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The Truth Fairy

bjacquemotte
Explorer C

Early one morning I was getting ready to leave for work.  I was a Customer Service Supervisor in Corpus Christi and worked the 0430-1300 shift. Before I left the house, I always made sure I had my keys, badge, and name tag.  I also had a few drink coupons we would use for Customers who had been inconvenienced throughout the day. 

Working the early shift, I had learned to get ready and dressed completely in the dark.  It normally worked out for everyone. One day I did grab my wife’s nametag instead of my own by mistake. I went the first six hours of my shift with “Becki” proudly displayed on by uniform.

That morning my wife left a couple of dollars on the nightstand with a note instructing me to slip them under our daughter's pillow before I left for work.  So before running out the door, I stepped into my daughter’s room, reached into my front pocket, made the usual exchange, and left for work.

When I got home that afternoon my daughter was playing with a friend.

I asked her, “What did the Tooth Fairy leave for you?”

She had forgotten all about leaving a tooth under her pillow.  So she and her friend ran upstairs to retrieve her prize. As she returned from her room and was walking down the stairs, I could see she was perplexed.

She kept looking in her hand and then back to me, and back to her hand, and then yelled, “Drink Coupons!!”

I quickly checked my front pocket and found the two dollars folded nicely, right where I had left them that morning. I had reached into the wrong pocket and, in the dark, traded her baby tooth for two drink coupons which she could exchange for two beers, or two wines, or one cocktail.

Now my daughter was eight and probably knew the true story of the tooth fairy.  But it did not stop her from blaming me for stealing the awe and mystery of her childhood.  I tried to get off the hook by telling her the coupons would never expire and she could use them in 2016.

Little did I know, I would have to disappoint her again and explain that drink coupons now have expiration dates. 

I may wait to tell her--you can only destroy your children’s dreams so many times.

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