by Shelly Crane
“Ok,” Caleb said gruffly. “Come on, you gotta take a shower and wash all that off before we go.”
“Ok.”
I let him tow me upstairs as I self consciously stroked the stringy strands left on my head. Once we reached the upstairs bedroom he pulled my hand away.
“Hey, it’ll be ok. We’ll fix it. Don’t be self conscious around me.”
I glanced up into the hall mirror and grimaced at the mess of my head.
“Oh my-”
“It’s ok.” He turned me so I didn’t look anymore. “Come on. The sooner the shower’s done, the sooner we can go.”
He yanked my shirt off over my head and directed me into the huge stand up stall shower with my bathing suit still on. He turned on the water for me and shut the glass shower door.
“I’ll go get dressed,” he said.
“K.”
I kept pulling handfuls of hair away as I let the water wash over me. I took off my suit and started to wash what was left of my hair. It felt so different. I’d never worn my hair short before, ever. It felt wrong. I hated it. I knew there was no way to make it right again without having to take more off to even it out. I was so furious I started to cry, hot angry tears. It was so stupid crying over hair but it was my hair! I had been attached to it, literally!
I sat down on the floor with my knees up and let the water rinse me as I sniffled and felt utterly ridiculous. After a few minutes, Caleb came in. I didn’t hear him or see him. I just felt him and knew he was here.
“Baby,” he soothed and leaned on the glazed glass door, his silhouette showed him with a hand against the glass. “Don’t cry. It’ll be ok and you’re not stupid.” He’d been reading me and heard my inner rant. I felt even worse. “Alright you, come on. We’ll get it taken care of, right now.”
He pulled open the door and held a big black towel up in his hands. His eyes were closed. I smiled despite myself.
“Cute,” I muttered. “But haven’t you already seen me naked?”
He peeked and saw I was standing. He looked at my face over the top of the towel that he still held out.
“Yep, and that memory is burned into my mind for life. But I’d rather not see you again until we’re ready.” I knew what he meant by ready. “I’m trying to be a gentleman here,” he joked and shook the towel to get my attention focused on it.
“Oh, sorry,” I turned and let him wrap it around me. “So, you don’t want to see me naked?” I asked as I turned back around.
That seemed strange to me.
“Of course I do. Don’t start your girly insecurities with me, Maggie Masters.” He smiled; a real smile. “I just don’t want the temptation. You saw me before, this morning...and that was with your suit still on.”
I blushed, recalling the look on his face.
“I’m sorry it’s so uncomfortable for you.”
“It’s ok. I’ll just contain myself, somehow.”
I laughed under my breath as I went to the big bed and opened my luggage, taking something out. I turned to find him gone and the door shut so I got dressed quickly and crept downstairs. I did not look in the hall mirror. I didn’t want to see what I looked like.
I focused on Bish and saw in his mind that he was shaving so I swiftly made my way down the stairs to Caleb waiting for me at the bottom, always waiting for me.
“Are you sure they can fix it?” I asked as I reached him and he slipped a blue Tennessee Titans baseball cap on my head.
“Who fix what?” Kyle asked as he came from the kitchen and stared at me.
Crapola, look at that; that sucks. She’s gonna be ruined for the rest of the summer.
“Kyle!” Caleb yelled, reading his thoughts as I read them. “Dude, shut up.”
“I’m sorry,” he yelled back and shrugged in innocent. “I didn’t say it out loud, that should count for something.”
“It doesn’t. Keep Bish busy while we’re gone.”
“Where are you going?” Kyle asked as he bit into a green apple and I winced with him as he thought about how sour it tasted.
I could actually feel my own jaws lock with it. Weird.
“The salon is around the corner. My mom uses them when she’s here. They must be good.”
Hope they’re really good, Kyle muttered in his mind as he turned to go back to the den to finish his game of Halo.
“Kyle. If you don’t shut-”
“It’s ok,” I said with a hand on Caleb’s arm to stop him. “Let’s just go.”
