The Scarf

Polka music from the apartment upstairs drifts past my window. The oompapa is beginning to grow on me.

"Mom, where's my scarf? The one with the yellow flowers."

My fifteen-year-old's voice, hurled in my direction from another room, interrupts the frolicking music. She seems to think that bellowing from another room is the proper way to conduct a conversation.

Jill is a newly hatched fashionista and can not possibly be seen in public devoid of the necessary accoutrement, which, at the moment, is a scarf. Her closet, dresser, and floor are rife with them, a veritable cloth rainbow spread across her entire bedroom.

"I haven't seen it."

"Are you sure? It has the big yellow flowers with the bright blue centers. And the twisty green leaves."


"Have you checked your room?"

OK, so I can be a little passive aggressive when provoked. I know she had not thoroughly searched her room, because if she had, it would be at least next week. Plus, she interrupted my peaceful Saturday reverie and contemplation of the merits of the tuba as a musical powerhouse.

Muttering followed by muffled rustling is her only response.

"It's not here, Mom. Do you have any idea of where it might be?"

She speaks with exaggerated articulation, like I am somehow feeble because she can't find her scarf. I take a deep breath.

"It's not my day to watch it honey. Did you check the car?"

A blonde streak flashes past my line of sight followed by the slam of the screen door. When did this become our life? She and I used to be so close. All those special times when she wanted nothing more than to be near me, to sit on my lap and read a book, to pick dandelion puffs and watch as the seeds flew away to the four corners, to lay on the summer grass and watch the clouds...  It's been just the two of us for so long but lately I feel like I am in this life by myself. I know she has to grow up, but why do we have to grow apart?

"Found it!" She struts into the kitchen, scarf held aloft like some royal prize, a grin spanning her beautiful face. 

"Terrific!"

"Now, I just need a new shirt to go with it."

Jill pauses and looks at me.

"Want to go to the mall with me?"

"Sure." I am elated but choose to play it cool.

"Do you have a scarf I can borrow?"