A dream is a wish your heart makes...

"Does it look like I dyed my hair?" she asked.

"Um, yes...it does," I replied.

And then I watched from my kitchen window as she pranced around the yard like a character from a story book come to life. A lost little princess with flowing synthetic curls taking refuge in the home of a kindly spinster woman (that's me). She waited and waited in her prettiest ball gown but alas no stallion straddling prince came galloping through our neighborhood to whisk her away into paradise. The dress was itchy. Her scalp was sweating. "I think I'll change back into play clothes," she finally said.

And thus her fairy tale concluded without the messiness of evil stepmothers or wicked spells to drive her naively into the arms of a man she hardly knows.

And she lived sensibly ever after.

The End.