Kate Pedroso
(Section titles from Barbie’s Cradle.)
1. Keeping my affair in a book
I unearthed her mixtape again today, the first and the only one I received from her in four years. At the time, I was fifteen and I didn’t know better. I didn’t even know what a mixtape was, to begin with.
That day, it came wrapped in bond paper, on which she had printed a brief note.
That day, I waited for her after class in the corridor, weeding her out from the exodus of girls wearing exactly the same clothes.
That day, she said, “I got something for you,” pushing the package against my chest. I tried to say thank you, but by the time I finished composing the thought in my head, she had already walked away.
When I played the CD, the first track featured a girl singing about a shiny red balloon. Th
