Signal to Noise

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

“Why can’t music be magic? Aren’t spells just words you repeat? And what are songs? Lyrics that play over and over again.

He sat back, his head against the door of the building. Meche, in turn, rested her head against his shoulder. For others, it might have been an intimate gesture. Maybe it was, but not in the way most people might think. Meche and Sebastián were used to each other, comfortable in their proximity. They folded and kept their dreams in the same drawer, spun fantasies side by side, lived in the easy harmony of youth which did not know the need for tall walls and sturdy defenses.