Braids

One particularly windy afternoon, when Sophie was playing outside while her Dad "put the garden to bed," her red hair was flying all over. In her face, in her eyes, around and around with the wind. "I CAN"T SEE!" she yelled. "Put your hat on," Dad suggested. "I DON'T LIKE HATS!" Sophie yelled into the wind. She turned around and tromped into the house. Even before she was through the door, she started, "I WANT BRAIDS!" Getting no response, she kept going, "I WANT BRAIDS! I WANT BRAIDS ! I WANT BRAIDS!" Marching, now, to the rhythm of her chant, and swinging her arms, "I WANT BRAIDS! I WANT BRAIDS!" From room to room, looking for Mom. Not in the kitchen. "I WANT BRAIDS! I WANT BRAIDS!" Not in the living room. Not in the bathroom. "MAMA! WHERE ARE YOU !? I WANT BRAIDS!!!" Pausing for a moment, listening for her mother, she marched on, "I WANT..." "Sophie!" Her mother whispered from the bedroom, "SHHHHHHHHHHH!" Pointing at the phone she mouthed, "I'm on the phone!" "I want braids," Sophie said, whispering this time. "I'm TRYING to play out side and the wind blows and blows," she spread her arms and waved them like windmills, trying to demonstrate. Adding some bends and twists to the explanation, and, without realizing it, chanting again, she swooped to the left and CRASH! Sophie's arm somehow, got caught in the cord to the bed side table lamp, which was for some reason wrapped around the bed side table leg, and the whole thing came CRASHING down. The lamp, which went out when it hit the floor; Mama's beautiful water carafe with the painted violets on it, and the drinking glass to match, shattered; The stacks of books that are always there; pencils and pens, rolling across the floor; even the PHONE; and the table itself. After a gasp, and a moment of silent shock, Mama said into the phone, "I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Edwards, there's been a bit of an accident here, and...no, no.....no one is hurt, but I will have to get back to you......yes......yes I know......yes.......I'll call you back yet this evening. I'm am so sorry. Good bye."
While Mama said good bye to Mr. Edwards, Sophie, crying and wiping her nose, was trying her best to clean up the mess. She couldn't get the table to stand up, the lamp was all in a tangle, and she knew she shouldn't try to pick up the very sharp pieces of broken glass. So she was crawling around, gathering up pens and pencils . She couldn't see very well because of the tears, so she didn't notice the long, thin shard of glass right in her path. "OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!" Sophie screamed as the glass went into her leg. "OWOWOWOWOWOWOOOOOWWWWWWW!" She grabbed her leg, bleeding now, and started to roll over onto her back when Mama said "Watch it, Sophie! Hold still. There's more glass right there beside you. Just HOLD STILL." Holding still is not at all easy to do when you are holding your leg that hurts, and there is slippery blood running all over your hands and tears running down your face, nose dripping. But Mama moved quickly and had Sophie in her arms in a flash. Just then Daddy came in saying, "what's all this commotion? Oh, wow! What happened?" "I think some wind blew into the bedroom," Mama said, eying Sophie, "there's a glass splinter in her leg. We've got to get it out. I'm afraid she's pushing it farther and farther in every time she moves. Go get one of your clamps!" Trying to keep Sophie's leg still Mama carried her into the bathroom, soothing her, murmuring quietly, smoothing back her hair, as they went. "We've got to get some of this blood off so Daddy can see to pull the glass out." she said. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" exclaimed Sophie "IT WILL HUUUUUUUURT!!" Mama got a warm wash cloth very very wet and gently squeezed it to flow over Sophie's leg. "Does that hurt?" she asked. Sophie shook her head. Mama did it some more. "You're getting the floor all wet," Sophie said, almost smiling. "I don't care," Mama said, "We'll dry it." They decided that the best thing do to was to lay Sophie in the bath tub, keeping her leg over the side to help hold it still. Daddy brought in the cushions from the couch, then a few from the bed, and finally Sophie's favorite butterfly blanket. Mama folded a towel over the edge of the tub, and, gently they lay Sophie in the tub-nest, keeping her leg, which was still bleeding, as straight as possible. Mama gave the wash cloth another squeeze saying, "there! See it? It's right there." "Rinse it again," Daddy said. He got down on his knees, his face close to Sophie's leg and as the water washed the blood away, quickly got the clamp onto the end of the piece of glass. Taking a big breath he said, "hold real still, now, pumpkin, this might hurt, but you HAVE to hold still!" With a yank, and an OWWWWWWWW and a big spurt of blood that got all over Daddy, the splinter was out. As Daddy and Sophie examined the very long, horrid sharp glass Mama ran to the freezer to find a bag of peas. She wrapped it in a cold wet wash cloth, and put it gently on Sophie's leg. "This will help stop the bleeding," she explained. Daddy and Sophie were staring at the glass. "Look, " Sophie said to Mama, "there's a tiny bit of a painted violet, see? Right there."

When the water and blood all over the bathroom floor were cleaned up, the cushions and blanket returned to their places, when the night table was set right, a new bulb in the lamp, and all of the shattered glass swept away, Mama put Sophie back in the bathtub - this time with warm soapy bubbles instead of pillows. "I'm sorry I broke your pretty water bottle and glass," Sophie said. "I didn't mean to." "I know you didn't sweetie, " Mama said. " I'm sorry I didn't call to you when I heard you looking for me. Mr. Edwards needs my recommendation for the new library and I guess I was thinking about that and not paying attention to you. I'm sorry about that." "I just wanted braids," said Sophie, softly. "I know you did. How about I go call Mr. Edwards right now, while you soak that leg, and when we're finished, I'll brush out your hair and braid it. OK?" "Sure." said Sophie, sliding down into the bubbles, " AND a band aid!" "Maybe two," smiled Mama

So Mama talked on the phone, and Sophie soaked. But after a while, the water started to get cool. "I know," thought Sophie, "I'll get the hair bands ready. I know where Mama keeps them!" She climbed out of the tub, and rubbed herself dry. Then she ran into her bedroom to get the chair that Mama had painted for her, last Christmas. Pulling it into the bathroom, she set it carefully by the sink. Climbing onto the chair she found she still couldn't reach the handle to open the medicine cabinet where Mommy kept the hair things. Stretching her leg up as high as she could, and grabbing hold of the faucet,she was able to get from the chair to the sink, and from there, easily reach the handle. Sliding it open she found the basket of hair bands. But there was more than hair bands! There were Mommy's lipsticks, her good smelling creams, nail polish, and a stick of black stuff. What is that? Pulling it out and looking in the mirror, Sophie thought she remembered seeing her Mama put the black stick around her eyes. Like this? Sophie painted large circles of eye liner around each eye. Then choosing a bright sort of orange lip stick, drew a circle around her nose. Standing in the sink like that, right in front of the mirror, naked and clean from her bath, Sophie tried a little pink lip stick around her belly button. She took a real dark red one and drew lines out from her belly button, like a sun shine. This was getting really good ! Looking on another shelf she found a little box of blues and grays, like a tiny paint box! Only these were dry, like poweder. Using her finger, she drew a tree all the way down her chest and belly. Then she drew birds flying to the tree, and, with a really REALLY pretty red lip stick, flowers on both cheeks. A tulip under her right eye, and a rose under her left. With a satisfied sigh, she sood in the sink, admiring herself in the mirror.