‘Darling! Come through! I hope Bertie’s not boring you to death. Is this the lovely Josie? Come!’ He swivels on one foot and we follow him as he strides across a vast kitchen to a door at the other end of the room. The kitchen has a space age feel, all glossy white cupboards and stainless steel. Dolph flings his arm up theatrically like a ballet dancer as he calls back over his shoulder. ‘We’ll have tea in exactly an hour, Bertie.’ He doesn’t even turn around.
I have to nearly run to keep up with his giant strides and follow him and Louise into a square room. It’s a mini hair salon, one sink to wash hair with one chair facing a wall mirror. Completely different from the kitchen, no state-of-the-art stainless steel here. Blood-red painted walls and brightly coloured throws and cushions are piled on an old fashioned over stuffed sofa wedged into one corner. A huge pile of magazines rest on a small table next to the sofa and a radio is playing the same channel that Dad listens to. You know, the one for old people. A very large tabby cat is curled up on one half of the sofa.
‘Right, darlings. Louise, I’ll do you first. Josie, chuck the cat on the floor and have a pew.’ I try to move the cat but it won’t budge so I sort of squash up next to it. I think it’s asleep. Or dead.
‘So, Louise, what’s it to be?’
He pulls Louise’s hair up by the ends, and fluffs the top up a bit then lets it drop.
‘Just the usual, Dolph, not too much off.’
‘You sure? Can’t tempt you with something different?’
Louise shakes her head. I pick up a magazine and flick through it while Dolph starts snipping away at Louise’s hair. He talks constantly and I listen in and discover that Bertie is his partner and that they have three cats, Bertie is a schoolteacher, just as I thought. Dolph would love to have a dog just like Sprocket but Bertie’s not sure because he doesn’t think the cats will like it.
It’s nice and warm in this little room and when the drone of the hairdryer starts, I find my eyelids growing heavy. I could easily drift off to sleep; the result of waking up at 3:30 this morning.
Dolph has just finished Louise’s hair when Bertie brings a tray of tea in. We sit and drink it out of rose patterned cups and saucers and eat biscuits which Dolph tells me are garibaldi, his favourite.
‘Your hair looks lovely, Louise.’ It does too.
‘Ta. Dolph’s the only one who can manage to make my hair halfway decent which is why I come out here to the sticks.’
Dolph looks mock shocked. ‘Halfway decent? I’m insulted! I don’t work my magic on just anyone, you know.’ He arches an eyebrow and winks at me.
‘Now…’ He drains his cup and puts it down. ‘Time to swap seats. Over here sweets and let’s have a look at you.’
I take Louise’s seat and she shoves the cat off the sofa and settles herself down. It was alive then.
Dolph pulls the elastic band out and ruffles his hand through my hair then pulls it around my face so it touches my shoulders.
‘So what do you want doing, darling?’ He tugs my hair down at the back.
‘Just a trim, I say. ‘I usually just put it up in a ponytail.’
He purses his lips and blows out through his nose like a horse.
‘Hmm. Is this your natural colour? It’s not coloured is it?’
‘No.’
‘Thought not. It’s in lovely condition, natural highlights, sort of strawberry blonde.’ He stands back and studies me. He frowns, then studies me some more and I start to feel a bit uncomfortable.
‘You have a look of a blonde Audrey Hepburn about you.’
‘Who?’
He tuts. ‘Sacrilege. Can you hear this Louise? She’s never heard of Audrey Hepburn.’
Louise laughs, ‘Not surprised Dolph, she was before my time and yours, never mind Josies.’
‘So who was she?’ I ask.
‘Only one of the most beautiful women in the world.’
I watch in the mirror as he pulls my hair up and back, then lets it drop and purses his lips again and frowns.
‘Okay. I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to trim your hair. Not possible.’
He stands behind me and I watch in the mirror as he folds his arms.
‘Oh.’ I don’t know what to say. Are his scissors broken or something? OMG, I haven’t got nits, have I? I know there was a rumour going around college that one of the Taylor twins had them. I feel my face start to burn.
