"Released"

Released

The car lurched slowly down the quiet lunchtime street and hesitated at the driveway. The beautifully landscaped “curb appeal” was the envy of the neighborhood, but was sliced open as the car launched itself over the driveway and was quickly drawn back on-side before slamming into the garage door.
The driver, blond-haired, twentyish, and scared out of her wits Sonja, shook her head in disbelief as she rolled down her window and started out of her car door. Before she could shut the door, her live-in boyfriend, Bob, was beside her, “Are you okay? I heard an explosion and was afraid there was a wreck. What happened?” He quizzed.
“I don’t know, Bob, I just fell asleep for a second. I had been drifting off down the street, but fell asleep when I turned into the drive! Oh, look at the mess in the yard; and just look at that garage door!” Sonja protested through her tear-streaked eyes.
“No problem, sweetheart, we can fix those things. Let’s just get you into the house and see what we can make of this!” Bob consoled and reassured her.

Back in the house after Sonja had washed her face and sat down, Bob began, “Well, we know you got plenty of sleep. We didn’t even get through ‘Castle” before we had to go to bed. We ate breakfast together about 8:30 so you weren’t hungry and we didn’t overeat. You took your shower before you went to get your hair done, so what could it be?”
“I don’ know, Bob, I just dropped off out of the blue.”
“Well, did anything different happen at the beauty shop?”
Sonja thought a moment and exclaimed, “Nope, just us old hens sitting around talking about our old roosters”. She reflected a moment and continued, “About the only thing we talked about was how everyone is using the new shampoo, ‘Released’. It is so funny how one product has just taken the market over! It is like the ‘cabbage patch doll’ frenzy all over again!”
“Yeah, but the product is so good. I look forward to my afternoon shower before work. It refreshes me and really seems to relax my mind. I am so glad they started making it available to everyone. I remember when only you old hens could get it in the beauty shops,” Bob added.
Sonja thought again and said, “You know, Joan was telling me that she dropped off to sleep last week and nodded backwards in the hair dryer so long that the thought she had burnt her skin”.
Bob thought a moment and remembered out loud, “Frank told me last week that Louise fell asleep washing the dishes, fell, and almost knocked out her teeth! Wow, what a weird bunch of coincidences, huh”?
“Maybe we should just keep a watch on this kind of occurrences and see if we can find a common denominator”.
“You’re right, sweetheart. Well I’m glad you are okay. I’m going to go take my shower and maybe you can fix us a salad for late lunch.”
“Okay, see you in thirty.”

Over the next week Bob and Sonja questioned friends about similar sleep concerns and found a surprising number of occurrences, but seemingly only to women. There seems to be no single cause for all these occurrences but they continue to survey and list occurrences.
The following Tuesday as Sonja prepared to go to the hairdresser, Bob came over and sweetly whispers, “Why don’t you just stay home and let’s go cuddle before I have to go to work?”
Sonja pushed him away and retorted, “What do you mean? I go every Tuesday at this time. If you wanted to play around, you should have thought of that while you were studying your Sunday School lesson! I have filthy hair, the hair spray is all matted up, and I just have to go!”
Bob backed off and quickly apologized, “I’m sorry. I was sorta kidding. I sure didn’t expect your old hens to mean that much to you!”
“Well, they certainly do! I am sure every one of them would agree about prioritizing their lives!” Sonja ranted as she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

Before she even closed the car door, Sonja was sorry for the way she acted. She sat for a moment and pensively thought, “He was just cutting up—or better yet— loving me mentally and I just acted like a spoiled kid. Why would I do that?” Her mind went into neutral as she started the car and edged out the drive. Bob had already hoed over the front yard destruction, smoothed it out, and planted new grass seed.
She pulled into a parking place at the beauty parlor and turned off the key. She thought how compulsively she had responded to Bob. She raised her head, smiled, got out of the car and went in with a new plan.
“Did you hear the news, Sonja? Edith was killed last night in a head-on collision; it looked like she didn’t even see the car. She must have fallen asleep at the wheel!” Sonja plopped down in the first open seat, looked around at the usual crowd, and smiled contentedly to herself.
When it was her turn, she told Sue the hairdresser, “If you have any of the old Clairol shampoo, let’s use that today. I’m going to try that for a while.” Her scalp cried out for the calming “Released,” but she stood firm to herself.
By the time she got home, her entire head screamed out but she persisted. Bob met her at the door, trying to apologize yet again, but she raised herself up on tippy toes, and whispered, “We need to get to bed, but I want us to talk about something.” She gave him a lingering kiss and suggested, “Let’s get undressed while we talk.”
Bob allowed himself to be drawn into the spider’s web as he stammered, “Oh, this is much better than winning an argument.” As the two quickly undressed and slid between the sheets; Sonja explained about Edith’s wreck and Sonja's decision to give up ’Released’ shampoo. Bob panted, “I think that is a good decision—and I know this one is!”

The next few weeks were both frantic and hectic as Sonja gave up using “Released” shampoo. She was so addicted to the shampoo her head itched all the time; she would shower and shampoo her head 2 or 3 times. After the first week she had a strange rush of adrenaline and could work longer, faster, and more focused—and her withdrawal was easing off.