I have a lump in my throat. I am 39 and sitting in a mental health clinic waiting room direly awaiting a stranger’s voice to call my name and rescue me. After several minutes a very pretty African American woman appears. She walks over to me and introduces herself. " Hi Debra, my name is Kathy Triplett." She knows I am Debra because I am the only one in the waiting room. There is no patient behind her. She doesn’t say goodbye to her last sob story. There is no receptionist telling me the doctor will see me next.

I follow Kathy to her office feeling like a child called in to see the principal. She is taller than I am. She has a string of keys slinging from her neck. She is very dangly. Her keys and her long braids sway in one accord. After walking a very short distance she stops and unlocks her office door. I am curious as to why she needs keys. What treasure of healing powers lies behind this door? She opens the door and invites me in . I take one step over the threshold to find myself in a very small closet directly before 2 chairs and a desk.

I am fascinated by how much furniture fits in such a small room. I sit obediently following Kathy’s manual directions . There is a do-si-do as we maneuver our way around the cramped office space. Sitting and arranging my coat, scarf and schoolbag was quite a feat. She offers to take my things and place it on another chair miraculously situated behind the door . This is revealed when she locks the door with her key from the inside. I am trapped. This doesn't seem right.

I look around her office. While she shuffles through papers, some pink forms, some yellow. The type of paper that make copies of your writing in triplicate. My name is already on these forms in a blurry purple copy type of lettering. On a shelf in Kathy’s small office are children's drawings clumsily dedicated to her in phonetic handwriting reads i luv kathi with a smiling sun and one small flower standing in a great big Crayola field . Another childs art piece is a red car floating on manila drawing paper with just Kathy's name on it. Obviously, drawn by a boy. There are three small black Cabbage Patch dolls in a row on the second shelf. Three. Triplets. Triplett? hmmm.

There is one of those small fountains with a few rocks and pebbles on a hunter green plastic bowl with running water to bring the illusion of a babbling brook in this small maximum security office. For verification Kathy asks me what my social security number is and as I recite it by heart much like a soldier reciting his name, rank and serial number I notice over her shoulder a fenced in window. I am aware of this because the wind has caused the branches of a tree to brush against the window.

There is an audio cassette ribbon on the branch of the tree hanging like tinsel on a Christmas tree. We are on the third floor. I can’t help but wonder how the cassette ribbon reached that tree branch. I imagine a young couple maybe in their teens. A young latin boy and a young latin girl. They would have to be latin because this clinic is in the heart of Sunset Park, Brooklyn in a predominantly hispanic neighborhood. His name is Luis. her name is Maribel. They are arguing about something so insignificant as young lovers often do. To add to the drama Maribel removes the audio cassette tape from her walkman. It is a mixed tape that Luis created for Maribel. He doesn’t have much. He wants to give her something. He purchases the audio cassette tape at a 99c store. There are three Memex tapes in a pack. Memex would be the bootleg Memorex which is of higher quality.

Instead of the cool guy on the chair being blown away by the awesome sound on the cover, you get some guy standing with a portable fan in his hand just happy sound is there as tinny as it may be. Anyway, Luis purchases the cassette and runs home to his small room not as small as the one I am sitting in now but small nonetheless. Luis begins to record some songs that remind him of his love for Maribel.

After endless hours and meticulously choosing the songs that would accurately display his love for Maribel, Luis runs over to Maribel’s home and hands his handiwork to her. On her front stoop she is delighted and hugs Luis. He is very proud. They kiss. They sit on the front stairs. She listens to the music and turns occasionally to smile at him. He is pleased and feels extraordinary. She is honored. They do this dance for 35 minutes. Then a rude click interrupts their dance and because Maribel doesn’t have auto reverse she has to eject the tape manually and then turn it to the other side. She decides to wait and listen to side B that night in her bedroom and falls asleep. As she listens she is thinking of how much Luis loves her.

The cassette was meaningful once for this young couple until that fateful day when they argued and Maribel being the hot headed latin girl that she prides herself in being, pulls the tape out of her walkman and beings to pull on the ribbon. She is tearing it to shreds which isn’t easy by the way because the ribbon is very strong. This adds to Maribel's frustration. Luis is deeply hurt and angered and walks away. He leaves Maribel huffing and puffing and holding back tears.

The ribbon is being carried away by the wind. Some of the ribbon is floating across the street traveling on the bumper of a mini van not knowing where it will be taken. As the wind picks up some of the ribbon floats higher about three floors high and lands on the branch of a tree that stands in front of the Sunset Park mental health clinic. That is what remains of Luis and Maribel’s junior high school puppy love.