Days Without Incident

Mindy didn't hear it until she passed Elsa's door. Sniffling. Definitely sniffling. Mindy turned the knob as slowly as she could and squeezed into the room.
          Elsa was sprawled on the bed, little blonde curls peeking out from underneath her pillow. She was crying.
          'Elsa?' Mindy sat on the bed beside her knees. 'What's the matter?'
          Elsa didn't flinch, or at least, nothing below her shoulders flinched. She just kept sniffling.
          'Elsa,' Mindy said again, quieter. She reached under the pillow to touch Elsa's shoulder. 'What is it, honey? You can tell me.'
          The blonde curls momentarily disappeared beneath the pillow before the head to which they belonged surfaced. 'Zero,' it said wetly.
          'Zero what, sweetie?'
          Elsa held out her hands and dropped her head. 'I bit my nails.'
          Mindy looked at the splayed fingers for a moment before enveloping them in her own. 'It's ok, Elsa. They'll grow back.'
          Elsa shook her head violently, hair slapping back and forth across her face. 'Daddy said I could go to a salon if I didn't bite them for twenty days,' she said. She lifted her hands, palms out, before her eyes. They might as well have been blood-stained. Elsa began to wail and threw herself back onto the bed, taking the pillow with her.

Photo: Valentin Popov -- Then and Now: Crying Girl