Dot Hid UFLI Foundations Lesson 126
Practice Words
Sally finds the photo tucked between a teddy bear and a stack of books. 'Oh!' she gasps. 'Look at Mom's hair! It is so short and so pretty!' She holds the photo up next to her own face and squints. Same eyes. Same smile. But Sally's hair is long and floppy, and Mom's is short and adorable. 'I want hair just like that,' Sally whispers. And Sally has a plan.
She finds her craft scissors in the art box. The red ones with the bumpy handles. Sally can cut paper. She can cut string. She even cut a worm in two once, by mistake. Sorry, worm. How hard can hair be? Snip, snip, snip! Dark bits of hair fly all around her. Sally grins. This is doable. She is almost a barber already.
Sally picks up her little blue mirror and holds it high. Her incredible new look is ready. Short. Perfect. Just like the photo. She can not wait. 'Time to see the new me,' she says. She flips her head like an actor on a show. She looks. She blinks. She looks again.
'Oh no!' Her hair sticks out in clumps. Big clumps. Tiny clumps. One bit near her ear is so short it is almost gone. The other side flops down like a wet leaf. This is horrible. Sally wants to glue it back on. She wants to go back in time. She wants to take it all back. 'Fine,' she says in a very small voice. 'Fine, fine, fine. I can fix this.'
In the kitchen, Sally finds a bowl of cold noodles. Long, slick, pretty noodles. 'Noodles look like hair,' she says. That seems sensible enough. 'Nobody would even notice.' She turns the bowl over on her head. Noodles slide over her ears and drip down her nose. She grabs the mirror and peeks. Everybody would notice. And now all of her head is soaking wet.
'Noodles are too floppy,' Sally decides. 'Too bendable. I need stiff hair.' She finds green beans in the fridge and drapes them over her head, one by one, like long wild hair. Just then her family walks in. Dad snorts. Her little sister points and grins. Mom presses her lips together very hard. Then all three of them burst out laughing. 'It is not funny!' Sally cries. But a green bean slides off her nose, and truly, it is a little bit funny.
'Third time lucky,' Sally says. She grabs a bag of spinach and piles the leaves on top of her head like a big green hat. She pats them down, stands up straight, and lifts her mirror. Behind her, Dad laughs so hard he holds his belly. Her sister giggles into her red ball. Even Mom wipes tears from her eyes. The laughing is unstoppable. 'Stop laughing!' Sally yells. 'It is my new look!' But the spinach is going limp, and her head is getting more itchy by the second.
That is it. No more noodles. No more beans. No more spinach. Sally crawls behind the big red couch and makes herself as small as possible. If nobody can see her hair, then her hair does not exist. It is her best plan yet. 'Sally?' Mom calls softly from across the room. 'Come out now, dear.' 'No,' says Sally. 'I live in this spot now.'
Mom scoops her up all the same and carries her to the couch. Dad sits on the arm. Her little sister snuggles in close. 'I made a mess of it,' Sally says. 'I do not look like the photo at all.' Mom puts her hand in her pocket. Out comes a red hairband with a little bow. She slips it gently on Sally's head and holds up the mirror. Sally looks. She blinks. She looks again. 'Oh,' she whispers. The girl in the mirror looks kind of adorable.
Sally closes her eyes and smiles so hard her cheeks hurt. Short hair. Red hairband. Pretty bow. She does not look like Mom's old photo. She looks like Sally. And Sally looks remarkable. But next time she wants a haircut? Mom can handle the scissors. And those noodles are going back in the bowl where they belong.
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