A Little Time For Stacey (Part 2)
Stacy took her time walking the three block back to work. She would slow her walk when she passed a shop with a window, then turn her head as she brushed her finger through her Crew Cut.
It was strange, but exciting, each time she saw her self. She stopped once, at K&G’s Coffee Shop, which had a larger window. She stood there looking at her reflection, as customers were enjoying their afternoon coffee and pastry ….. While some read a magazine or newspaper others just talked. A few of them noticed her standing there brushing her finger through her Crew Cut, which she could see and this excited her unlike she had ever been excited.
When she reached the front door, of M’s Sign, she stood there looking in the little window.
"No one can see me", she told herself. Taking a deep breath she opened the door and walked in.
The first to see her was Mary Wilson, the receptionist who has been with the company for ten years. Her mother, Barbara Smith, also worked for M’s Sign and retired after thirty years. She looked up and smiled at Stacy.
Stacy stood there for a few minutes, her thoughts running wild through her mind.
"Hi, Stacy", Mary said as she handed her some messages, "a few calls for your".
Stacy took them and looked through them, not what she wanted to hear.
She started to walk to her office, a few doors down the hall behind the reception desk, but took a quick glance at Mary, who was smiling at her. Just as she was about to walk into the hall, Mary whispered …..
"Happened to mom and dad loved the hair cut".
They smiled and Stacy went her way.
No one commented any thing to her. No one spoke a word. They just smiled at her and went their way. This made her wonder if she was the first one.
She entered her office and started looking the messages over. Nothing important, just a few request for sales reps to make visits to clients. Which was not unusual, as she handled the paper work each rep had to fill-out each time they visited a client. And, she also saw that their orders were shipped out on time.
"Stacy", someone called her name from the hallway, "better grab your cup, George is going to dump the coffee and clean the pot".
She looked up to see Edward Taylor, the Senior Sales Manager, sticking his head into her office.
She smiled and grabbed her cup, then headed out her office, when he commented, "Nice Crew Cut. Connie still got the touch".
This comment made her wonder more. But, she continued to the coffee room.
As she entered everyone turned toward her and gave her a cheer. Mike stepped forward, "To Stacy ….. who had to learn the hard way about painting signs and not watching what she was doing with a glove full of "green" paint".
Everyone raised their cup to her. She smiled in laughter.
Allen walked over to her, "You’re not the first one and you will not be the last one".
Everyone stepped back from the side wall, as Mary pulled back the curtains to a display of photos of men and women. Each had two photos, the first was of them with long hair and the second a photo of them with a Crew Cut.
"That’s mom", Mary told Stacy as she pointed to her photos. "I was twelve when she did the paint in the hair thing. When she came home with the Crew Cut I ran to my room. It took dad half an hour to explain what happened. Boy did his face light up each time he said how cool mom looked with the Crew Cut.
"Three weeks later he and mom returned home and they both had Crew Cuts. Mom still has hers, as does dad. One of these days I’m going to surprise my Don and get one.
"Of course, it will be on my own. I don’t plan on trying painting signs".
Stacy stood looking the wall over. She recognized some of them, because they were still around.
One of the last ones was Terri Meyer, a tall executive looking woman but only a Sales Rep. Stacy turned and looked at her, standing a few feet away. Their eyes met and Terri smiled, then started walking towards her.
"That’s me", Terri commented as she tapped her finger on her photo. "I wanted to get a small sign out before time ….. forgot the paint covered glove. Started letting it grow out last summer, but for two years it felt good not to have to worry about my hair and the hot weather".
A few weeks later Stacy was off to the Post Office, to pick up the mail. She had to go pass Connie’s barber shop. So, she thought she would just stop by and say "HI" to Connie.
As she approached the shop she saw someone, a woman, walking out the shop. Her hair was extremely short, but she did not see her face. She thought she had seen others with the same kind of clothing, but did know where.
But, as she stepped into the barber shop she got a strange feeling. She noticed the chair was empty but there was fresh cut hair on the floor around it, and it was long hair. Maybe from the woman who she saw walking out the shop.
She looked around, then called out, "Connie ….. you here"!
"JUST A SEC", came Connie’s voice from the back room. "Getting a few things ….. have a seat and I’ll be with you".
