nervous around black children. She tried hard not to give offense.
Their momma was a huge woman, dark and round, and she didn't get up from her big easy chair when Floyd brought Ronny into their apartment. "Come here, child. Give momma some sugar!" Ronny didn't have any sugar on him, but she settled for pulling him up into her lap and hugging him into her giant breasts. "I've been all set to meet you for just the longest time," she said to the room. She held Ronny in her lap while he looked around the Harlem apartment. Everything was in one room: a little kitchen, a little table, two small beds and the floor covered with toys and clothes. "Where's the rest of your house?" he asked. Their momma laughed beneath him, jiggling him around against her body.
"What's that boy talking about," Shondra had asked.
T said "Ronny ain't never seen a black people's home before."
Ronny liked big momma. She was comfortable. But he didn't understand why his own mother wasn't angry at her for imposing her older children on Ronny's party.
#
Shondra got out of her chair and poked Zack in the arm. "Trade chairs with me. I wanna sit next to that Puerto Rican girl."
Zack got up and sat down next to T. "Do you know how to make a blow torch?" he asked. T smiled and shook his head.
"I'm not Puerto Rican," said Angela. "I'm Hispanic."
"Awww, girl! That just means Puerto Rican."
"No," she told Shondra. "My mommy's half-Spanish and my daddy's Cuban."
"How much money the tooth fairy give you?" asked Floyd.
"Shut up about that," said T.
"She not black and she not white." He turned back to Angela. "Tooth fairy give you ten cents, don't she. One dime for each baby tooth."
Angela shrugged.
Melissa said "I've got a toose looth, see?" She opened her mouth and wiggled her remaining front tooth.
Shondra laughed. "She said she got a looth toose!"
"When that one comes out," said T, "you'll have a big hole in your face.
Melissa blushed. "I meant a ... loose ... tooth."
"You're a blond girl," said Floyd. "I bet you get a hundred dollars for your teeth."
"Nope," said Melissa.
"How much?"
She held up her pointer finger.
"One cent?!" said Shondra.
"One dollar," said T.
Melissa nodded.
"You do not!" said Shondra.
"Yes she does, said Angela. I get a dollar, too."
"You lie!"
"Shut up, Shondra."
"No Puerto Rican girl get a dollar for a stupid tooth."
"Yes," said Angela. "I get a hundred dollars!"
Floyd said, "You just said you got a dollar. A hundred dollars is more than a dollar."
"And I'm not Puerto Rican!"
Shondra was looking at her skeptically when Ronny's mom turned out the lights and came in with a tray. Seven candles burned on a huge chocolate cake, six in a circle and a big one in the middle.
"How come there's seven candles, mommy?"
"One for good luck."
"Which one's lucky? The middle one?"
His mom started to sing Happy Birthday and the kids joined in. While his mom and the girls sang "Happy Birthday, Dear Ron-nyyyyyy ..." the boys sang "You look like a monkeyyyyyyy / and you smell like one too!"
Ronny filled his belly, chest and cheeks with air. He silently wished for a million dollars for his next loose tooth and blew out all the candles in one long exhale.
Everyone clapped until the one-for-good-luck candle lit up again.
"Hey! What the...?"
The kids all laughed.
"I guess you missed one," said his mom.
"No I didn't! I got them all!"
"Try again!" she said with a big smile.
"NO! I got them all! And I should only have to blow out six this year!"
Shondra stood up on her chair and blew the candle out.
"Shondra, sit your butt down!" T scolded.
Magically, the flame reappeared again. Middle candle.
The kids continued laughing, then Floyd leaned forward and blew the candle out. It lit up again. Everyone started blowing. Even T finally joined in. Everyone was laughing and blowing except Ronny, who crossed his arms and scowled. Eventually his mom reached in and put the candle out with her fingers and pulled it out of the cake. "It's a trick candle," she said. Ronny stared into her eyes. She made a face and said, "It's supposed to be funny, Ronny."
"It's very funny," said Floyd.
"You tricked me out of my wish."
"You still blew all the candles out," said Zack. "Then one of them re-lit itself. That's not your fault. You still get your wish if you make sure not to tell anyone what you wished for."
His mom put a hand on Zack's head. "You're going to be a lawyer, aren't you Zack?"
"That's what my dad says."
"I'm not surprised." She cut the cake into six pieces, each piece with one birthday candle, and served Ronny the first piece. She served a slice to everyone but Angela, to whom she gave a pink-frosted cupcake.
"I want one!" said Shondra.
"Shut up and eat your cake, girl!"
"No, T! How come she gets a pink cake and I can't have one?"