He took me to the Jeep, muttering under his breath. We pulled up to the salon and it looked swanky. Much more swanky than anything I’d ever been in and I felt underdressed. Caleb opened my door and I mentally focused on him so as not to be overwhelmed once we entered the salon. He glanced at me as if to say ‘ready?’ I nodded and we made our way into the big glass doors.
“Hi,” Caleb said to the receptionist, who was sporty in wire rimmed black glasses and a pitch black bob hairdo.
Caleb started to spill our situation but she took one look at me and gasped.
“Oh, no, did your brother do that to you? My brother chopped off my ponytail when I was sixteen and I was so devastated. But darned if I didn’t just chop it all back off when I got older anyway! Ha!” She stood and came around the counter. “Pull it off. Let’s take a look see.”
I pulled the hat reluctantly off the side and winced at the onslaught of sympathetic thoughts from many others as well as our eager receptionist.
“Oh, honey, he did a number on you.” She glanced at Caleb and narrowed her eyes. “Is this the one?”
“No. It was...never mind. Can you fix it?”
“Sure we can, honey. Follow me. You need the VIP treatment after what you’ve been through.”
“Um...just the regular treatment will be fine,” I said wondering how much the acronym VIP would jack up the bill.
“Give her the VIP,” Caleb said and scolded me internally.
You have to stop thinking in dollar signs. It doesn’t matter to me.
“Well then,” she started again, without a word from me. “Let’s get you situated. Sugar daddy can hang in the waiting area,” she said, pointing him where to go.
He smiled and waved a one hand salute at me as she pulled me away by looping her arm through mine.
“But he’s not my-”
“Oh, it’s ok, honey. It’s California. Everybody has one and those that don’t wish they did.”
~ Two ~
I wanted to roll my eyes at the receptionist’s too frequent use of the word ‘honey’ when I barely knew her.
“So where are you from, honey? That accent is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Um...thanks?” I was sure there was an insult in there somewhere. “I’m from Tennessee.”
“That’s a long way from home.”
“Yeah.”
Then she was shoving me towards another lady with dramatic eyebrows and completely white hair.
“Now, Moon will take care of you over here, starting with a buff.”
“Moon?” I asked before I could think better of it.
“Yes, Moon and you are?” Moon asked as she stared at my disaster of locks with her mind blasting all kinds of offensive words.
“Maggie.”
“Maggie,” she repeated and grimaced like it was painful. “How quaint. Let’s get you in the chair.”
“Can you fix my hair?”
“I do skin, not hair. Sit,” she ordered.
I sat. She leaned me back all the way flat and began to buff my arms and hands with a sugary smelling gritty substance. It smelled heavenly. Like brown sugar and figs or plums. She buffed and polished with vigor in silence as the oriental style music played over the loudspeaker. She had candles lit in every corner and the lights were dim but it didn’t change the fact that she was scrubbing off the top two layers of my epidermis. It wasn’t hard to make sure I was alert so as not to drift off to sleep.
“You have really great skin
,” she said matter-of-factly as she started on my legs. “Usually I get woman who’ve spent eleven hours a day baking in the sun and feel like leather.”
“Thanks.”
“Just making a statement. All right, you’re done. Let’s rinse you off and then I’ll take you for your manipedi.”
Manipedi. I groaned and sent Caleb a message to his mind. I could see what he saw as he sat in his comfortable chair in the waiting room with two other men watching reruns of ‘Dirty Jobs’.
Ooooh. You are in so much trouble.
He chuckled in my mind as I was carted from one room to the other. They sat me in a high back chair and stuck my feet into scalding hot blue water that fizzed and bubbled. It felt like it was singeing flesh.
Are you not having fun?
If being tortured constitutes as fun, then yes.
He laughed harder.
I somehow doubt that. You need to get out more, Maggie.
I am out. Are you bored out of your mind?
Nope. I love ‘Dirty Jobs’.
Boys.
He laughed again.
