To her dismay when she got up, it was indeed all her hair. Instead of the three inches she'd gone to sleep with, she now had about three feet - far more hair than she'd ever worn! She thought back over all the strange things that had happened since she'd married Miles, but couldn't think of anything to beat this.
Amazement gave way to disgust. The very idea of trying to wash that much hair revolted her. She crawled out of bed, strode to the desk, and grabbed the scissors. Grabbing a huge tress of hair, she opened the scissors...
And promptly dropped them.
The hair had jerked out of her hand and was wriggling around like a giant work trying to avoid capture. Sharon, horrified, pinched herself, wishing that she was dreaming, wishing desperately that her hair was back to its normal length. Suddenly, her scalp felt creepy, and the hair whipped back to its normal length.
Somehow she got through her morning shower without screaming. By the time she climbed out of the tub Sharon had calmed down, unable to remember the last time a dream had given her hysterics. Laughing, she reached for the hair dryer. She stopped short as she realized that she was running late. Her hair would just have to dry itself, she thought. Not for the first time she wished for more arms.
She stood like a statue, staring into the mirror as the creepy feeling crawled across her scalp again. Fascinated, she watched her hair grow to waist length in almost no time. A large cord of strands picked up the hair dryer, switched it on, and began drying the ends (about three inches) of her hair -- the only wet part.
``Stop that!'', she demanded, a bit too loudly. The hair froze, the dryer pointed above her head.
``Oh, go ahead,'' she whimpered. Her hair resumed drying itself. She couldn't decide whether she was going to cry, or scream, or laugh...
``Hey, Mommy! How'd you do that? Josiah stood in the doorway, staring raptly at his Mom's hair.
``Shhh. You'll wake Esther.'' Too late -- Esther stumbled in sleepily, snuggling a stuffed bunny. She woke up so fast Sharon had to giggle. Esther never woke up fast. ``Wow, Mommy! How can you do that?'' she squealed, ending on an incredibly high note. Somewhere a window shattered.
Her hair now dry, Sharon watched calmly as the dryer was switched off and laid carefully in its place by the sink. She ushered the gleeful children back into her bedroom, where they danced around, shouting questions.
``I don't know. I just woke up and it was like this. Is your hair OK?"
``Yikes!'' Josiah shouted, feeling his hair. ``I think it might be getting longer!'' he hollered hopefully.
``I don't think so'', Esther mused, holding hers up, watching it fall back normally despite her willing it to wave around.
Sharon let out a sigh of relief. She had enough to deal with this morning. She still kept expecting to wake up, or to find Alan Funt with his candid camera nearby.
Sharon was nothing if not resourceful. Using her hair as well as her hands, she was able to dress herself and the children in record time. She realized that she had only to wish something done and her hair would do it unless she explicitly ordered it not to.
Grabbing Pop Tarts TM and drinks, she herded the kids out to the car and they left for the airport. On the way, Esther and Josiah got into arguments just to see their Mom's hair come back to stop them. When she realized this, Sharon had her hair play with them. Tickling was especially enjoyable -- her hair could extend to catch them anywhere, and they couldn't get close to tickle her back (not that they were allowed to while she was driving!) with her hair playing defense. It had a mind of its own, yet obeyed her completely.
``Maybe'', she grinned to herself, ``this won't be too bad.''
Obscenely, traffic snarled near the airport entrance, and they were running late again. She finally found a parking spot, but it was along way off from where they needed to be. Rushing inside, she found that the passengers from Miles's flight were nearly to baggage claim. (This wasn't a bad thing, since his flights usually arrived at a concourse that seemed to be several miles away from the entrance.)
Hurrying to the conveyors, Josiah and Esther spotted their Dad simultaneously. Sharon managed to hush them and hold them back. She giggled. ``Watch Mommy.''
Sneaking up behind Miles, she wished he was already in her arms. her hair responded, and Miles was suddenly whirled around and crushed up against her. The kids jumped on for a big group welcome.
When Miles came up for air, he realized what was holding him fast. The look on his usually unflappable face was worth everything she had gone through this morning. As her hair held him tightly to her, she grinned.
This was going to work out just fine.
Copyright 1992, 1997 Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved. Written 10/10/92 at El Palacio, Georgetown, Texas, while listening to Taylor Weaver play and sing during dinner.