"I can't have chocolate," Angela explained.
His mom said "Angela's allergic, so her mother sent her over with her own vanilla cake. Is pink your favorite color, Angela?"
Angela nodded as she bit into her cupcake.
The other kids scooped oversized bites of cake into their mouths, including Ronny, but Shondra poked at her slice and watched Angela eat the last of the pink frosting.
When Ronny's mom was out of the room again, Shondra said "We got more cake than you did. You just got that little bitty thing."
The boys were talking about fire, but Ronny stopped to listen to Shondra and Angela. Melissa smiled at him and rolled her eyes.
"So? I don't care. I liked my cake."
"Girl! That's not even cake -- that's a cupcake! Don't you want some cake? I saved you some of mine."
Angela shook her head.
"I'll share it with you. You can have half of this."
Angela kept shaking her head while Shondra whispered to her. Ronny returned to the boy-talk.
"You can use pretty much any spray-can," said Zack, "but I like using roach spray the best. It shoots out farthest." Ronny had missed the transition from fire to roach spray, but he knew that Zack liked both.
Killing bugs was something a lot of older boys did. Zack once showed him how you could use a magnifying glass to burn ants. Ronny didn't want to burn ants, but he noticed that when Zack caught an ant on a piece of wood, he didn't just burn the ant, but also the wood beneath the ant. If you just focused the sunlight onto the wood, it would make a dark brown dot that started to smoke. If you moved the light over a little bit, you could make another brown dot, overlapping with the first, and so on, until you were burning bumpy brown lines into the wood. It was slow work, so you couldn't do anything fancy. The shortest word Ronny could think of was NO, which he slowly burned into the wood with his little magnifier from a box of Cracker Jacks. He had spent so long on it that he didn't want to just leave it in Riverside Park, but he didn't want a sign that said NO, so he added another leg to the N so that it said MO. Then he made a final M. That's when he discovered that MOM upside down said WOW. Ronny couldn't read sentences yet, but there were some short words he knew.
He was going to give the sign to his mom, but at the last moment, he decided she'd be upset with him for burning stuff, so he hid it under his bed, where he now kept Zack's lighter, as well.
Angela started to cry.
"Look at her face!" said Floyd. Angela's face was breaking out all blotchy and red. Parts of it had puffed up.
Ronny's mom came running into the room to see what was wrong.
"I think she ate some chocolate," said Shondra.
His mom lifted Angela out of her chair and carried her into the kitchen. Everyone followed. She called Angela's mom and told her that Angela was having an allergic reaction. Ronny could hear how upset the voice was on the other end of the phone, though he couldn't hear the words she used. His mom kept saying "OK, yes. That's fine," until she hung up.
She turned to T, then looked at Zack. "Which one of you boys is older?"
Zack pointed to T and said "I think he is."
She stared at T for a long moment. Angela continued to cry. "I'm putting you in charge," she told T.
"Hey," said Ronny. "This is my house!"
She ignored him. "I'm just going down to the lobby where Angela's mom is coming to pick her up in a taxi. I need you to keep the other kids out of trouble."
"Yes, ma'am."
As soon as the door closed behind Angela and Ronny's mom, T turned on Shondra. "That was mean, Shondra. You gotta go stand in that corner."
"But I didn't do nothing."
"You're lucky I didn't tell. Go stand in that corner."
"You ain't the boss of me, T!"
"That lady put me in charge. You can go stand in that corner, or you can wait until we get home and see what momma says to make you do."
"I didn't do nothing!"
"We'll see what momma say about that."
Shondra stamped her feet, but she went over to the corner by the apartment door and leaned her head into it.
Ronny walked down the hall, back to where his presents were. Behind him, he heard Melissa ask, "Can we go down the hall or do we have to stay here?"
T said "You can go play with Ronny, but I have to watch my sister."
Zack said "Hey, I'll show you what I was talking about," but Ronny couldn't hear what T answered.
Floyd and Melissa joined him in the living room.
Floyd said "Open mine first."
Ronny wanted to get to the three big boxes, wrapped in shiny paper with ribbons, but Floyd handed him the little thing he'd brought, wrapped in the color comics of a Sunday newspaper.
He didn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, but he knew this little thing was going to be a disappointment. Maybe he could think of it like the veggies in a TV dinner -- get the worst part over and out of the way.
He tore the comics page off of a small cardboard box. Inside the box, sitting on a square of stringy cotton, was a chain and a funny-looking pendant.
"Cool, Floyd. Thanks!" Ronny tried to sound excited. Floyd didn't seem to notice the effort it required.
"It's a shark's tooth!" said Floyd. He was grinning big, showing all his teeth the way his sister did.
