18
The Shuttle Village
April gathered her hair at the nape of her neck and secured it with a loose elastic band, then separated it into plaits for braiding. Without the band she never got all the hair into the braid, not in free fall. She braided it all the way to the end, tied it off, and carefully slipped off the band before wrapping the braid around her head and securing it with a few pins. The more time she spent in free fall the more she appreciated Salima’s close-cropped hair, but she knew she could never bear to cut her own. She kept it braided so it was out of everyone’s way, but now that she and Boo had a pod of their own, she could let it down when she wanted, spinning in a cloud of her own glistening black tresses. Not that she did it a lot, especially after Boo got too excite
