Ghosts

It was an uncomfortable summer of "jetés" and "attitude jumps". I wanted to be inconspicuous, but I was halfway to becoming a woman.

I thought my bright yellow wrap-around skirt was pretty and the girl sitting in the backseat was not. She horrified and fascinated me, she prefigured all the changes I would see within myself one day.

I wondered how we'd landed here on earth and wished fervently that they'd all just go back to Mars.

I was time-traveling, culturally stupefied and a jumbled up mixture of bitter-sweet pop songs.