Or so she thought.
Against Ivy’s best hopes, it had happened
again just weeks later when she lost her last
baby tooth. The tooth had been loose for over a month, rattling around
at the back of her mouth whenever she ate, hanging on to the last shred
of flesh along her gums. It simply refused to leave. Growing impatient
at its hesitation, Ivy decided to take matters into her own hands.
Carefully, she tied a thin thread around the loose tooth, and yanked
with all her might.
The tooth did come loose, but not without a splash of fresh blood in the
bathroom sink.
Instantly, Ivy felt the same helplessness that overtook her on that
autumn day. She thought it might have been the pain of ripping out her
tooth, but the sensation was far worse than any scrape or cut that she
had ever experienced. Granny thought that she might have developed a
phobia of blood, but that theory was soon disproved.