Friends Do Things Together
Friends Do Things Together by Jim B.
“Bet ya’ I can,” Cheryl told her friend, Norma, on the other end of the telephone conversation.
“No way,” Norma screamed. “Your parents would have a fit.”
“Well, they would,” Cheryl replied, “if they knew about it.”
Cheryl and Norman had been best friends since meeting in fourth grade. Then, it was an all girls school, but times do change. Just three years ago the school board decided to bring back co-ed in the public school system. They were entering the ninth grade when this happened.
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They had just turned fourteen, a time in their teen-age life when girls started thinking more about boys than school. Their parents had been among the many, including some of the teachers, who complained the school board should “start with the first graders, rather than the whole system.”
But, the board was set on what they wanted. They, the parents and teachers, would have to take the board to court if they wanted it changed. Being the decision was made just three weeks before school it hardly gave them a chance to do anything. A group of parents, and a representative of the teachers, had met with attorneys the next day, to see what could be done to stop the plan from taking effect.
The attorneys told them how hard it would be to stop the boards actions. That the courts were already under demands from the D.A.’s Office to handle the heavy criminal case load. Besides, any papers filed would take a week or more to be properly processed and filed.
Then, the Clerk of Courts would have to assign it to a judge, who would have to decide whether to hear the case or reschedule it to another day, or even another judge. “It would be better to let the plan go into effect,” one of the attorneys told them. “If you get the wrong judge,” another one told them, “you could have him delay the start of school, then where would you be?”
So, school started and the plan took effect, much to many parents’ and teachers’ dislike.
The girls had promised their parents they would put school first and boys last. But, after two years, when they turned thirteen, hormones took over. Both had endless lines of boys following them around. This made Norma’s parents worry more, because she started to show her womanhood in the middle of sixth grade – months after the co-ed plan took effect. Cheryl’s womanhood began showing a few weeks after they started twelfth grade.
“Cheryl, how are they not going to find out?” Norma asked her.
There was a bit of quiet from both of them. At first Norma thought Cheryl had laid the telephone down and walked off. Then, she heard her girlfriend move amongst the papers on her bed.
“Cheryl, you there?” Norma called out.
“Yes,” came Cheryl’s voice. “Just had to move a little. I don’t have to tell them.”
“Don’t have to tell them?” came a quick reply.
“I’ll do it and it will be done,” Cheryl commented.
“What’ll you do went you get home?” Norma asked. “You’ll have to go home and I am sure they’ll see you… and what you did.”
“Besides,” Norma continued, “you’re fourteen remember. I am sure the stylist will question you about your age. And you know they will want to clear it with your parents.”
“Now what?” she finished.
Again there was quiet on the other end. Then, she heard a “Hmmmmm.”
“I can take care of that,” Cheryl answered.
“How?” Norma asked.
“You’ll have to go along with me on this one,” Cheryl questioned.
“How’s that?” her friend asked. “Want me to pretend I am your mother when they call?”
“No way – they’d know from your voice you’re not my mother,” Cheryl replied. “You’ll have to dress like I do, right down to the fingernails.”
Norma didn’t like that. Cheryl had nails that extended almost an inch beyond the tips of her fingers. Norma kept hers just a little past the tips. Besides it meant she would have to have artificial nails put on hers and she knew Cheryl knew she didn’t like them.
But, for some reason she wanted to see if her friend could pull this off, so she agreed.
“What else?” she asked Cheryl. “I got to know how you’re going to do this. I can’t see how both of us having the same length fingernails is going to do it!”
“Remember how we use to play dress-up!” Cheryl asked her friend.
“Yes, what’s that got to do with you doing this?”
“You wear the same sizes I do.”
“Almost,” said Norma. “But what has that got to do with it?”
“Simple. I have everything here,” she continued. “All you have do to is follow me.”
Norma was a little uneasy, but the thought of Cheryl doing something this wild, and possibly getting away with it, brought a little chill to her. A little adventure!
