I LEFT my house early for a tutoring session with Anna. I was glad to have this meeting, to have at least something in my life be normal.
After parking in my regular spot at school, I walked down the sidewalk to the elementary building next door. Just as I reached the drop-off line, Anna’s mom pulled up in a silver van. The back door slid open, and Anna got out of the car, running toward me, her backpack bouncing on her back.
I knelt down at eye level to her so I could give her a hug. “How are you doing, Anna?”
“Good,” she said, turning to wave goodbye to her mom. She spun back to me, smiling really big, revealing a gap where one of her two front teeth used to be. “Notice anything different about me?”
“Of course I do,” I replied. “You got a haircut.”
“No!” she cried, bouncing from foot to foot. “Look at my mouth!” She smiled even bigger (as if that were possible), and I pretended to be surprised.
“You lost that wiggly tooth!” I stood and took her hand so we could begin walking inside.
“Yes!” She pulled on my hand, jumping up and down. “My dad tied a knot around it and tied the other onto the door, and when he shut it—” She made a popping sound.
My mouth went wide in shock, and I said, “No way.” “Yes way!” she cried.
“How much money did the tooth fairy give you?” I asked as I opened the door to the school.
She walked in backwards so she could still face me and said, “Fifty cents.”
I raised my eyebrows. Anna’s parents must have been cheapskates because most people around the Academy could practically buy a car with their tooth fairy money over the years.
“And I got a new bike,” she added.
There it was. “That’s so cool,” I said, smiling at a teacher as we passed her in the hallway.
She nodded proudly.
“So, do you think we should read a book then about the tooth fairy or losing teeth?” I had a couple in mind that we could try.
She nodded so fast I thought her headband was going to come right off her head.
We walked into the elementary school library, and she sat at one of the tables with letter blocks while I went in search of some options for us.
I ended up pulling three books, and when I came back, she had spelled her name with the letters. “Anna, good job!” I said.
“And none of the letters are backwards.” She grinned proudly. “We’ve been working on it a lot at home.”
“I can tell your hard work is really paying off,” I complimented, sitting beside her.
“What books did you get me?” she asked.
I spread the books out in front of her, and she picked one with a cookie on the cover.
“Good taste,” I said. “That looks yummy.” She nodded. “Can you read this one to me?”
I hesitated for a moment. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll read this one if you read the next one.”
She pressed her lips together and to the side as she thought it over and finally said, “Deal.”
“Great.” Her mom was pretty relaxed with the tutoring because she basically wanted someone who wasn’t her or Anna’s teacher to make reading fun for Anna, but I still wanted to make sure we got some good practice in. I really liked having this job—even if my mom had helped me get it.
I pulled out the cookie book and began reading, using all the voices and making my tone louder and softer to fit the story. This early in the morning,
the librarian puttered around the library, putting books away and straightening things up. With no one in here, she wasn’t too strict about being quiet, which was perfect for Anna, who squealed with delight at the different voices and always had a million questions about the story.
When I finished the book, she frowned. “Do I have to have a turn?”
“You get to,” I said. “And when you finish, I have a surprise for you in my backpack.”
Her eyes lit up. “What is it?”
“The tooth fairy told me to give it to you.” I waggled my eyebrows. “But you have to read to find out.”
“Let’s get started then!” she practically yelled.
I put my finger below each word as she read them, and she made it through the story—even though she read so slowly she probably didn’t make sense of any of it. The look of pride in her eyes when she was done made it all worth it.
“What did the tooth fairy get me?” she asked.
I wagged my finger at her. “You’re smart.” I made my voice low like a mobster. “You make sure people pay up.”
She laughed. “I just want my candy.” “Who said it was candy?”
She gave me a look.
“That’s fair.” I always had candy for her. I twisted in my chair so I could reach into my smallest backpack pocket and pulled out a sucker for each of us. “You can have this when we finish putting the books away.”
We raced to put them in the right places, and then we walked down the hall toward her classroom, each of us savoring our suckers. Her teacher stood at her classroom door to let her in, but when Anna began walking into the room, her teacher put her hand on her shoulder and said, “Ah, ah, ah. No candy in class.”
With tears filling her eyes, Anna held out the sucker, which was barely the size of a pea at this point.
“She’s almost done,” I said. “Can she bring it in and finish it before the bell?”
Her teacher shook her head. “That’s the rule.”
I glanced at my wristwatch. I was about to be late for class, but drying Anna’s teary eyes was worth a tardy. “That’s okay,” I said. “I’ll sit out here with you until you’re done.”
Anna and I went to the opposite side of the hall and sat along the painted cinderblock wall as students filtered into their classrooms. As she sucked on her candy, she reached into her backpack and pulled out a notebook with a lock on it.
“Is that your diary?” I asked.
She grinned, showing me the unicorn sticker on the front. “And it has a unicorn?” I said. “That is way too cool.”
She held it to her chest. “I’ve been practicing writing my name in it every day.”
My heart filled. “Well, it’s definitely paying off. Keep on working and you’ll be able to write anything you can imagine.”
With a smile, she pulled out her sucker and showed me the empty, soggy end that was already falling apart.
“Looks like you’re done,” I said.
She nodded and handed it to me. Even the dry end was sticky and covered in slobber, but I smiled at her. “Have a good day in class, Anna.”
Giving me a big hug, she said, “You too, Rory.”
