A bottle of green hair dye Luckily, the store was open late. And luckily, they sold green hair dye. Well, Francine wasn’t entirely sure if it was lucky or not. When they were back at the hotel, Francine sitting sideways on the bathroom toilet and her father hovering above her with plastic gloves on and the bottle of green dye in his hands, she began to have second thoughts. “How long does it take before it comes out again?” she asked. She’d washed and patted her hair dry already, like the instructions on the box said. The damp towel around her shoulders felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. Her father grabbed the package off the sink and read the back. “Ten washes.” Francine thought about that. If she went through with it, it would be at least a week—probably two—before her hair was back to its normal color. Two weeks of looking like a human palm tree, every single day at school. Her father studied her reflection in the mirror. “You sure you really want the news anchor job this badly, pea pod?”
