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Messenger of the Tooth Fairy

Updated: 2 days ago

by Mahailey Oliver



He lost one of his baby teeth

during the golden hour in Lake Champlain

when he was seven.

At least, that’s what his sister told me.

According to her, the family picnic on Memorial Day

went awry when he didn’t wait fifteen minutes

and lost his sandwich along with his tooth.

Their scowling dad plucked him from the water

like a damp calla lily,

packed up the van, and left the lake.


People always saw him there afterwards.

“The scrawny boy? Red hair?  Yeah, I’ve seen him,”

they’d claim. They remembered wondering

whose kid that was, and why

he was always playing alone at the shore.

Why he seemed drawn to the water. Why he never looked

to the sky during sunset, but only at the water.

Always, always at the water.


“Did you hear what happened to the Benning boy?”

folks whispered in grocery store aisles.

“Sure did. First thing I said when I saw the alert

is that they oughta dredge that lake, first thing. Sure ‘nough…”


I heard his sister never admires sunsets anymore.

I heard she was there when they plucked his body

from the lake, like yanking a tooth from wet gums.


Even worse is what happened to their dad. I heard

from the waitress at the bay café that he came in for lunch

about a year after they found the body. She was there,

she saw the moment when he cut into his fried bass

and in the belly of the fish

was a baby tooth.



 


Mahailey Oliver holds an English MA from Stephen F. Austin State University. Her poetry has previously appeared in ForgetMeNot PressSpark to Flame, and The Afterpast Review. Her body and soul are both made happy with a chilly autumn breeze and camping under starlight. You can read more of her work on her website.

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