I have been trying prompt writing and have been enjoying it. I never know what how it will start or how it will end. This is a prompt that asked us to write a title, a headline and a news report using a picture of a kid with no front teeth. Here’s what turned out
Happy Holidays
A boy with no front teeth brings holiday cheer to town.
“I noticed something was different about him the moment he was born.” Mary Ann Lou announced with pride. She seemed poised and well prepared for the questions by the gentle smattering of reporters from the local news stations of the small town of Ariba, population 2000. She smoothed her skirt and sat in her chair, her back straight, her eyes steady. Then reaching out she pulled a cherubic handsome three-year-old boy, standing next to her, on to her lap. A boy who you would have otherwise dismissed as normal until he shone upon us his toothless smile. The boy, as we know now, has no front teeth. None. While the rest of us are blessed with those highly functional incisors, his gums were empty.
“Does it impair him in any way?”, a young reporter asked, concern writ on his face.
“He is perfectly able to do anything a boy his age should. Mary Ann said and then after some thought “Well, except bite off a whole apple”.
“What do the doctors say?”, asked another older reporter.
“You know, I kept asking his pediatrician when he would crawl and she said – Soon. And he did. I asked her when he would walk and she said – Soon. And he did. When I asked when he would get his teeth. She just laughed and replied, “Have you ever seen a kid with no teeth?” She paused as the crowd went silent.
“Well, I don’t see that Pediatrician anymore.”, Mary Ann Lou ended with a chuckle.
Our news station’s reporters followed up with his Dentist and they confirmed that there was no hope of any teeth appearing later in his life. He would have to reckon with an empty front. There were orthodontists that had offered to do reconstructive surgery for him when he grows up, but for now, the mother was content the way things were. “It’s like the Natural Bridges, isn’t it?”, she said hugging the boy. “That’s our favorite place to go to on the coast”, she explained beaming at the room.
As for the boy, he didn’t care much for what was missing for he had realized he could twist his tongue in a rather peculiar way around the gaping hole and create a marvelous whistling sound. As the interview drew to an end, mother and son walked away hand in hand. We could hear the boy whistling, “Happy Holidays” all the way to the car.”