Pig City (16 page)

A great mass of hair lay on the sidewalk next to her.

She didn't know what it was at first. It was very odd-looking, like some kind of strange animal. It took her a while to recognize it as hair. A few seconds later she realized where it came from.

Laura felt the top of her head, then slowly moved her hand down along her hair until she came to the place where it had been cut – just above her shoulders.

It had been cut with scissors, although at the time it had felt like someone just ripped it out of her head.

Not all her hair was cut off. Long strands still remained on either side of her head. But a large clump out of the middle was gone.

On the sidewalk, next to her hair, she saw a torn piece of notebook paper. She picked it up.

On it was written: PIGS ARE BALD.

Underneath that, Gabriel had signed his name.

Laura's blood curdled with hatred. She trembled, then tears began to flow. She began gathering up as much of her hair off the ground as she could. In the end, she could barely see through her watery eyes as she picked up the hairs, one at a time, off the dirty sidewalk. Maybe somebody can make a wig out of it, she hoped. I can wear it until my hair grows back.

She stood up, then a wave of dizziness rushed over her. She steadied herself, then started home, walking, then running, then walking again.

She came to a block where garbage cans had been set on the curb in front of each house. The cans were empty. The garbage men had come and gone.

She made it halfway down the block, then stopped. She dropped her hair into an old silver trash can. She leaned over and looked at it, swirled at the bottom, for the last time.

When she got home, she took two steps inside the house, then ran into her mother's arms.

Her mother telephoned her father, who rushed home from work early.

“Do you know who did it?” asked her father.

“No,” she answered. It was her first lie in six years, but so what? Her hair was cut off anyway. She could lie all the time now!

Her parents took her to the doctor to make sure she wasn't seriously hurt.

The doctor said she was fine. She had a bump on the back of her head, but no concussion.

“Do I have to go to school tomorrow?” Laura asked.

“Yes,” the doctor told her.

“No,” her parents said sympathetically.

The doctor suggested that they report the assault to
the police, but Laura talked her parents out of it.

What are they going to do? she thought. Arrest Gabriel for giving me an illegal haircut?

She remembered that Gabriel had tried to call a truce. She was the one who had told him there were no rules in a war.

She went to bed early. It had been the worst day of her life, and she didn't want it to drag on any longer. In the morning, she'd have to get started on her dictionary pages.

Her parents came in and kissed her good-night as she lay with head on her pillow.

“Tomorrow we'll go to the beauty parlor,” said her mother.

“They'll just cut off more!” she whined.

“Oh, just enough to make it even,” said her father.

“We'll go to the fanciest, most expensive hair-stylist in town,” said her mother. “It'll be very exciting. We'll get you something very exotic.”

Laura tried to smile. “At least I won't have to spend an hour washing and combing it every day.”

“That's right!” said her father.

“Probably just towel it dry,” said her mother.

Laura rolled over, then started crying. “I never told a lie,” she whimpered.

“We know, baby,” whispered her mother.

Gabriel walked to school on Friday morning, whistling the Monkey Town song and snapping his fingers.

He was met by Sheila and Howard. They stuck their right thumbs in their right ears and wiggled their fingers. He did the same.

“We got her, Gabe!” said Howard. “We got her even better than you did!”

“What?” he asked. “Who?”

Howard looked at Sheila, then back at Gabriel. “Laura,” he said. “You'll see when she comes to school.”

“
If
she comes to school,” said Sheila. “She's so vain, she probably won't.”

“I bet she doesn't come to school for the rest of the year,” laughed Howard.

Sheila laughed, too.

“Wha'd you do to her?” asked Gabriel.

Howard looked to Sheila.

“Maybe we shouldn't tell him,” said Sheila. “Maybe's he's still in love with her!”

“What?” Gabriel exclaimed. “Me? In love with Laura?”

“I saw the note you wrote her,” said Sheila.

“What note?”

“Oh? Was there more than one?” She turned to Howard. “He wrote Laura a note telling her he knew all about Pig City, but promised never, ever, to tell.” She put both hands over her heart. “It was so
sweet
!”

Howard laughed.

Things began to click inside Gabriel's head. “
You
changed it,” he uttered.

“Didn't she want to kiss you?” laughed Sheila. She told Howard how she had reworded Gabriel's note.

Howard laughed, too. “Who would want to kiss Laura?” he asked. “She's so ugly. She asked me to join Pig City, but I told her to drop dead.”

Gabriel laughed. “That's pretty funny, Howie,” he said. “So how'd you get her yesterday?”

“We bushwhacked her!” said Howard.

“We cut her hair off!” said Sheila. “Just like I said I would. You and Karen didn't have the guts to do it, but Howard did.”

“I held her hair while Sheila cut it off,” said Howard.

“She never even saw who did it,” said Sheila.

“She's practically bald,” laughed Howard.

He was still laughing when Gabriel's fist smashed
into his teeth. He fell to the ground. His lip was bleeding.

Gabriel grabbed Sheila by her shirt collar.

She screamed.

“Hey!” shouted the yard teacher. She started toward them.

“Now you'll be sorry,” said Gabriel.

Sheila laughed in his face. “What are you going to do? Tell on me? Are you a tattletale?”

He didn't know what to do. He never told on anyone before.

“You better let me go!” warned Sheila. “Besides, Laura thinks you did it, so you're in on it, too.”

“How … Why does she think I did it?”

“Remember that autograph you signed for Howard? I wrote ‘Pigs Are Bald' over it and dropped it next to her hair! She'll never love you now!”

“Gabriel!” shouted the yard teacher, hurrying toward them. “Let her go!”

He let go of her. Then he slugged her in the face.

Laura stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. “I look like a French poodle,” she said.

“I don't know of any poodles who spend over a hundred dollars for a haircut,” said her father, standing behind her.

