Fiction: Bad Hair Day

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are supplied by Charlotte and hosted at River's blog here. This week's prompts are: snake, linen, cake, tired, letter, clip and/or brush, matter, rake, blue, bush, read.

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Fiction: Bad Hair Day
10:22 AM
Tess Mercy didn't need to rush but she didn't want to see Rob turned into a donkey or a snake or some other animal.

10:01 AM
Twenty-one minutes ago, Tess and Rob were at Ingrid's Diner having some cheap but decent coffee. After some small talk, Rob said, "Tess, I think we should go our separate ways. I'm sure you'll find someone—"
    "Better than you. Thanks for saying so, Rob." Tess smiled.
    "I didn't— Never mind. I thought you were going to throw something at me or even hit me." Rob chuckled and raked a hand through his blond curls. 
    "Why would I do that?" She grinned. "Thanks to you, I'm a free woman." 
    "I'm so glad you understand, Tess." He grinned.
    She should be angry at Rob, her boyfriend of almost a year, engaged to another woman since last year and was breaking up with Tess as if she didn't matter.
    But Tess never liked to fuss in front of people especially since she worked with some of them. She dabbed her mouth with the napkin and dropped it on the table. Smiling, she stood up and said, "Goodbye, Rob. Have a nice life," and lightly tapped his hand. She half-ran out the exit, toward a subway station, down the stairs through the turnstile and in a few moments a train arrived and she hopped inside. 

10:33 AM
Digging in her shoulder bag, Tess took out a linen handkerchief and wiped her sweaty forehead. Was it only nine months ago that she inherited this family curse just as she turned thirty? Her great-aunt Maybel said so in her letters. The old woman was the only one Tess consulted since she had no other families.
    Tess both hated and loved it. This ability to change people into animals wasn't natural but it was a useful for revenge. Those who betrayed her, caused her harm or made her life miserable had a high chance of being changed if they touched her of is she touched them. Most turned into cats which Tess never could understand as some people were too awful to be such cute animals. 
    Over the months, Tess had learned she could invoke the curse if she touched someone just after whatever disaster or misery they brung her. But she lived in a city full of passionate people. To keep it from becoming a zoo, she tried to stay away from people when possible and had started working night shifts. 
    The diner's air conditioner was freezing even with a jacket on but here in this train, she was reminded why she should never enter an empty car - it was a sign there was something wrong such as a bad smell or in this case, no air conditioning. She took off her jacket but it was still unbearably hot.

03:05 PM
Tess needed a change and the only thing she thought of was a haircut so she went to Jody's Hair Boutique. Jesse, her regular hair dresser wasn't available so Ariel, another hair dresser, convinced Tess to try her and for Tess to change her dull black hair to a strawberry blonde. 
    Once the final color was revealed to be a murky blue, Tess wanted to strangle Ariel but it wasn't the woman's fault. Tess took a chance and got unlucky. Since she didn't want to change Ariel to an animal, Tess silently rushed out of the salon's door.
    Back on the train and heading home, Tess fell asleep despite feeling like she was inside a freezer that smelled like something had died.

06:06 PM
When Tess woke up, the trained was at the last stop. She rushed out the open doors. The curse also caused her drowsiness that lasted however long that person stayed an animal. Her stomach growled. She wished she had eaten the slice of cake Ariel offered.

