And the fact is that thinking about it, yes he thought about it. Even, He even made an appointment at his usual hair salon.. But later, professional commitments, mixed with some laziness, They pushed him to delay it a week. It couldn't be anymore. State of Alarm declared, It was evident that he could no longer do so until the government decided to revoke it..
Not that four months was too long, but it is still true that his hair was beginning to cover his ears and his bangs threatened to dangerously obscure his vision if things continued like this.. It is also true that, if he had wanted it, He could have taken the scissors he had at home and made a good cut that would put an end to the problem.. No matter how little skill was given, it seems that, according to the news, There would be more than enough time to correct any possible aesthetic mistake he made with himself.. What stopped him from doing so is something I would never fully answer.. At first, He perceived it as a simple act of rebellion. Remembering his teenage years, it felt, like then, with the ability to not have to explain to anyone. But later, As the hair took over everything and he lost consciousness of himself., that was also forgotten.
The first week, His hair covered the nape of his neck and already had strands that reached his nose.. He didn't worry much. At meal time, which was when it bothered him the most, It was enough to make a bun at the height of the neck and it was already fixed. In the second week, however, His hair grew at a surprising speed.. On Wednesday it already reached his waist and on Sunday, after talking to his mother, He realized that he stepped on it when he walked.. Even so, with the help of some rubber bands and some hooks that he bought by email, could (more or less) make do. The issue of washing or going to bed was still problematic.. There were mornings when he would wake up completely trapped in a tangle of hair and it would take him a long hour to untangle himself to eat breakfast..
At the end of the third week, The hair had spread throughout the house, covering furniture and walls.. That, as is logical, significantly restricted his ability to move, but it wasn't too inconvenient either.. Installed, as he saw the problem coming, in the living room of your house, He asked for prepared food that was brought to his home from a stall in a nearby market and since his hair absorbed most of the energy provided by the little food he was eating, The issue of other physiological needs did not cause much discomfort either.. Despite the difficulties, During this week he continued to maintain contact via mobile phone with family and friends whom he called frequently and who, although they couldn't see his face, At least they were able to have a little conversation with him.. Although no one dared to visit it to check it, there were those who said that, by the voice, He seemed to be in good spirits and in an excellent mood..
The real problem occurred when, taking advantage of some gaps between the floor tiles and the walls of the apartment where he lived, the hair began to spread to the adjacent homes. The reaction of its neighbors could not have been more radical.. As soon as they saw the first locks hanging from the ceiling, some did not doubt it, He took his scissors and cut them without further consideration.. Up to this point the conflict did not escalate.. But later, They began to see that their hair grew faster than they could prune it.. They had barely cut it from a quarter, It was already growing again in the bathroom or kitchen. Although the quarantine posed some difficulties, Some neighbors proposed organizing a meeting to take some consensual action on the matter.. Before, They had knocked on the door of his home to ask for explanations., but there was no answer nor was there any sound that would give them any clue that anyone lived in that house.. The matter became complicated when other neighbors opposed organizing the proposed meeting, since the problem did not concern them. This made the neighbors who lived immediately below him, They would stop cutting hair just so it would reach the lower floors.. These reacted, but since they didn't pay attention to them either, They did the same with those below, and so on until the end. When the homes that were invaded by hair were the majority to organize the meeting, it was too late. The hair grew so much that it soon colonized the entire building..
At that point, He was already just a mere body that produced hair non-stop.. He had lost all contact with the outside and, even, in the hypothetical case that someone could have entered your house and, based on machetes, would have reached him, I wouldn't have been able to have a reasoned conversation. In fact, I wouldn't have been able to have any kind of conversation with him.. Thus, and given the impossibility of approaching the source, origin of the problem, the neighbors got to work. At this point, The mass of hair was so thick that they could not do anything other than cut it without stopping, so they organized themselves into work shifts to keep the building and the homes in conditions minimally conducive to life..
The people, Of course, I was angry. They called the authorities to intervene in the case, but, busy with other priorities, although they accepted the demand, They did not want to intervene. And that's why we pay taxes?!!, protested one. The tension was, in this way, on the rise. The neighbors only had two options left.: continue fighting against the hair or leave the building and look for a new home. They chose the first option. The fight was tough during the first two days of the fourth week of quarantine. But, on the third day, an extraordinary event came to give an unexpected turn to the dramatic direction that events were taking.
Strange fruits began to sprout from the hair.. They were shaped like an avocado, but pinkish in color. Nobody had ever seen anything like it. What's that?, they were wondering. For lack of another better solution, The neighbors played a lottery to try that strange fruit.. It was the turn of the neighbor on the fourteenth, on the fourth floor. The woman took one of the fruits that, surprisingly, it seemed to fall into his hand, not as if it had been separated from the matrix to which it was attached, but as if he gave himself to her, and put it in his mouth. He said it had a very curious taste., strawberry and lemon mix. Sour and sweet, a little bitter and, at once, soft on the palate. If they asked, it reminded her, not so much to a fruit, like the memory of a love he had when he was young. Seeing that, after a few hours, the neighbor was not dying, other neighbors were encouraged to try that strange fruit. They found that nothing was happening and, So, They continued to feed on it for the next few days (fact that saved them having to go to the supermarket).
But the most surprising of all is that the flesh of that fruit produced in those who tasted it a strange sensation of fullness and harmony with the people around them.. Immediately, Someone noticed that no one had left that building for a while.. When the police finally entered one of the houses on the first floor, didn't find anyone. Apart from the hair, They found nothing more than that unusual sensation, almost mystical, of universal brotherhood. “If the world could be like this”, said one of the agents in a moment of absence. There were those who proposed demolishing the building, but, finally, no one dared to do it. It seems that, today, the hair is reaching the building next door. GERARDO LEON