‘No. I can cut it for you, but not trim it.’
Thank God, not nits. ‘What does that mean?’ I say and I can see Louise in the mirror watching us carefully from the armchair.
‘Are you feeling brave? And adventurous? Because if you are, I will cut your hair and you will look fabulous, you will see all of the lovely natural highlights. But I will not trim it so you can scuff it up in a ponytail. So…the question is; are you brave enough?’
I’m not brave. Or adventurous. It’s taken all of my courage to take my Parka off and I didn’t even want my hair trimmed, if I’m being honest.
‘Okay,’ I say, ‘Do whatever you like to it.’
✽✽✽
We’re in Louise’s car on the way home and it’s very quiet.
I have no hair left. Dolph snipped and cut, snipped and cut and now my hair is so short I look like a boy.
So much for being brave. I will be wearing my Parka with the hood up until it grows again. So probably for the next two years.
‘You okay? Josie?’ Louise looks at me with concern.
I nod, not trusting myself to speak in case I burst into tears.
‘Don’t you like your hair?’
I shake my head. My ponytail used to swish when I did that.
‘It looks lovely, Josie. Amazing. It’s just a shock when you first see it, you’ll be used to it by tomorrow. Even the colour looks different. You should put your hood down, show it off.’
At least I didn’t have to pay, Dolph wouldn’t let me, said he’d enjoyed creating a new me and wouldn’t dream of charging me, said he enjoyed doing it.
More like it’s so awful he didn’t feel he could make me pay for it.
We pull up outside my house.
‘Thanks for the lift, and for taking me.’ I try to sound like I mean it because it was nice of Louise but how I wish I hadn’t gone and I still had some hair left.
‘My pleasure, hun. See you next Saturday.’
I get out of the car and stand and wave as the car disappears down the street.
I quietly let myself into the house to see Dad in the kitchen getting our tea ready. He’s doing his usual thing of chopping onions with a pair of swimming goggles on so they don’t make him cry.
‘Hello sweetheart, did you have a nice time? I’m doing a chilli.’ He calls over his shoulder. He sounds like he’s got a peg on his nose. Skipper trots over to me and I bend down and rub his ears then pick him up and bury my face in his fur. His wagging tail thumps on my arm as I hold him.
‘Fine.’ I put Skipper down and straighten up and undo my coat and take it off. Might as well get it over with.
I stand there and wait.
After forever Dad finally turns around and looks at me. He opens his mouth to speak and then just stares at me; his mouth hanging open. He slowly takes his goggles off and stares some more.
‘Oh my God.’ He says.
See, told you it was bad.
✽✽✽
I was looking forward to tonight’s rehearsal but now I just need to get through it and get home. I rummaged around in Dad’s wardrobe and finally found a black beanie hat which I’m wearing as well as keeping the hood up. I’ve pulled the front of the hat down to just above my eyebrows.
After Dad got over the shock, he tried to say it was lovely but he’s not fooling me, the look of horror on his face said it all. In the safety of the bathroom I tried to do something with it but it’s so short I could do nothing . It was hardly worth trying to comb it, it’s so short. It’ll take forever to grow and all of my good intentions about not weari
ng my Parka all the time have gone. I’ll have to wear it in the summer as well or maybe get a thinner one with a hood or else I might melt.
I’m absolutely dreading going to college on Monday; the Clackers will keep on and on about it and once they see how it upsets me, they won’t let it go. I feel sick when I imagine Shana’s reaction to my hair.
When I arrive for the rehearsal, I can tell Biro isn’t fooled one bit by the beanie hat. I’m the last to arrive because I’ve mucked around in the bathroom for so long trying to make it look less short.
‘What’s with the hat?’ Biro looks at me suspiciously.
‘Got earache.’
‘Should you be here listening to us? With earache?’
‘Can’t miss it, can I?’ I say while sitting down out of his eyeline. ‘Can’t have a full-on rehearsal without the manager.’
