Beautiful Gold Hair

It took five years for Charmaine to grow her hair down to their waist, and about two minutes for her to use it to kill her mother, her boyfriend, and her father and herself.

She was quite pretty really and her most beautiful feature was her long golden hair, long and glossy, it shined and it was what that made men stop in their tracks to stare.

Newspaper boys whistled whenever they passed her early in the morning, jogging, with her long hair tied in a low ponytail, swishing along as she ran, and sweat trailing down her skin.

Men in suits actually stopped and looked at her twice, this petite girl of barely 5 foot tall, but with extraordinary long, golden hair. She was dubbed the Rapunzel of the school, her golden hair famous, but her hair wasn’t long enough to pull her Prince Charming up to the tower where she kept herself.

She was quiet, polite and was every teacher’s pet, only occasional boys stopped by to comment on her glorious hair, and she’d blush and stutter and thank them but she didn’t quite fancy any of them and always turn them down.

And then he came, he was gorgeous, and she was immediately attracted to him, his dark eyes roamed over her, and she thanked her lucky stars that she possessed such hair and she trembled a little, a strange feeling coming over her. He called her Goldilocks and she immediately fell in love with him. She loved the way he ran his fingers through his shaggy brown hair, and her own fingers ache to do the same.

She was shy when it came to dealing with the opposite sex, preferring to stay in silence, preferring to be a wallpaper, but her hair wouldn’t allow that, and Charmaine often wondered if anyone noticed her clear blue eyes she has inherit from her father, whom passed away years ago.

She lugs her bag home, dreading to go home, her mother is not herself anymore, no longer the same after father died, and day after day, Charmaine will hear her mother speak to her father like nothing has change, like he was still alive, like in the past, when they often sat together and eat.

And whenever Charmaine tried to console her mother, she would only receive a slap in return for disobedience and more not being filial. Now, she had to greet her dead father every time she returned home and pretend that everything was all right.

She didn’t like it, it left a gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach, it caused a migraine, it caused a pain in her heart, and she would remember things she rather forgets. Like the fact that she did not say goodbye to her father when he had left the house that day, sulking because she did not like the gift he bought for her, beautiful clips to hold up her fringe from drooping onto her beautiful eyes, he said and she hated the fact that he had more say in how she looked than herself. She threw the clips and stomped off; she was only twelve then, now she’s seventeen, and the guilt does not go away, what with the fact that she had to live her life with her crazy mother and the ghost of his dead father.

She keeps her hair long as a tribute to her father. She remembers his words, day in and day out, being unable to forget that he is dead and the memories replay in her head over and over again.

Your hair is so beautiful; it’s golden, like the sun, nothing like mine and your mother. It’s so beautiful like you. Her father would say, his dark blue eyes, shining, and his brown hair swept messily by the wind. He would ruffle her hair, and she would push his hand away.

She opens her school books and tries to concentrate on her work. She holds her pencil and she twirls it around, trying to find the solution to the question.

You should smile more often my little Goldilocks, my darling, even when doing your work, smile and it will come easier, her father sits beside her and speaks to her. She smiles, her hair held away from her eyes by the clips and her blue eyes sparkle. And her pencil flies across the paper, her hand writing away with a smile upon her face.

She greets her mother, and she sits at the dinner table set for three, and she says I love you to her father, and her mother beams and says to dig in, she sees upon the table her father’s favourite dish. Spinach. Don’t pick your food so Charmaine. Spinach is good for you. Remember Popeye? He became big and strong after eating it. Charmaine eats her spinach obediently, the taste familiar to her now. She scraps the spinach of her father’s plate to her own when her mother does not see. She had screamed for days, angry with her father when he did not eat.

She wakes up early in the morning to go to school, and her mother has laid out two lunch boxes, and she brings both to school when her mother’s bag is turned and she hides her father’s briefcase and shoes. She does this so that her mother will not cry for days again, will not scream as she remembers that her father is dead. He is dead, he died, his car crashing onto an oncoming truck, killing him instantly, killing her mother, killing her too.

But he’s there all the time, at home, he lingers, he’s there and she hears his voices and she feels migraines, pain and hurt and guilt.

She hates it but all these problems at home flies away when she goes to school, it is a routine, she clips her hair, the hair her father loves, she walks to school, boys and men stare, she is a good girl, a prefect, loved by the teachers, envied by the girls, awkward around the boys. She has no friends. She has distance herself from them because she does not like the girls talking behind her back, calling her whore because boys love her hair, and she cannot stand the prickling feeling of awareness as another male friend stares at her. She prefers to be alone, but it is different now, she wishes, that new boy would talk to her.

His name is Eric. And he had wind swept brown hair and beautiful dark blue eyes. Dark until they look black. He was beautiful and she loved him with all her soul. He was smart, he was funny and he became well liked among the school students and once or twice, Charmaine caught him staring at her and her heart beat twice as fast and she hoped against hope that he would love her as well.

One day, she had that sense of awareness again, she turned and her heart stopped when she caught him staring at it, at her beautiful mane, golden, longer now. And he jogged to her, a suave grin forming, and she could not move. He came to her and he whispered in her ear. Go out with me, and she agreed. And that night, she got a slap because she forgot to greet her father.

That night, as she lay in bed, she felt her father sit beside her, she had been crying, the slap stung, and she could hear him. Charmaine, dear, don’t cry, you’re a good girl aren’t you? Don’t cry, daddy will always be here for you. Now sleep Goldie, and I’ll protect you. Strangely enough, she fell asleep peacefully, and she did not hurt any more.

They went for a date and she was infatuated, and he confessed that he had liked her hair from the start and could not forget that girl with the beautiful golden braids. He said nothing about her eyes nor her characters and she felt strangely hollow inside. There was no first kiss. He had just combed his fingers through her hair, and she felt the urge to smack him, but did nothing, because she loved him.

