Each Tiny Spark

I wasn’t fast enough. Abuela appears behind me, already dressed with her makeup on, hair in a perfect bun. “Ven,” she says, holding two brushes and a flatiron. She gestures for me to follow her into her room. I really wanted to get a few knots out of my hair before she got started.
She sits me down on the footstool facing her full-length mirror. As soon as my butt touches the seat, she hammers away with the hairbrush like she’s some kind of blacksmith hairstylist.
My head jerks as Abuela pulls. She takes a skinny comb with a long, pointy handle and splits my hair into sections with hair clips that look like chomping alligators. With one section in her hand, she takes the flatiron in the other. She feeds my hair into the iron and clamps down on the strands. Steam curls out like a dragon exhaling as the iron slides from the top of my head to my tips. Even though she’s never burned me, I get nervous when Abuela gets close to my ears.
I don’t have my mom’s jet-black hair, but I have her curls. Or waves-my hair swooshes like a rolling tide. But after Abuela’s done with it, it’s as flat as a pancake. Today she straightens my hair out and puts it up into a ponytail.
“Pa’que se quede liso,” she says. I guess she’s worried that if I don’t put my hair up, it will get wavy later. Abuela turns my head toward the window and keeps working.
There’s something comforting about the way the sun enters the room through the curtains in the morning-it’s like a tap-tap-tapping on the window, telling me it’s time to get the day started. A cardinal chirps on the branch of our cedar tree. It flits around, and I’m jealous of the little bird for having so much energy in the morning. I lean over to draw the curtains open and let in more light.
“Quédate quieta, muchacha,” Abuela says. “You’re moving around too much.”
“Aurelia,” Mom says, popping into the room. “Déjala con su pelo risado.”
Abuela stops tugging and looks back at Mom.
“She’s going to go to school with her hair curly and out of control? She won’t be able to focus,” Abuela says.