***
The 1 train was right on time…as usual and Jaden was blazed up for a great day ahead. Her boss hadn’t called this morning to bark orders into her husband’s phone. The phone he paid for every month to be disrespected by a forty year old business woman with no life besides her editorial career. At least the anxiety levels would be low and the production levels would be high. Well, on her part at least. The moving train did not seem like it would stop but sure enough it did allowing Jaden to take one good look at her reflection and standing there glaring back at her in the dull metallic was a baldheaded black goddess.
“Baldheaded?!” Jaden screamed out loud as she realized her nighttime satin cap was still stuck onto her head. One hand filled with a cup of hot java and the other occupied with her Kindle did not make this episode any better. Think quick, she said to herself.
The doors to the train glided open revealing the melodic dings it made at every stop. Jaden ran into the first seat she saw and removed the cap when java and kindle were safely out of her hands. Folding the rinky-dink piece of material she had cut from an old pair of stockings, it laughed at her through its sheer wrinkles. Had anyone seen this drastically embarrassing episode? She thought to herself. Then she looked up to see a wooly haired girl gawking her way. The girl’s hair looked like a bowl of black mashed potatoes. Her eyes were curvy with no help from Cover Girl or E.L.F and a white blossom sprung from the back of her left ear like it was meant to be there.
Jaden gave her a smile and rustled her own semi-wooly hair as the train pulled off. The new growth from her post-perm was already giving her problems. Shedding unwanted strands during the day, revealing an atypical struggle for the everyday black female and making it impossible to create a style from was her norm now. Why could this mashed potato girl have an intelligent mane without even trying while Jaden had been fighting with her own mane for years—since time could tell?
Ryan adjusted the flower behind her ear as she looked up at the grown woman rushing into the train, face done, but hair wrapped. Was this the new fad of 2010? she thought. Didn’t African American women care for their hair like she did? Ryan’s Harlequin was closed by this time. She wanted to see what this lady would muster up in the time it took her to leave the train. Slowly, the metal box rolled away from the station as Jaden fussed with her hair. Ryan just kept looking at Jaden’s rough roots growing insubordinately with its creamy crack ends.
The strands were jet black with a burgundy patch in the front. The ends fell to her shoulders while the roots shrunk to her scalp. Taking her wide tooth comb from her purse, Jaden was grateful to know that she was far from her next “seat” neighbor. All the better. Now she could stretch and pull her hair any which way she wanted without disturbing the person or people next to her. Ryan could take it no more. Which woman had the gall to comb her hair in the train? Let alone transitioning hair. Hmmm, Ryan thought. Then it snapped into Ryan’s mind like a light bulb. Satin cap? Embarrassing look on her face. It was a mistake! Yes! Just a regular mistake done by an everyday black women. Then Ryan put herself back in check.
Ryan smiled at Jaden this time around. Knowing what she did was a bold move; she couldn’t help but believe that this girl with the mashed potato hair had once been in this situation as well. Then Ryan spoke up; something she would not have done if she didn’t already feel comfortable with this female, two-toned, halfway natural stranger.
“Having one of those days?” Ryan said with a smirk? Then she continued before Jaden could answer. “I was going to do the same thing this morning till I passed my mother’s mirror on the way out the door.” Jaden felt at peace.
“Well humans aren’t perfect, right?” Jaden chuckled.
“Nope, I guess not,” said Ryan. Then she stayed silent as if the conversation had been cut off with an announcement from MTA. It was like those once-in-a-lifetime moments you had with a stranger on an elevator. Jaden did not know this young lady and yet, they were laughing it up over simple errors of the strong independent female culture.
Ryan took her Harlequin back out to read while Jaden gave herself an informal pompadour right above her forehead. Pinning it down with the hairpins from her nightcap, she ruffled the back of her half kinky, half straight mane and put the Office Max rubber band, dangling from her wrist, around the end to create a very loose bob. Job done, she said to herself. And she didn’t even need a mirror. Then 116th street appeared through the windows of the train car with its florescent lighting and colorful two-toned tiles and it was her turn to get off.
“I love Harlequin’s, by the way,” Jaden expressed. “Always seems to take me to another world.” Then she exited the train without another word.
Ryan sat where she was and smiled in Jaden’s direction as the coincidental day went on. First her hair attracted a particularly handsome stranger, and now another’s was sparking up conversation she’d never think to indulge in. Jaden exited the train feeling lighter than ever. Sometimes you just needed an imperfect moment to bring out the joy in life. Exiting the station, she decided to stop for a Chai Latte at the local Starbucks. Zoning in on the Starbucks logo, she imagined having flowing hair like the black, white, and green Siren painted below the Starbucks sign. She thought back to all of her transitional friends and realized that they really did have unique hair texture. Oh Lord, if this transition doesn’t work out, ill shave it all off—I swear! She said to herself.
She reached the front of the line in no time and before she could take her order, the cashier was asking for her name.
“Jaden Taylor”, she said in a clear voice.
“Is that one name?” the middle aged worker asked.
Jaden could think of nothing to do but laugh. Her day had already begun in a burst of energy so why not go with the flow.
“Oh! No it’s not but I just like saying it as one name,” Jaden explained.
“Well okay… Ms. Taylor.”
“Yeah,” Jaden added.
“One grande Chai Latte for Jaden Taylor, please,” the cashier spoke out loud. Jaden could tell her loved his job. This man, standing at an even six feet like her husband with a more than defined medium build, was adding to her day.
“Will that be all Ms. Taylor?” the cashier asked.
“Yeah, that’ll be all.”
“Ok, that’ll be $4.10 please. By the way, you should help my sister out with her hair. She’s been dying to learn how to do those bumps you women do.
“Oh this?” Jaden asked, touching the puffy pompadour.
“Yeah that thing. I don’t know what’s so hot about them but yours looks really cool. Especially with that color. “
“Thanks,” Jaden stated before heading over to wait for her Latte. I don’t even know this man! She thought.
I can definitely dig his humor thought. Picking up her Latte was the bonus. Removing its cap, she headed to the do-it-yourself station and added a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. The rustling of leaves caught her ear and the whistling of the wind gave her goose bumps. This was always her favorite time of the year; a time when she got an extra hour of sleep and slept in late on the weekend with her hubby and an extra fluffy comforter. Heading down the road to her job would now put her day into retrospect. She was at a job she loved, in a city she loved, with the man she loved and now all she wanted was her hair to catch up to this recurring rhythm.
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