Cheryl's Kitchen

Event from the actual dream appears in italics

     It was the day after Labor Day in Suburbia. It was the time for school to start here, and Cheryl was walking her little girl out to the waiting bus for her first day of kindergarten. A tear came to her eye as her little treasure waved bye from the window. As the bus pulled away, Cheryl brushed her long black hair away from her face and tried to smile back and waved. More tears came as she walked back to her one bedroom apartment, head down. Her little girl was the only thing in her life that mattered, and this was a big day for her

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    Cheryl didn't have many friends, as she was much younger than the other parents. Everyone her age was doing the party scene, going out, and having fun. They would invite Cheryl, but since she would have to stay with her new baby, she had declined. Eventually, the invitations quit coming. The parents in the complex and surrounding neighborhoods would keep their distance because they thought Cheryl was a tramp, not living with the girls father, and the fact that she had long hair and usually wore short cutoffs and revealing tank tops. There was no family here, and her ex had long left because of the baby. She knew this would be an emotional day, so she planned a day off from the diner, where she worked mornings. Cheryl planned to spend the morning alone and reflect on the past.  She would also give the apartment a good cleaning

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     As she came inside her apartment, all tears broke loose. She kneeled down and just let herself cry it out. After about five minutes, the tears ended and she was able to compose herself.  As she brushed her wet, grown out bangs from her teary eyes,  she knew they would need a trim. "I'll do that today", she thought. She took a piece of  torn linen and tied it like a headband around her hair and in a big knot on top of her head. "This should keep my hair out of my face, and I'll get the bangs later." First she cleaned and organized  the bedroom, where her daughter slept. Tears came and went in here as things were put away. Then came the living room, where Cheryl slept on the couch. Then the bath, then on to the kitchen. Cheryl was feeling better, as her mind was now occupied. In the kitchen, she attacked the stack of newspaper and decided to cut the coupons and pitch the rest. As she picked up the scissors from the drawer, she noticed a little cut out her daughter had on the refrigerator. She froze, staring at it. "I wonder how my little girl is doing,.... Is she making friends?... Does she miss her mom?...." she spoke softly. Then it was back to the kitchen table for coupon cutting.

 
     With that done, she said to herself, "Better take care of these bangs while I have the scissors out." She got her old mirror and put it on the kitchen table, leaning it against the wall. Her bath mirror was broke, so this was the only way she could trim her bangs. Cheryl never spent anything on herself, saving everything for things for her daughter, so she never visited a solon. She would trim her bangs about once a month to the eyebrows, and was getting quite good at it. She let the rest grow as it pleased, and it was almost to her waistline. It had a natural curl to it, and did not look too bad, given the neglect it had. Cheryl took the scissors to her overgrown bangs and proceeded to cut across at the eyebrows as normal. However, today was not normal. She was shaking, but doing her best to keep a straight cut. Unfortunately, the bangs were crooked. "Darn it!" she scowled. She tried to straighten it out, but now the other side was too short. Finally, she calmed down, and got her bangs cut straight, but they were three-quarters of an inch above her eyebrows. At first, she thought her bangs looked stupid, and wondered how she could go out in public looking like this. As she was about to pick up the mirror and stack of papers, she noticed a corner picture, where a model had short bangs, and a short bob haircut. "The short bangs look good on her, maybe people won't notice it too much." She cut that picture out and took the stack of newspaper and other trash to the dumpster. As she came back inside, she compared the models short bangs to hers. It wasn't too long, and Cheryl had her bangs looking somewhat like the models. "This will do until my bangs grow back" she softly spoke."

    
    Cheryl decided to relax on the couch for a while. She remembered her days in kindergarten, then on through high school, then her missed opportunity for college. "Oh, what could have been if I were more careful." she muttered. "Would I trade my little girl for college and a social life? NO!" she called out. After dozing off for a few minutes, she got up and went to put the mirror away. She first picked up the scissors to put them away, then looked at herself in the mirror, then at the picture of the model on the table. Back and forth. Picture, then mirror, then picture. Then, she sat down in front of the mirror, bringing the long length of her hair around in front of her, * the scissors still in her hand. She then stood up away from the mirror in shock of the thought that ran through her tormented mind. "What would I look like with a short haircut like in that picture?" she spoke. A stare, then silence followed.

     Cheryl then took the piece of linen out of her hair so it hung free in front of her, then put the linen on the table. She then folded one side of her hair under, so it looked as though she had a below the shoulder cut on that side, with the waistline length on the other side. "Do I, or not?" she questioned in her mind. She let the folded over length fall free again. Cheryl never had short hair before. She set the scissors down and went to the living room to get away from the mirror. She could not get it out of her mind. "Do I really want to cut my hair?" No. Yes. Maybe? I don't know. Ten more minutes passed. She decided to put everything away, for her daughter would be home in less than one-half hour. She took one last look at the mirror and the picture. She brought all the length of her hair in front of her, picked up the scissors again and held them to her hair right above her shoulder. "What if?" she tormented herself again. Again, moments of frozen agony.

     As if in a trance, Cheryl took the scissors and started to cut! Twenty plus inches of her hair fell down to the floor as she cut across the left side of her long hair, standing in front of that old mirror on the kitchen table. She switched the scissors to her right hand and held them to the right side of her hair. Another pile of fallen black hair accumulated on her other side as the scissors made their way across the right side of her hair. "It's not even. Darn" she said. She cut the left side some more, so it would be even. Cheryl ended up with a jawbone length bob cut just like the picture. She continued to stare in the mirror as if still in the trance. "What did I do? Why?" Tears began to flow.

 
     Just then, Cheryl's daughter came inside. "Mommy, Why didn't you meet me at the bus...." stopping as she saw her mom crying and standing in two piles of shorn hair. Cheryl realized she was so caught up in her hair, that she lost track of time and didn't hear the bus. A now shorn Cheryl turned to her five year old  to try to explain what happened. Just as Cheryl started to explain, her daughter said, "Mommy, you look so pretty with your new haircut!" Her tears were now joy as she picked up her little girl and gave her a hug. In her arms was the future, and on the floor was the past. Cheryl knew that everything would be OK!

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Cheryl's Kitchen is a fictional short story. Any resemblance to an actual event is accidental.

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