Aisha
Mom, this is so weird and scary.
Aisha
All my front teeth feel loose.
Aisha
This shouldn’t be happening at my age!
Mom
I’m leaving right now.
Mom
Whatever you do, don’t pull on them.
Aisha
I want to. I HAVE to.
Aisha
I’m pulling on one of them now.
Aisha
It’s swinging like a hinge.
Aisha
It feels so good, though.
Aisha
Should I call the dentist?
Mom
He won’t know what to do.
Aisha
MY TOOTH CAME OUT IN MY HAND!
Mom
Aisha, listen to me carefully.
Aisha
OMG, TWO MORE CAME OUT!
Aisha
I couldn’t help it. I pulled on them.
Mom
Stop! It’s too soon!!
Mom
There’s something I never told you.
Mom
I’ll tell you when I get there.
Mom
It’s something I need to explain in person.
Aisha
Why can’t you just tell me now?
Mom
I wasn’t ready to have this conversation yet.
Mom
This wasn’t supposed to happen for another 5 years.
Mom
At the very earliest.
Mom
I’ve never heard of it happening this early.
Mom
I’ll explain when I get there.
Mom
But it’s going to take me an hour to get home.
Mom
I wish I didn’t have to work 2 jobs.
Mom
Hopefully I can quit them soon.
Aisha
I know, Mom. I wish you were here right now.
Mom
Until I get there, don’t pull on your teeth!
Aisha
But I can’t stop myself!
Aisha
My gums get so itchy and then they tingle.
Aisha
It’s like electricity!
Aisha
I started pulling on the bottom ones now.
Aisha
I’ve never felt like this before.
Aisha
3 MORE CAME OUT, MOM!
Mom
Make sure the doors to the house are locked.
Mom
Then go in your bedroom and stay there.
Aisha
Why? Am I in danger?
Mom
Once all your teeth come out, you will be in terrible danger.
Mom
I need to protect you until your new teeth come in.
Mom
I’ll get there as fast as I can.
Mom
In the meantime, hide your old teeth.
Mom
Just do as I say and I’ll explain when I get there.
Mom
Where are you going to hide them?
Aisha
I guess I’ll put them in the secret drawer in my jewelry box.
Aisha
No one knows about that besides you.
Mom
Good. And in the meantime, don’t tell ANYONE else about this.
Mom
Good. Wait in your bedroom until I get there.
Aisha makes sure both the front and back doors of the house are locked.
She returns to her bedroom and closes the door.
She gathers up all her front teeth and holds them in her hand, horrified.
Then she hides the teeth in her jewelry box.
Sobbing, she sits on her bed and tries to wait.
But her gums start itching and tingling again…
She can’t stop wiggling her remaining teeth.
One by one, she pulls them out.
NOW SHE HAS NO TEETH AT ALL.
After putting the rest of her teeth in her jewelry box, she walks over to the mirror and forces a smile.
She used to be a normal looking girl.
Then she hears a metallic noise.
It’s her pet parakeet, Sunny, whose cage is near her bed.
Sunny is flinging himself against the metal door of his cage, over and over again.
Aisha
Sunny, what’s wrong?
Aisha
Do you want to get out?
Aisha
Here, you can comfort me.
Aisha reaches into the cage, but Sunny suddenly backs into a corner.
Aisha
Sunny, what’s wrong?
Gently, Aisha pulls him out of his cage.
Once he is completely out, he gives her a petrified look.
And then he passes out dead.
Hysterical, Aisha tries texting her mom but there’s no response.
Then she does what her mother told her not to do…
She leaves her bedroom to go outside.
Once in her backyard, she sits under her favorite oak tree.
She leans against the solid wood of the trunk.
It’s the height of summer, but suddenly…the air turns deathly cold.
3 beautiful robins are lying dead at her feet.
Hysterical, she returns to the house, locking the back door behind her.
She still can’t reach her mom.
So she texts her grandmother.
Aisha
Gran, are you there?
Aisha
Gran, my teeth all came out at once!!!
Aisha
And Sunny fell over and died when I touched him.
Aisha
And 3 birds in the oak tree died too.
Aisha
I don’t know what is going on and I’m so scared!
Gran
It’s happening already?
Gran
This wasn’t supposed to happen until you were 21 or 22 at the earliest.
Aisha
That’s what Mom said.
Gran
You told her about this?
Aisha
No, but she’s on her way home.
Gran
Oh no. That means we’re going to have to act fast.
Gran
I wish you hadn’t told her.
Gran
But you had no way of knowing.
Gran
That you are developing special powers.
Gran
But your mother doesn’t.
Gran
They skip a generation.
Gran
Yours must be very strong to have come in so early.
Aisha
This is what my special power is??
Aisha
TO MAKE ANIMALS DIE?
Gran
No. It will develop over time.
Gran
But for now, before your new teeth come in…
Gran
Your powers will be out of control.
Gran
But you have to trust me.
Gran
I’m the only one who can help you through this.
Gran
Because I went through it myself.
Aisha
You’re telling me to trust you instead of my own mother?
Gran
I wish I weren’t all the way across the country.
Gran
But we can get through this together over the phone.
Aisha
Okay, Gran. I do trust you.
Aisha
Mom is a good person, I think.
Aisha
But she lets me down sometimes.
Aisha
And you never have.
Aisha
Please tell me what to do.
Aisha
Mom told me to lock the doors and stay in here.
Gran
Do the front and back doors have chains?
Aisha
Yeah, they do, but I didn’t put them on.
Gran
I want you to put the chains on both doors.
Aisha
But then Mom won’t be able to get in!
