We finish the night’s bedtime reading, my kindergartener son’s latest lost tooth under his pillow. He was always skeptical of Santa Claus, never even pretended to believe in the Easter Bunny. But he’s never questioned the Tooth Fairy, so this last ritual survives: tooth, pillow, dollar. He burrows hard against my side. “Why so close?” I ask. “I want to be near you,” he says, and my heart clenches, at my still-cuddly, still-credulous child. “And to get my head on your pillow, so it’s easier for you to put the dollar under mine,” he adds, and my heart clenches harder.
Caitlin Horrocks is author of the books Life Among the Terranauts, The Vexations, and This Is Not Your City. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan and at www.caitlinhorrocks.com.