The screaming and shouting and pinballing continue as the Tooth Fairy adds magical lights to the sky, more rules to the game, and makes it more complicated and more fun every few minutes. 

Joy and Charlie are having the time of their lives, flying, bumping, crashing in the sky.

And then, after a few hours, it’s over. 

Joy drinks. The Tooth Fairy creates a bathroom for her to go to. And when she returns, the mood is much more somber.

The Tooth Fairy lands in front of Joy. Joy is almost tall enough to look her in the eye. Charlie, as always, stands next to his best friend. 

“Joy the Pirate,” the Tooth Fairy says, and her voice is the most unshrill I have yet heard it .. “You have lost your last baby tooth. Soon you will no longer be a child. You will be a teenager. And then a young adult.”

“I don’t want to say goodbye,” Joy begins to cry. 

“We must say goodbye to childish things,” the Tooth Fairy says. “And I am such a childish thing.” 

“No!” Joy cries. 

“And you, child warrior,” she turns to Charlie. 

“I am not a warrior,” he tells her again. 

“But you are. Look at the size of that wound inside your heart. What can you become, except a warrior? You get up every day and you go to school. That makes you a warrior.” 

Charlie looks down respectfully. 

“Why aren’t you ever in my dreams?” he asks. 

She looks at Justin, then at Charlie. “Why aren’t you ever in your dreams?” He looks up in surprise, but she waves her wand dismissively. “But it doesn’t matter! You have lost your last baby tooth as well!” 

She kisses Charlie’s forehead. “So long, child warrior.” She kisses Joy’s forehead. “So long, Joy the Pirate.” 

“No!” Joy cries. 

The Tooth Fairy bows to them in the air. “It has been fun and an honor.” 

She waves her wand and something happens to the air. It swirls around me and suddenly we’re standing on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. 

We all look around. That’s a weird mode of transportation. I don’t remember anyone ever doing that to us. 

Joy looks over the deck. “Look,” she points at the small desert island she and Justin call Tooth Island. “It’s permanent, but there’s no reason to ever go back.” She begins to cry again. “I miss her! Bring her back, Dad! One more adventure! Just one!” 

Justin hugs her and says nothing. 

Suzy reaches out to Charlie who also seems devastated. She hugs him. 

As the two kids cry, Suzy takes a deep breath and exhales. “Oh, what a lovely day this was,” she says. “The fact that you’re crying means it was the best ever, right?” 

—Told by Grampa Walt