Click-Clack Tooth

"Click, click," said Oliver's tooth.

Oliver stopped eating his toast. He put his tongue on the tooth. It wiggled. It was the little one at the bottom, right in the middle.

"Mum! It's loose!" he said. "It's going to come out, and then I get to put it under my pillow!"

"So it is," said Mum, and she went on stirring the porridge.

Oliver wanted that tooth out today. He wanted it so much his toes curled.

First he pushed it with his finger. Wiggle, wiggle. It would not come.

Then he bit a whole apple. Crunch! The apple came away with a big bite out of it, but the tooth stayed put.

"Click, click," said the tooth, as if it was laughing.

Oliver frowned. He sat on the back step with his chin in his hands. The hens were scratching in the dust. Pip, the brown hen, kept tapping at a stone. Tap, tap, tap. She was after a seed stuck underneath it.

Oliver watched. Pip did not pull the seed. She did not bite it either. She just tapped, and tapped, and the seed came loose all by itself.

"Hmm," said Oliver.

He took his tongue and tapped the tooth. Gently. Tap, tap, tap. Then he said, "Click, click," out loud, for fun, and he said it again, faster. "Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack!"

Something small and white bounced out of his mouth. It landed on the step and rolled away.

The hens ran after it. Pip got there first and gave it a peck.

"That's mine!" cried Oliver, and he scooped it up. It was tiny, like a grain of rice.

Mum came to the door. "Well, look at that."

Oliver grinned a wide grin with a new window in it. He pushed his tongue through the gap. It felt strange and smooth and a bit like a secret.

Pip tipped her head and looked at the gap. Then she went back to her stone. Tap, tap, tap.