One Grey Hair
By: Set3

Agnes was working at the make-up counter in the department store. At forty-eight years of age she was quite adept at her job and knew what to say and do to get the sale. Today how ever, she was not doing so well. There was a power outage in her part of town causing her alarm clock to reset and her sleeping in and becoming late arriving to work. When she stepped in her boss chewed her out and a new hire in her department was doing very well for her first day. All this had put Agnes in a sour mood.

Despite this, she smiled evilly as she had just the thing. At home she had a spell that would devastate the little upstart. A simple spell really. All it could do is turn woman's hair grey. She used it several times on her other coworkers to great effect much to her satisfaction. She laughed in the memory of seeing her targets lose their marbles over a few grey hairs. She frowned as she absently twirled her own lock of hair hating that her own aging hair. Her reverie was interrupted by another of her coworkers.

Joseph, a twenty-one year old male was showing the new hire his hair. More specifically a single grey strand of hair. Joseph was a goofball, quick with a joke and always seeming to be determined to be the class clown, even if he wasn't in class at the time. He worked as the store gopher, the odd jobs person who had no direct day-to-day task. Right now it seemed he was in full class clown mode.

"Look at this," he told the new hire, Shirley Agnes thought her name was, "I have just one white hair," he told her excitedly much to Shirley's bemusement.

"Yeah, it means you're getting older," she told him, "Soon you're going to have a full head of grey hair," she teased.

Unfazed by her declaration, "I hope so but it's weird though. Last year I found just one strand of white hair and I showed it off to whoever I could find. And a month later," he added with a hint of conspiracy, "It was gone! As if it was ashamed that I wasn't ashamed of it. I couldn't find it again after it disappeared. And no, I didn't pull it out or anything like that," he told her playfully.

Agnes was irked by what he just said striking a deep nerve within her. Whenever a man got grey hair he looked distinguished, full of wisdom. But, when a woman gets grey hair, she's past her prime and no longer worth being pursued.

"Well if he wants grey hair so bad, I'll give him grey hair then," Agnes thought venomously.

The rest of the day passed in a blur as Agnes' dominant thought revolved around making Joseph pay for his insensitivities. When she got home she pulled out the spell she kept in her room and looked it over to make sure she casted it right. She briefly paused at the notice on the page that the spell was for use on women only but waved that aside. She had a lesson to teach. Setting up a circle of candles on her table the page the spell was on sat in the circle of candles. Once everything was ready she began reading the spell and said Joseph's name to indicate the desired target. On finishing the spell a sudden gust of wind snuffed out the candles signifying the spells success and conclusion. With that out of the way Agnes went about the rest of her evening with a satisfied smile on her face.

The next day after arriving at work she found herself continuously getting distracted looking for Joseph to see his reaction to his new sprinkling of grey hair on his head. After her lunch break a young woman came up to her counter with a big grin on her face.

"Shirley, Agnes, look at this," she said holding a lock of hair in her hands. The handful of hair was snow white in contrast to her dark brown that if left alone would fall over her left eye.

Agnes was confused, not knowing this girl and yet she was acting as if she knew her.

"Oh that looks so cool Josie, did you dye it?" Shirley asked the girl.

'Josie's' grin got wider, "No, I just woke up this morning and there it was. Looks pretty cool right?"

Shirley gave a look of concern, "That's not something to get excited about Josie. what if there's something wrong with you? You should get yourself check out in the hospital just in case," she told Josie.

Josie slumped a little, "But I feel fine though," she pouted, "But tell you what? If this happens again I'll get check out, sooner if I star to feel sick okay?"

Shirley nodded her head, "Deal, I'll see you later," she said bidding the strange girl adieu.

"Kay, bye-bye you two," she said waving goodbye when she noticed another co-worker walking by, "Oh, hey Barry, check this out!" she said chasing after him to show him her hair.

The whole encounter left Agnes dumbfounded, "Who was she?" she asked Shirley.

Shirley looked at her quizzically as if she said something weird, "That was Josephine remember? She came here yesterday being all excited showing off a grey hair she found," at Agnes' non response she added further, "She's one of the gophers for the store," she paused seeing if she had jogged Agnes' memory. Seeing no recognition she continued, "She's the one who always acts like an airhead! God, how could you forget her? You worked with her longer than I have."

Finally it all clicked for Agnes as she remembered the notice on the spell she casted on Joseph. It had said to be used on women only. She never thought the spell would turn him into a woman. But, what sent her into grinding her teeth was that Joseph, or Josephine, had looked great in her new hair coloring. And worst still, it didn't upset her. The bitch was actually happy to have grey hair.

"I'll show her," Agnes thought with sneer and went about her day.

When she got home she set everything up to cast the spell. She read the spell out loud and when she was done the candles snuffed themselves out. She relit the candles and went through the process three more times. By the end of it she was sure that 'Josephine' now had a full head of her precious white hair. She should be freaking out by now. With that out of the way she could finally take the rest of her evening in peace satisfied that she at last got her revenge on Josephine for her behavior.

The next day when she went to work she didn't see Josephine anywhere and smile to herself when Shirley told her that she heard Josephine went to the hospital. Shirley sounded legibly worried but Agnes could only feel satisfied in that the bitch was finally acting like a real woman and freaked out about her hair. She giggled imagining that she was taken to the mental ward screaming about her hair and that she was now a woman. These thought ran through Agna's head despite the fact no one else had thought it odd that Joseph was now Josephine. She continued on her day feeling like she was walking on air now that she felt relaxed in as many days.

The following day she was again at work, humming to herself in between customers, she even gossiped to Shirley she was in such a good mood. Later she was just finished selling a make up kit to a customer when she spied a woman from the corner of her eye who had just walked around her own corner. Agnes started to smile in preparation for her pitch when she suddenly frowned on seeing the newcomer. It was Josephine, with a full head of white hair, and she was smiling.

"Hey girls," Josephine said lightly as she sauntered up to their counter, "How are you two today?"

Shirley stared at the girl wide eyed, "How are we? Josie, how are you? I heard you went to the hospital, are you okay? What happened to your hair?" she asked firing off question after question.

Josephine looked at her feet sheepishly, "I don't know what happened. Yesterday, like the day before I just woke up like this. My room mate freaked out even though I kept trying to tell her that I felt fine she practically kidnapped me and drove me to the hospital where I spent pretty much all day with them doing tests on me. I was only let out because I felt fine the whole day. So, they let me out and they'll give me a call if they find anything. So, here I am," she said at last smiling confidently.

"So, are you going to dye your hair back?" Shirley asked.

Josephine ran a hand through her hair, "Actually, I like it. I'm going to keep it. I mean, even my eyebrows are white now and I never liked dying those to match my hair color despite what every one says."

"I gotta say, you're rocking that look," Shirley answered, "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Thanks," Josephine said with a smile, "I should get back to work now, see you both later," she said with a wave and was off.

Agnes only half-heartedly returned her wave mumbling a goodbye as the new girl left. She was fuming inside. For the rest of the day her returned bad move showed in her work and she wasn't able to get any further sales. At the end of the day she was dead on her feet and in the evening before bed as she was removing her makeup she noticed to her dismay that she had a new collection of gray hairs on her head. She growled at the sight. Life just wasn't fair sometimes.

THE END.