It doesn’t say a thing. I don’t think it knows how. But I hear a growl and feel it slide in sometime after my bad landing. I’d jumped off a swing, flipped mid-air, and tried to land on my feet. I guess I didn’t complete the rotation. I don’t remember hitting the ground, but I wake to the memory of the thing and a man’s voice saying I’d landed on my head and almost didn’t make it. I hear Mami crying too. 

I open my eyes and see a poster of a kitten hanging from a tree limb with the words “Hang in there” underneath her. I should’ve hung on, too. 

“Itza, you’re awake. Good.” 

I don’t recognize the voice, but, judging by the ceiling tiles and the poster, the beeping machines and the crying, I know I’m in a hospital. 

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