The pain was instant and awful. Nelson collapsed on to the wooden jetty, the end of which had been broken in the blast. He clutched the sides of his head, which pounded as if someone were squeezing him in a vice, while his back, knees and ankles felt as if they were being taken apart bit by bit. Nelson screamed, but his face was buried into his balled fists and no one was close enough to hear him. The tips of his fingers pulsed with pain, and as he opened his eyes he saw his fingernails growing and stretching. At the very same time, Nelson could feel his hair getting longer, being dragged out of his skull, strand by strand, until he could see it hanging in front of his eyes.
Though the pain consumed him, Nelson knew what was happening: now that the monsters had gone, the curse had been lifted, and all the growing he would have done over the last year was happening in just a few seconds.
The fish in the harbour could only gaze up at Nelson, who lay breathless on the wooden jetty. If they could have leaped out of the water and stroked the hair from his eyes, they would have done. Instead, they swam away, back into the cool, moonlit waters and hoped he would feel better soon.
The sun was about to rise when Nelson staggered back to the little house like someone who had just completed a marathon. The hardest part of the journey was getting back up the steps into his bunk-bed because his knees were as creaky and stubborn as cellar doors, but once his body had flopped on to the mattress and the breeze from the ceiling fan touched the back of his neck, Nelson fell into a deep and dream-filled sleep.
When he finally awoke, the day had passed, the sun was already setting, and he found Celeste sitting on the end of his bed.
‘You’ve changed.’
‘What?’ ‘Your hair and everything. Even the little freckle on the end of your nose is back.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yeah. They’ve gone, haven’t they?’
Nelson burst into tears, and Celeste hugged him.
‘You’ll be all right. Want me to give you a haircut?’
‘Do I need one?’
‘Yep.’
Celeste had been careful to wake Nelson while their parents were out enjoying a dinner at a local Greek tavern with Ivan and some of the locals in town. His mother had put Nelson’s sleepiness down to being exhausted from the heat and swimming, and had enjoyed a few too many gin and tonics to notice the change in Nelson’s hair when she came in to check on him.
‘Sit here, I’ll be right back,’ said Celeste. She had put a stool from the kitchen right at the end of the garden, overlooking the sea. The moon was bright, and the view of the harbour was so beautiful it was hard to imagine there could be anywhere else in the universe as perfect as this. The garden suddenly lit up with fairy lights, and Celeste called from inside, ‘Did the lights just go on?!’
‘YES!’ replied Nelson.
Celeste reappeared carrying a comb, scissors and water spray.
‘What’ll it be, Nelson Green? Short back and sides?’
‘Yes please.’
Celeste set to work, first spraying Nelson’s hair with water, then combing it through and beginning to snip away.
‘You know what I think? I think your monsters prove a point.’
‘What point?’
‘That we all have our bad sides, but we can use them for good. You know, like pride, anger, laziness, envy . . . all that stuff is technically bad, right? They were supposedly seven deadly sins, but they could do just as much good as bad. It’s what you do with them that counts.’
Nelson puffed the wet hair off his nose and smiled, happy to be the brother of the best sister in the world.