Mrs. Robinson looked at the picture that Persephone King was drawing. “You have four men in your picture.”
Seph–as all the kids called her because Persephone was too difficult for the elementary school kids to pronounce–looked up at Mrs. Robinson. “I have three daddies and Uncle Mike.”
She’d met two of the daddies on Parent-Teacher Night, a big blond named Knight and a very charming white-haired man named Malcolm. One of the daddies in the picture had red hair. Ah, Mrs. Robinson thought, that’s where she got her beautiful long red locks from.
As a teacher in an exclusive private school, Mrs. Catrina Robinson was surprised to see a same-sex couple on Parent-Teacher Night, but seeing three daddies shocked her a little. She knew some of the teachers didn’t like Knight, especially now that he arrived at school on a roaring motorcycle with a sidecar to pick up the kids. The boys were jealous of Roland; the girls thought Seph and Caroline were weird. Caroline was in Mrs. Stevens’ class next door, and carried herself like a princess. Seph was much more humble and quiet, easy to get along with and charming like her father. Her other father.
As Catrina sat in the teachers’ lounge, wondering how a third red-haired man got involved in Seph’s conception while Catrina’s Lean Cuisine cooked in the microwave, Ginny from the main office came in. “Hey, hun,” Ginny said. “I wanted to tell you about the fight in the yard.”
“Fight?”
“Yeah. One of the girls pushed Seph.”
“Is she okay?”
“She seems to be. Didn’t cry.”
“I’ll check on her when I go back.”
Catrina did, and Seph said she was okay.
Eventually the girls were lined up to go to the gym. Catrina sometimes helped out with the gym teacher. As she watched the girls file out of the locker room, she noticed that a few were missing. She opened the door to see three girls pounding up the stairs, giggling and laughing.
Seph wasn’t in the group of girls. Catrina went downstairs to the locker room. As she opened the lower door to the locker room, she heard sobbing. She followed the sound of the sobbing, and saw little Seph, sitting on the floor against the wall, her face buried in her drawn-up knees. Surrounding her was clumps of red hair on the floor.
“Oh, no,” said Catrina, and ran over to the little girl. “Seph, Seph, honey.”
Persephone looked up. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying, and she had a cut on her forehead. It looked like someone took a razor or a pair of scissors–or both–to her hair willy-nilly, with parts of her hair missing, cut short to her scalp, and other parts left long. It was a wreck, a mess, and it pissed Catrina off. “Honey, who did this?”
“Daddy’s gonna be so mad!” she said. “I didn’t do anything!”
“I know, honey,” and she pulled Seph into her arms. “C’mon, let’s go to the nurse and call your dad.”
Knight arrived. Catrina gathered whatever locks were on the floor and put them in a plastic bag, not knowing if he’d want them. Knight stood and listened to Catrina’s statement. She could tell, just by his standing there, rigid and tense, that he was ready to kill someone.
“We’ll find out who did this,” said the principal, “And we’ll punish the ones who did it appropriately.”
Knight said nothing as he put a hand on Seph’s shoulder and guided her out the door. Catrina bit her lip in concern, but the principal turned to her. “Any idea who did this?”
“No,” said Catrina, but she did. One, if not all, of those three girls who had run up the locker room stairs, laughing.
During the rest of the day, Catrina stared at the three girls in turn, giving them the threatening eye. I know you did it. She waited for one of the girls to break down. That afternoon had come and gone, and they hadn’t. Instead, they avoided her when they left the school. Knight returned when school was over and picked up Roland and Caroline, still without saying another word.
The next day, Persephone came in, her hair in a short, spiked cut. She was smiling when she arrived in class, and took her seat. Catrina began class, and when she finally had a free moment, said to Seph, “Honey, can you step outside with me?”
The kids in the class knew that meant something was wrong, and they all watched as Seph got up and stepped out into the hall with the teacher. “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” she said.
“Do you want to tell me who cut your hair?”
She shrugged. “Uncle Mike says that the Fates will take care of things.” Then she went back into the room.
Catrina stood straight, and, shaking her head, went inside.
All three of the girls who had done this to her had shoulder-length hair gathered up in pony tails for gym class. Gym was going to be after lunch. The three girls sat together at a lunch table. Catrina happened to be in the lunch room as a monitor for this period, and she watched Caroline and Seph thread their way through tables to sit with each other and a small group of girls.
Seph threw out her tray after lunch, and Catrina was half-watching her. Then Seph walked over to the three girls who Catrina knew cut her hair. Seph grabbed two pony tails and pulled.
Then threw their hair onto their trays.
Before the other girl could react, Seph grabbed her pony tail and tugged. Her hair came out of her head, like it was a toupe, and Seph threw the hair onto the tray. Blood welled up on each of their heads and then the girls screamed.
Seph walked away, her head held high.
“Fates indeed,” muttered Catrina, as chaos reigned.
(Thanks Scott, for the idea.)
