Hair Cut

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Mischief seemed to be in the air the previous day. For as Collette sat on the couch that afternoon, for no particular reason, she decided she wanted to cut off her hair. And so, wrapping a towel around her shoulders, she had OLeif get the scissors from the pencil glass on her desk and he snipped it off.

It was about ten inches, or even a foot that eventually slid off. As soon as the pieces fell, Collette gathered them together into a tail. She fastened off the thick end with a tie, and then braided the tail down to where she fastened the other end. Soon it was finished, and they went back to the house.

Upon arriving, Mom and Carrie were sitting in the living room, and everyone else was gathered around the computer, except for Dad who had gone to get soda for their pizza night. And as they came in, Rose and her friend from church Samantha Bee, entered as well.

“Carrie, I have a surprise for you,” Collette grinned, holding the tail behind her back.

“What?” Carrie smiled mischievously in the rocking chair.

“Close your eyes and hold out your hands,” Collette insisted.

“No! Is it alive?” Carrie closed her eyes and held out her hands.

Collette dropped the braided tail into her palm. Carrie snapped open her eyes and let out a scream. The tail dropped to the floor in a disgraceful heap, as Collette whipped the clip out of her hair and the short crown of hair fell to her shoulders.

“Whoa! Mom, she finally did it!”

Carrie jumped from her seat as everyone else laughed at the tail on the floor which Trooper had suddenly snatched up.

Then Mom saw her hair too and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness!”

“Finally!” Carrie went on. “I’ll trim it and layer it and highlight it.”

And within the hour, Carrie had constructed another masterpiece with a layered cut and red highlights mixed with the chocolate brown and gray. It seemed to be a good change. Collette had not had her hair so short since she was twelve and Mom and Dad were on their cruise in the Caribbean.

It was later that afternoon that Mom and Carrie dropped by with Rose and Samantha on their way to the mall. First, Carrie’s pictures for the yearbook were to be scanned into the computer and then they were prepared to leave once plans for wally ball with the youth group had been squared away for that evening.

Then, while the two younger girls went off for a manicure, Mom went looking for a dress for Carrie’s graduation with Carrie and Collette as “fashion consultants”. They quickly settled on something for her, which was rather odd considering that it usually took several hours to do so. It was a lovely long rose pink skirt with silk ruffling at the hem and a matching jacket with ruffling at the cuffs. Mrs. Ernie might be able to tailor it before graduation, and it suited her very nicely.

Then they walked past sequined brooches and pastel pearls tied with silk ribbons… And Carrie spotted a bracelet with little pearls and pink rhinestones for Mom and an exotic gold and multi-colored rhinestone piece for herself – a necklace direct from the Middle East, it seemed.

Then later, Carrie recalled the tale of Travis Tecumseh at choir. As they dipped pretzel bites in cheese, sitting on a bench between the jewelry store and Disney store, she retold it to Mom and Collette.

“So I thought I’d make Travis Tecumseh embarrassed on Tuesday. He was sitting at the table after choir with all his buds, and so I walk over to him, and Justus Orange and Bo Ernie and all these other little guys are there. And I say, ‘So we’re still on for Sunday, right?’ And he’s like, ‘yeah… I guess so.’ And I’m like, ‘So are we doing dinner first or the show?’ And he started turning so red and as I’m leaving they’re all like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he told them about “Les Miserables” and the Fox, and Bo’s like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about that – you know it’s my favorite show.”

But suddenly Carrie had stopped talking. Her jaw had dropped nine inches.

“What?” Collette laughed at her in wonderment.

“No way.” She stood up. “That guy who just went into the jewelry store…”

“Mattias?”

“No! Ernest!”

Mom, curious to find out, casually walked into the store while Carrie planted on the bench groaned, ‘No, Mom!”

But her eyes were riveted, clearly hoping Mom would keep going.

Mom came back, shaking her head subtly, as a spy might. Then Carrie had to be sure, and all three walked past on a round-a-bout way back to Borders. Carrie flashed her head past the store.

“Big false alarm.”

She sighed, sipping her lemonade again.

Mom laughed, “Carrie, Carrie…”

They walked a little further, and Carrie said, “Actually, let’s walk by again. He was kind of cute.”

“I thought you just said ‘big false alarm’,” Collette said.

“Yeah, but no… I don’t know… He was pretty fine.”

But by this time they were at Borders and Rose and Samantha soon returned with fresh manicures, one with silver and the other with coral, respectively. Carrie had selected a new journal from the never-ending shelves of fresh brightly colored notebooks – it would be lined and purple, after the infamous purple thumbtack dream, which was entirely a different story.

Upon coming out, rain was in the air, coming soon. And back to the nice warm apartment past the cool spring air, was lovely and inviting. She even felt in the mood for a little bit of opera as she sat typing by the window as the gray skies came rolling in.