Zarah - infinite dreams

Chapter Ten

This chapter is dedicated to Rostallion

Zarah sat sulkily on her chair as Precious worked about on her hair, pulling and twisting her hair into whatever she called braids whilst humming to Joe boy's alcohol that was playing repeatedly on her phone. Precious had been braiding her hair for what felt like eternity and her back was already stiff and her legs, cramped.

She craned her neck in search of a mirror but Precious whipped her head back into it's former position still humming merrily to her self.

Zarah huffed and sank back into her chair with a scowl etched across her face. Precious had obstinately refused to let her know the progress of the work on her hair by refusing to let her look in the mirror and also by keeping her mouth shut anytime she asked her.

"How many is remaining nau?" Zarah asked, this time desperation evident in her tone.

"It's remaining one"

Zarah gasped in surprise, She really didn't expect an answer from Precious. She had thought she'd ignore her like she had been doing the whole time.

"Seriously?" She found herself asking, she couldn't help the relief that flooded through her though she knew better than to trust Precious.

"How am I supposed to trust you?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Is it one as in the one you're braiding or one like one after the one you're braiding?"

"You'd know when I'm done"

Zarah frowned and tried using her hand to feel her hair but Precious swatted her hand away.

"Be patient dear, when I'm done you'll see it" She chirped.

Zarah glowered at the innocent trees in front of her and wilted against the back of the plastic chair she was sitting on. Resigning herself to her fate, she went into her favourite pastime, daydreaming.

"Ta da!" Precious squealed, jumping in front of her with a hand mirror she had produced out of nowhere. Having been rudely awakened from her daydream, Zarah jerked back in surprise, blinking rapidly.

"I'm done! Have a look at your self" She screamed, Precious could barely contain her excitement as she shuffled from feet to feet whilst grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Zarah stared at her strangely. "Okay"

She then collected the hand mirror from Precious tentatively. She took a deep breath and stared into it. It took some seconds for her brain to register that she was looking at herself. She blinked twice and her reflection did the same.

"So how do you like it?" Precious asked impatiently.

"Wait abeg, I've not even seen myself finish sef, you're already asking if I like it, be patient dear" she said using Precious's own words against her.

Precious scowled at her and she fought back the urge to laugh. She went back to staring at herself critically at herself in the mirror with a mock serious expression on her face.

She had to admit that Precious did a pretty good job on her hair, it was hard to recognize herself without her signature two French braids. Her hair was naturally very thick and long and it gave hairdressers and even her mom tough time trying to braid her hair, so they gave up on it. She had to learn how to wrestle it into two large French braids herself and now she couldn't even remember the last time she put her hair up in a real hairdo.
Even for the last Christmas celebrations, she had to make do with two additional French braids. She remembered how she was never punished at her other school for her outrageous hairstyle because she never really attended assemblies as a result of her habitual late coming. Despite that Precious had managed to beat it into neat long braids.