Allie opened the gift that she received from her grandmother and found herself disappointed. Inside was a green sweater with a Christmas themed pattern stitched onto it. It looked tacky and she absolutely hated.

At the same time though, she loved her grandmother and given the quality of the sweater Allie knew she had handmade the sweater putting a lot of time and effort to show that she cared about Allie.

Allie sat there for a moment and gave her grandmother a polite smile as she figured out what to do next. She didn’t want to where the sweater but she didn’t want to hurt her grandmother’s feelings either.

“Thanks grandma, I love it,” Allie lied.

Her grandmother grinned, happy her gift had been accepted. “Well why don’t you put it on dear.”

“Maybe later, grandma,” Allie stalled. “It’s a bit warm at the moment.”

“Oh nonsense,” her grandmother stated. “Come on, put the sweater on and take one of those ‘selfies’ and upload it onto the internet so your friends can see your lovely sweater.”

Allie gave a nervous smile as she stood up, holding the sweater in her hands. She went to put in on but found that she couldn’t do it. So she placed the sweater back down.

“What’s wrong dear?” Her grandmother asked.

Allie was about to answer when her arms moved on their own and grabbed her head, pulling it off her body, her body then placed her on the couch and picked up the sweater again before giving her grandmother a hug.

“Oh dear…” Allie’s grandmother said more concerned than in shock or fright. “It looks like you didn’t like the sweater after all,” her grandmother observed. “It would’ve been alright for you to say so but now look at you, your mind and body have had come unbalanced, this isn’t good Allie, not good at all.”

Allie looked up at her body and grandmother trying to work out what happened. One minute her head was attached now it was on the couch. The way her grandmother talked about it, it seemed to be because she didn’t like the sweater but appreciated the gift. “What’s going on?” Allie asked in a bit of a panic but surprisingly more calm that she would’ve expected. “What do you mean I’m unbalanced, grandma. What do you know about this.”

Allie’s Grandmother walked over and sat down next to Allie, she picked up her granddaughter's head and placed it on her lap before positioning her so they were looking at each other. “Well there’s an old wives tale where a head and body become separate beings if they have an internal conflict between the mind and heart. In this case, your mind hated the sweater but your heart didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Now don’t worry it’s completely reversible but it requires your mind and heart to resync themselves. The problem is the longer you’re separated the more your may diverge and reunification might become impossible. There’s even a chance your body might not want to take you back.”

This was a lot for Allie to take she looked at her body which seemed to genuinely loved the sweater. That was a cause for concern but even now, Allie actually felt relieved to not have strong emotions about this, she more so cared about the practicality of living as a head and relying on others. “Grandma, I think I’m already feeling the divergence,” Allie said.

“Oh no dear, that’s natural. You see your head will think more analytically and less emotional about situations while your body will feel more emotional and act without thinking. That’s just a normal step in the process and it actually helps find balance as ideally you’ll both learn the necessity of having them in balance. The issue is if neither of you learn that lesson. So for the for the next few days you’ll be stuck like that and this should all sort itself out in a month, one way or the other.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Allie asked.

“Same thing happened to me when I was your age. It was one of the best trials in life I’ve had, so I thought I’d gift you with it,” Allie’s grandmother then stood up and handed her head over to her body. “Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some baking to do.”