She got home and her father was chatting with her mother and she sat by the couch, half asleep, listening. Our dear Charmaine has grown, she’s so big now. Yes she is. I can’t believe it! She used to be this small! I used to be able to carry her single-handedly, and you use to yell. Yes. She’s so pretty now, I love her eyes, your eyes. And I love her.

The tears are upon her face, and she gets up and she stumbles to bed and she wonders when she will stop seeing him sitting there, smiling at her, with her mother and suddenly she is not sure if he is alive or dead and she sleeps fitfully.

She goes to school the next day, and he is there again, and there is a mixed feeling in her, she is not happy to see him, he is no longer her love, and yet, she is happy, and she loves him. And she wonders if she has lost her mind.

And he asks her out and she says yes and she goes and they are a couple but he does not talk about her, only her hair, and her beauty and he does not know her and she cannot speak to him and his kisses are strangely strange and she looks at him, and suddenly she hates him.

Hello father, I’m home. Hello mother.

Hey dad, how’s your work?

Did you enjoy dinner dad?

Can you help me with my studies?

Dad, I love you.

Dad, take care.

His voices are always there. Her head spins. It hurts and it hurts here. Here, my heart hurts. My head spins.

My darling.

Charmaine, eat your spinach.

You mustn’t do it like that dear, this way, yes. Good girl.

My darling Goldilocks.

Why don’t you grow your hair like Rapunzel? I’m sure you would be so beautiful.

I love you.

I love you.

She is tired. Mother is in the kitchen and she is talking to father again, and she is tired, so very tired.

She grabs hold of the closest thing.

Honey, when are we going on a vacation?

Soon. Very soon.

Manhattan? Hawaii maybe? I can’t wait!

I think Hawaii would be good.

Yes, yes. I love it. Sandy white beaches and the waves. Ah! Charmaine would love it.

Her hair would attract all the boys, like bee to honey.

A shadow falls upon her mother and her mother turns and a knife slides clean through her chest, blood slid from the wound and there is no sound from her mother as she falls limp and her body droops.

She looks to the couch and she realizes her father is missing, it doesn’t matter; she would find him, somehow.

The knife clatters and Charmaine feels really really happy at the silence that surrounds her, and she smiles and laughs. She stares at her mother’s body and she whispers, sleep tight mother. Good night.

Her head clears, it doesn’t spin much now, and she looks at herself and there is no blood upon her, she ties her hair to braids, and pins it up and puts a scissors in her pockets.

That’s dangerous Charmaine.

She turns and looks around in a hurry but there is no one there. But she heard her father and she is angry and she is tired and it hurts now, and her mind spins again.

She slams out the house and she walks to the house. And she rings the doorbell and he appears. Eric says hi, and he wonders why she is out on a cold night like this and she whispers to him that she needs company and he drives her to a park, quiet and secluded, he turns to her.

He is worried and she is trembling and he wonders why. He holds her hand and her hand is cold and he looks into her eyes, clear blue he realize and her bright hair gleams in the moonlight. It is a full moon.

She looks at him and she asks him, what do you love about me. And he answers without a doubt, your beautiful long hair, like Rapunzel and she freezes but there is a smile on her face and he breaths a sigh of relief, because he is a man and makes mistakes when answering a woman’s question.

He cups her face and she looks at him and he whispers I love you, and e calls her his little darling and she hears voices now.

My darling.

My Goldilocks, beautiful hair.

Golden like the sun.

My beautiful girl.

And she takes out the scissors and Eric wonders why and in one swift motion she cuts her long hair and she smiles and she says do you know my father always used to say that to me? His name is Eric too, and he looks like you and I don’t know if he’s alive or he’s dead or he’s here or he’s you and I’m tired and it hurts here. She places a hand over her heart, and there are tears on her face and suddenly he cannot breath.

And he struggles but she tightens her hold, and the last thing he sees is gold, gold hair, gold like the sun. And his eyes shut. And she smiles, and she cries as she lets go of her hold and gold strands flutter everywhere, like gold dust and it’s beautiful and it’s hers and she has just killed her mother, her boyfriend and her father. She cannot hear him now. Her hair is short now and she feels light and she takes off the clips and she cuts them with the scissors, and she is light.

And she is happy, very happy, sad, very sad and she cries and laughs as her boyfriend leans back on the seat, her braids still coiled around his neck, purple now, red marks too, and his tongue lolls out and she laughs and cries as she sits in his car, in the park, in the dark and suddenly, she sees her father.

He is outside, pale against the dark, his brown air is swept by the wind, and he smiles and he smiles and he opens his mouth to speak and she covers her ears and she screams and screams and screams, and she moves to where her boyfriend sits and she rams the accelerator and the car surges forward and she hears him speak.

My beautiful girl.

And the car crashes through the trees and it surges forward and the car, a Cadillac, breaks through the trees and it flies and it falls of the cliff.

And the last thing Charmaine sees is gold, gold, and gold. Her hair. Her beautiful gold hair. She giggles as the car jerks, the body behind her cold, and she laughs with tears in her eyes, and there is a gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach, she has a migraine and she hurts.

And it crashes and there is a whisper.

So beautiful, my Goldilocks.

xxx

Well, this is an attempt at writing using a totally different style, it came out rather differently from what I first had in my mind, at first it didn’t involve her mother nor her father, just the guy betraying her and she uses her hair to strangle him. Anyway, comments are welcome. This story reminds me of a movie, half way writing it, I actually got scared myself, envisioning the father.

I wrote this at 1 in the morning okay!!

28.10.06 2 am now.