How to Trap the Tooth Fairy

8 pages · 7 min · ages 6+

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Crunch. Juniper bit into her toast, and something went clink on the plate. It was small and white, and it had been in her mouth since she was a baby. “My tooth!” she shouted. Toby looked up from his cereal. “Congratulations,” he said. Juniper kept the toast. It was evidence. At school, Oscar was not impressed. “The tooth fairy isn't real,” he said. “It's just your mum with a torch.” “It is not,” said Juniper. “Prove it,” said Oscar. “Bring a photo on Monday. If you can't, you have to say Oscar was right. In front of everyone.” That night, Juniper put on her goggles and clicked her pen. “Science is ready,” she said. “Trap is set.”

Plan One was simple. Juniper put the tooth in a matchbox under her pillow and hung Mum's butterfly net above it on a string. When the tooth fairy came, she would pull the string, and swish, one tooth fairy, caught. All she had to do was stay awake. She stayed awake for a very long time. At least five minutes. When she woke up, the room was dark, and something was wriggling in the net. “Got you!” she whispered, and switched on her torch. It was Toby, in his pyjamas, holding a packet of crackers. “I was getting a snack,” said Toby, from inside the net. “Can you let me out now?”

Plan Two was cleverer. Juniper tied string across the whole room, from the bed to the wardrobe to the lamp to the door, like a spider's web, with a little bell on every string. Nobody could get across without ringing one. Then she hid in the wardrobe to wait. At midnight, the window opened a crack. A tiny glowing someone flew in, no bigger than a spoon. “Strings,” whispered Pip the tooth fairy. “Smooth as butter, sneaky as a mouse!” She ducked under the first string. She rolled over the second. She limboed under the third. The little brass beetle riding on her satchel was not so lucky. Tinkle-tinkle-tinkle! “I am the alarm now,” said Bolt.

Juniper burst out of the wardrobe. “Science!” She ran straight into the strings. Every bell in the room rang at once. Tinkle-jangle-TINKLE! By the time she stopped spinning, she was wrapped up like a parcel, and the only thing in the room was a faint smell of peppermint. Toby sat up in the top bunk. “Is it the fire drill?” “No,” said Juniper, from inside the parcel. “It's the tooth fairy. She was here. I smelled her.” Toby sniffed. “That's my toothpaste,” he said, and lay back down. Under the bed, very quietly, two tiny somebodies were trying not to laugh.

Plan Three was the biggest. Juniper sprinkled flour all over the floor, so the tooth fairy would leave footprints. Then she tied her camera to a chair with a string across the floor, so that anybody who stepped on the string would take their own photo. Click. Proof. “Science is ready,” she whispered, climbing into bed. “Trap is set.” From under the bed, Bolt looked at the flour. “Fairies fly,” he whispered to Pip. “Beetles walk.” Pip patted his shell. “Then you'd better fly with me.” But the tooth was still under the pillow, and they had not got it yet.

At three o'clock, Juniper woke up and sat up in bed to check. Her foot came down on the string. Click! Flash! The camera took a lovely photo of Juniper, in her pyjamas, looking surprised. There were no fairy footprints in the flour. There were only some very small beetle footprints going round in a circle. Juniper sat on the edge of the bed with her chin in her hands. Monday was coming, and Oscar was going to be right, in front of everyone. She looked at the beetle footprints. They went round and round, and then straight to the plate on her bedside table, where the last bit of her breakfast toast was. Juniper had an idea.

Juniper tore a page off her clipboard. “Dear Tooth Fairy,” she wrote, in her neatest writing. “I don't want to catch you any more. I just want to say hello. Here is some toast for your beetle.” She broke off a tiny corner of toast and put it next to the note, and she set the camera on the bedside table, pointing at the plate, with no string at all. Then she lay down and closed her eyes, and this time, she really fell asleep. In the morning, the tooth was gone. There was a silver coin under her pillow, and the toast had tiny bite marks. Next to it, in very small writing, it said: “Hello! Thank you for the toast. Love, P. and B.” And the camera had taken one more picture.

On Monday, Juniper stood in front of the class and held up the photo. Everybody leaned in. In the middle was a sparkly, glowing blur with wings. “That's a moth,” said Oscar. “Moths don't say thank you for toast,” said Juniper, and held up the note. Oscar squinted at the photo. So did the whole class. Then Ms. Bell put on her red reading glasses and leaned in very close to the corner of the picture. “Oh,” said Ms. Bell. There, next to the toast, sat a tiny brass beetle in round spectacles, looking straight at the camera. He was holding up a tiny sign. It said: NO PHOTOS.