Darlene rolled her eyes at her brother and sighed, “I
don’t know why he’d need a haircut. Does it really matter?” Then before he
could answer, I saw her expression change. “Actually, that is a pretty good
question. Dad…?”
Holding up my hands I said, “Don’t ask me, I’m just here
for Nana’s cookies and hot chocolate.” I wasn’t about to admit that I’d never
really thought about it myself.
Just then Nathan, who was not three feet away, turned to
my grandmother saying, “You know I could’ve sworn I’d walked in with a bunch of
people, was I just imagining things? Or did I suddenly turn invisible?”
I watched her pat his arm and say, “No, you’re just
getting to that age when everyone thinks you’ve gone deaf or your mind has gone
wandering and you aren’t paying attention. I get that a lot.”
“Not from me!” I called out loudly.
Nathan looked around, “Did you hear something?”
“Aw it’s just this old house creaking, or my joints, one
or the other,” Nana told him.
“Must be the house,” he assured her. “I told your dad
when he was building it to use hickory but as he pointed out it was more
expensive and harder to get here in Connecticut.”
Nana
laughed as she led us down the hallway.
There
was an old barber pole on the wall, next to the door that led downstairs.
My
grandfather had been the town’s barber for over sixty-five years, before he
finally ‘retired’. The shop was still in business but being run by one of my
cousins who specialized in not only classic haircutting, but the more modern
‘faded’ style as well. I myself spent a lot of time in grand-dad’s shop when I
was a boy and people often thought I’d follow in his footsteps. In reality, I
was studying how he interacted with his customers since he always had a way
with them. I learned an awful lot about putting people at ease and drawing them
out from watching him, which has been a great asset to my medical practice.
I
slipped past Nathan as we reached the door to offered Nana my arm which she
accepted, then we all headed downstairs.
“Here
we go through ‘Dr Who’s Tardis’ again,” I heard my son Joe murmuring behind me,
only to be shushed by his sister saying, “Oh, shut up, I like that show.”
“That’s
just because you think the current one is cute,” he shot back.
Glancing
over my shoulder I saw Darlene make a face, “Ew… I’ll take David Tennant over
him any day of the week. I mostly like the companions, especially Amy…”
At
that point Nana chimed in with, “I still prefer Tom Baker myself.”
That
earned several groans from the rest of us, although deep down I had to admit
she had a point. He was a master of comic timing and seriousness when it came
to the role of the Doctor. I would’ve said more but we’d just reached the
bottom of the stairs and my grandfather’s ‘shop’.
Even
though my dad, Nathan, and I helped set the place up for him, I always found
myself transported back to my childhood every time I came down here.
One
wall of the room was dominated by a large mirror, with shelving covered by
numerous barber implements, stood before two chairs that had come from the shop
itself. There was also a small flatscreen television staring down from above
the mirror. In short, there were also other chairs and tables around the room,
but to all intent and purposes, the place was a mini-barber shop. This had been
my grandmother’s idea after a number of former clients kept pestering her
husband for haircuts because he was the only one who knew how they liked their
hair done. Plus, they missed having their regular bull sessions with him.
But
most of all, she knew my grandad missed keeping busy.
My
grandfather was lounging in the older of the two chairs, when we came down. Getting out of one of the chair, where he'd been reading the paper, he stood up. "About time you got here Nathan, I was about to..." he began then spotted me and my family. "Oh good, lord you brought the entire crew with you. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me tonight."
TO BE CONTINUED...
*Author's Note: Sorry for the short entry. I was working on it this past weekend and had to go to get some routine lab work done (which took a couple of hours... groan). Plus family and a bad cold took more out of me. Didn't want to leave you all with nothing, so I figured a short entry was better than nothing, especially when I'm trying to do at least at two entries a month. To be concluded in two weeks... unless the story decides it wants to be longer.
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