The Curlers and the Turning 16
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Shepherd’s 25th – he had promised to bring donuts to work that morning, according to OLeif.
Collette was reminded that day, however, of Diana’s 16th birthday. It had been a pleasant morning, a Tuesday, also a choir day. For breakfast, Mrs. English had taken, Diana, Collette, Crystabelle Bun (then Crystabelle Sage), and Marigold Avonlea to Miss Aimee B’s, where they were served quiche (with onions). Mrs. English read them a devotional and they prayed over Diana.
Afterwards, Collette and Crystabelle accompanied Mrs. English and Diana back to the English house, where Diana was to get ready for choir.
She had just been given several pieces of clothing for her birthday from the family, which included a dark top (perhaps it was dark dark gray with thin gold stripes or silver stripes, or maybe it was chocolate brown with gold stripes)… Nevertheless, she wore the top with her new khakis, which were very “in” in those days.
She had also just had her hair cut and no longer wore contacts. It was the first time Diana had ever really had her hair styled, and so she had requested a set of heated curlers for her birthday, which she also received. They were heating downstairs in the bathroom, the same old bathroom where the cabinets had once been filled from stem to stern with old National Geographics.
Anyway, Crystabelle had offered to help Diana with the curlers, because Diana had never really tried them on her own head before. There was also the question of make-up. Diana had only just been allowed that very day to wear make-up for the first time in public. It wasn’t until Mercy helped her put on her mascara in the bathroom at the church right before choir, that she felt prepared to enter the choir room.
“Now, blink,” Mercy said, holding the mascara brush below Diana’s lashes.
“Oh, thank you,” Diana said, quite relieved. “You’re so good at this.”
But meanwhile, the curlers were fully heated, and Crystabelle wrapped Diana’s entire head, tightly. Diana left them on for a good while. Collette couldn’t remember how long, but it was long enough, because Mrs. English was calling for all the choir kids to load themselves in the big blue van while Diana was still running around with the curlers in her hair.
“Aaaaaah! Help!” She called to Crystabelle, running to the bathroom. “Take them out, quick!”
Crystabelle calmly removed each curler, until Diana’s head was released. Diana looked in the mirror in horror. Her head appeared more like a great brown bush than a sleek new haircut. Her jaw had dropped.
“Crystabelle, you’ve ruined me!” She cried in despair, holding a mirror behind her head to check on its status.
“Now, it’s OK. I can fix it.” Crystabelle was trying to appear as though such things were common. But she looked nervous. “Hold still.”
Crystabelle took a brush to Diana’s hair, and somehow, in the next minutes while everyone waited on them, managed to tame the bush. Although Collette had never seen Diana’s hair look quite so full before, the result was satisfactory, and they made it to choir without needing to be fashionably late.
Collette rather expected a fanfare to announce Diana’s arrival into the choir room that afternoon, after all the prepping and trouble. But that was how Diana turned Sweet Sixteen.
Fool! all that is at all lasts forever, past recall:
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure;
What entered into thee, that was, is, and shall be:
Time’s wheel runs back or stops–
Potter and clay endure.
…Robert Browning