Insight

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Scar

When we got back to the cabin, Moxy immediately took me into the bathroom. "You should, uh, take your shirt off and cover your shoulders with a towel so you don't get hair down your shirt." She said. "And while you do that, I'm gonna go get the clippers."

She left and I did as she told me, feeling awkward standing in just my binder with a towel around my shoulders. She came back with scissors and the electric razor.

"Okay, I'm gonna cut your hair real short and then buzz it off, does that sound alright to you? And you're sure you want to do this?"

"Moxy, it's hair, it'll grow back. I'm sure I want this."

"Okay. Snip snip." She said, and I laughed at how dumb the 'snip snip' sounded. She began cutting off chunks of my hair and I watched them drop to the floor. When she was satisfied with what she had cut off, she turned on the razor and began shaving my head.

"So why do you want a snapdragon tattoo?" I asked. In the middle of my question, a piece of hair managed to find its way down my binder and it became super itchy and I was glad that Moxy had suggested I remove my shirt. I stuck my hand down my binder and pulled out a couple pieces of hair. I tucked the towel tighter around my shoulders.

"I had one in my dreamscape as a symbol of my trans-ness."

"How is it a symbol of your trans-ness?"

"The flower is traditionally feminine but also it looks like a vagina." she said matter of factly.

"Oh. Neat." I laughed a little.

In the midst of shaving my head, Moxy said "Huh. That's weird."

"What's weird?"

"You have a scar on the back of your head."

"Why is that weird?"

"Because where would you have gotten a scar?"

"Oh. Maybe I got it when I was working before my dreamscape. I'll ask Nurse Allison about it." I said, frustrated that I couldn't even remember something that warranted a scar.

Moxy finished shaving my head, but her hand lingered on my head. "This scar is really weird." she said. "It looks intentional. Like it's super straight and clean."

"Let's go find Nurse Allison and ask about it. She'll probably know how it happened." I said, wondering myself what happened. Scars were rare inside the Camp. Because our lives before the dreamscape were spent practically in boxes-excluding those of us who finished our Educational Journeys and went out into the real world-no one had really done anything that caused a wound. And the wounds that happened here at Camp were well taken care of by those in the Infirmary where they had some sort of healing cream that prevented scarring.

"You might want to shower first." Moxy suggested.

"You right." I said. Moxy left the bathroom and I got undressed and showered quickly, making sure to carefully clean my new piercing. When I was done, I strained trying to catch a glimpse of my scar in the mirror, but couldn't, and instead examined my eyebrow piercing.

"Hey, when you're done in there, I just figured out that the MusicScape can take pictures!" Moxy called excitedly.

"Oh." I rushed out of the bathroom. "Take a picture of my scar so I can see it please." Moxy did as I asked and when I turned around to see it, it was smaller than I expected. "Wow, that's tiny. I'm surprised you noticed that." I stated. Moxy blushed. The scar was small and white, but Moxy was right when she said it looked intentional. It was directly above my spine and ran perpendicular to it. It was straight and exactly in the center of the lower half of the back of my head. "That is weird. I'm gonna go find Nurse Allison to ask about it, are you coming with me?"