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                                                Esmeralda and her hair

When Esmeralda was two, her mother cut her hair.  She stared into the mirror and did not recognize herself.  It was so short her ears froze when she went outside.  It was so short it stuck straight up on her head.  It was so short people sometimes thought she was a boy.  Her mother tried to stick bows in her hair with gel, which looked very silly.  One day she walked up to her mother, put her hands on her hips and announced, “No more hair cuts, never, never never!”

Her hair grew.  Esmeralda’s ears started to warm up as her hair began covering them. 

A few weeks later she was able to put bows in her hair without looking silly.  Her mother found every tangle and snarl Esmeralda had, when she combed her hair.  Her scalp hurt when her mother was finished.  Esmeralda would wiggle and squirm when her mother tried to comb her hair, then run away and hide.

The hair grew to brush her shoulders.  She put barrettes and bows in but they were soon lost.  Her mother said, “You have to brush your hair and keep it neat if you want it long.”  Esmerelda did not want to hear what her mother said.  She just nodded and went back to playing.  She did not want to listen.  Taking care of her hair seemed like too much work.

As it grew, she liked to put it on top of her head to keep it out of her way.  Esmeralda pinned her hair up with chopsticks but she never bothered to take them out.  They would stick out at strange angles, sometimes sagging down, drooping dejectedly.  There were several chopsticks in her hair before she decided it was too much trouble.

It grew so long her mother tried to braid it but the tangles got in the way.  Esmeralda would not let her mother comb it and never did it herself.  It fell down her back in snarls and tangles.  Her teacher spoke to the class about the importance of brushing their hair, pointing at the messy heap on top of Esmerelda’s head. 

It grew so long it reached her waist.  Esmerelda liked to separate it in two and tie it into a bow at her neck.  She took her mother’s hair spray and sprayed the bow fast.  Esmeralda did not care that it became a sticky mess when it rained.

One day Esmeralda and her friend, Lucy, had a fight.  They were in a meadow near home.  Lucy got so mad she took prickers and smashed them into Esmeralda’s hair.  Esmeralda grabbed some and did the same to Lucy.  Esmeralda’s mom cried as she tried to comb the prickers out but finally gave up.  She wanted to cut Esmeralda’s hair but, of course, she said No!  The prickers scratched Esmeralda’s cheeks as she slept.  There were huge clumps of prickers all over her head.  Her hair looked lumpy and bumpy.

When she was swinging at the playground her hair swept the ground, leaving the ground neat and her hair littered with twigs and clumps of dirt.  Esmeralda’s mother just shook her head when she saw her.  Caterpillars and ants climbed up the strands of her hair. The ants made little mounds for their homes.  Her scalp itched as they walked across it.  She heard the ants lining up in rows, practicing their marches, and listened to their leaders ordering the troops.  The caterpillars found quiet spots and spun their chrysalis’, waiting for the days they would become butterflies.

Soon she could sit on her hair.  One day Esmeralda tried to brush her hair but the brush got stuck in the tangles and she just left it there.  It clanked against the back of her chair in school. 

Two nights later, when she was sleeping, a mouse saw her hair dusting the floor and skittered up.  He made a home and each night brought