Todos los capítulos de Hair Knotted Around My Heart: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 8

Dr. Shaw froze, then hurried over to help Mom up.Mom wouldn't move.Her forehead struck the cold tile, and her voice shook so badly I could barely make out the words."Owen, I was wrong."Please stop eating hair. Please stop doing this to yourself."I looked at the red mark on her forehead and almost laughed."Mom, what are you talking about?"I've always liked eating hair. What does that have to do with you and Dad?"Dad stood beside her, white as a sheet.He'd aged so much over the past few years.He was only in his early fifties, but his temples had gone completely gray.To cure my pica, he'd waited in line before dawn for cancellation slots with specialists. He'd sat through healing services at a church he'd never once set foot in before.Every relative said I had the most devoted parents in the world.I said the same thing.Whenever a doctor asked what my family was like, I answered seriously:"They're wonderful. Mom and Dad love me most. Even my little brother, wh

Dad finally forced out one sentence."He was only six."Mom nodded quickly."He was probably just scared. He didn't know how to come out."And that smile — it might not have had anything to do with you."I wasn't angry at all.My parents were simply too kind.Even after watching Noah lie to their faces, they couldn't bring themselves to think badly of him.Dr. Shaw looked at me."Your parents misjudged you. They hurt you. You don't just refuse to resent it, you're sitting here explaining it away for them. Why?"I paused."Because they love me most."After I collapsed at twelve, Mom didn't close her eyes for three days.Dad put all his work aside and stayed in that hospital room, repeatedly asking the doctors why his son would eat hair.Noah cried and said I'd done it on purpose.He said I'd picked his birthday to pass out on, on purpose, so Mom and Dad would yell at him, on purpose, to get back at him.It was the first time Dad ever lost his temper with him."Your brot

Wind tore past my ears.Mom's scream got farther and farther away.When I hit the ground, I didn't feel any pain. I only heard a dull sound, and then the world flipped over in front of me.Mom was the first one down.She dropped to her knees beside me and reached for me, then didn't dare touch me."Owen, please. Open your eyes. Look at me."I wanted to tell her I was fine.As long as she didn't go to Noah, I was fine.But when I opened my mouth, what came out was blood.There were a few strands of hair in it, still undigested.Dad got there next.He knelt on my other side and tried to wipe the blood away with his sleeve, and no matter what he did, he couldn't wipe it away.His phone kept ringing.Noah's name was on the screen.Dad didn't even look. He threw the phone away from him.I saw it, and a strange sweetness filled my heart.So what if Noah was hurt?Dad wouldn't even pick up for him now.The ambulance came fast.Mom rode with me and held on to my hand."Owen

On the day of my funeral, Mom cooked a whole table of food.Drumsticks, ribs, custard, and the little cake I'd loved when I was small.She didn't use the kitchen scale.But when she set the plate down in front of my picture, she still caught herself asking:"Is this too much?"The words were barely out before she went still.The next second she was piling more onto the plate like she couldn't make herself stop."More."Owen can have more."Nobody's punishing you today."The plate was heaped over. Food was falling onto the floor.She kept adding to it."He gets hungry."He was hungry from the age of twelve to eighteen."Six years. He never once ate until he was full."When he couldn't stand it anymore, he filled his stomach with hair."Noah came to the funeral too.He walked up to my picture and had only gotten out "Owen" when Mom's head snapped up."Don't. Don't you say his name."Noah's eyes were red."I want to apologize."I didn't know he'd really jump."But Dr