Growing up

AFTER one of his teeth became loose， his father began to warn the boy in a chiding tone， “Now don’t prod it with your tongue， or your teeth will become crooked. Then later you’ll have a problem finding a girlfriend.”

The boy then furtively nudged the shaky tooth with his tongue and asked， perplexed， “How can the tongue tilt the tooth？ The tooth is hard， but the tongue is so soft. How can a soft thing bend a hard thing？”

The father shot him an angry glare and replied， “Of course， it can. Throughout your life， you grow teeth twice. But when you get old， you lose all of them. Have you seen anyone lose their tongue with age？”

His Ma also kept reminding him， “Remember， a lost lower tooth should be thrown on to the roof， while a loosened upper tooth should be tossed under the bed. You can’t do the opposite， or the new tooth will be either a bucktooth or an under-bite. Very ugly.”The boy was chilled by these words. Both bucktooth and under-bite he had seen in movies. With such looks， an actor could only play a buffoon. That would be terrible！ He decided to remember this， despite its intricacy.

However， the boy’s elder brother did not want a loosened upper tooth under the bed， and scared him with the words， “If you throw it under the bed， the tooth might root there and grow. How would you deal with that？ It might be safer to bury the tooth beneath a tree.” With this new idea in mind， the boy felt happy， totally oblivious of his brother doubling over with laughter behind him.

Throwing the lower tooth on to the roof turned out to be pretty challenging. Without any grass on the tiled roof， the tooth rolled down to the ground again. When that happened， the boy’s gums seemed to ache as well. After several tries， he finally did it. But， who knew whether the tooth had with luck lodged in a tile， or rolled down to the grass cluster in the backyard.

The gap where the loose tooth once was felt so strange. It was soft， and empty. Days later， that little hole sprouted a bud-like new tooth. This was amazing.

Unable to resist the impulse， he licked it， to see how it would respond， and then again. The new tooth seemed to be budding. Unconsciously he licked it many times. Oh， damn！ The most disgusting bucktooth emerged. Then with one quiver， the boy woke up.

During those teeth-changing days， dreams also became regular visitors. Fortunately nightmares were in the minority. The most frequently recurring dream was about stealing a fat greasy grilled chicken from a deli， and just taking one bite of it， before he was spotted； then a crowd of people would chase him with sticks and knives. Despite his haste， he found he just could not speed up. Crap！ A wall would appear in front of him. Where was his qing- gong （a form of gongfu for flying and jumping high）？ His terror then woke him from the dream， and he found his legs had curled up while sleeping， which was why he could not run fast or fly in the dream.