Biro just shrugs.
Danny gives me a hesitant smile but doesn’t say anything about the hat and Mogs, well, Mogs wouldn’t notice if a bomb dropped on him as long as it didn’t damage his guitar.
I sit and watch as they run through their set, they’re playing so well together and it’s amazing how much they’ve improved. Danny looks so convincing pretending to play his guitar. It’s getting warm in here and my head’s starting to itch so I stick one finger inside the hat and have a good scratch.
‘Bit hot?’ I nearly jump out of my skin, Biro is standing in front of me.
‘No. I’m fine.’
He slides down the wall and sits down next to me.
‘Mate, I’m used to your weirdness and everything but take the hat off.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I’ve had my hair cut and I look like a boy.’
‘Take it off.’
‘No.’
‘At least put your hood down.’
I reluctantly pull the hood down. At least it’s not so hot. It suddenly feels even cooler when Biro whips the hat off my head and jumps up, holding the hat out of my reach.
‘Biro!’ I scream at him. ‘Give me it back!’
‘Well,’ says Biro thoughtfully, staring at me.
Danny and Mogs look at Biro to see what the fuss is about and then follow Biro’s eyes to me.
‘I will never forgive you for this Biro, you’re supposed to be my friend.’ I can feel myself starting to blush.
‘You had your hair cut or something Josie?’ Mogs stares at me, blinking through his curtains of hair. ‘Something different about you but I can’t put my finger on it.’
‘She’s had it all chopped off, dude. She looks like a little pixie.’ Biro laughs. ‘But it suits you, sort of cute.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ says Mogs looking at me intently. ‘I can see it now.’
Danny steps in front of Biro and Mogs and stares down at me.
I wait silently, bring it on, get it all over with.
‘I think she looks beautiful,’ he says.
Chapter 10
Robbie
I thought I’d seen a ghost.
I always wear swimming goggles for chopping onions because they make my eyes run something terrible. I don’t actually wear them for swimming – I think they look naff to be honest. Anyway, I was feeling a lot better than I had for a long time; not exactly happy, but sort of on the way to being happy. Josie seems to have turned a corner and come out of herself a bit and I suppose I was feeling a little bit optimistic about things getting better, getting back to something like normal. A new normal.
I heard the front door open so I knew it was Josie and I called out a hello to her but when I turned round and saw her; my God, for a moment I thought it was Nessa, what with the goggles being a bit misty. For a split second I thought she’d come back to me.
Yes, I know. Bloody stupid.
Of course as soon as I took the goggles off, I could see that it was Josie, and of course I knew it wasn’t Nessa really, it couldn’t possibly be Nessa. The sensible part of me knew that it wasn’t her but just for a moment she looked so like my Nessa. And in that split second, I felt everything; elation that she’d come back and horror that she was never coming back.
Josie’s little heart shaped face with those enormous blue eyes and that haircut - Nessa had really short hair when we first met and I used to make her laugh when I called her my little pixie.
Josie wouldn’t believe me when I said her hair looked lovely. She thought I was looking at her in horror and I didn’t want to tell her the real reason because that would have upset her even more so all in all I made a right mess of everything. Now she thinks she looks awful and that everyone’s going to laugh at her and make fun of her. And that little bit of confidence that she’s worked so hard to get in the last few weeks has gone and it’s my fault.
At least she went to the rehearsal; that’s the thing with our Josie, she takes her responsibilities seriously. If she wasn’t band manager there’s no way she’d have gone. When I dropped her off for the band rehearsal, she was wearing one of my old beanie hats and that bloody Parka. I could kick myself, I really could. I’m such an idiot. I said to her, you can’t wear that hat forever you know; your hair will take months to grow.
And she just gave me that look , and I thought; she will, she’ll be wearing that hat for the next six months.
One step forward and two steps back.
Chapter 11
Josie
I could hear them at the back of the room, sniggering and whispering. I swear I could even smell Shana’s fruity bubble gum although I knew it wasn’t really possible.