Gran
That’s the idea, I’m afraid.
Gran
Don’t worry. You can let her in when everything is over.
Gran
I’ll explain after you chain the doors.
Aisha obeys her grandmother.
She puts the chains on the front and back doors and returns to her bedroom.
Aisha
Okay Gran, both the chains are on.
Gran
Now where are your teeth?
Gran
Do you have all of them?
Aisha
Yes. Mom asked me that too. Why?
Gran
Because you need them — all of them — to reach the next stage.
Aisha
What happens in the next stage?
Gran
You will have control of your power to hurt or to heal.
Aisha
My power to hurt? Like with Sunny and those birds in the tree?
Gran
Yes. But if you reach the next stage, you’ll be able to heal too.
Gran
It will be a great responsibility.
Gran
And sometimes, a great burden too.
Aisha
But Gran, what if I don’t want that burden?
Aisha
What if I just want to be a normal girl?
Gran
You do have a choice to give up your powers.
Gran
And I’m very afraid that your mother will try to convince you to make that choice.
Gran
But I don’t think you should do it.
Just then, Aisha hears a key turn in the front door.
Then she hears the door straining against the chain.
A voice calls out to her.
Mom
Why is there a chain on the door?
Aisha doesn’t answer, and instead, keeps typing on her phone.
Aisha
But she won’t stop pushing against the chain!
Aisha
It sounds like she might break it.
Gran
Honey, we don’t have much time.
Gran
I’m going to ask you to do something that doesn’t make sense.
Aisha
What do you want me to do?!
Gran
I want you to take all your old teeth—
For a moment, Aisha is unsure what to do.
Her mother or her grandmother?
Suddenly she feels a warm tingling sensation in her gums.
It spreads throughout her whole body and gives her strength.
She remembers that her grandmother has never once let her down.
And she is sure what to do.
She removes her teeth from her jewelry box and places them on her bed.
One by one, she picks them up and swallows them.
She can feel their jagged edges along her throat.
After swallowing 8 of them, she texts her grandmother.
Aisha
I don’t know if I can keep going.
Gran
It’s supposed to hurt.
Gran
Keep going until you’re done.
Gran
You can do it. I know you can.
Encouraged by her grandmother, Aisha keeps going.
Finally, she picks up the last tooth.
She looks at it wonderingly and then swallows it down.
As it enters her body, she feels radiant.
She can hear the sound of a door pushing against a chain.
But the sound seems far away.
The sensation is stronger than before.
She goes to the mirror, opens her mouth, and sees the white nubs of all new teeth.
And right before her eyes, they grow.
She looks down at Sunny, who is lifeless on the floor.
Intuitively, she kneels down and places her hand over him.
Then he straightens up as if he had only been sleeping.
Aisha
Here, Sunny. Come here.
Sunny chirps and then flies straight to Aisha’s finger.
Gently, she places him back in his cage.
Aisha
I brought Sunny back to life! With my power.
Gran
Oh, Aisha! I’m so proud of you.
Gran
Go out and use your power for the good.
Gran
You can make a difference in the world.
Aisha
Why didn’t Mom tell me about this and help me?
Gran
Because she wanted the power for herself.
Gran
You see, the special teeth in our family skip a generation.
Gran
And if the other generation gains access to them…
Gran
They grant the ability to amass great wealth.
Gran
If your mother had swallowed your teeth…
Gran
She would have become enormously wealthy.
Aisha
Well, would that have been so bad?
Gran
All I know is that my mother stole my teeth and swallowed them.
Gran
She said it was for the greater good, but that wasn’t true.
Gran
The next week she used that money to make a million dollars gambling.
Gran
And then she lost it all.
Gran
That kept happening.
Gran
Over and over again.
Aisha
I didn’t know that. That’s terrible.
Gran
It was. All that money never did us any good at all.
Gran
I still wonder what would have happened if I had kept my power.
Gran
Maybe I could have done great things.
Gran
It’s okay. At least you have your power, just like my grandmother had hers.
Gran
She was a great healer and told me about the special powers we have.
Gran
Once I was on a train with her and it crashed into another train.
Gran
Injured and dead bodies were everywhere.
Gran
She placed her hands over each body.
Gran
And she restored each person’s health and life.
Aisha
She sounds incredible, Gran.
Gran
She was. And now you can continue her legacy.
She thinks about the lifeless robins outside and vows to place her hand over them—
To bring them back to life.
Suddenly, she hears a loud bang.
Aisha
Gran, I think Mom broke the chain on the back door!
Gran
She can’t take your power away from you now.
Just then, Aisha’s bedroom door bursts open.
And her mother enters the room.
She goes straight to Aisha’s jewelry box and opens the secret drawer.
Aisha
It’s too late. I swallowed them.
Aisha
My new teeth are already coming in.
She opens her mouth to show her mom.
Aisha
Gran told me everything.
Mom
I told you not to tell anyone about this.
Mom
We could have paid off the mortgage and bought a big new house.
Mom
I could have quit my jobs.
Mom
You could have gone to the college of your dreams.
Mom
Or you could have skipped college and done whatever you wanted to do!
Mom
We could have travelled the world!
Mom
We never would have worried about money again!
Aisha
But Gran said that now, I have the power to heal.
Aisha
Isn’t that worth even more than money?
Aisha’s mom starts to sob.
Aisha moves closer to her mom. Then she embraces her.
With new teeth that are fully grown now, Aisha’s powers are at their full strength.
Her mother feels an electricity coming from Aisha’s hands into her body.
And a feeling of peace envelops her.
Aisha
Do you understand now, Mom?
Aisha
Some things are more important than money.
