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challenging POV: a retarded person who also had the instincts of a bee. About this time in looking over the proofs I began thinking, why the heck do I always do tear jerkers? Well, my only excuse is that I loathe chirpy TV announcers and overly happy endings; The Sound of Music was the only movie I ever walked out of.
    Still. Hanky alert. “Sweet Tooth” may be my tear jerkiest story of all.

    The bang scared him, scared him so much his hands flew into the air and he made an “uh” sound with his throat. Home spun in his head and made him dizzy. In the curved triglas around him, where he had first seen the bright light that came with the bang, all there was was orange-black-orange-black. The emergency horn over his head went WA-A-AANK, WA-A-A-ANK so loud it hurt his ears.
    His stomach felt the way it had felt when Jean had taken him on the roller coaster in the park. The cars would go slow up to the top and then they would nearly stop for a second before they started running down the hill as fast as they could go.
    It was the down side he had liked. Jean had held his hand. The steel bar had been hard against his thighs so he couldn’t fall out.
    The soft, plastic emergency bar of the chair that had flipped down during the bang was hitting his lap in almost the same place. His chest thumped against the shoulder harness. He was afraid but at the same time he was happy because he remembered the roller coaster. He remembered Jean’s hand in his.
    Orange-black-orange-black. It was like someone was throwing flip cards real fast over the triglas. He knew the orange was the big color of Jupiter; and the black was the big hole that was space. REACTOR RUPTURE, the computer was saying in its deep, machiny voice. He could barely hear the computer over the blat of the horn.
    “Reactor rupture,” he said because he liked to repeat things.
    Then he laughed. He closed his eyes. Home went round and round in his head like a searchlight. His body bumped against the seat. He put his hands way up in the air like Jean had told him to when they went down the hills in the cars.
    “Sweetie? Sweet Tooth?”
    He opened his eyes when he heard Jean’s voice behind him. He knew she had opened the lock to the ship, but he didn’t bother to turn. The orange blips caught his eyes and held them.
    “You all right?”
    “Fun, Jean,” he told her, squealing a little. “Put your hands up, it’s funner.”
    “Yes,” she said. “It’s fun. But now I want you to get up and come here, okay, Sweetie? Real quick now. Quick like a bunny.”
    He had trouble unfastening the plastic bar at his waist.
    “Hurry up, honey,” Jean said.
    “Uh huh,” he told her. His body couldn’t move good. When he got up he fell against the wall, then back against the other wall. Jean gave him her hand. She pulled him through and held on to him because the ship was doing roller coaster things.
    “Shut the goddamned door,” Martingale said. He was sitting in his chair. The bar had come down over his legs, too.
    “I’m trying, I’m trying,” Jean told him. She sounded mad. Her fingers didn’t close right on the wheel, so Sweet Tooth helped her. The ship pushed them against the wall over and over again.
    Sweet Tooth liked it when Jean moved. Her hands danced. Her arms made pretty cut-outs of the blue wall behind her. He liked watching her from across the room, but he liked it best right beside her where their bodies swam in the air so close that he could feel the breeze from her movements against him.
    “Get it closed!” Martingale shouted in a voice that made Sweet Tooth afraid and angry at the same time.
    Jean slammed the door bang like the sound the ship had made. Sweet Tooth, because he was stronger, turned the wheel to LOCK.
    The ship wasn’t turning as fast now. Even though there wasn’t a window, Sweet Tooth knew it. Home went swish for a few more turns and then stopped somewhere to the left of him. When it stopped, Sweet Tooth felt something that made