MY GRANDMA
237
Father stops laughing. "I'm sorry. I won't
try
to louse your
project up."
"She'll like it. You'll see." Grandma licks her mouth. "Grandma.
I'm
going to fix your hair up."
Grandma chews at something.
"Your hair, Grandma. I'll curl it up for you. I bought a
permanent.
~ee?"
She holds the box up, the way they do on TV.
"Ab. My hair."
"I'm going to fix it for you."
"My hair. Why
is
that?"
"I want it to look pretty. Don't you?"
"My hair." Grandma chews.
"You always had such pretty hair, Grandma."
Grandma thumps her cane. "I don't have any hair."
"Nonsense."
"I don't have any hair!" She thumps her looney poker on the
floor and curls over it.
"Grandma, you do too. All I want is to make it look pretty
again."
Father ·snuffs his cigarette. "She's your mother. She'll never
believe you. She thinks you're playing a trick on her. Here, let me
talk
to her."
He swings out of
his
chair. "Grandma."
"Ab?" She swivels her eyes at him.
"Grandma, you have lost a little of your hair. But just a little,
rcally."
"I don't have any hair."
"If
you let Helen fix it, it will look like you have more hair.
Curling it up does that.
Try
it, please. Then we'll give you a mirror
and you can look and see
if
you like it."
"I don't have any hair." She crouches over her poker.
"Yes, you do. Helen wouldn't have anything to curl if you didn't
have any hair, would she?"
"Ab?"
"Helen wouldn't want to fix your hair up
if
you didn't have
any hair to fix."
She thumps her poker on the floor.
"Helen is going to curl your hair. That means you still have
lOme.
She's not about to waste her time curling nothing."
