As is so often the case when my dream became interesting, my alarm clock rang.

Drowsy, I turned it off and felt for my glasses. Tired, I placed them on my nose and shuffled into the bathroom, where I stumbled over the threshold. Yawning, I ran my fingers through my long hair.

…

What?

…

My gaze lingered on my reflection in horror as I clung to the sink.

My hair was long again. And not only that: it was combable.

Wild dark blond curls enveloped my face. No trace of the felt mat. But how could that be? It was like in my dream: Suddenly they were long again! Had Angelo smeared some new substance into it? A new miracle hair conditioner? No... Actually, he had only washed them and then cut them off radically!! Nevertheless.... I had to ask him about it today after school.

"Mom! My hair!" I shouted.                                                

"Nelly? What's the matter?"

"My hair!"

"What? Don't dawdle, please. You have to go to school!" warned Mom from the kitchen. "You had your hair cut yesterday, did you forget that? Hurry up!"

"I NEVER dawdle!" I replied while tugging at a strand of hair. How could that be? Angelo would call me crazy if I told him about my dream and my hair miracle. Maybe I'd better not tell him?

"Sweetie? You're dawdling all the time."

"But my hair is long again!"

"Really? Hurry up." Mom didn't sound like she was listening to me. Well, she'd see my hair when I came out of the bathroom.

Should I braid them?

To avoid new knots?

And the morning chaos took its course.

Mom looked at my hair as if the sudden length wasn't strange. She tugged at one of my messy braids and nodded. Braiding was not one of my talents either.

"Very cute. You used to have that hairstyle a lot."

"Mom! My hair!" I tugged at a curl that stubbornly protruded from the braid. "It's long again."

"I can see that." Mom frowned. She wanted to say something, hesitated, shook her head, then her gaze wandered to the kitchen clock. "You have 10 minutes left. Your father has the car again. He won't be back for an hour or two. Doctor's appointment. You're going to miss the bus. Hurry."

"Mom!"

"Hurry!" She kissed my forehead and pushed me to the lunch box that was already waiting for me. "Chocolate sandwiches with strawberries and banana. Do you have enough money for the vending machine? I forgot to buy water."

"I do. But Mom..."

"And now off with you. You don’t have time for breakfast, so I made you a lot of sandwiches. I love you, my darling." She stroked my hair. "Just be happy about your little miracle, okay?"

"Mom!" Small miracle? And she didn't question it?

"Let's go now. The bus doesn't wait."

I gave up.

In the pouring rain, I missed my bus.

The next one came in an hour, and I didn't have an umbrella.

It took me about 45 minutes on foot. So I ran home, grabbed an umbrella, and then hurried off again.

The rain got worse quickly, and the umbrella did little against the strong wind that the rain had brought. Again I gave up and finally entered the school building completely soaked.

After I had listened to a lecture by Mr. Paulsen (a small, round man with light dark hair and very big ears), Penelope peppered me with questions. Very quietly. In the middle of geography class.

My other classmates were also looking at me. Sina whispered something about wigs.

"No. I didn't do anything!" I said for the hundredth time. Unlike Mom's strange reaction, Penelope's was as expected. She tugged at my hair helplessly.

"But... They can't have grown just like that..." she whispered as we stuck our heads behind my geography book.

"Angelo cut everything off," I confirmed. "The whole thing is totally strange. This morning they were long again. And Mom didn't say anything about it. She just called it a miracle. Nothing more." My hair had curled itself unruly by now. The braids were already loosening. I had lost a hair tie. Probably fearsome knots were already piling up in it.

"Well, my hair definitely can't grow that fast!!"

"I know," I agreed, scribbling on my college notepad. "Do you think there's a miracle hair treatment?"

Penelope's face brightened. "Why don't we just go and ask this Angelo? After school? Angelo is the owner of the hair salon with the ugly neon yellow walls, right? I've been there only once..."

I nodded and agreed. I really wanted to hear his opinion on my hair miracle. "That was my plan anyway! I don't have a better one. You're coming with me?"

Angelo loved fantasy movies and novels. He had once told me that he had read books about witchcraft as a teenager. In addition, he had more hair products in his shop than any other hairdresser. And always the latest. His shampoo shelf looked like Hilde's shelf full of magical things.

 So there was no better contact person.

Maybe he would think I was playing a trick on him...

Magically growing hair. Nobody would believe me.

"Nelly and Penelope!" Mr. Paulsen looked at us. "Would the ladies want tea with their chat? It’s enough."

"And cake. Thank you." Penelope grinned. "Strawberry cake. I especially like it. With cream."

"Cappuccino. No coffee," I added.

"With strawberry syrup. Please." Penelope frowned briefly. "I only drink freshly filtered water and... How often is the coffee machine in the staff room cleaned?"

And that’s how we got kicked out of class.

Penelope and I entered the main room of the salon.