The plan was made. Norma would go to Cheryl’s Friday morning. She would tell her mother they were going to go looking for school clothes. They would get dressed like Cheryl wanted and be off to the shopping center.
Friday morning came. Norma, still a little nervous, called Cheryl to see if she had changed her mind. “No way,” Cheryl told her, “I even told them I thought I might get my hair cut.”
“You what?” Norma asked as if she was choking.
“I told them I might get my hair cut,” she replied.
“I have to hand it to you,” Norma commented, “you have guts. You didn’t tell them how you were going to get it cut did you?”
“Yes,” Cheryl said with a snicker.
“YOU WHAT?” Norma yelled. She then heard Cheryl laughing.
“Got you,” came the laughing reply. “Think I’m stupid?”
“No,” came the reply. “Let me go – be there in about thirty minutes.”
They hung up and went about things. It was almost 9:45am when Norma arrived at Cheryl’s. Her parents had gone for the day. Cheryl had picked the right Friday, the second one of the month. That was when they played golf with her father’s boss and his wife, and they wouldn’t be home until around 6pm. Plus, there was no school that day.
Cheryl rushed her to her room. There she had everything laid out. Skirts and blouses, high-heel shoes just like she said. She even had the kind of make-up Norma wore.
“What’s this for?” Norma asked as she picked up a little bowl with what looked like a sewing machine needle in a liquid. “Don’t worry,” Cheryl told her. “That’s what going to make us look like we’re not teen-agers. Need panty hose!”
Norma shook her head as she put the little bowl down.
“Here,” Cheryl said to Norma. “You can wear this outfit.”
Norma heart bounced alive. It was Cheryl’s light blue outfit with the light blue silk blouse. She had always wanted to just try it on, to see how she looked in it. Not only was she going to get to try it on, but she was going to wear it for most of the day.
As they got dressed Cheryl told Norma how the plan was to go. They were to be two women, in their early twenties, who were going on vacation the next week. And she, Cheryl, had decided she want to get a nice short hair cut. If questioned about their age, they would quickly offer to show the hairstylist their driver’s license. Being quick to offer this would throw her off, they hoped.
It was almost 11am when they finished dressing. Norma started putting her make-up on when Cheryl stopped her. “First this,” she told her, taking the little needle from the bowl.
“What?” she started to ask, when Cheryl brought it to the left side of her nose.
“Here, push it in a little – hard,” she told Norma. Norma looked at her, then she took hold of the needle and did as Cheryl told her. When the needle went through Cheryl handed her a little reddish stone stud. Norma pulled the needle out and put the stone. “Your turn,” Cheryl told her.
Norma’s eyes widened. She had thought about getting her nose pierced, but her mother was against it. “You can do it when you’re older,” she had told her. But now she was faced with her wants!
“What kind of stone do I get?” she asked as Cheryl pushed the needle in her nose.
With the needle sticking out Cheryl held up a dark blue stone. “It’ll go well with the outfit,” she told Norma as she put in her nose.
All dressed up, make-up put on just right – like a woman not a teen-ager, and their hair freshly washed and combed out, they were off to the shopping mall. “Just hope no one we know sees us,” Norma said as they got into Cheryl’s mother’s car. Cheryl smiled and drove off.
They pulled into the parking lot of the shopping mall, but they couldn’t find a parking spot close to where Cheryl said the barber shop was located.
“Barber shop?” Norma questioned. “I thought we were going to the beauty salon on the other side.”
“No way,” Cheryl told her as they started walking to the mall. “Hairstylists can’t cut this kind of haircut.”
After a few minutes Cheryl pointed the barber shop out to Norma. They stopped and looked at each other. “Well, here we go,” Cheryl said to Norma.
“No, here you go,” she replied. “I’m here to watch and see if you get away with it.”
They looked at each other, took each other’s hand. “Good luck,” Norma told Cheryl.
Taking a breath they turned to face the barber shop and walked towards it. “Good,” Cheryl commented. “She’s there.” Norma looked at her. “She?”
