Lira1802
There once was a girl named Jenny. She was a fiery soul with hair to match. It was long, down to her waist in twins, and thick. Her inclination was to never cut it.
Her family had moved to a small lake town. The girl didn’t like it there but soon, a group of girls she joined soon changed her mind about the place. As the girls rode their bikes downtown, an abandoned building caught Jenny’s eye.
”What’s that place over there”,Jenny asked.
”That’s the old family barbershop”,a girl explained,”People used to love going there. But legend has it that one day, the woman who ran the place gave a redhead girl, like yourself, a bad haircut. She was so frightened by what she had that she collapsed to the ground and died”
Jenny clutched at her braids and held them tenderly. The other girls began to laugh at her and one said,”I dare you to go in there”
Protesting at first but then accepting the challenge, Jenny rode up to the establishment, parked her bike, and snuck around back. She was no chicken. At the back door, Jenny turned the knob of the door which, surprisingly, gave way. Jenny’s heart began beating fast as she entered the dark room at the back of the barbershop.
Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind her. Jenny froze in fear. She was afraid of the dark. The lights of place then flicked on. When they did, the whole scene changed. Jenny was now standing in a well-furnished back room instead of the dark, bare room she had seen a second ago.
”Oh my”,a feminine voice rang out from beyond a bead curtain that separated the back room from the main floor,”Hello, dear. How did you get in here?”
A lean but curvy woman with an aged face pulled back the curtain. Her hair was grey and piled ontop of her head. The glasses she had on were angled and vintage. She had a white shirt, grey pants, black loafers, and a black utility belt around her waist.
”Oh no matter”,the woman waved, wrapping a long arm around Jenny and walking her up front,”I’m Gladys, by the way. And, you are…?”
”Jenny”,the girl replied with an unexpected smile: even to her. Jenny hadn’t noticed that she was being helped into the lone barber chair in the place. Gladys was just kind in the eyes and Jenny felt at ease being around her. The woman turned the chair to face the mirror. She started to dress her new, little friend with a beige sheet of linen and pump up the chair.
”Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve had a girl like you in my shop”,Gladys smiled warmly,”And clearly, you need a trim and some styling”
Jenny wanted to say something but the vibes in the shop prevented her. Everything was so nice and cozy. Gladys took her scissors and snipped off Jenny’s iconic braids. The girl wanted to scream but the spell that was on her forced a pleased smile on her face. Her barber turned the chair around and lifted up a board below the mirror. Reclining the chair back, Gladys rinsed Jenny’s bobbed hair in a basin below the girl’s head. Strawberry shampoo caused Jenny to close her eyes in relaxation.
Back in position, Jenny had her short, red hair dried with towel for what seemed like ages. Gladys finished drying Jenny’s hair and started to comb lines through her hair. She gathered up the hair from up front and secured it all with a hair clip. Next, she ran her fingers through the rest of the loose hair and grabbed the clippers from their holster. There was no guard attached to them when they came to life. Gladys started to tilt Jenny’s head down to her chest and pushed the clippers up the girl’s nape.
The time seemed to drag on as the vibration went almost everywhere on Jenny’s head. Her head was turned this way and that and then straight up so the majority of the crown could get its clipping. Jenny thought of herself as a boy with barely an inch of hair of her head. It looked awful! ‘I look so ugly’,Jenny said in her head. The clippers were killed, to relief of Jenny’s nerves, and Gladys came round the chair. She held a kind of razor in her hand. When the last of the bobbed hair was released, she started to whittle down the bangs.
“There we are”,Gladys teased the bangs with her thin fingers,”How do you like it?”
”I love it”,the spell put words into Jenny’s mouth.
”I’m glad you like it”,Gladys removed the cape from her customer. Jenny saw the smile on the woman fade as she said,”Oh, dear. I’ve done it again”
Gladys sank into the ground and disappeared as Jenny looked on. In a flash, the place once again became dark but like still got in through the cracks of the boarded up windows. Jenny quickly looked in the mirror and her fears were confirmed. Most of her fiery, red hair was clipped off and all that was left was the wispy bangs framing her face.
