Mixtape
Mix-tape by Gabriel Ramirez Acevedo First Place Writer’s Block Magazine Flash Fiction Competition 2021. As published in Writer's Block Issue 46 , Summer 2021 Michael sits cross-legged on the guest room’s wooden floor, facing a white archive box marked with a big neon MTV sticker. He had briefly seen it twice before: once, in 2008, when Caril moved into his small studio in downtown Albany, and then years later when they scaled up to this townhouse just outside the city. He had asked what was in it and on both occasions she said they were old memories from “before his time”, with a sweet smile. He never saw the box again until he found it at the back of the closet today. It had been four sleepless nights, searching for a clue that would explain something, anything, of why she was simply gone. He opens the box and finds an old Walkman with a black cassette and some cheap headphones wrapped around it. He hasn’t seen one in decades. He unwinds the cable and turns the player a