<><><>Ginger
Gillam<><><>
My First Crime
As a small child, I always stole
stuff, starting from when I was little. Maybe a cookie from the drying rack, or
quarters from the coin jar. When my sister Anna was born, I stole her
pacifiers, her dollies, her stuffed animals. It was all stored in a cardboard
box in my closet.
I remember one day, in kindergarten, Lusis Karmackle lost his tooth. I had yet to lose a tooth and was dying to. I did something that my other friends would never dream of doing. I stole the Ziploc holding the tooth. With the tooth in it.
That day after school, when I got home, I waved the bag in mom’s face.
“Look, Mommy!” I called upstairs, waving the Ziploc! “I lost a tooth!”
“Let me see!” She bent down onto her hands and knees. I waved the bag in front of her face.
“No, silly, inside your mouth!” I shut my lips and shook my head. She took the bag from me.
“Hmm… It’s very dirty.”
“I’ll go and brush it!” I said quickly, remembering how when Rosyln lost a tooth, she brushed it with her toothbrush to make it clean for the tooth fairy. I smiled but then shut my mouth right away, darting to the bathroom. After brushing Lusis’ tooth, I stuck my finger in my mouth. I tried to pull out a tooth, but it was stuck.
I was really, really stupid in kindergarten ‘cause the next thing I did was tiptoe down to the kitchen, sneak up to the knife drawer and pick out the sharpest, most serrated knife there was. I inserted it into my mouth and…. well, you can guess what happened next.
I got the tooth out, but with the gum on it, too. I screamed so loud that I was sure Skyler and Roslyn could hear me a block away. In the following hour, my kindergarten self was rushed to the hospital, checked in and investigated by the doctor, and numbed for surgery. The Doctor had to stitch up my gum, and I was confined to a diet of applesauce and pudding for a week. I never found the tooth I cut out.
My parents didn’t know the entire story for ten years.
I remember one day, in kindergarten, Lusis Karmackle lost his tooth. I had yet to lose a tooth and was dying to. I did something that my other friends would never dream of doing. I stole the Ziploc holding the tooth. With the tooth in it.
That day after school, when I got home, I waved the bag in mom’s face.
“Look, Mommy!” I called upstairs, waving the Ziploc! “I lost a tooth!”
“Let me see!” She bent down onto her hands and knees. I waved the bag in front of her face.
“No, silly, inside your mouth!” I shut my lips and shook my head. She took the bag from me.
“Hmm… It’s very dirty.”
“I’ll go and brush it!” I said quickly, remembering how when Rosyln lost a tooth, she brushed it with her toothbrush to make it clean for the tooth fairy. I smiled but then shut my mouth right away, darting to the bathroom. After brushing Lusis’ tooth, I stuck my finger in my mouth. I tried to pull out a tooth, but it was stuck.
I was really, really stupid in kindergarten ‘cause the next thing I did was tiptoe down to the kitchen, sneak up to the knife drawer and pick out the sharpest, most serrated knife there was. I inserted it into my mouth and…. well, you can guess what happened next.
I got the tooth out, but with the gum on it, too. I screamed so loud that I was sure Skyler and Roslyn could hear me a block away. In the following hour, my kindergarten self was rushed to the hospital, checked in and investigated by the doctor, and numbed for surgery. The Doctor had to stitch up my gum, and I was confined to a diet of applesauce and pudding for a week. I never found the tooth I cut out.
My parents didn’t know the entire story for ten years.
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