Doris, taking one step at a time, slowly walked down the stairs in her four inch high heels. This was only the fourth time she has worn them, since her mom had purchased them with her new clothes for her birthday. Her brother, David — fifteen, hopped steps passing her, saying "Can’t you go any faster"!

Two weeks earlier Doris had just finished eight grade, next year she would be a Freshman in high school. The same one her brother attended, which she dread. And, three weeks before that she had turned thirteen.

For a special birthday gift her mom, of course dad too — but he did not know it, took her shopping to buy her a few new outfits, "More lady like" as her mom put it. And, a few pairs of four inch high heels shoes were included, then their were the pair of calf high boots for the winter — also with a four inch high heel.

Besides the day she tried them on, she had walked around her room in them two other times.

Her mom had purchased a number of blouses and matching skits, as well as a few dresses. The dresses and skirts had one thing in common ….. the length reach the top of her knees. Not any longer, nor any shorter. Of course, there were the other things a woman needed that was also purchased, such as panty holes and a garter belt and stocking. As for her under garments, the only difference was the bra size ….. some how she had developed a little more than her mom, and she, expected over the last year. Around February her body’s shape begin having curves and breast developed quickly since then.

As he passed her, he turned his head towards her as she smiled and gave him the finger.

Reaching the bottom he stopped and looked up at her. Step by step, holding the rail, Doris walked downward. She looked at her brother, giving him the finger again, "Remember how it was when you broke you ankle"!

He smiled, remember how she help him as he tried to hop step to step on one leg.

He laughed, shook his head, and went his way.

A few minutes later Doris walked, still balancing herself, into the kitchen. Her mother looked up from the table, "You will get use to walking in them, the more you do it".

Taking her seat Doris just shook her head, then drank her glass of orange juice.

"So, what is this big surprise", Doris asked her mom as she poured milk into her cereal, "you have planned for me"?

Her mom looked at her, taking a sip of coffee, "It is just something the Patterson women have done for the last fifty years".

"And, "yes" your dad know of it, too".

"Have to go to practice", David said as she stood up from the table. "Guess I’ll have to fix my own lunch when I come home"!

Nothing was said as he rushed out the back door. Her mom walked to the back door and watched as he got on his bicycle and road off to the park for baseball practice. She turned and walked back to the table.

"Well, my dear, it is just the two of us", she begin telling Doris as she sat down, "today. Your dad is off for a complete day of golf with who knows. So, since you are thirteen I thought I would introduce to an adventure we Patterson women have enjoyed with our moms for almost fifty years".

"Patterson women", Doris inquired. "But, your maiden name is Andersen ….. Grandmom’s maiden name is Patterson"!

"True", her mom replied as she picked up the plates and took them to sink, "very true. But, still we are Patterson women, as you are a Andersen and Morgan woman, too. You do not lost them just because you marry someone. When a woman marries her maiden name is lost but the blood of her families remains’ within her. And, so it shall with you".

"So, then even though my last name is Conway", Doris begin thinking, "I am, as you are, ….. what ever our first mom maiden name was"!

Putting the dishes in the sink, she turned, "Yes, but what that name was ….. goes too far back to remember. So, you just go back a few generations".

Doris notice her mom was a little taller. Looking at her feet she notice she, too, was wearing high heels, but they were a little higher so she asked, "Mom, your shoes look higher than mine"!

"Yes, they are", she replied as she looked down at them. "Your dad likes me in five inch high heels ….. sometimes six inch heels ….. Depending where we go".

"Come", her mom told her as she begin walking out the kitchen, "let’s go now before it get too late and we have to go next Saturday".

Doris got up, from the table, and followed her mom. She grabbed her purse and car kegs.

As they got into the car, her mom told her, "It will take us about an hour to get to ‘Martins’. I just hope we do not have to wait too long for our turn".

"OUR turn", Doris inquired.

"Yes, our turn", her mom commented, as she backed the car out the driveway then drove off towards their destination. "I have decided I would join you in this little adventure".