She made a face. She didn't recognize herself. “You wasted your money,” she said. “You should have just taken me to the Pink Poodle. That's where Allison's dog gets his hair cut.”

Her father laughed. “
Now
you tell me,” he said.

In front, covering her forehead, she had long curly bangs. They looked like springs that had sprung. The rest of her hair formed a big wave that started just behind her bangs and cascaded down to the back of her neck, where it suddenly turned wild and frizzy, like a wave crashing on the shore.

In front of each ear she had a long coil of hair. Several other coils adorned her hair in various places. They looked like ribbons on a birthday present.

The most amazing thing about it was that all she had to do was wash it, then dry it with a towel, and it would bounce back into shape all by itself.

She stuck out her tongue at her reflection, then turned and walked back into her room.

She sat at her desk. She still hadn't copied any of her dictionary pages. It was Saturday, two days since the worst day of her life. Monday, she'd have to go to school again, where everyone would laugh at her.

She opened her desk drawer, took out her pocket calculator, and busily pressed the buttons. She figured out it would take six years and five months for her hair to grow back. Somewhere she had heard that hair grows three quarters of an inch every month.

She wondered if she'd have any friends by then. She knew she certainly wouldn't have a boyfriend. No boy would want to kiss a French poodle.

Six years and five months, she thought. I might as well be in prison.

She looked through the dictionary pages. Why didn't I at least choose pages with pictures! She shook her head.

She remembered it was Gabriel who had told her about picking pages with pictures. Of course I didn't listen to him! I don't listen to anybody. I think I'm better than everybody else. No one can tell me anything!

I thought Jonathan was conceited, but I was even more conceited than him.

She sighed. It was all my own fault, she realized. It's no wonder everybody hates me. That's what I get for trying to be such a big shot. Playing all those silly games. Who did I think I was? George Washington? George Washington wouldn't have made someone give him her underpants!

She promised herself that in the future she'd be different. She wouldn't be the president of any club, because she wasn't better than anybody else. No more tricks. No more games. No more lies.

She nodded. I lied all the time, she admitted. Even if my words weren't actual lies, they were lies all the same. I lied to myself, too. I'm glad my hair was cut off. I deserved it! Thank you, Gabriel!

From now on, there will be a new Laura Sibbie, she decided. And maybe, in six years and five months, somebody will like me.

The doorbell rang.

Oh, please, don't be for me, she prayed.

“Laura! There's somebody here to see you,” her father called.

She didn't want to see anyone. She didn't want anyone to see her, not for six years and five months.

“Laura!” her father shouted.

She stayed still.

There was a knock on her door, then her father stepped inside. “Laura, you have a visitor,” he said.

She gave him a look that said, Can't you tell her I'm not home?

He ignored it.

She shrugged her shoulders, got up from her desk, sighed, then walked out of her bedroom and down the hall.

Gabriel was waiting just inside the front door, holding a bunch of flowers.

Gabriel stared at her with his mouth open. “Wow,” he uttered. “You look like a movie star.”

She waited for him to say something like, “You could play Frankenstein without a mask,” but he didn't. He just stared at her hair.

“Um, these are for you,” he said. He blushed as he held out the flowers. They were daisies, white with yellow centers.

She took the flowers. She would have ripped them to bits and thrown them in his face, but – nobody had ever given her flowers before. She brought them to her nose.

“They're not the kind that smell,” he said.

She stared at him. She wondered how he could dare show his face at her house after what he did to her.

“You could be on the cover of a magazine,” said Gabriel. “You look so … elegant.”

She shook back her hair, although it didn't shake back anymore. She wondered if Gabriel really liked it,
or if he was just saying it because he didn't want her to get him in trouble for cutting it.

“From what they said, I thought they practically shaved your head,” he said.

“What are you talking about? Who?”

“Howard and Sheila. They're the ones who did it to you. It wasn't me. They tried to frame me by dropping a piece of paper with my name on it.”

“It was your handwriting,” said Laura.

“I know,” said Gabriel. “Howard tricked me into signing it. Can you believe it?
Howard
?” He smiled. “He said he wanted my autograph. I guess that's what I get for thinking I was such a hot shot.”

Laura didn't know whether to believe him or not.

“Howard confessed everything to Mr. Doyle,” said Gabriel. “I was there. No one else knows anything about it. Boy, you should have seen Mr. Doyle. I thought he was going to kill them. He was so mad at
them
, he didn't punish me for giving Sheila a bloody nose!” He smiled. “Mr. Doyle's all right. I can see why you're in love with him.”

“I'm not in love with him,” said Laura. “I like him, but I don't love him.”

“Oh.”

“You gave Sheila a bloody nose?”

“I gave Howard a fat lip, too. I couldn't believe
what they did to you. It made me so mad. It was such a mean thing to do, especially since …” he paused, “… you never told a lie.”

Laura raised her eyebrows.

“I'm sorry for not believing you.”

“But how –”

“Sheila was the one who changed the note. She saw me put it in your desk, and she took it out and changed it. She's the one who wrote that you had to kiss me, or else I'd tell everyone about Pig City. How could, I mean, can't you see why I –”

“You shouldn't have called me a liar.”

“I know. I'm sorry.”

Laura looked at the flowers, then at Gabriel. “I have a vase in the Dog House.”

They walked through the kitchen, out the back door, and across the yard to the clubhouse.

On top of the bookcase was a clear blue vase with a peacock feather in it. Laura removed the feather, dropped it on the floor, and put the daisies in the vase. She placed it back on the bookcase. She figured she'd add water later.

Gabriel sat in the swinging chair.

Laura remembered that that was where he sat the last time he was in the Dog House. She sat on the bed again. “What did the note say before Sheila changed it?”