#aaronpeters

My short story "Bad Tooth" is in the latest edition of Sou'wester. It's not online, so gotta buy the issue, but here's a taste:

That day, they toured Moaning Cavern in the foothills. The walls of the cave were polished pearly green and, as their father remarked, contoured as a skull. Everyone on the tour took turns shouting in the largest chamber and listening to the echo. Their father shouted the loudest but the noise seemed to become tiresome to him because he went ahead of the tour, hiding in a crevice and leaping out when the children passed, making the girl scream. She was fourteen but he could still make her scream. The boy was twelve and most of the time he was nervous and uncertain. For the remainder of the tour, he kept a close eye on his father. His father looked pale, born of chalk or soapstone and stumbled along the cave’s path, touching the walls and gazing around in awe at the formations. Later, their father bought them T-shirts in the gift shop. Despite the cold, they ate lunch from the cooler at a picnic table near the parking lot and the girl put her hand on her cheek, making a pained face.

“What’s wrong?” their father said. He was drinking a bottle of beer.

“My tooth hurts,” she said, then put her finger in her mouth, felt inside, closed her lips around the finger and slipped it from her mouth.

“When did that start?” he asked, but was too distracted to hear the answer.