As they got closer Norma saw that the only barber in the shop was a woman. She looked to be in her late thirties, or early forties. She had a customer in her chair, but he was getting out the chair as they entered.
“Hi. Be with you in a sec.,” she told them.
The male customer, the barber’s son, kissed her and left.
“All right, who’s up?” she asked as she shook the cape out.
Cheryl handed Norma her purse and walked to the chair. She noticed the barber’s name on the mirror, Bonnie.
“Some nice weather we’ve been having,” Bonnie said as she caped Cheryl. “So, what can I do for you, a trim?”
“No,” Cheryl said as she took a deep breath. “I was thinking of something a little shorter… Well, a lot shorter.”
“All right,” Bonnie answered as she unpinned Cheryl’s hair. It fell to just past her shoulder. “You have something in mind, or you want to take it in steps?”
“Well, I have been thinking about a nice short crew cut,” she told Bonnie. “We’re going on vacation for the next two weeks, and I don’t want to worry about having to mess with my hair.”
“Crew cut,” Bonnie replied, somewhat surprised. “Had a lot of men and boys come in for it this summer, even gave my daughter and her two girls flat-tops.”
“So, you have done crew cuts before?” Cheryl asked. “I mean on… for women!”
She combed Cheryl’s hair from its center part. “Hell yeah! I had one for ten years,” she told them. “Got it done on the last day of barber school. I was the only woman in the class. Back then crew cuts, flat-tops, were popular like they are now,” she continued. “One of the men bet me I wouldn’t get one, walked into a barber shop a few block away and walked out with a nice short one.”
“Well, how do you want to go about it?” Bonnie asked Cheryl. “In steps or right to it?”
“How about to the chin first,” Cheryl replied cheerfully. “Then, right to it.”
Cheryl and Norma’s eyes met. Norma was trying not to pay much attention to what was going to happen. But, she had been somewhat of an adventurous person. Besides, Bonnie had not questioned their age, no one they knew had seen them, so maybe Cheryl would get away with. Until her parents saw her, that is.
Bonnie combed a section of hair and cut it just above the shoulders. The cut hair slid into the cape. Norma saw Cheryl’s eyes as she saw the hair come to a stop in her lap. It was only three or four inches, but with the face Cheryl made you would have thought it was three or four feet of hair. Bonnie combed another section and it slid into her lap, as did the next one.
The next five sections fell to the floor behind the chair. Norma took a deep breath as she watched the scissors cut through the section of hair from the left side of Cheryl’s head. Two more cuts and her hair was shoulder length all around. Cheryl smiled as she saw her face in the walled mirror behind where Norma was sitting.
Norma looked with interest. “Nice,” she told Cheryl. Cheryl turned her head slowly side to side. “Yes,” she answered. “I like the way it swings much more freely than before.”
Bonnie stepped to the right side of the chair. “Changing your mind?”
“No, just I have never had my hair cut this short before,” she commented. “Always thought I looked better with it longer.”
“Do you want me to take it a little shorter first?” Bonnie asked as she waved the clippers where Cheryl could see them. This got both girls’, Cheryl’s and Norma’s, attention. It was time, would she or wouldn’t she? They looked at each other: Cheryl wondering if maybe she shouldn’t, Norma wondering if she would.
“Click.” Bonnie turned the clippers on. She placed her left hand on top of Cheryl’s head and tilted it to the left. She felt Cheryl take a breath. “Go for it?” she asked again.
Cheryl looked again at Norma, her head tilted down but her eyes looked up.
Cheryl said, “Yes.”
Bonnie brushed the hair back over her right ear and placed the humming clippers to her cheek. Slowly she pushed the clippers upward, after about two inches up she flicked her wrist, sending about a foot of hair floating into the air, finally coming to rest in the cape and on the floor. Before she could look back Bonnie was flicking another clippered section. She moved the clippers behind Cheryl’s right ear. Cheryl took a deep breath as her body rose in the chair.
Her head was tilted forward and down as Bonnie began slowly moving the clippers up her neck and head. When she reached the occipital bone, instead of flicking her wrist, she pushed the clippers over the arch a little. She did this four more times, then began clipping the left side.
