The Hair Fairy
Thursday, February 07, 2013In a few days I am going to have Jo Linsdell here as my guest. She has written a children's book called Fairy May, which is about the Tooth Fairy. So I started to think about my own experience with this story and remembered a story I wrote for two very sick little girls to cheer them up called "The Hair Fairy". I am talking about this on my post for Downtown YA, Borrowing from Other Stories, so I thought I would pull it out and post it here. So here it is and I hope you enjoy it:
The Hair Fairy
Every night the hair fairy steals into the rooms of little girls and boys in all of the hospitals and gathers the fallen hair from their pillows.
“It’s a tough job. It’s a sad job, but someone has to do it, “ the hair fairy says.
Then she sings her little song:
La, la, la, I gather the hair
Of boys and girls while they are asleep.
La, la, la, they are never aware
As I slip into their beds without even a peep.
She hovers over the beds of the sick little girls and boys and scoops up the hair singing her special song.
In place of the hair she leaves a special tiara for the girls and a crown for the boys custom-made, with their name on it in glittering letters.
One night she saw a little girl named Hannah who had just started her treatment a few days ago. Hannah was crying.
“Mommy, my beautiful hair is starting to fall out. I see it on my pillow every morning. It makes me so sad.”
“Hannah, your hair will grow back. In the meantime we have bought you a lovely hairpiece.”
Hannah’s mom fumbled in a shopping bag and unwrapped a big package. She showed it to Hannah who looked at it and tossed it as far as she could throw it.
“No, I will not wear anyone else’s hair. I want my own hair back. “ Crying she lost energy and laid back in her bed. “I’ll never be a princess again.”
Her mom put her arms around Hannah and held her tight. “You’ll always be my princess,” her mom said. Hannah closed her eyes and Mom kissed her forehead, unfolded her from her arms, and tiptoed out of the room.
As soon as Mom left The Hair Fairy hovered over Hannah’s bed and gathered the fallen hairs in a flash, her bag vacuuming them until the surface was clean. In a twinkling she found a tiara with the name Hannah and placed it under the pillow singing her little song to herself the whole time, sprinkling happy dust as she worked.
In the morning Hannah awakened and felt a bump under her pillow. She looked underneath and with wide eyes and a big smile she found the tiara.
The nurses came running when they heard the screaming.
“Look what I found,” Hannah yelled when the nurses hurried into her room ready to help her. “Who put this here?” Hannah said.
On Hannah’s head was a beautiful glittering tiara with her name in big letters. The nurses all dropped their equipment and stared at her.
“This is why you screamed?” They were not angry. They were happy that Hannah was not sicker. “Why, it must be the Hair Fairy,” one of the nurses said.
“The Hair Fairy?” Hannah wondered who this was.
“Yes, she brings either a tiara for a girl or a crown for a boy for each child who is in the Chemo ward. “
“Is she like the Tooth Fairy? “I wonder what she does with the hair?”
Hannah wore the tiara all day. It made her feel like a princess again.
That night when Hannah’s mom brushed Hannah’s hair more came out in big clumps. Mom threw it in the wastebasket. Tears came to Hannah’s eyes. She wanted to save her hair, but how could she when Mom threw it out.
Thinking she had to lose her hair to feel better Hannah drifted to sleep. The Hair Fairy came again that night and vacuumed the hair from the wastebasket and from her pillow. She added a star to the tiara.
Hannah continued to gain stars on her tiara while losing almost all of her hair, which Hannah never found. In the end they had to shave her head to get rid of the last straggling strands. Hannah wore her glittering tiara with all of its stars and was happy to be going home tomorrow. Her stomach felt better too.
She went to bed wearing her tiara and never felt the Hair Fairy lift if from her head while singing her little song,
In the morning when Hannah awoke she felt her head. The tiara was gone!
Tears replaced her smile until she looked under her pillow. There wrapped in gauze was a brand new hairpiece in exactly the color of her hair. She even noticed a spot where some of it was cut because Mom had to get gum out of it.
She placed the hairpiece on her head and carefully moved out of bed to see herself in the bathroom mirror. She couldn’t believe it. Her old hair was back.
Later when her mom came to bring her home Mom also couldn’t believe it.
“Did your hair grow back?” Mom couldn’t figure out what had happened.
“No, I’m pretty sure it was the Hair Fairy, Mom.” Hannah guessed this morning that it wasn’t her mother or the nurse who gave her the tiara and stars. “She gathers the hair of all the children who have Chemo and gives us the tiara. Then she weaves it back into a hairpiece to wear when we get out of the hospital.”
Mom smiled and hugged Hannah. “We have to go now. Are you ready?”
Hannah asked her mother to wait a minute. “I have to do something first.”
Hannah took the picture she had made with the words THANK YOU HAIR FAIRY, LOVE HANNAH and put it on her pillow.
That night the Hair Fairy stopped into Hannah’s room and seeing the drawing folded it into small squares and placed it in the third bag she carried that contained more of the same squares. Then she flew around the hospital hovering, vacuuming and leaving her tiaras and crowns for the others still there.
Of course, the little girls I had written this for loved the story and they sent me a beautiful letter thanking me. I am looking forward to hosting Jo Linsdell with her new book, Fairy May next week on this blog. I hope you will come and enjoy it too!!
Also next week on Monday, February 11th I will be hosting Amy McCorkle with her new book. More about that soon.
Until the next time, hope all of you who live in the northeast are preparing for the big storm coming here. I am no stranger to snow, so I am ready!!
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