Promises Not Kept

52

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////The next three chapters are going to be dedicated to each of the Shelby children. Then hopefully around the holidays I'll have a Shelby family holiday chapter. Enjoy!

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             Johanna nearly scared Tommy out of his skin when she started screaming at eight o'clock at night.

Leah was feeding Molly in the parlor while he was in the big room working. When he heard his daughter shrieking, he jumped up in an instant and made a mad sprint for the stairs. Taking two steps at a time, he dashed down the hall to her room. He ran inside and scooped her up. His eyes shifting with paranoia over the dimly lit room. "What, what is it, Jo?"

"Loose!"

Breathing heavily from the run, he looked at her with a confused face. "What's loose?" He flicked on the nearest lamp to see what she was on about.

Johanna gave a big smile and pushed on of her front teeth forward with her tongue.

Realizing he'd almost had a heart attack over a loose tooth, he sighed and slumped to the bed with her in his arms. "Joey, it's a loose tooth, it's okay, that's supposed to happen." He sighed, his heart still racing.

"I don't like it." She frowned and reached into her mouth to wiggle the tooth. "Feels not good."

"Well, by the looks of it, it'll fall out soon." He gently pulled her hand out of her mouth. "Just don't touch it, it'll come out on its own."

A look of terror began to cloud over the little girl's face. "But I don't want it to fall out!" She exclaimed. "Where's it gonna go when it falls out?"

"It'll grow back, Joey. Your baby teeth fall out and your grown-up teeth come in." He reassured her.

It wasn't convincing enough to Johanna. "What if I swallow it?"

"You won't."

"Yeah-huh, I could!"

"Okay, well." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Ask Charlie tomorrow, he's lost some of his teeth, he's an expert."

Then, Leah hurried into the room with Molly fussing crankily in her arms. "What was all that screaming about?" She gasped.

"Jo's got a loose tooth," Tommy reported.

"Mummy, I don't wanna swallow my teeth." She cried fearfully, wrapping her fingers tightly around Tommy's shirt.

"Oh, lovey, you won't. Just have daddy pull it out so you won't have to worry about it anymore."

Tommy frowned it sounded like a terrible idea to him. "I'm not going to pull her tooth out, Lee." He replied.

"If it's loose enough, it'll come right out." She shrugged.

Charlie peeked into his sister's room, also alarmed by the screams. "Let's tie a string 'round it and then tie it to a doorknob!" He exclaimed after listening in on the conversation about teeth.

"Charles!" Tommy scolded.

"That's how James lost his tooth. He said his brothers tied his tooth to a doorknob and then his brothers shut the door and it came out." The boy explained while miming the motion of a tooth being violently ripped out.