The Tooth Fairy Is Real. She’s a Dentist in Seattle.

Parenting|The Tooth Fairy Is Real. She’s a Dentist in Seattle.

The letter looked like a ransom note, each jagged letter traced over and over for emphasis.

The message got straight to the point: “I KNOW IT’S YOU MOM.”

A fourth-grader named Caden had begun to harbor suspicions about the supposedly magical being who left cash under his pillow after each baby tooth fell out.

There had been inconsistencies in the tooth fairy’s behavior: After Caden lost his first tooth, he woke up to a crisp $100 bill.

His mother, Ashley Lee, a chiropractor in California, quickly came to regret that initial gift, delivered in an excited rush, not accounting for the dozens of teeth to come.

For his next teeth, Caden received less, and the variations in bills raised questions in his mind. And so he wrote the accusatory letter.

Now, Ms. Lee wanted to keep him a believer.

So she took a shot in the dark, and dashed off a note to what she figured was a made-up “toothfairy” email address, not knowing if anyone would receive it. “Caden thinks it is me giving him money for exchanging the tooth,” she wrote, asking the tooth fairy to reply and prove him wrong.