The tooth was pointy in three directions, two short and one long. "Those parts was in its mouth," said Floyd, touching the short points, "and that part sticks out pointy and bites you!"
Melissa reached in and touched the tooth. "That was in a shark's mouth?"
"Yeah," said Floyd. "A big one!"
Ronny reassessed. "This is a really cool present, Floyd. Tell your momma thanks."
"Momma say that tooth ward off evil. She say it supposed to protect you."
"How's it do that?" asked Ronny.
"You gotta wear it," said Floyd. "It's got magic."
Ronny looked at the clasp in the chain. He knew his fingers were too small to make it work, so he squeezed his head through the chain, pulled it down over his ears, one at a time, folding each ear down to let the chain pass. When the tooth hung against his chest, he saw that it had writing on it.
"What's that say?"
"I think that says your name."
"No," said Melissa leaning closer. "That's a 'C' at the beginning and Ronny's name has an 'R' up front."
Floyd shrugged. "Well, I don't know what is say. It's probably part of the magic."
Melissa pushed her present at Ronny. "Mine next. This is for you, Ronny."
Ronny remembered Melissa at his party when he turned four. She had cried when she learned that she didn't get to take home the present she came with. She and Ronny had fought over the present until his dad intervened. He tried to explain to this chubby little blond girl what the word "present" means and why she had to leave this present with Ronny. Then his mom came over and promised her she'd get to keep the present Ronny brought to her birthday party. Ronny kept screaming at Melissa "You see! You see, it's mine!" Then his dad took him aside and tried to explain to him what the word "gentleman" means.
Melissa didn't look like that chubby little girl anymore, and at six, she understood what a present was and seemed happy to be giving Ronny one.
Ronny unwrapped it. "OOOOOOoooooooo, you got Lite-Brite!" said Floyd.
Melissa's smile got even bigger. "I have one at my house. It's my favorite toy other than my Barbies."
Ronny remembered the TV commercial for Lite-Brite: "Lite-Brite -- Making thi-ings with liii-iight / What a sight -- making things with Lite-Brite!"
You put clear colored pegs into holes on a board, then you plugged the board it and all the pegs lit up.
"Let's draw something!" said Floyd.
"I'm not allowed to plug things in without my mom," said Ronny as he reached for Angela's gift.
Melissa wagged her finger at him. "You didn't say thank you."
Ronny blushed. He was glad his mom wasn't here. She'd tell him he was rude. "Thanks, Melissa. It's a really nice present." But in truth, Ronny didn't see the point of Lite-Brite. He'd rather draw with crayons. Drawing with pegs in holes made very boxy looking drawings, and you couldn't keep them when you were done, because you had to take all the pieces out to draw your next picture. Maybe a really rich kid could own hundreds of Lite-Brites for all the pictures he might want to draw, but the pictures would still look boxy and he'd need a hundred electric outlets to plug in all his pictures.
Angela's present was just as disappointing: an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, which was a boy's doll of Evel Knievel in his red, white and blue stunt suit and helmet, and a motorcycle for the doll to sit on. There was also something in the box that made the motorcycle do tricks. Again, Floyd was excited by the present, but Ronny didn't like dolls, not even G.I. Joe or The Six Million Dollar Man. And he didn't like motorcycles.
Melissa said "I thought boys loved motorcycles."
"I love motorcycles," said Floyd.
"Well it's BatGIRL who rides a motorcycle. BatMAN drives a car."
"Do you like cars?" she asked.
"I like cars," said Floyd.
"I like the Batmobile," said Ronny.
"Hey!" said Floyd. "I have a Batmobile at home! You wanna trade for the Evel Knievel?"
"Yes!"
Floyd stood up. "Slap me five!" he said, holding out both hands, palms up.
Ronny got up and slapped Floyd's hands.
Melissa said "I think you just slapped him ten."
"Aw, girl!" Floyd grinned and held out one hand. "Five more." Ronny slapped Floyd's hand, then offered his own palm to be slapped.
The last present was from Zack, who they could hear down the hall, giggling. T was laughing, too. They could hear Shondra saying "Lemme see! I wanna try it!"
Ronny wasn't sure what to expect from Zack -- or from Zack's dad -- but it was the highlight of the big presents: an "Emergency 51" fireman's helmet. Emergency 51 was one of Ronny's favorite afternoon TV shows, along with Adam-12, which was about policemen.
