Grandpa had just got a new set of false teeth and in a way they were like every thing else that’s new, such as shoes, you have to wear them in a little bit until they get comfortable.

These new teeth must have been hurting Grandpa, well at least the bottom one’s were, for as he slipped into bed that night he put them under his pillow for safe keeping.

Now some people don’t believe in fairies, I don’t think Grandpa did at first, but what happened made him change his mind.

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Poinsettia had been a gatherer for the fairy court for quite a long time now and had just been promoted up to the tooth fairy section. It was something she had always wanted to do, for she had always wanted an inside job.

She was put with Chestnut, he had done this job for longer than he cared to remember, so Poinsettia in a way was to be Chestnut’s apprentice. It was a complete change to what Poinsettia had been used to, working only at nighttimes now.

Everything had to be done in complete quietness and of course darkness, so it was not always easy to see what they were doing.

Chestnut and Poinsettia were working in an area where quite a few children lived and had many calls to make, to make things even more difficult it was now starting to get light and it was against the rules to work after daybreak.

So Chestnut let Poinsettia do a few calls on her own, it was quite simple work for a tooth fairy, fully fledged tooth fairies have an inbuilt sense as to where they can find teeth, all she had to do was to pick up any teeth that children had left under their pillows and leave a silver coin in exchange.

Now Poinsettia had never seen or even heard of false teeth, for she was new to the job, so as she entered Grandpa’s bedroom all she knew was she had a job to do.

She had never seen so many teeth all in one go, as there was so many Poinsettia left a handful of silver coins.

In the distance a cockerel was crowing so she knew it was time to finish and return to the fairy court. It wasn’t until they got back and they had to report about each tooth collected that it was discovered that poor Poinsettia had gathered some false teeth.

Oh dear it was to late now to return these teeth, they would have to wait until nightfall.

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Now Grandpa was a methodical man in all he did, he did the same things every day at the same time. He woke at 7am washed, dressed and went for his breakfast.

Now cornflakes without a full set of teeth was a little difficult to say the least, then Grandpa remembered he had taken his lower teeth out just before going to sleep, sliding his hand underneath the pillow he expected to find his new teeth.

Nothing, his search widened, now with both hands, all he got from underneath the pillow were a few silver coloured coins, he just couldn’t understand.

Next thing the pillows were removed, then the blankets then the sheets, everything was taken off the bed, still nothing, Grandpa still couldn’t understand where his teeth might be.

Then the bed was moved, Grandpa was on his hands a knees feeling all over the floor as if he was blind, but his teeth were no where to be found. Grandpa then had to put everything back to where he had found them; he even put the silver coins back under the pillow, now these puzzled him even more.

All day long Grandpa went around most upset and muttering to himself at not being able to find his new teeth.

Then it came time for bed, all the moving of things had worn poor Grandpa out, he was glad to get to bed that night and was soon sound asleep.

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The first thing that Chestnut and Poinsettia had to do was to get those false teeth back to where they came from, it wasn’t an easy task as tooth fairies never seem to visit older people, but get them back they did, they also collected up the silver coins that Poinsettia had left, that is all but one which they left in away to say sorry for what they had done.

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Morning came and once again Grandpa got up and went for his breakfast, without thinking he returned to his bedroom and slid his hand underneath his pillow, there to his great surprise were his new false teeth. He threw the pillows off the bed in disbelief, but there they were and now only one silver coin.

Now if you ever ask Grandpa about his teeth he will always tell you that the tooth fairies had something to do with them going missing.

He even still has that silver coin; he keeps it in his waistcoat pocket firmly attached to a silver chain along with his pocket watch.

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