You’re so funny. Just have fun, Maggie. Relax. This is supposed to be our stress free bubble. Remember?
But they haven’t even fixed my hair yet.
Maggie, he chastised. I’m ordering you to relax. Enjoy it. It’s all the rage. You are not letting me have any fun at spoiling you.
Does that mean you’ll stop trying?
Nope. I’ll just try harder.
I sighed and decided to play along with a big fake enthusiastic tone.
Fine! I’m having such a fantastic time! Seriously, just wow. Who knew boiling the flesh from my bones was so. Much! Fun!
I heard his laugh from where I was sitting, his real laugh, from the other room. I bet those guys in there thought he was nuts.
That’s the spirit!
I’m not trying to be ungrateful. I really appreciate all this, I do. I’m just not one of those girly girls. I’m sorry.
You are exactly who I want you to be. I love you.
Love you.
A big man with metal rods through his lip and eyebrow with black hair and green spikes finished up my toes and fingers and sent me to have my eyebrows waxed. Once that painful and mentally scarring experience was over I finally was brought to a woman to get my hair fixed. She was tall and slender with big hips accentuated by her spandex lime green pants and gold high pump heels. Her hot pink button blouse matched her earrings and her completely silver hair was short and shorn at an angle to hang from her forehead over on eye. I wasn’t sure if it was Hollywood fashion or not but to me...she just looked insane.
“Come now, dear. Let’s see what you have for me,” she beckoned and sat me in the chair. She turned on a mini spotlight of sorts that shone right on me and frowned. “Did you do this to yourself?”
“No ma’am.”
“I am not your ma’am. You may call me Isla. Now, what do you want; Funky, Goth, Chic, Retro?”
“I just want you to fix it without taking off anymore than you have to. I really liked my hair before and don’t want anything crazy. Just make it look normal.”
I seriously doubted her grasp of normal.
“Normal,” she repeated, “fine.”
She got to snipping and brushing and spraying. I closed my eyes to the array of disastrous movements I knew were taking place. Would Caleb not like it? Would he be ashamed to be seen with me? What would my dad say? And then I figured it really didn’t matter what anyone thought but me and I hated it without even seeing it.
So I sat through all her ministrations silently and still as a church mouse. She blow-dried it and I felt her pulling and tugging. And then...
“Alright, you can look now.” My eyes peeked open and I gasped in pleasant surprise. It looked fantastic! It was under my chin in length and she’d kept my waves loose and hanging around my face and across my forehead. Yes. It was short. But it was cute too. And it grew on me instantly. “You like?”
“Yes. I do. Thank you so much. It looks great,” I said as I stood and ran my fingers through it.
“Pleasure. The receptionist will see you now. Go, see.”
I scrambled as she shooed me away and thanked her again as I left. The receptionist had someone there already so I made my way around the bamboo partition to the little waiting area to Caleb. I saw him at the same time he saw me. He smiled emphatically ecstatic.
“Ah, Maggie,” he said sweetly and got up to meet me. “You look so gorgeous. You didn’t have anything to worry about.”
“Thanks,” I said and tussled the strands of hair by my chin. “It’s really short.”
“Not that short.” He pulled it back for me like it was going in a ponytail and showed me I could still put it up if I wanted to, barely. “See?”
“Yeah,” I said as he released it and ran his fingers through it instead. I shivered and smiled in shy embarrassment. “So, you like it? It’s ok, really?”
“I love it. You look more...grown up.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you like it? Are you happy?”
“Yes. I do and I am.”
He ran his hands down my arms.
“You are really soft and sweet smelling for someone who claimed to have been tortured.”
I laughed and pushed his chest a little playfully.
“It was torture. Next time, you come back with me.”
“Next time?” He leaned forward closely. “Are you saying you’re going to let me spoil you again?”
“We’ll see.”
“Hey, that’s progress as far as I’m concerned,” he said grinning and took my hand to tow me to the receptionist to pay.
I balked when she said my total.