Ronny put the helmet on. "Thanks, Zack!" he called down the hall. Zack and T were still laughing. Ronny ran down the hall with his helmet on. "Thanks, Zack! Zack, thanks. Zack, --"
Zack, T, and Shondra were all in the bathroom. Zack was shooting long plumes of orange flame across the bath tub. Floyd and Melissa came down the hall to see what was going on.
Zack said "You guys can't try this. You're too little."
"Can I try it?" asked T.
"Sure. Light the lighter, then spray the hair spray, then bring the two together ..."
WHOOSH! Flame shot out from T's hands, burned across the bathroom and disappeared. When T let go of the hair spray button, the flames hung in the air, unattached to anything. They shimmered upward and faded into nothing.
"Careful," said Zack. "You got that one close to the shower curtain. Don't press down so hard."
Shondra, Floyd and Melissa were transfixed.
Ronny had seen Zack play with fire before, but not like this, never so big and never in his home.
"Guys," he said. "Make the flame smaller, OK?"
"You don't have to press the button all the way down," said Zack. He took T's hand and showed him the right pressure on the spray-can. "If you really want to make big flames, get a full can of roach spray and do it outside. I think this can of hair-spray is running low."
Melissa said "You're going to burn up the bathroom."
Shondra started cackling. She seemed to approve. Ronny got his binoculars from his room. He handed them to Floyd. "If you want to see bigger flames, look at them through these."
Floyd held them to his eyes. "I don't see nothing but black," he said.
Ronny had forgotten to take the covers off the lenses. "Try now."
T shot a stream of flame over the toilet.
"Woah!" said Floyd. "T, do that again!"
T walked over to the toilet and aimed the spray back toward the bathroom door, where Floyd stood with the binoculars up to his eyes. T shot flame toward his little brother. Ronny could see that the flame dissipated a foot short of Floyd, but Floyd jumped back and screamed. He slammed into Ronny and Melissa, knocking them to the floor.
"All I saw was fire!" he said. "There was just fire. Everywhere. You try." He handed the binoculars back to Ronny after they got up off the floor.
"OK, this is the last one," said T.
Shondra stamped her foot and said "Nwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
"Shondra," said T. "It's almost out of spray. I don't want to use it all up."
"Make it a long one, T. I want Ronny to see how big the fire get in those binoculars."
"OK, ever'body step back."
Ronny held the binoculars to his eyes. He promised himself he'd not jump back like Floyd had done. He knew the flame wouldn't reach him and he didn't want to be a scaredy cat.
His vision was filled with shades of orange, yellow and red. He could see nothing but flame. He heard the roar of the fire echo and fill the bathroom. He could feel its heat. It went on and on. T was holding this blast as long as he could. And Floyd was right: there was nothing but fire, filling everything. Something heavy settled into Ronny's stomach. There was nothing but fire...
Ronny turned the binoculars over to make it all smaller. Little Zack and T standing over by the toilet. Littler Shondra pressed against the wall, staying away from the flame, smiling broadly. Ronny backed away. Melissa and Floyd appeared to either side of his view. Big at first, and curved at the edges of his vision, they straightened out as they got smaller, as Ronny backed away toward the door. "You're all very small," he said. "You're getting smaller and smaller." But even minified, the flame was bigger than all of them. It burned at the center of the circle of children, T and Zack and Shondra and Melissa and Floyd. The bathtub completed the ring: black and white and black and white and black, then white again, with red and orange burning at the center.
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
Ronny spun around. Tiny and enraged, his mother stood in the curves of the front door.
"You're going to burn down my fucking house!"
She stepped forward and grew by half. Her arm reached to the center of Ronny's vision, growing faster than the rest of her body, it filled his view the way the flame had done when magnified.
His mother yanked the binoculars away from his face. Now she was huge. Her face was flushed red, redder than the flames, red like the helmet Ronny still wore on his head. Even in profile, when Ronny couldn't fully see her eyes, she was a sight to shrink away from. The heavy thing boiled over. He began to cry silently.
"What the hell are you doing to my house! You're going to burn it all down! You little shits!"
Melissa shook and stepped back. She had tears in her eyes too. T dropped the spent hair spray to the tiled floor. Zack grabbed his lighter back and stuffed it into the pocket of his shorts.
"Get the hell out of my home! You rotten little -- You little-- you damn -- get the hell out of here!" She struggled back her words. She fought them down.
Unuttered, her epithets weighed heavier in the hall than those she had already let out.
Zack grabbed T's hand and pulled him past Ronny's mom. "Wait," said T. "I gotta take my brother and sister."
His mom slammed the door behind the four of them. Ronny was afraid she'd hit Floyd's feet before he was all the way out the door. She pounded past Melissa who stepped back. "What the hell did they do to my bathroom!?"
