Jon woke up the following morning at 9:16 to a young woman’s screaming coming from the bathroom. Jon rushed into the hallway to find that Mikey had also awakened from the screaming. “Mikey, go back to bed until I knock on your door.” And like that, he was alone in the hall. He was sure he knew exactly what was happening, so he knocked on the bathroom door. “Mom, you okay in there?”
“Jon? Uh... yeah. I just don’t look like my normal self.”
“Mind if I come in?”
“No, come on in, just... don’t panic.”
The voice sounded vaguely like his mom’s but younger and as he opened the door “WOW.” Jon decided to play dumb. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up and saw this in the mirror.” She gestures to a reflection of her eighteen year old self. They went downstairs to talk about how to deal with it because Jon decided to let this play out. They set up a doctors appointment, but because most doctors in the city were still dealing with the Sarah McMillan incident from yesterday, they had to set it up for two weeks from now. Jon also gave her a command under his breath so anyone she told who she was would believe her without much explanation.
After talking for about fifteen minutes there was another scream, but this time from Zoe’s room and it sounded muffled. When they reached her room they found the door to give them some resistance. When they finally got it opened, the reason it gave them trouble was that there was a pile of hair up to their knees blocking the door, and in the corner of the room, where her bed should be, was instead a mountain of hair that almost reached the ceiling. They could start to hear more defined screaming from the pile. “Heeeellllphhhhh!”
“Zoe! Hang on, I’m coming!” Their mom yelled before she began to climb through all the hair to dig her daughter out. It took about five minutes until they were both sitting down on top of the pile that was still getting bigger behind Zoe.
Zoe looked at her mom, confused about her younger appearance. “Mom?”
“Yes baby, it’s me. I know I don’t look like my regular self but it’ll be okay.”
“Mom, wh-what’s happening to me?”
“I don’t know, but first, let’s cut this so you don’t have to lug this giant knot everywhere. Jon, hand me some scissors.” Jon obliged, knowing it wouldn’t do much. Their mom cut Zoe’s hair down to the middle of her back, about a foot longer than it usually was. “There, all better.”
Less than ten seconds go by until Jon notices another inch being added on. It then occurred to Jon that while she wouldn’t cut her hair in her usual style, he would still be the only one to notice her hair growing until it reached the floor every time it was cut. Jon decided to give her a bit of an overhaul as he left the room before the other two. “Zoe, ignore the command about only noticing your hair growing after it reaches the floor and have it grow at a rate of one inch per second. Over the course of a week, start to love having excessive amounts of hair.”
Both of them immediately noticed the change. “Mom! It’s already almost as tall as I am!”
“Let’s try cutting more off.” She cuts Zoe’s hair closer to its usual length, but it starts growing faster. Jon had forgotten about the speed doubling every time it was cut, but he thought it was still interesting.
She starts to cut a second time before Jon can react. Zoe’s hair was growing four inches a second and before their mom can cut a third time, Jon yells “Mom, stop cutting! It’s only going to grow faster every time you cut it.”
With part of it being a command, she stops. “How do you know?” Zoe asked.
“Observation.” He replied.
After all was said and done they decided to their moms work to get breakfast and so she could request a few weeks off until she works things out. Jon went upstairs to wake up Mikey, Zoe emptied her backpack to hold her hair in, and they were off.
