Virgin’s Breath

Short story in prose inspired by a family myth. As a child, an aunty would have her daughter and me blow on tangled chains after school, claiming that only a virgin’s breath could undo the knots. I believed this was a secret superpower I carried until one day, I didn’t.

This piece reflects on how childhood stories shape us, and how their meaning evolves over time. It explores memory, myth, and the subtle transformation of belief. Set against the backdrop of Peru, a country colonized by Spain, where purity was prized and policed, the story examines the tension between innocence and sexuality first through the eyes of a child, and now, as an adult looking back. The publication approaches memory as a living archive that we curate as much as we inherit. It considers how we return to certain moments not just to remember, but to reframe, reorder, and sometimes reimagine them entirely.