“All right?” Bonnie asked as she looked in the mirror at Cheryl. Her eyes were wide open, her breathing was a little loud and deeper. “Now we get rid of this,” Bonnie whispered as she pushed the clippers from the back to the front of her head, sending a pile of dark brown hair into her lap. One more push and she walked around to the right side and repeated the clipping twice more.
“There you go,” Bonnie said. “Now we have it at a good working length.”
She took the hair duster from the shelf and dusted across her face. She flicked it over and around Cheryl’s new half inch buzzing. Putting the duster in the pocket of her skirt, she asked, “How short do you want the crew cut to be?”
Cheryl looked at Norma – their eyes had question marks. “How short?” Cheryl heard Bonnie ask again. She tapped Cheryl on the shoulder. “How short do you want to go?”
Cheryl looked at herself in the mirror. She moved her head from side to side. Her right hand came from under the cape and moved over the cut.
She did not know. She thought Bonnie knew.
“How short do you want to go?” Bonnie asked again. “I can cut it soft, just a little shorter. Or, I can cut it shorter real short.”
Cheryl looked at herself again in the mirror. Her eyes caught the look on Norma’s face.
“Well, short enough that I won’t have to worry about it for the next two weeks,” she finally told Bonnie.
Bonnie turned her face towards her, turning her face side to side. With her left hand she pushed the hair back a little. “Hmmmmm,” came softly from her. “I think you’ll wear it real nice.”
Cheryl looked at her. She smiled and told her, “Hope so.”
Bonnie walked back to the shelf and picking up the clippers she changed the head. “Click!” she turned it on and applied some oil. She let it run a few seconds, then turned it off and wiped the head.
She put her left hand on top of Cheryl’s head and tilted it to the left. She brought the clippers up to her cheek and stopped. “Look,” she began, “this is going to be really short when I get finished. You still want it that short?” Cheryl, not looking at Norma this time, looked at Bonnie and nodded her head.
With that, she pushed the clippers up cutting what hair Cheryl had down to a quarter of an inch. This time she did not stop at the arch, instead she pushed it over almost to the center of her head. Quickly she repeated the clipping, flicking her wrist to send quarter-inch hairs into the air to float around and fall all around them. With each clipping Cheryl’s body rose then slowly lowered to met the clippers.
Bonnie worked the clippers around her head quickly. Cheryl had no sooner felt her head being tilted downward than it was being tilted to the right. Four, five passes and Bonnie was turning off the clippers. Again she took the hair duster and dusted all over Cheryl’s head, sending little clippings in the air. Cheryl looked at herself in the mirror, again her eyes caught Norma’s expression.
She could see her friend had a look of disbelief. She too was breathing a little deeper.
Cheryl took her hands from under the cape and brushed them over her head.
“Hooooo,” she let out.
Bonnie turned quickly. “Something wrong? I told you it would be really short.”
“No,” Cheryl replied with a softness to her voice. “I didn’t think it would feel like this. I like it.” She began rubbing her head in circles, “Come, Norma, you have to feel how this feels.”
Norma looked stunned. Why would she want her to feel it? She hesitated, then she took a deep breath and walked to the chair. They looked at each other, her hand slowly moved upward. Bonnie noticed their looks, they were of disbelief. Norma started to lower her hand, but quickly Cheryl grabbed it and moved it up to her head.
She slowly moved her hand in circles over her head. Slowly Norma began moving her hand herself. Her eyes widened with a pleasure she had not felt before. She had felt the heads of the football players who had to get crewcuts their first year, but theirs had never felt like this.
“Cool,” was the only thing she could say. “Cool, very cool.”
Bonnie gave a little cough. “Not finished yet.”
Norma smiled and removed her hand. Cheryl put her hands back under the cape. Norma slowly walked backwards, as if she did not want to miss anything else that followed.
Bonnie clicked the clippers on again. With a smile Cheryl challenged Norma. “Thinking about it?”
