“You are thinking about something,” said James as they sat at the table having breakfast.
“I’m trying to come up with a resolution,” Myrtle replied.
“I don’t know why you are bothering,” said James. “I’ve lived happily till now not knowing they exist. Now I’ve found out that they are a pair of arseholes, I can put them out of my mind and carry on with life.”
“Can you really?” asked Myrtle.
“I wont say it wouldn’t have been nice to play happy families with them, but all the doubts and suspicions. I’m surprised they even accept me as their son,” he sighed.
“I could ask the Tooth Fairy about that,” said Myrtle.
“What do you mean?” asked James.
“The Tooth Fairy’s records cover all children,” said Myrtle. “You will be in their books along with who your parents are and what happened to you.”
“Are you saying that they will know if these are my parents?” asked James.
“Of course,” said Myrtle. “It’s where Enid will have got the information from to find them in the first place. She just may not have gone into the details of what happened to you after birth.”
“Mary said that I was taken away and she was told that I was dead, presumably they will have made a big thing about my brother being alive in the hopes of her forgetting there were two babies,” James added.
“That worked well,” said Myrtle. “But you weren’t dead, so the question is, who took you?”
“Do you think that the Tooth Fairies will have a record of that?” asked James.
“Bound to, they have to know where all the children are so that they can collect the teeth,” Myrtle smiled.
“Sounds nice, but I don’t suppose they’ll believe any information coming from a fairy,” sighed James.
“They wont, I know that,” said Myrtle. “But, I have no intention of passing that information on.”
“So, what use is it?” asked James.
“If we know who took you, we could try talking to them,” said Myrtle. “Or at least finding out about them.”
“What good will that do?” asked James.
“We wont know the answers till we ask the questions,” said Myrtle picking her phone up and contacting the Tooth Fairy.
“You want me to go into the archives?” the Tooth Fairy asked after Myrtle had spent at least ten minutes explaining the situation.
“Yes,” Myrtle smiled.
“We do have a Fairy who is very good at that, gets through them quicker than anyone else and is always totally accurate,” said the Tooth Fairy.
“Could I speak to her and explain the situation to her?” asked Myrtle.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” said the Tooth Fairy. “She doesn’t do talking to people or fairies, she just stays in the archives looking for things for us.”
“Doesn’t she ever come out?” asked Myrtle.
“We tried to get her out once, but she was very bad tempered and wasn’t happy till she was back in the archives,” the Tooth Fairy sighed.
“And you haven’t tried to get her out since,” said Myrtle.
“There doesn’t seem to be any point to it,” said the Tooth Fairy. “I’ll tell her this is urgent, not that that will make any difference to her, and I’ll contact you when she’s found out everything.”
“Do you know how long it will take?” asked Myrtle.
“Not really, though the longest she has taken has been one week,” the Tooth Fairy replied and then hung up.
“Thank-you,” said Myrtle to the phone.
“What did they say?” asked James.
“They’ve sent someone to look and it could take up to a week,” Myrtle smiled.
“In the meantime we put it on the back boiler and get on with enjoying life with these two little bundles of love,” said James, looking at the twins as first one and then the other let loose a loud, resounding and smelly fart.
“I’ll get the changing bags,” said Myrtle.
“Your phones making noises,” Mary said to James senior.
“It’s the hospital,” said James senior, taking the call and walking out into the garden.
“Is this the DNA stuff?” asked Mary when he came back into the kitchen ten minutes later.
“Yes,” he muttered.
“And are you going to tell me what they said?” asked Mary.
“James is my son,” said James senior.
“I told you he was,” said Mary.
“He’s also your son,” James senior added.
“You gave them my cup as well?” asked Mary.
“Of course, we have to check all possibilities,” James senior replied.
“Anything else you checked?” asked Mary.
“He’s the twin brother of,” James senior began to say, but the look from Mary stopped him. “I was only trying to stop you from getting hurt again.”
“Instead you have made things much worse,” Mary sighed.
“I had to,” James senior started.
“I’m going for a walk, I need to be by myself for a bit,” said Mary.
“Is that your phone or mine?” asked James junior as they were getting the breakfast ready the next day.
“It’s mine,” said Myrtle answering her phone.
“Hello, this is the Tooth Fairy replying to your earlier query,” the phone said before Myrtle could say anything.
“Hello,” said Myrtle.
“A report is being sent to your e-mail address, I hope it answers all your questions, if not please do not hesitate to ring us,” came the Tooth Fairy.
“Thank-you for your assistance,” said Myrtle as Tooth Fairy hung up.
“They need to learn some phone etiquette,” muttered Myrtle reaching for her laptop.
“You can get e-mails on your phone,” said James.
“I know,” said Myrtle. “But it will probably be easier reading a report on the laptop.”
“Most people know,” James junior started.
“These aren’t most people, these are the Tooth Fairies and they had only just got one computer when I was there and the only ones allowed to touch it didn’t even know how to turn the thing on, let alone use it,” replied Myrtle.
“So have you managed to open the report?” asked James junior.
“Yes,” said Myrtle. “I think you will want to read this,” she added handing the laptop to him, along with his glasses.
“This can’t just stop here,” said James. “I wasn’t the only baby to be taken, it seems to have been a regular thing. I was dumped at an orphanage because the person who took me got spooked.”
“You need to pass this report on to someone,” said Myrtle.
“The question is, who?” muttered James junior. “The moment they find that the report came from the Tooth Fairy they are going to file it under crank and nothing will happen.”
“Then we need to find more evidence and hand it to a reporter because they will know how to blow this all open,” said Myrtle.
“We could do with a whistle blower who is prepared to tell things as they are,” said James junior.
“Or we need video evidence of it happening,” said Myrtle. “I’ll ring Ethel and see if she can find something, if we can catch someone being filmed steeling a baby, they may be persuaded to tell all in exchange for clemency or something.”
“What will they be able to tell us?” asked James junior. “Apart from who they were steeling that baby for.”
“They will be just one of many,” said Myrtle. “And the person we want is the one who organised it and the ones who have been turning a blind eye to what has been going on all these years.”
“Does the Tooth Fairy know how many babies have been taken?” asked James, looking through the report again. “There’s a number, at least 15,000!”
“Hello Ethel,” said Myrtle answering her phone.
“I have just sent live video from the hospital to that nice inspector who investigated when you were poisoned,” Ethel informed her.
“Why did you do that?” asked Myrtle.
“One of the babies was being stolen,” Ethel explained. “I thought if he went there and caught them red handed.”
“You are brilliant,” said Myrtle.
“I’ve also dropped a tip off to a reporter,” said Ethel.
“Not the one who’s like a terrier when he’s after a good story?” asked Myrtle.
“Seemed like a good choice,” said Ethel hopefully.
“None better,” Myrtle replied. “You have done very well.”
“Would you like me to forward the report from the Tooth Fairy to him?” asked Ethel.
“I don’t think it would do any harm,” said Myrtle. “I’m sure he’ll be able to find evidence to corroborate what it says.”
“No sooner the word,” said Ethel.
“Thank-you,” said Myrtle, hanging up. “The wheels are in motion,” she said to James junior.
“So we sit back and watch as everything unfolds?” he asked.
“It isn’t the easiest of things to do,” said Myrtle. “But sometimes it’s the best thing to do.”
“And if something goes wrong?” James junior asked.
“Then we give it a nudge in the right direction,” smiled Myrtle. “Meanwhile, I think we have some nappies to change.”
“How do they fill them so quickly?” asked James junior grabbing the changing bags.
By Janice Nye © 2021
