“I’m sorry.”
“You must come to us next time.”
“I will.”
She lifted her tear-streaked face. “Are you mad at me?”
Felix exhaled. “A little.”
Her face crumpled.
“And very proud,” he added. “Parents can be upset and proud at the same time. It is one of the confusing parts of being a parent.”
A small laugh slipped through her tears.
I searched the backpack and found the two ponytails beneath her folders. They were wrapped carefully in paper towels and tied at the top. The cut ends were rough, but most of the length remained intact.
I placed them gently on the table.
They looked less like pieces of hair and more like evidence of the size of my daughter’s heart.
PART FIVE — ANGER, PRIDE, AND A NEW HAIRCUT
That evening, we took Maya to a salon.
The stylist listened quietly as we explained. She examined the uneven sections and told us she would need to cut some parts shorter to create a balanced shape.
