Lale's Magical Hair
by Zhaleh Farahani︎︎︎Strange things grew from Lale’s hair. One autumn her hair became heavy with crimson apples. We picked them all, and mother threw a party.
I used to sleep next to her. Every morning she woke up for work and I collected stars, tinsels and pearls from her pillow and take them to our mother. She hides them in a safe place for rainy days as she would say.
Every now and then clouds, springs and seas appeared on Lale’s hair. Me and our other siblings used to go fishing, dew collecting and sometimes sweep all those waters away.
When she was sitting on elevated bench to weave golden red carpets, I used to play behind the bench. I loved it there, her hair smelled like the most delicious food that I knew but I had never tasted.
When someone was angry at us, me and my siblings would hide in those one hundred and one threads of hair and no one would ever be able to find us, we walk through all the gardens and seasons and times there until everyone would abandon searching for us, watching them from jungles of brown and black trees we’d laugh at them and then glide down.
With Lale’s magical hair I always had somewhere to stay, hide or go to… a story to tell and a dream to pursue. A place so wild and yet so secure that a mother’s womb must feel like.
Then our brother left for some war and a few days later an eagle grew on Lale’s hair. It was growing fast and would never leave, with yellow piercing eyes which no one could bear staring at even for a second.
Our mother, like she was ready for a day like this, sold all the pearls and tinsel and stars so she could buy a warm cape for her. Then when the creature was ready, it extended those huge wings and took Lale to the sky while she was holding her warm cape tightly around her. Sun went alongside them.