2:16 am. I am a Night Owl. My parents raised me this way; it’s all their fault. My father worked nights and my mother taught school when I was a baby. Mother would keep me up late at night so I’d sleep in, not disturbing Daddy. Fast forward twenty-six years. I stay up later than both my parents now, and that is precisely why I’m awake at such an ungodly hour. I’m just about to turn in, though, when I get a 911 Page from Nature.
I shut down the computer, get up from my chair, and tiptoe quietly down the hallway to the bathroom. After I flush the toilet, I walk toward the door. I casually look in the mirro—What is THAT?! My entire body does a double take.
My upper torso lunges over the sink as if it is possessed, and I gaze into the mirror, my nose mere millimeters from the glass. WHAT IS THAT?! You have got to be kidding me! I am only 26. I haven’t even been to my tenth year high school reunion yet. It can’t be! Yet, there it is, shimmering. It’s standing up straight, naturally, just begging to be seen. It’s…a…gray hair!
Sheer panic sets in as I try to remove said intruder from the premises. It’s wily and cunning, avoiding my fingers as they desperately grab and yank each and every hair in the vicinity. My life starts flashing before my eyes. I haven’t even graduated from college. I’m not married. I don’t have kids. I’m not supposed to have gray hair yet. That’s for grandmothers. Sure enough, I look into the mirror and I see my reflection. It’s me all right, and I’m eighty-six years old, covered in wrinkles, with a head full of gray hair. I don’t want to die yet. There’s so much I haven’t done…and with that, POP, the hair and my scalp part ways.
I hold it between my thumb and index finger. I twirl it about an inch from my face and look in wonder as the light dances off the silver strand. I snarl at it. You and your little friends had better go bother someone else, I threaten. It’s not my time yet. I toss the unwelcome hair into the garbage can. And don’t come back!
I return to the mirror. I shake my head, tousling my hair with my fingers. My eyes look steadily upward, investigating…searching. I think I’m safe, but no matter. It’s time for bed, and I definitely need my beauty sleep.
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