"Dad", Doris asked her mom, "does he know of this little adventure I am going to take. And, that you are to take with me"?

Her mom laughed, as she looked quickly at Doris, "Yes, he does. Infact, it was his idea that I join you …… something which has not happened before with us Patterson women.

"Yes, he knows all about our little adventure. He saw some photos of me when I was thirteen, after I took the adventure with my mom. And,, ….. let’s say her liked what he saw and asked that I ….. well, we are both looking forward to a little time to ourselves tonight ….. If you know what I mean"!

Doris blushed, "Yes, I know what you mean. And, glad your room is on one side of the house and mine and David are on the other side. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN"!

They both laughed and begin talking about what Doris was planning for the rest of the summer.

In just about an hour they arrived at Martins ….. but when Doris saw the complete name she looked at her mom, then inquired, "Martins’ Barbershop ….."!

Her mom smiled at her, patted her on the hand. "Yes, Marins Barbershop. Where else would you go for a short hair cut"?

"Well, for one Siviel’s Hair Salon, like we always do", Doris commented as she, like her mom, opened the car doors and stepped out. "Then, there is Cut-N-Curl in Harper’s Mall ….. Toni’s in Boothtown ….. and, ….."

"I know", her mom replied reaching for her daughter’s hand, "and, there’s Side by Side ….. L’ Sid, Two Times the Curl, and on and on and on ….. But, this my daughter is a "SPECIAL hair cut you will be getting. One only a barber can give, as you will see. Of course, there is the ….. well you will find out for your self, as all the Patterson women, and the others, before us did".

They reached the door, to the barber shop, her mom pushed it open and motioned her in.

Doris looked around ….. it was the same kind of barber shop her dad and brother went too. So, what was so different with this one. She stated to ask her mom, when her thoughts were disturbed by a woman’s voice.

"Mary Patterson", the woman’s voice sang out. "Has that time came for you"!

"Yes, it has Pat", her mom replied as she and the lady hugged each other. "And, this is my daughter Doris Conway. I married Anthony Conway ….. remember him"!

"Yes, I do", Pat, or Patricia Black, replied. "Isn’t he the one your dad always ran off when he came over"!

Doris looked at her mom.

"Yes, the same one", her mom replied. "He just came around and came around until dad said "It’s your live boy". We got married five years later".

"So, then things worked out for both of you", Pat inquired as she stepped towards the barber chair, taking the cape from behind it.

"Yes, very much so", her mom answered as she handed Doris her hand bag and motioned her to take a seat in a waiting chair. "Besides Doris we have a son, Anthoney junior, who is three years older than Doris".

Doris took a seat and watched as her mom sat in the barber chair.

Pat looked at Mary. Mary smiled as she sat in the barber chair.

"Anthony saw the photos of my visit with my mom ….. He liked what he saw and asked".

Pat capped Mary, pulling the cape in place around her neck.

"You know I go shorter than my mom did back then", Pat advised Mary. "A lot shorter".

Mary smiled, "I guess Anthony will be in for a bigger surprise".

Doris just sat watching as Pat combed her mom’s hair out, then parted it down the middle from the forehead to the bottom of neck. She watched as Pat took hold of the clippers hanging from under the shelf, as she oiled it and let it run for a few seconds. She searched the shelf and put something on the head of it.

Then, she turned towards the chair and saw Doris’s face and the expression on it.

"Do you think there will be a problem", Pat asked as her eyes met Mary’s in the large mirror over the waiting chairs. Mary looked at Doris, her eyes wide open and the expression on her face.

"Maybe a little", her mom told Pat. "But, I am sure it will be over come".

Pat placed her left hand on the top of Mary’s head and tilted it downward.

"CLICK" the clippers came to life. Mary glanced at Doris, her eyes were still wide open and she was now sitting on the edge of the chair as her finger gripped the sides of the seat.

As Pat placed the clippers below her hairline, at the neck, she felt the clippers climb into her long, twenty four inch long, black hair. She watched as strands of hair slid down into her caped lap, she glance to see Doris’s mouth open in disbelief.