08:07 PM
Tired and hungry, Tess half dragged herself up the crooked stairs to her thirteenth floor apartment. The elevator worked occasionally but it would stop at the twelfth floor and refuse to go farther. She had struggled for nearly eleven years in that apartment but even if she had the funds, she didn't want to move except maybe to a lower floor.
    Once inside her tiny home, she consumed three mayonnaise sandwiches and two cups of tea while listening to the answering machine and reading her mail. There was a message from Ariel apologizing and hoping Tess would come by and get her hair redone for free. There was an envelope with a letter from her great-aunt Maybel and Madis Turner. In Maybel's letter said she didn't have long to live and wished Tess a good life. In Turner's letter, it said he was Maybel's lawyer and that Maybel passed away eight months ago and she owed a great debt and might Tess come by his office to discuss how she was going to pay it and his fees. 
    Tess scoffed. Where would she find the money? 
    "Meow," said the fat, gray and white British Shorthair sitting on the windowsill. Tess had named the cat Diva because the cat did whatever she want which was usually to show up to give haughty looks to Tess. When Diva appeared two months after her birthday, Tess had thought the cat was someone she had turned but after Diva kept coming back still a cat, she accepted Diva was just an ordinary cat.
    Tess ignored Diva. Perhaps she should disappear. She didn't own Maybel anything as she never met the woman and all they did was write a few letters to each other. She clipped the lawyer's letter with Maybel's and dumped them into a drawer and went to bed.

10:08 PM
The fire alarm woke her. In her sleepy state, Tess stumbled down the stairs. On the tenth floor stairs, someone from behind shoved her and just as she steady herself, another pushed past her and sent her tumbling down onto the landing, only to have someone kicked her and shouted, "Get out of the way!" 
    Tess got up, aching and wishing she could fly. By the time she made it all the way down to the lobby and out the door, there was an abundance of cats along with the tenants. 
    In a few minutes, the landlady, Mrs. Hunch, appeared and announced it was a false alarm and that they could all go back in. As Tess was following the others inside, she heard a loud hee-haw — coming toward her was a donkey.

11:09 PM
Her robe and nightgown clung to her even as the night air cooled her. She kept looking back. Her last glimpse was of the donkey tripping over the cats.
    She was soon slowed by exhaustion and didn't see the flash of light until the car skidded to a stop just before her. The driver gaped at her. She ran and paused when she realized she lost a slipper. 
    Looking around her, she saw the familiar large houses with neatly trimmed front lawns and bushes and shiny cars in the driveways. Just a few moments of rest, she thought as she collapsed onto a land of soft grass. 

01:10 AM
Something prodded her legs and she snapped her eyes open. Two figures were looming over her. One of them was blinding her with a flashlight. Quickly she shot to her feet. There was an orange tabby sitting just a few inches away but it only blinked at Tess.
    Without preamble, the fat policeman grabbed her arm and led her into the police car's backseat and didn't allow her to stop to get back her lone slipper. She had learned it was better not to resist or earn some bruises.
    She still couldn't recall the precinct number but she had been here before. Here she was known as the 'sleeping addict' ever she was found sleeping on people's property more than once. They assumed she was a drug addict. With her pale skin, dark shadows beneath her eyes and being so thin, she looked it but she didn't refute them. She wasn't going to tell them she lacked money for food or that she was an insomniac unless she turned people into animals.
    Many owners didn't press charges so the police just take Tess to the station, allow her to sit for awhile and then let her go. It was a fair deal — the police didn't have to do paperwork and the owners were satisfied Tess was taken away.

02:11 AM
Covering a yawn, Tess' fatigue was slowly ebbing away. Maybe Rob had turned back. She looked around the empty police station. Just a few feet away from the bench she was sitting on, one man was among all the desks and above him, the wall clock said 11 after 2. 
    "You're awake?" said Sergeant Wallace. The huge, old fellow got up and came toward her. He dropped a pair of pink flip-flops by her feet.
    She nodded and slipped her feet into the flip-flops. 
    "Good. Go home and don't let us meet again, Tess." He smiled and returned to sitting by his desk.
    The walk home was slow. Though Tess was not sleepy, her legs and feet ached. She paused to rest and to imagine in this late hour who would be awake and what they would be doing. 

03:12 AM
By the time she got to her apartment building, everyone had gone, no donkey nor a cat about. As she climbed the stairs, she thought, it's just a bad hair day. She laughed and brushed hair away from her face. Maybe tomorrow will be better. She hoped.