I couldn’t concentrate on anything this morning because I knew that Shana and Stacey were sitting behind me at the back of the class laughing at my hair. As soon as the tutorial ended, I hurried out of the classroom and made my way straight to the canteen.
I’m sitting with Biro at our usual table but I know that it’s only a brief respite; I’ve no doubt that Shana and Stacey will make it their mission to come and find me.
I intended wearing the beanie hat to college but I think that would have been more noticeable than the hair and I can hardly wear it for the next six months, can I? I’d look pretty ridiculous wearing a hat in the summer. Also, it itched like mad. So. No hat, no hood, let them all have a good look and get the laughing and looks over with.
And I’ve definitely had some looks, even some gob dropping double takes, and when I look around, I can see why. All the other girls have either long hair or swishy bob type hairstyles, not short back and earholes, not boy cuts, like me.
I suppose I have to thank Biro, really. If he hadn’t whipped my hat off on Saturday, I don’t think I would have been brave enough to leave the house hatless and front it out. After Danny’s comment at the rehearsal we were all speechless. Danny surprised me even more, his face was beetroot but he didn’t try to take back what he’d said; just shrugged and said that it was his opinion, and left it at that. It was a bit awkward for a little while but once they started playing again things soon got back to normal. But I keep remembering what he said and the way he said it. No one has ever said I was beautiful (apart from Mum and Dad and obviously they don’t count). More to the point no boy has ever said that about me or paid me a compliment. I’ve decided that I’m not going to obsess over it and ruin things like I usually do; I’m just going to enjoy it.
‘Mind if we join you?’ The Clackers have arrived; Shana, Stacey and Ellie hover at the end of the table holding their trays.
Biro ignores them and carries on eating so I attempt a careless shrug and give a weak smile.
Shana slides into the seat next to me and Stacey sits next to Biro. Ellie dumps her tray onto the table with a bang and trudges off to get a chair.
‘You look different.’ Shana puts her head on one side and stares at me with a puzzled look. ‘Have you had your hair cut Josie?’ She raises one of her expertly pencilled-in eyebrows.
Bitch.
‘No.’ I deadpan. Don’t know where that came from, didn’t mean to say tha
t at all.
Shana frowns although I hear a quickly stifled snigger from Ellie as she reappears with a chair.
Shana stabs a lettuce leaf with her fork and twirls it around and inspects it.
‘It’s a bit drastic isn’t it? Bit short. Like a boy. I bet you can’t wait for it to grow.’
Stacey gives an insipid giggle which spurs Shana on.
‘I mean, you wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a boy, would you?’ She takes a delicate bite from the lettuce leaf with her perfect teeth.
‘Actually,’ I say, ‘I love it.’
Shana looks at me in shock.
‘I think it looks great, Josie,’ Ellie chips in. ‘It really suits you.’
I can’t help smiling. I feel ridiculously pleased that Ellie’s stuck up for me.
Shana gives Ellie a look of pure venom.
‘Yea, looks sort of cool,’ says Stacey.
‘Bit boyish though,’ she adds hurriedly when she sees Shana glaring at her.
And I’m thinking; I’ve done it, I’ve done the first day with my short hair and the worst is over. I feel my stomach untie from the knots it’s tangled itself in and realise that I might actually be able to eat something.
‘Are you eating all of that Ellie?’ Shana points at Ellie’s plate of shepherd’s pie. ‘Only it’s really fattening.’
‘Er, probably.’ Ellie gives Shana a puzzled look.
‘Yeah, thought so.’ Shana bursts out laughing and looks meaningfully at Stacey who joins in the laughter.
Ellie blushes bright red. I knew Shana would make her pay for taking my side.
‘Well if you ask me,’ Biro’s booming voice cuts across Shana and Stacey’s giggling. ‘You could do with a bit of shepherd’s pie yourself instead of that rabbit food.’
So Talk to Me Page 8
