Wild Animal DNA, Angel Gavin [best contemporary novels .txt] 📗

As the sun hidden behind the grey smoky clouds held high in the sky, the wind blew against my frozen face as I flew down the hill on my red plastic saucer. Laughter filled the air from my friends as they trekked back up the hill to have their turn. The street lights started to light and I knew it would be time to get home soon. I will have time for a few more rides down the hill and I would get home. It turned out to be a fantastic day even as I thought it would be boring this morning while I ate my bowl of oatmeal and munched on a piece of burnt toast.
My mother’s feet shuffled through the kitchen that morning talking to my father about the furnace and how it would need fixed. My mother wore her old white bath robe I got her from the store with my father two Christmas’s ago. The robe was worn with wear and had a purple stain on the collar from the juice she spilled a few weeks ago. Her silvering hair pulled up in a knot on the top of her head and her hands worked quickly at breakfast. I stopped and looked up at my mother’s eyes while I was lost in my own thoughts hearing her call my name, “Angel did you hear me?” My blank stare showed her I had not. She sighed and apparently repeated what I had missed. Angel is what she called me when she was feeling frustrated. It kept her calm she told me before when I asked her why she called me Angel when that wasn’t even my name. How can you be upset at someone when you speak to them as they are something beautiful?
I answered, “No mom, I was eating”. She asked me if I wanted to get dressed and go to the hair dressers to get my wild animal that sat on the top of my head tamed. I just nodded because there was not fighting it. I longed for long straight lustrous hair like the girls on my favorite television show had. Instead I was gifted, as my father said when he heard my mother complain about my hair, with the women in his side of the family’s lioness mange. I didn’t think it was a gift. The family curse I had been born with was bright red, with mangled curls that had a mind of their own, no matter how I tried to fix it. Most days I would just pull it back in an elastic band. I loved taking a shower and having my hair heavy with water falling down past my shoulders. Wet and looking into the mirror as I pulled my brush through the wet strands I almost was able to make it look normal. My blue eyes staring back at me with a hint of a smile upon my face. Maybe our hair dresser could get rid of my “gift” if my mother would let her. So after finishing my breakfast I said I would get dressed as I carried my dishes to the sink.
I loved winter because then I could hide all but an unruly curl or two under my hat. I could blend in with all the other girls at least outside. I climbed into the passenger seat as my mother got into the driver’s seat and we were off to have my hopes squashed. We drove down the icy roads to the salon and my mother was rambling on about how she wished I would do something with my hair. She went on and on about how I should take pride in my appearance even when I knew I was going to the salon to have it “fixed”. I didn’t understand the big deal, I brushed it, I put the hat on my head, and no one was going to see the crazy mess I had until I unmasked it in front of Darla. I said nothing, I just listened and watched the houses we passed and tried to keep count of the snowmen in the front yards with my fingers hidden inside my mittens. “1, 2, 3….” I said to myself as my mother asked, “You know Angel?” and I nodded in hopes to appease her.
We finally pulled up to the salon climbed out of the car, my feet felt like lead weights when we walked to the door.
Darla smiled up from behind the tall counter as she sat waiting for our arrival. “Hello Ladies! Good to see you, you are right on time!” And so it began…..
Of course my idea of having my hair straightened was dismissed right away! Darla loved my red curls, “Women would pay good money to have your hair!” My mother and Darla banded together to design the fate of my hair. It was useless to fight against the two of them. I sat in the chair biting my bottom lip and looking back at myself in the mirror while my mother and Darla talked about the local gossip and Darla set out to tame the wild animal on top of my head.
Darla and my mother looked at me in the mirror with smiles on their faces after Darla had finished. Both smiled at each other and then smiled at me. When my mother smiled she lit up the room. Her blue eyes bright and her red painted lips parted showing her perfect white teeth. “Miracles can happen, Darla! You are a blessing!” Darla smiled back and took off my smock and they walked over to the counter we found Darla at when we arrived. I sighed and got up to get my coat, mittens, and hat. I put that hat right on top of Darla’s latest masterpiece and they both gasped. My mother looked at Darla and said out loud, “Teenagers, what can you do?” I walked to the car vowing that as soon as I get old enough I would have my hair done just as I always wanted, and Darla and my mother would have to just accept it.
The ride back to our house was quiet except for the radio station turned on. I waited in the car for my mother when we stopped at Mac’s Milk to grab a few things. I turned up the radio and listened to the announcer speak about how the snow is just perfect for sled riding today. “Hey kids! It’s a great day to grab your sled and head out to the Lion’s Park Hill! There are perfect conditions and it won’t last long, because the next few days it will be warming up to plus four…” The car door opens and my mother puts the bags in the back seat, “Turn that down Angel, you will ruin your hearing. We are not at a concert!” I turned down the radio as she closed the back door and climbed into the front driver’s seat to get us to our final destination, home.
As we pulled into the freshly shoveled driveway, I saw my best friends standing waiting for me in the garage with my father looking like they all were having a good time. Great, what would my dad had been saying to them. My father was a serious man around my mother, but just get him alone and he can be the life of the party. My mother has that effect on all of us.
I climb out of the car, run up to the group, and say to them all “Be right back I need my suit!” Through the door and into the house I ran, kicking off my boots as I got inside the door. I bolted up the stairs to my bedroom and changed my clothes as fast as I could. Long underwear, wool socks, a turtle neck shirt, and leggings to go under my suit. I slipped down the stairs and grabbed my snow suit out of the front hall closet, left it open as I picked up each boot and tugged them onto my feet. Running out the door and into the garage my father was looking at me smiling. He had my red sled in his hand, “Slow down there my little lion cub.” I gave him a big hug, he whispered in my ear, “your hair looks beautiful.” I squeezed him a little tighter and let go and ran to catch up with my friends who were at the end of the yard. My mother called out to me, “Take care not to get hurt, and be back before dark!” I waived back at my parents who now are standing side by side. My father with his hand on the small of my mother’s back, my mother with a smile on her face, and I knew that no matter what I will always remember them that way.

Text: Angel Haydine-Gavin
Publication Date: 12-23-2012

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