She placed her purse in a waiting chair, instead of taking a seat in a waiting chair she sat in the barber chair. As she sat her body being to tingle. She placed her left foot on the foot rest and crossed her right leg over it. Her body rose, as it did the first time, and she being to relax as she did then also.
Her eyes looked into the mirror over the waiting chairs. She smiled as she begin to remember her visit a few weeks early.
How strange it felt ….. How Connie made her feel ….. How her eyes watched as years of hair growth disappeared slowly ….. How they watch the Crew Cut take shape of her face.
She remembered her walk back to the shop. How she would look into the windows. The excitement she felt as she watched her fingers brush through her short hair. And, the comments she received at the Club that Saturday night.
"Stacy", Connie called out as she closed the door behind her. "Great to see you again".
Stacy turned her head towards her. She wanted to get out the chair, but her mind told her to relax. Connie walked closer as she smiled. She put the things on the shelf, behind the chair.
"On my way to get the mail", Stacy begin saying, "and thought I would stop by and say "HI" and see how things are going"!
She turned her head forward, her eyes looked in the large mirror. They saw Connie taking the cape from behind the chair, then shaking it in the air on the right side of the chair. Without asking Connie tossed the cape across Stacy and pulled and clipped it around her neck.
Stacy could not believe it …..
All she wanted to do was say "HI", but now she was seated in the barber chair with the cape pinned around her neck. She looked at herself, in the large mirror, a strange feeling came over her, unlike the last time. This one was telling her body not to move, to stay seated. The tingling,, running up and down her body, was much stronger than the first time, and moved much quicker.
"So, same as last time", Connie inquired. "Or, are we going shorter"?
Stacy felt her throat become dry, very dry. She tried to swallow but could not. Her body begin to rise from the chair, but not in a way to get out of it.
Her eyes met Connie’s in the large mirror. They looked at each other a few minutes.
Connie patted her on the right shoulder.
"Leave it to me", she told Stacy. Her body begin to rise more and the tingling moved fasted and deeper throughout her body. She had no control over her feeling.
Did Connie …..
She watch Connie’s arms move around behind the chair. She heard the "click" and "humming" of the clippers, as the last time. This time her body was excited to hear the sounds, unlike the last time.
Connie turned around, she had the big black clippers in her hand and the attachment was the small one. She walked to the right side of the chair, with the clippers down by her side.
Stacy turned her head and met Connie smiling at her, "Shorter this time".
Stacy took a deep breath ….. "Shorter this time", what did she mean!
Connie’s left hand rose to her head. Stacy turned her head forward, as Connie’s left hand brushed her hair back over her head. As it reached the back of her head, Connie’s left hand cupped the back of her head.
Then, Stacy’s eyes watched as Connie’s right hand raised the clippers, hitting her hip and turning on the clippers, to her forehead. Connie placed the clippers in the middle of her forehead and let the singing clippers sit there a minute.
Their eyes met in the mirror, again. Stacy felt her breathing quicken, her body shivered and rose, as Connie slowly moved the clippers back over her head. Behind was hair shorter than the sides of her head now.
Connie worked slowly, this caused Stacy’s body to freeze with each pass made.
Time was nothing to Stacy. Her body was relaxing more and more. Her mind tried to see what she would look like, but everything was a blank.
The only thing she knew, her mind knew, she was going to get a short hair cut than the first time.
Her eyes watched every move Connie made with the clippers. Over the top of her head, up the back and sides, all her hair was being clippered to the same length.
After what seemed like hours, but only fifteen minutes, Connie turned the clippers off and hung it on a hook under the shelf. She took hold of another clipper, much smaller than the first one.
It was white and Connie did not put an attachment on it. Instead she flicked it on as her left hand touched Stacy’s head and pushed it down.
Stacy heard the sound of the new smaller clippers rise to the back of her head. She felt the vibration of the teeth touch her skin below the hair line. She felt the cool flat head move up into the hair of her neck, then upward to the back of her head.
Then, if was pulled away, only to touch the skin below her hair and repeat it’s upward movement.
This was done two time to the sides of the first pass. Connie’s left hand tilted her head to the right, as she felt the clippers moving up behind her left ear. Her eyes watched as it was pulled from her head, higher than the last time.