What! Did we just buy a used car I didn’t know about?
He laughed and covered it in a cough as he gave her his credit card.
Spoiling doesn’t come cheap, my love.
Caleb...It’s too much-
Don’t start that again. I thought we were making headway here?
That was before I realized you’d have to sell a kidney to get me a haircut.
Maggie, Maggie. Money is just paper.
To you maybe.
He smirked and signed his receipt and we got in the Jeep and headed to the beach house. Bish and Kyle were in the den, playing video games together.
“You two aren’t supposed to leave without me, you know,” Bish spouted, not taking his eyes from the screen. Kyle screamed in battle rage and Bish yelled back as his avatar was decapitated. “Oh! Come on, man!” He threw the controller to the couch cushions. “Yes? I’m waiting patiently for an excuse,” he said all smart elect like as he stood and turned to glower at us. But his glower soon turned to surprise and then a small smile. “Maggie? What did you do? You look...gorgeous.”
“That’s what I said,” Caleb spouted happily.
“You cut your hair?” Bish said and came to stand in front of me. “Why? I mean, I like it but, why?”
Kyle glanced at me over the couch back and did a double take. I immediately blocked his thoughts.
“I just wanted something new.”
“Well, you got it, really.” He let a few strands run through his fingers. “It looks really good on you, kid.”
“Thanks. Ok. How about some supper now? I’m starving,” I said trying to steer the thought process away from me.
“Well,” Caleb said. “I started supper but it burned when I was...I forgot about it I guess when we were getting ready.”
Crap. Was it because of me?
It’s ok.
“I’ll order a couple pizzas,” Caleb said.
“Better order a few. I’m starved,” Kyle said, coming to stand beside me. He turned to look at me and smiled. “You do look really great.”
“Thanks. I’m just glad they could fix it.”
“Fix it? What do you mean,” Bish asked quirking a curious brow.
“Uh...just that it was so damaged. They did some treatment
s on me.”
“Is that why you smell so good,” Kyle said and circled me. He smelled my hair from behind. “Mmmm.”
“Kyle, stop.”
“What?” he said innocently.
I turned and looked him in his eye. My gaze didn’t waver. I pleaded with him silently and saw him soften.
“Please, Kyle. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
I saw him about to speak but Caleb returned so he sighed and went back to the couch. Bish shook his head at me.
“Ok. Pizza will be here in thirty minutes or it’s free,” Caleb announced.
“What kind did you get?” Kyle asked, back to playing his game.
“Four: one pepperoni, one pineapple ham, two with everything.”
“Did you get one everything with no black or green olives? Because Maggie hates them,” Bish volunteered.
“I can pick them out, Bish. It’s ok,” I assured and gave him a funny look.
“Actually,” Caleb started and threw his arm over my shoulder. “I got one pizza with no olives. I knew you hated them.” He kissed my temple and smirked. “So Bish,” he turned to him and nodded his head toward Kyle, “what do you say we kill each other?”
“With pleasure,” Bish said but his smile was playful as they both made their way to sit by Kyle. Caleb threw himself on a huge brown suede beanbag and Bish sat in the club chair. “Set us up, Kyle.”
“Oh, yeah!” Kyle yelled animated. “I haven’t whipped you in Halo in too long, my friend.”
“In your dreams,” Caleb rebutted and looked to me. “Maggie, you in?”
“I don’t know how to play.”
“Come here.” He scooted back a bit and beckoned me to him. I sat between his legs and he wrapped his arms around me to show me the controller. “You can watch me this time and then we’ll add you next go round. K?”
“K.”
I wasn’t about to complain. I had the best seat in the house. They played for a while and then I heard the doorbell. I whispered to Caleb that I’d get it and he muttered a response but was so into the game, I may as well have not been there. I laughed under my breath and grabbed the money he’d set aside on the table to give the delivery man. I opened the door and saw a guy, about seventeen, maybe eighteen.
“Hi. $27.50.”
