the jig is up

Tonight at dinner, Charlotte and Veronica accused my husband, Carl, of being the Tooth Fairy. It started off as a veiled accusation by Veronica "I think the Tooth Fairy is a boy." "Hmmm," I said "What makes you think that?" To which Charlotte responded "The handwriting looked like a boy's handwriting. It looked like Dad's handwriting."

Now it was serious. The mystery of the Tooth Fairy was in jeopardy. Carl and I responded without hesitation. "My handwriting is much messier than the Tooth Fairy's handwriting," he said, "Go get the note and you'll see." Charlotte promptly fetched the note and Carl proceeded to copy it using his messiest script. "See, you can hardly read it." Charlotte and Veronica inspected it carefully. They were not convinced. "Now, do it in your neatest handwriting," Charlotte requested skeptically, handing him another piece of paper . I said to Carl, coaching him "You could print." Which he did, glancing back and forth between the Tooth Fairy note and his neatest handwriting. The pressure was on.

There were a few tense moments as the girls analyzed the letters. They looked back and forth between the Tooth Fairy Letter and the messy letter and the neat letter. There was a bit of hesitation, but in the end, the mystery of the Tooth Fairy was upheld. At least for now.