No Happy Ending To This (Pony)Tale
(I’ve recently cut my shoulder-blade-length hair, which I usually keep in a ponytail, to chin-length. Despite having been with him for several hours, it takes until bedtime for the three-year-old I babysit to notice. He likes to hold onto my ponytail while he sits on my lap, for reasons unknown, and when we’re reading a story, he goes to do just that… before realizing there isn’t one. He looks at me with concern.)
Child: “[My Name], did you leave your ponytail at home today?!”
Me: “No, honey, I cut my hair. It’s gone now.”
Child: “But where is it?”
Me: “It was cut off when I got my hair cut. Like when Mama cuts your hair.”
Child: “What happened to it?”
Me: “It was thrown away.”
Child: “In the road?”
Me: “Uh…”
Child: “You need to get it!”
(No amount of explaining could dissuade him of the idea that I couldn’t just re-attach about six inches of hair to the back of my head, even if I had kept it.)