Connie’s finger bend her left ear downward as she moved the clippers up in the hair above it.
As Connie begin another pass she begin to feel the coolness of the air conditioner on the back of her head, as the cool air bounced off the wall behind the chair. Connie now was making an upward pass, with the clippers, in front of her left ear. It was then she saw how short it had buzzed her.
Connie placed her left hand back on the top of her head, as she walked behind the chair to the right side. There she tilted her head to the left and repleated the same movements on the right side of her head.
Finished, Connie turned the clippers off and hung it next to the big black clippers under the shelf.
She took the hair duster from the shelf, turned and begin dusting Stay’s clippered head. A few clipped hair danced around her head, only to fall to the floor or her caped body.
It was then Stacy felt her body begin straitening and rising. Her legs raised from the footrest, she felt a strange feeling between them as they relaxed.
Connie had undone the cape and let it slid across the arms of the chair/ She had tucked the large white towel in her neck and spread it out over she shoulder. She had spread lather along her hairline, and now was stropping the straight razor of the leather strap hanging from the right arm of the chair.
Gently Connie shaved a thin line from the right side to the left side. With the last stroke taken Connie closed the razor and toss it, gently, on the shelf. Then, she wiped the excess lather from the hairline and removed the towel.
Stepping to the right side of the chair she reached across and removed the cape, then pushed the handle to lower the chair.
Stacy watched as the chair lower, viewing at her new shorter hair cut.
As the chair came to rest her mind tried to think "WHY", but no answer came.
She stepped from the chair, watching herself walk towards the large mirrors, still trying to think "WHY", still no answer. She picked up her purse, to pay Connie.
"This one is one me", Connie told her, refusing even a offered tip.
As Stacy walked out the shop her mind was still trying to figure "WHY".
Like the last time, but with more interest, Stacy would walk slowly pass shops with windows. Stopping she would look into the window, as she was looking at something, only to see she self as she brushed her fingers over her new shorter hair cut.
With each stop, each bushing of her fingers, she became more excited about her new hair cut.
Her mind no longer wondered "WHY", because the answer never came. Instead she enjoyed the adventure, even thought she was not looking for it.
Reaching the Post Office she realized where she had seen the clothing on the woman who walked out the barber shop. Was she a Postal employee …..
As the line progress Stacy looked around looking for the woman. Then, just as she was next there was a change in the clerks. The man stepped out of the way and who stepped in …..
Their eyes met quickly ….. They smiled.
Stacy saw her name on her name tag, it was Tammy Williams. Their eyes still looking at each other, their smiles got wider.
"May I help you", Tammy asked, still smiling.
"Yes", Stacy replied, smiling back, "I have come for the mail for M’s Sign".
"Just a minute", Tammy answered as she turned and walked to the back. But, she glanced a view at Stacy before stepping our of site. Stacy’s heart begin to race, her body begin to tingle.
"Here you go", Tammy said as she handed Stacy the mail. "Love your hair cut"!
Stacy felt a warmth come across her, "Love your’s, too",
"Did you leave behind a lot", Tammy asked.
"No, not really", Stacy replied. "But, I did a few weeks ago.
"Your second visit to Connie" Tammy asked. Stacy shook her head "yes".
"My first", Tammy continued. "I don’t know what is was but once I sat in the barber chair my mind was blank, and I was at the hands of Connie".
"Me too", Stacy replied. "You left behind a lot of hair …. it was still on the floor around the chair".
Tammy blushed, "Yes".
"Well, I have to get back to work", Stacy told Tammy. "Maybe we will run into each other at Connie’s one day".
"Possible", Tammy replied. "I do like how I look with this hair cut".
Stacy waived to Tammy as she walked out the Post Office.
"I hope we do", Stacy said to herself, "I hope we do".
When she walked in the office no one asked, they just smiled and went about their business.
Mary walked into her office with some messages. Stacy expected a comment, at least a question why it took her so long to go to the Post Office. But, nothing was said.
Then, as Mary walked out the door, she stuck her head back in.
"Let me know when you go back to Connie’s", she asked Stacy. "I want to get my hair cut for the summer".
Stacy smiled, "Sure ….. In fact, next Thursday. Mark it on your calendar for us".
To Be Continued Copyright (c) August 2005 All rights reserved.