brandi wells : “things his father gave him”

 

I tell him it’s a myth and male pattern baldness doesn’t run on the mother’s side. Thinking of his father’s smooth tanned head, he pulls his bangs back, leans forward, nose almost touching the mirror. His hot breath obscures the image, silky Pantene hair, and he asks if I’ll leave him. I tell him I’ll buy him a powdered wig. He wonders if the gene is recessive or dominant. We set up a Punnett square, guessing or hoping his mother is little a and big A. I tell him maybe it’s fifty-fifty and not to worry, but to quit wearing that yellow tie his father gave him.

 

Brandi Wells is a student at Georgia Southern University, pursuing a BA in Writing & Linguistics. Her fiction can be found in Toasted Cheese, Storyglossia, Thieves Jargon, Monkeybicycle, Dark Sky Magazine & Pindeldyboz.

 

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