The clientele was limited. Except for an elderly lady whose hair Angelo was cutting, there was no one there. A soft ringing of the doorbell revealed that we had entered the hairdressing salon.

Angelo looked at the reflection of my appearance. He made a somewhat surprised impression. "Nelly? Wait a second, sweetie. I'll have time for you in a moment," he called to me.

Penelope and I sat down on the bright pink waiting bench and reached for the magazines. Garden Pleasures, Fashion Star, Hair and Co. ... He had pretty much everything. Penelope found an old issue of 'Diva and Queer', a relatively new lifestyle magazine full of fashion, gossip, the life stories of certain celebrities, articles on endangered human rights and protests... And, and, and.

I, on the other hand, read through an always lying gossip magazine for older ladies, which I had gotten stuck on. The article about problems with gum recession among the royals was extremely amusing.

After ten minutes, the customer left the store with a freshly supplied cauliflower hairstyle. She proudly wore purple strands in it.

"What kind of shampoo do you use? I want the same!" Angelo hurried to us and pulled lightly on my curls. "Is that a wig? No... Extensions? No... Which shampoo worked this miracle?"

"One from the One-Euro Shop," I replied and freed my hair from his hands. "But that's not the reason."

"From the One-Euro Shop? That stuff is no good! Are you wearing extensions?" He reached for a curl again. "Oh... Completely knotted!"

I shook my head and pushed his hand away. "Do you have a magic hair treatment?"

"If I had one, I'd be a millionaire!" The man snorted. Today he wore a ponytail, but just as much hair gel as the day before. His bangs were now a glittering blue.

Penelope began to giggle softly next to me. She was still reading her magazine.

Angelo smiled at her, friendly. "Are you a friend of Nelly's? Excuse me. I passed you over completely! Your hair is a dream. What do you think of highlights?"

"That's Penelope," I quickly introduced her.

Penelope looked up from the magazine and nodded good-naturedly to him once. "I like my hair too, thank you. But I'm too old for highlights."

Sometimes she really had something of an older lady!

"You're sixteen!" I reminded her. "Too old? Really? Are you serious?"

"Oh. That's right." Penelope smiled unperturbed.

"When that's settled... Coffee?" Angelo winked at us and hurried to the front door, then locked it and stuck a sign saying 'Closed' on the glass door.

"Please. We didn't get one at school." My dear friend pouted. "Only extra work, but no coffee, no strawberry cake. Do you clean your machine regularly? Is the water freshly filtered?"

"Of course." Angelo glanced at the magazine and smiled. "Coffee with cream and rainbow sprinkles?"

We both nodded. "Cappuccino?" I asked.

"Cappuccino!" The hairdresser winked at us. "We'll make ourselves comfortable first.... I've only had one customer so far today... So your visit is just right for me. I'm terribly bored! Nelly? You came to talk, didn't you? Or should I cut your hair off again?"

"No!" I protested.

"Would you like highlights?" He looked at the granny magazine in my hands. "A magnificent cauliflower hairstyle?"

"No." I rolled my eyes.

Angelo disappeared into the back room to get the coffee machine going. A little later, he came back with three cups of coffee, handed Penelope two cups, and then sat down on one of his plush armchairs, which he used as a hairdresser's chair. He sighed and scratched his head. "You're overwhelming me. I'm just a simple hairdresser! That's a joke." He reached for a can that stood under the mirror, and held it out to us. "Cookies?"

"Gladly. I love cookies," Penelope murmured, handing both coffee cups to me and taking two cookies.

"They're from the old lady." Angelo just shrugged his shoulders. "Gluten-free and with sugar substitute. She doesn't like the cookies, so she gave them to me."

"Oh." Penelope sat down next to me again, took a cup and handed me a cookie. "She didn't bring strawberry cake?"

"Sorry." The hairdresser raised his eyebrows. Again.

"What happened to your hair? It's neither a wig nor are there extensions. What happened then?" he asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders too. "I don't have the slightest idea. I didn't do anything. This morning they were like that. Do you have any idea why? Mom was being totally weird about it. Like it's normal for hair to grow so much spontaneously." I bit into the cookie. It tasted terrible.

Angelo put the can back and then took a sip of coffee before answering. "Me? No. Hair doesn't grow that fast. I'm still waiting for the hidden camera. Is today the first of April?"

"It's May," Penelope corrected.

I sipped my cappuccino with cream and a lot of sprinkles. "No camera. So you don't know what to do either... Too bad... But that's strange. I wake up, and suddenly my hair is long again. Just like that. I mean, it can hardly have been the shampoo. I didn't wash my hair yesterday," I mumbled. "You did that before."

"If there was such a shampoo, I would like to have it!" Angelo grumbled and looked scowling into his coffee cup. "I don't like such jokes."

"But it's not a joke!" Annoyed, I drummed my fingers against the coffee cup.