I perceived my existence in this world when my eyes opened to a bunch of several of my siblings tickling each other and my ears getting torn by robust cries of a healthy newborn girl.
Sustained by milk and healthy oil massages, we grew long and thick.
It took me a few years to realize the connection between the newborn with the ear-piercing cries and myself. As she looked at herself in the mirror and ran her slender, soft hands through us, I felt an electricity pulsate through me. I felt alive. I loved her dear expressive face and watched her grow from a feisty kid with adorable cheeks to a fine young woman. I swayed with pride that my siblings and I were her crowning glory, literally!
I liked to think I was her favorite for in happiness or sadness, she loved seeking me out and twirling me between her fingers.
Days guzzled on peacefully until one day, I felt a strange restlessness, as if some spell had been cast against us and I felt weak and as if I was being pulled away from her.
I found her one day in hospital clothes in a hospital washroom, staring at herself expressionlessly. I was horrified to find her cheeks sallow, eyes sunken and lifeless and goodness! She had lost so much weight!
Slowly, her hands gently brushed across us and when she looked at her hands, a huge chunk of my siblings were in them.
Sometime later, a hairdresser with a nurse came in and shaved us off her. I tried to hold onto her in despair, “I’m your favorite! Let me stay…”
As we fell down to the floor in a heap and we were swept away from her forever, I saw a lone drop of tear trickling from her eyes and fall on me.
I don’t remember the rest of the days. Until one day, I found myself with some of my siblings and several new ones like us stitched together into a lovely mane.
We were transported in a beautiful decorative box to a famous hairdresser’s parlor.
I heard a woman walk in and we were fitted on to her head.
The hairdresser exclaimed,” O my God! This wig is just made for you, love!”
The woman laughed, warm and familiar. As she turned the mirror to herself and inspected her head full of us, my heart leapt in glee.
It was her!
The memories rushed back; I could hear her first cries, relive her puppy love days and the devastating cancer that had separated us so cruelly. But, even death could not make us part…
I just could not stop the idiotic grin spreading across me as she sought me out and twirled me around her slender fingers!