Norma looked up straight at her as Bonnie began pushing the clippers up her head. Her eyebrows rose, a smile came to her face as she sat down.
Bonnie had put a 00000 head on the clippers, this was clipping Cheryl’s hair shorter. It would almost look like the side of her head was shaved, were it not for her dark brown hair color. Norma watched with interest this time, not looking at the magazine as she had pretended to before. A dryness came to her throat as her eyes searched the side of Cheryl’s head for hair.
She began wonder why she asked her that question, “Thinking about it?”
Cheryl knew she was only there to see if she could get away with it, as she was doing. She tried to move to see, to watch, as Bonnie began clipping the back of Cheryl’s neck and head. Her interest changed, but how much?
Cheryl’s eyes were closed, closed by a strange feeling within her body, her mind.
Bonnie slowed the clipping when she noticed this. She had noticed it with her daughter. She remembered it was the same with her when she got a crew cut, years ago. It was a strange feeling, one your body and mind had never come across before. You could not tell what it was like, if you were asked to describe it. It just felt “good”.
When she was finished, Bonnie looked her handiwork over. Turning Cheryl’s head side to side, brushing her hand over and over her hair to make sure it was cut just right. Standing behind the chair she looked over the top of Cheryl’s head.
She turned to the shelf and searched around. Finding what she wanted she placed the attachment over the 00000 head. Quickly she brought the clippers over the top of her head, just as quickly she combed the clippers backwards cutting the top hair a little shorter. The sides and back were clipped so short the top began to stand out. Using the attachment brought the top hair down a little more, making the cut just like she wanted it to be.
Bonnie undid the cape and started to remove it. Her thoughts went back to when she got her crew cut. She looked up in the mirror at Cheryl, who was wide eyed and smiling. She started to ask, but decided not to, but then she did not want her customer to leave with a bad haircut, did she?
She let the cape slide down into Cheryl’s lap, covering the hair that was piled in it. Again she started to ask, again she decided not to.
She grabbed a towel from the shelf and started tucking it in around Cheryl’s collar. Norma looked up wondering what she was going to do next.
It was quiet in the shop. Bonnie was standing by the shelf, wondering if she should or shouldn’t. Again she tried to ask Cheryl, again she did not.
Her left hand came up under the dispenser as the fingers of her right hand pushed the button down. The soft winding sound filled the shop, as warm, soft shaving cream floated into her left hand. She looked in the mirror, neither Cheryl or Norma was searching for the sound.
She turned, she looked at Cheryl’s neck, her head. Her hair was clipped so short it almost looked like there was none. Again she tried to ask Cheryl, again she didn’t.
Standing on the right side, with her left hand out of Cheryl’s view but not Norma’s, she again tried to ask, again she didn’t. She stood there looking at her handiwork. She was pleased with it, but it needed the final touch.
Slowly she picked up some shaving cream with her right fingers. Slowly she started spreading the cream along the hairline. As she was spreading it over Cheryl’s right ear, Cheryl looked up in the mirror. She took a deep breath, deeper than before. Bonnie saw her take a hard swallow, a dry swallow, as she spread the cream down behind her ear then across the bottom of her hairline.
“My oldest grand-daughter liked this part,” she began to tell them. “She liked it some much that I playfully spread it over the sides and back of her head.”
Bonnie noticed how Norma was beginning to sit, to sit on the edge of the chair. She noticed Cheryl had closed her eyes partly. She tried again to ask, but did not.
Instead she began spreading the shaving cream up the side of Cheryl’s head. First on the right side, the back, finally the left side. The only place that did not have shaving cream was on top of her head. Bonnie’s heart began beating fast, her breathing quickened. She looked at her left hand, there was no more shaving lather in it.
She turned and started to wash her hands. Her eyes quickly went to the dispenser. Its sound was so soft, neither of them would know. She looked up in the mirror to see Norma’s eyes wondering. Cheryl’s were still closed. It would be easy – they would not know until she had already started. She could start where it would be too late but to finish it.