Ronny held his hand out to Melissa. She didn't notice. She was watching his mother's back.
"Melissa!" he whispered loudly. "Come'ere!"
She looked over. She came and took his hand and he pulled her down the hall, back to his opened presents.
"What's she gonna do, Ronny?"
"She'll calm down," he told her. "Tonight she'll be very quiet. Let's just wait here."
His mother slammed the bathroom door and screamed. They could hear her sobbing.
Melissa wiped her eyes and said, "I've never heard my mommy cry."
Ronny listened. "She used to cry a lot when my dad was still here."
"What should we do?"
"We just have to wait."
"I wanna go home now."
"She'll call your mom when she calms down."
Ronny put the needle on his phonograph back to the beginning of his Sesame Street record and turned up the volume.
#
They sat together in Ronny's bedroom. His mom had come down the hall and announced in a hoarse voice that Melissa's mom was on her way and that the living room had to be cleaned up. Ronny took Melissa's hand and lead her to his room, where they shut the door and waited.
Ronny didn't have a TV or a record player in his room, so he couldn't play anything for distraction. They sat together on his bed, still holding hands.
"Do you really get a dollar for each tooth?"
"I've only lost one tooth so far, but I got a dollar for that one and my daddy says I'll get another dollar for this one."
"My mom pulled my tooth out with a piece of string tied to that door," he said pointing.
"Oh yeah? My tooth just came out on its own."
"Your mom didn't pull it?"
"No way. I pulled it out myself."
"How?"
"Wait." She reached into her mouth and pulled. She smiled broadly. She was missing both front teeth now.
"Oh my God!" said Ronny. "Where'd your tooth go?"
Melissa held it up between her fingers.
"Thee? It jutht comth out if you pull with your fingerth."
Ronny stared at the perfect little white thing in her hand. A moment ago it had been in her mouth. There was no blood, no yellow, apparently no pain.
"I bet that is worth a dollar." And then he got an idea. What would happen if Ronny put a perfect tooth under his own pillow, a rich girl's tooth? Would the tooth faerie pay him a dollar for it, or just the quarter he would have gotten for his own?
"What will you trade me for that tooth, Melissa?"
"Thith tooth? Why do you want it?"
"I want to see if I get a dollar for it. I'd give you a dollar, but all I have is a quarter."
"Tho give me thomething elth."
Ronny tried to think what he had that was worth a dollar. Melissa already had Lite-Brite. She wouldn't want his stupid Evel Knievel stunt cycle, or any of his other boy toys.
"You want my lucky shark's tooth?" He remembered his father saying something about "a tooth for a tooth." It was in the Bible.
"That'th a prethent from your betht friend! You can't give that away!"
"Well, I don't think I have anything that you want, but I'd really like to put your tooth under my pillow tonight. If I get a dollar for it, I'll give it to you. I'll give you whatever the tooth faerie leaves me."
"There ith thomething I want," she said. She puckered her lips together and stuck them forward. She leaned toward him and closed her eyes.
Ronny looked at her for a moment. She didn't look anything like the women who puckered up on the 4:30 movie. She squeezed her eyes tight, crinkling the skin from her cheeks to her forehead. She didn't have make-up on the way the women in the movies did. Her hair was in pigtails, instead of wavy and flipped up at the ends, the way movie stars wore their hair. When you looked up close, it was hard to see how a little girl was ever supposed to grow up and look like one of those women. She didn't have boobies and her body wasn't curvy at all -- it didn't look very different from Ronny's own body. Her face wasn't as round as it used to be, but wasn't all bony like a pretty woman's face either. Grown-up women could look kind of scary, even the pretty blonde Wonder Woman on TV a few nights ago. If he had to kiss a girl, he'd rather she be a six-year-old than a grown-up movie star.
And he was flattered that Melissa thought a kiss from him was worth a whole dollar. He closed his eyes and leaned in quickly, bashing his nose into hers. "Ow!" she said, pulling back and putting her hand over her face.
"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have closed my eyes."
"That'th OK." She rubbed her nose. "But you thtill haff to kith me."
Ronny tilted his head like he'd seen Elvis do on TV, except this time he kept his eyes open and moved in slowly until their lips were touching. Melissa tasted like chocolate.
She opened her eyes afterwards and handed him her tooth. "Thith meanth you're my boyfriend now."
He hadn't seen that coming. "What do I have to do?" Did he have to marry her now?
"When we get bigger," she said, "you'll have to take me to the movieth. And give me lotth of flowerth."
"OK," Ronny said, "but we should wait until we're at least ten years old, I think."
Melissa smiled her big gap-toothed smile.
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