Nits!

Lyndsey’s birthday is coming up – and with it all her anxieties about how to commemorate the occasion.

- Tess Niland Kimber

LYNDSEY couldn’t believe it.

But staring into the jug of cold water and seeing the ant-like insects swimming about, there was no denying it.

She smiled. Despite being within touching distance of a big birthday, she was under attack from a typical childhood complaint.

She tugged the metal nit comb through another section of her hair – slick with oodles of conditioner – before dipping it back into the plastic jug.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who she’d caught them from. Jodie. Her youngest daughter had just started at the local primary school.

Mind you, Jodie with her beautiful, long blonde hair wouldn’t have been the original source. Oh no, she must have caught them from one of the children in her class.

Lyndsey could picture all those little heads pushed closely together, huddled over their crayoning.

In a weird way, she felt a teeny bit proud. She was sure she’d read somewhere that head lice only settled on clean hair. Surely having nits was proof their hair wasn’t dirty?

Suddenly, her wet head itched violently and she dug the comb into the offending section.

It was the intense scratching that had first made her suspicious. There was a peculiar, fast itch that gave the game away to anyone who’d ever had nits before.

Urgh! she thought. Why did these house-proud insects have to pick her family’s heads to be their new breeding ground?

But at least these unwelcome visitors had briefly taken Lyndsey’s mind off her dreaded birthday. Why did an age ending with a nought always seemed so much worse than any other?

She shivered, not sure if it was more embarrassing to admit to the great age she’d soon be, or the fact she had nits!

“Are you having a party?” Jodie had asked yesterday when she came in from school.