The Fall of the Easter Bunny the Tooth Fairy and Even the Jolly Old Guy

Yesterday I read a little blurb that mentioned something about the Easter Bunny and didn't think a thing about it but when I fell asleep I had one of those memory dreams. The kind of dream that comes from something so monumental in your life that each instant is recreated exactly the way it happened. My dream started out with my family traveling in our rustic (aka rusty) old green VW van to Arkansas to visit my Grandparents. I think it was the Spring of 1981 ...so I would have been 9 and a half. We used to take the middle seats out of the van and put sleeping bags on the floor so we could sleep during the 15 hour trip. This was before car seats and seat belts were the norm. My brother who would have been 12 at the time sat on the back seat and my little sister who was around 5 and I laid on the sleeping bags on the floor. My mom had tons of shopping bags suitcases squeezed in around us and I remember wondering what might be in the bags. Once everyone was asleep I began to peek in some of the bags. At first I wasn't sure what I saw was really what it seemed to be so I kept digging. I had come upon our Easter baskets and all of the goodies that were to go inside including the bright pink grass and the sickly sweet jelly beans. It took a few minutes to sink in as I laid there in disbelief. I tried to rationalize it all to myself that maybe the Easter Bunny had packed it up and left it for my mom to bring on the trip but eventually the reality hit me like a landslide. The magic of the Bunny faded to almost nothing. I didn't say a word about it and still haven't to my parents. I played along but inside my head I kept thinking what a joke. It took me only a few more minutes to realize that if the Easter bunny was a lie then the Tooth Fairy had to be one too. The hardest one to reconcile in my kid sized brain was Santa. He just had to be real. He was so magical and jovial. How could my parents fake me out for almost 10 years?? In the end I decided to pretend to believe so I could still receive. I ended up receiving more then I bargained for. I really do still feel the magic of the characters. Even now I don't know for sure my parents realize that I don't still think the Easter Bunny hops in and fills the baskets or that dear old Saint Nick slides down the chimney on Christmas Eve. I just assume they do since I am now the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa to my own children. My eleven year old hasn't said a word to me. I have gotten a few winks when the Tooth Fairy occasionally forgets to show up and she tells her younger sister's with a twinkle in her eye that I sometimes help the Easter Bunny and Santa. I think she knows the adult truth but is choosing to keep the magic alive for her sister's for as long as possible. Her glass is still full of childhood wonderment . Don't we all need a little more magic in our lives??