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"The
Last Hair Standing"
Life was good.
The sun rising on a sweet summer’s day, the smell of freshly mowed lawns, the sound of children playing, birds chirping; it couldn’t have been a
better day. It was so beautiful that it could have been a dream. But
sometimes dreams have a nasty way of going down when you’re not looking. I
was half-asleep and I wasn’t prepared for what was to come.
The annoying buzzing sound of my alarm clock shook me out of my pleasant
slumber; it sounded like a rooster ready to give it all up and croak. I
hate that stupid clock. Every time I’m in the middle of a perfect dream I’m
suddenly awaken to the sound of my croaking alarm clock. One day, I’ll put
it out of its misery for good.
I sat up on my bed, rubbing my eyes and yawning at the same time. I was still half-asleep and didn’t really know what was going on. I got off my
bed and stumbled towards my window. Along the way, I hit my foot against my
drawer and it sent my little toe throbbing with pain. After that, I fell over
my basketball shoes and nearly broke my neck on the windowsill.
As soon as I got to my window, the sunshine fell over my face and before I knew it, I was lost in the comeliness of the world outside. Birds
were chirping, children were playing, and everyone was walking around with a big smile on their
face. Instantly, my little toe regained its strength and my pain was gone.
I left my window feeling refreshed, energized and ready to take on the world. Neither a shoe nor a drawer
could have stood in my way.
Once I left my room and entered the hall, I heard my Mom listening to 670 AM
KIRN Persian radio blasting in the kitchen. My Mom has perfect hearing,
she was standing right next to the radio, and yet she had the radio on high
volume. Whenever I try to turn it down a bit, even the slightest bit,
she gives me a slap right across the back of my head and says, “can’t you see I'm
trying to listen to the radio?” in a demanding tone. That’ll be it, I’ll nod my head and walk away. You could never win against Mom. Never, not in a million years.
I strolled across my parents room and heard the 24 hour Persian radio on but no
one was in the room. Just because it is called the twenty-four hour
Persian radio does not mean that it should be on throughout the whole day.
G-d forbid it if I turn that one off! But I can contain myself, so I just walked away, trying as hard as I
could to ignore it.
I made my way to the bathroom. It stunk a little bit; I guess one of my older brothers just got done using it. So, I grabbed one of the two air
fresheners and started wailing it all around the toilet and all over the
rest of the bathroom. After empting out two-thirds of the air freshener, it
was decent smelling enough to enter.
I went over to the sink and tried to place the air freshener back in its spot, but instead it fell to the floor. I bent over to pick it up and saw
about 10 strands of my hair fall to the floor.
“What the hell is this?” I uttered.
When I stood back up, in the mirror I saw at least one-third of my hair
was missing. I moved my hand through my hair and another patch of hair came
right out, just as if nothing was holding my hair to my scalp and it was
waiting to fall out. My heart sank right to the floor. I was standing
there, numb to my bones. I moved my hand through my hair one more time and another
patch came right out.
“Oh no, no! Please, no!” I shouted hysterically.
I stared at the
reflection in the mirror and I couldn’t take it anymore. I fell down to my
knees and put my hands over my head.
“Please, no more!”
I was holding onto
my hair making sure no more would fall - but it was no use, the more I
touched it, the more it fell.
“Mom! Mom! Dad! Help!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
I was gasping
for air. Was I completely losing myself? I was running out of air and I
was running out of time. My hair would all be gone soon enough. At that
moment I blacked out. I fainted. I lied on the bathroom floor in this state of mindlessness.
Gone.
Later, I faintly heard muted voices around me, but I pretended not to hear. I
closed my eyes and fell asleep in hope of waking up from this horrifying
nightmare. Suddenly I started to lose sensation of myself. No, I was
no longer in my body. I was floating. Laughing. Laughing and laughing like a lunatic for no particular reason.
Maybe
I was crying. I don’t know.
That day, the sun set with practiced bravado. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding. From that day on, I knew my life would never be
the same.
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