"Don’t worry", she told Doris, "I am sure you will like it too".

When she said that Doris’ head jerked back and she just stared at her mom. Who smiled back at her.

Doris watched, as did her mom, as more stances of hair filled her lap. Pat mowed the clippers up the neck and nape of Mary’s head. First the left side then the right side. Doris moved her body upward trying to see in the mirror behind the barber chair what was happening. Her mom just laughed when she noticed this.

Pat stepped a little to the left side. She pushed the clippers into the hair behind the ear, pushing a pile of hair forward until it fell as one into Mary’s caped lap.

Both, Mary and Pat, noticed Doris’ expression when she saw this.

Pat placed the clippers higher and pushed another pile of hair forward, sending it into Mary’s lap. The last movement of the clippers, on the left side, was over the top of Mary’s head.

Doris looked at her mom. One side of her head buzzed to almost nothing, while the other had the long flowing black hair she had always know her mom to have. The long flowing hair she had watched her dad move his fingers into every time the sat on the couch together.

Pat patted Mary on the shoulder and walked, behind the barber chair, to the right side of the barber chair. There she put the clippers in her left hand and place it on the clippered area of the nape, then slowly moved it into the long black hair behind the right ear. Slowly she pushed a pile of hair until, it too, fell into Mary’s caped lap.

Again the clippers were placed higher, more to the top of her head, then a pile of hair was pushed forward falling into Mary’s lap like the others. She placed the clippers, one more time — the last time, on top of Mary’s head and moved it slowly in the last hairs. Within three seconds it too was in Mary’s lap.

Pat turned off the clippers, removed the attachment and tossed it on the shelf. Mary looked at her self in the large mirror, her eyes catching the still wide eyes opened mouth Doris. She moved her hand from under the cape and brushed them over her buzzed head.

"You were not kidding", she told Pat as she put her hands back under the cape and Mary stood on the right side of the chair, "this hair cut is a lot shorter than your mom gave me when I turned thirteen".

Pat smiled, "And, it’s going to get shorter".

With that said she turned on the clippers again. Mary looked toward Pat, her eyes seeing there was no attachment on the clippers. She looked at Doris, who she knew had noticed the same thing.

Without a word Pat placed the clippers in front of the right ear and pushed it upward buzzing the short hair even shorter. She folded her right ear and buzzed the hairs above it shorter. Then, she stepped backwards and slowly worked the clippers upward, always stopping at the curve at the top of the head, as she had done on the right side.

As she titled Mary’s head downward, she whispered, "It’s going to get even shorter".

Mary smiled, then said to herself, "Anthony is really going to be surprised".

Pat worked her way around Mary’s head, across the back then the left side. Finished she turned the clippers off and hung them under the shelf on it’s hook.

Doris, her eyes still wide open, but not as much as when Pat started, watched her do this. Her mom notice a little lessing of her eyes, then noticed them get bigger again.

"CLICK’, followed by a high pitch humming sound, caught Mary’s attention. Then, it was turned off. She watched in the large mirror as Pat walked to the right side of the chair, she was holding something in her right hand.

Then, she head the "CLICK" and the high pitch humming sound next to her. She looked at Doris, who was again sitting on the edge of the chair her mouth opened again, then she caught site of Pat standing next to her.

Her right hand raised, in it was a smaller clippers, "Like I told you much shorter".

She watched Pat raise the smaller clippers to in front of her right ear, as did Doris. They watched Pat move the smaller clippers up the right side of her head, stopping at the same place she had with the larger clippers, without the attachment. She folder her right ear and moved the smaller clippers upward, stopping again in the same place.

As she stepped backwards, Pat again whispered to Mary, "See I told you much shorter".

She tilted Mary’s head downward and continued working slowly, as she had with the larger clippers without it’s attachment, up the back, then up the left side of Mary’s head.

Finished, she placed the smaller clippers on the shelf, then took hold of the hair duster. She turned, seeing Doris’ somewhat relaxing, and begin dusting Mary’s head. She undid the cape and let it slid into Mary’s lap, covering all the hair that was once on her head.