“That feels nice and warm.” Cheryl’s soft voice broke the silence.
“Yes, yes it does,” Bonnie replied as she began to sweat a little. She picked up her straight razor and flipped it open. “I’m going to trim the hairline.”
She stood next to the chair, picked up the leather strap and began stropping the razor. She watched Cheryl’s eyes, to see if they were open.
“You did say you wanted it short didn’t you?” she asked Cheryl again, as she brought the sharpened razor to the hairline.
Without opening her eyes Cheryl nodded her head.
Bonnie took a deep breath. Slowly she raised her right hand higher. She tilted Cheryl’s head with a touch of her left hand. She took another deep breath. She noticed Norma watching, her eyes wider and sitting almost off the chair. She smiled at her.
Slowly she placed the sharp edge of the razor at the arch of her head, slowly she shaved downward. Cheryl took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
Bonnie pulled the blade from her head as it reached the hairline, which she was to have done. She wiped the cream and stubble in the left hand. Quickly she returned the blade to where the cream was, again she moved the blade downward, shaving cream and hair from the side of Cheryl’s head. Again she looked at Norma, who was almost off the chair by now. She said nothing, just watched as Bonnie began to shave another section.
Cheryl began to feel coolness, coolness like she remembered she felt when her mother showed her how to shave her legs. But, it was not on her legs, it was on the side of her head.
Her eyes opened, opened with dismay.
By this time Bonnie was tilting her head downward and shaving the back of her head. The coolness spread, spread with each shaving Bonnie did. Her mind could not, did not, understand what Bonnie was doing. Why she was doing this?
Cheryl remembered her telling her she did this, spreading shaving cream over the sides and back of the grand-daughter’s head. But, did she remove it like she was doing to her?
Still she did not say a word to Bonnie, as she watched her make the last shaving. She looked at herself, her hair short, really short. Shorter than she wanted… but she wanted it.
Bonnie dampened another towel with warm water, and began wiping the excess shaving cream from her head. Cheryl turned her head to face Bonnie and they smiled. Both took a deep breath.
Cheryl turned as Norma walked up to the chair. Without asking she softly brushed her fingertips over the left side of Cheryl’s head. Their eyes met they smiled at each other. “Cool,” Norma said. Bonnie put some skin lotion in her hands and began spreading it over Cheryl’s shaven sides and back. It felt good to her – it didn’t feel this good when her mother spread skin cream over her legs the first time.
Taking the hair duster Bonnie tapped some sweet powder on it. Gently she dusted Cheryl’s head; face, sides and back of her head, and the top. As she pulled the cape from across her, she lowered the chair.
Cheryl stood up looking at herself in the large wall mirror. She looked down at the floor around the chair. All the hair that had been on her head went she came in was not there. She looked at herself again. She saw her hair being cut short, now it was shaved on the sides and in the back. She was looking at herself but yet it was another girl. A woman maybe, but not the one who walked in the shop minutes ago.
She stepped from the chair and walked to where Norma was sitting. Norma stood up and handed her her purse. She looked in the mirror brushing her finger up the back of her head, as Norma was stroking her fingers over the right side of her head. They looked at each other in the mirror and smiled. “Told you I could do it,” Cheryl whispered.
Cheryl looked down at her skirt, to dust away some clippings that had clung to it. She heard a bumping sound. She looked around, then into the mirror. She turned slowly and sat down.
Norma was now being caped by Bonnie. Cheryl had not expected this, nor did she think Norma had.
With cape in place, Bonnie asked, “How do you want it cut?”
Norma smiled at her, then at Cheryl. Without another word Bonnie flipped the clippers on.
She still had the 00000 head on it. Norma’s haircut, her crew cut, would be quicker. Not in steps.
Cheryl watched as Norma did, only Cheryl knew what her girlfriend was going to feel.
Bonnie slowly moved the clippers up the sides of Norma’s head. Clipping her hair to the same length she had worked in steps to get Cheryl’s.
