Cutting the Braid

by Jett Masterson

“It’s okay, my love. I promise I’m not going anywhere. I would never force you to do anything that you don’t want to do or aren’t ready for. I will wait for you for the rest of my life if I need to. If you need more time, if you need more love, if you need more... anything, I’ll be here. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to miss your mother. It’s okay to fear that losing those connections in your life will steal something from you. I felt the same way about leaving my old village. I worried that I would lose my father’s memory or that I would make him sad by leaving our house where we lived so long together. But I realized that he would have wanted me to go, to find a place I could call home, a person I could love. I pictured him looking down on me from the afterlife and threatening to come back down here just to throttle me if I didn’t live my life to the fullest.” Ren gave a soft laugh as he looked caught in memory for a moment. “Your connection with your mother is in more than just your hair, it’s in every thought you have of her and every precious memory. Even if you cut your hair, changed careers, and left this town forever, you wouldn’t ever forget her.”