She took a large white towel and begin tucking it into her collar, spreading it out over her shoulder. Patting Mary on her left shoulder, Pat inquired, "Shorter or as is"!

Pat caught Mary’s eyes in the large mirror. She had a look Pat had seen before. A look of, "What do you mean ….. But, it would be fun to find out".

They stared at each others for a few minutes. Then, Mary looked at Doris, who was had a look of "Now what". But, she also noticed with that same look, a look she had seen many times on Doris’s face. A look she always gave when she found something interesting, something adventurous. A look that was always followed by her wanting to find out more about whatever it was ….. was that possible "problem" disappearing!

"Yes", Mary told Pat. "Shorter will be great".

Mary walked over to the shelf by a silver machine. She placed her left hand under it and her right fingers pressed down on a button. A humming sound, unlike the clippers, filled the barber shop. When she turned around, and walked back to the right side of the chair, Doris eyes recognized what the white stuff was ….. shaving cream.

As she walked from behind the chair to the right side, Mary too recognized the whiteness.

"SHORTER", Pat asked Mary again.

Mary looking at the pile of white warm shaving lather, wondered ….. Then, looked at Doris, who was staring at Pat’s left hand filled with the white shaving lather. Her look now one of hoping.

"SHORTER", Mary told Pat. "SHORTER".

She watched in the large mirror, as Doris watched from her seat, as Pat begin lathering the right side of her head. From the hairline upward to where she had stopped the smaller clippers. She spread the warm lather over her right ear, backward and up the nape and neck, to the left side.

There Mary sat looking at herself, in the large mirror, the top of her head buzzed shorter than she had ever had it, even when her mom had brought her to Pat’s mom back then. The back and sides of her head all lathered with white warm shaving lather. She knew Anthony would go crazy when he saw her later that day.

Pat choose a straight razor from the shelf. She walked to the right side of the chair, stropped it over the leather strap that hung below the right arm of the chair. Letting it go she raised the shinning blade of the straight razor to the arch of Mary’s head.

She glanced a look at Mary, in the large mirror, she was smiling, as she knew what "SHORTER" meant. Then, Pat looked at Doris, who’s eyes were glued on her right hand and the open straight razor.

She placed the razor’s blade and shaved a short downward strip, then wiped the lather, it removed, on her the palm of her left hand. She raised the blade again and shaved another strip downward.

As she prepared to shave another strip she noticed Mary raise her head as to met the blade. She also noticed Doris’ body doing the same thing.

Quickly, before the moment even away she begin shaving another strip. Each time she shaved a strip Mary’s head would relax, but when she raised the blade to shave her head would rise, as would Doris’ body.

When she was standing behind the chair she whispered to Mary, "Watch your daughter as I raise the razor to shave you".

Mary looked at Doris as Pat raised the razor to the back of her head. She too noticed Doris’ body raise then relax as Pat shaved the back of her head. But, she did notice her own head raise to met the sharp blade.

"I don’t think there will be any problems", Mary told Pat in a low voice, as if Doris would have heard them.

Glancing ever some many shavings at Mary and Doris, Pat went about shaving the back and left side of Mary’s head. When she was finished she gently brushed her finger tips over the shaving of Mary’s head. She noticed Mary’s head move into each brushing, as she head a soft sound.

She wiped the excess lather from Mary’s head, patting the shaved area dry with the towel as she pulled it from Mary’s collar. Again with the hair duster, with a sweet smelling powder, she dusted Mary’s head.

Then, with her right hand she pushed the handle forward lowering the chair.

Mary stepped from the barber chair, when it came to a stop, and walked to where her daughter was seated. Standing in front of her she looked at herself in the larger mirror, brushing her finger tips over the back and sides of her shaved head then over the top of her buzzed head.

Looking down at Doris, whom she sensed was looking up at her the whole time, she smiled and stepped to the right. Still looking at Doris she turned her body towards the chair, moving her left head in the direction of the barber chair.

There Pat stood, white cape in hand, waiting for her ……….

To be continued …… Copyright (c) October 2005