Cheryl sat watching Norma’s red hair slide away from her head. She could tell from her friend’s expression she was enjoying her haircut as she had. Bonnie worked slowly as she had doing Cheryl’s haircut.
Norma’s head was tilted forward as Bonnie moved the clippers up the back of her neck and head. She took a deep breath as Bonnie pulled the clippers from her head. Her body rose, like Cheryl’s, as the clippers began another movement upward. Cheryl watched, wondering if Norma was enjoying this pleasure, as Bonnie began clipping hair from the left side of her head.
One, two, four, the sides and back done. Norma watched as Bonnie placed the clippers, with the attachment, at the back of her head, and slowly pushed it forward. Before it moved a growing pile of red hair, which fell in one pile to her lap. A second pile moved forward and flashed before her eyes. Two more on the right side and her hair was the same length as Cheryl’s.
Quickly Bonnie undid the cape, letting it slide over Norma’s arms and those of the chair. She tucked the large white towel in her collar, spreading it out over her shoulders.
She had no second thoughts, no wondering if she should or should not. Her fingers, her hand, worked much quicker this time. There was no question, no asking, Norma was to be shaved like Cheryl. With her right hand filled with warm shaving lather she stood on the right side of the chair, for Norma to see.
Instead of spreading a little along the hairline, she started at the arch and spread the cream. First along the arch, then downward to the hairline. Up her neck and back of her head again to the arch. Finishing the same way she started, only on the left side.
Her right hand flicked the straight razor open, as her left hand grabbed the leather strap. Quick movements, up and down, were made to sharpen the blade again. She saw Norma watching her skilled hands.
Instead of starting on the right side, like she had with Cheryl, Bonnie chose to start in the back. In the back where she had spread some of the shaving cream on the top of Norma’s head.
She tilted Norma’s head back a little, neither girl knew why. Taking a breath, hoping neither would ask, she began shaving the small back part of her head. Down following the arch, down the back of her head and neck. Quickly she wiped the blade clean. Quickly she moved the blade back to where she started the first one. Norma’s head tilted back to meet the blade.
Did she know Bonnie was shaving more on top of her head than she had Cheryl’s?
Quickly Bonnie continued shaving, back and over the arch. Down the back of her head to the hairline. The blade was wiped clean and moved for its next victims of hair.
With the back shaved smooth she began shaving the left side of Norma’s head. Norma’s head moved with ease, much more than Cheryl’s. She was more relaxed, more wanting. Bonnie began to wonder, should she spread some cream on the top? Just a little, just to see what her “pleasing customer” would do, would say?
As she shaved the last two strips away, her eyes looked at the lather in the towel. It would be easy. She could dip her finger tips in the lather and gently spread it over the top of her head, as if she was moving her hand over it to see if the cut was right.
“Well,” came words that brought her thoughts back. “I didn’t think you would follow me this far!”
Norma’s eyes flickered as they began to open. She looked at Cheryl standing to her left, her right hand moving up to her head. She smiled. “Neither did I.”
Bonnie wiped Norma’s shaven sides and back, and applied the lotion. She tapped some powder on the duster, and dusted Norma’s head and face as she pulled the cape from across her and the chair. When the chair was lowered she stepped out and Bonnie looked her in the eyes.
Cheryl handed Bonnie a nice new fifty dollar bill, “Keep the change,” she told Bonnie.
They picked up their purses and walked to the door. “If you like the cut in two weeks just come back,” Bonnie told them. They turned and looked at her, nodding their heads as if they were twins. Cheryl said, “Thank you, we will.”
As they opened the door, Bonnie said, smiling, “Tell your moms Bonnie Ann said ‘hi.’ And, I hope they will come in for a haircut one day.”
The girls stopped dead. They looked at each other, then Bonnie. She stood looking at them holding a picture of her and two other women. “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” she continued. “There were two other women in my barber class. And we walked out the barber shop with the same haircut, short crew cut, but not as short as yours.”
Bonnie waved, as if she was pushing them out the shop. They walked away in a daze, wondering for the first time if they had been had.
The end