Science Fiction Short Story
Making Mixtapes Might Send Mixed Messages
How can you tell an alien everything you need them to know with a mixtape?
Lisa inserted the blank cassette into the boombox. She tuned the radio dial to 106.5 FM and waited, finger poised over the record button.
“Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel filled the room.
Lisa snorted. If she was an uptown girl she wouldn’t be trying to make a mixtape using the cheapest boombox sold by Radio Shack and hoping for the perfect songs to be played on the radio.
Lisa paged idly through the latest Seventeen Magazine with her spare hand. Maybe she should get a perm? She was tired of fussing for an hour every morning with her curling iron and Aquanet just to have it all go flat by the end of third period. On the other hand, she had already blown two months’ worth of babysitting money on the boombox so how could she afford a perm?
Lisa waited for the final strains of “Uptown Girl” to die down. She pushed the record button just in case as the next song began to play.
“Burning Down the House.” No, that wasn’t the vibe she was going for at all. She pressed stop and then rewind. At least it was easy at this stage of the process when she could just go back…
