Samson in Reverse

Samson in Reverse

 

By Marquis d’Ayre

 

 

Origin of the story :

 

I was toying around with ChatGPT, trying to make Dall-e drawi illustrations to one of my favourite stories. To my amazement, I got it to get very close to what I intended (which is not easy as Dall-e doesn’t seem to like drawing women with short (or even more to my frustration, short cropped permed) ladies. The story is called ‘The Call’, I only have an audioversion of it, so if anybody knows where to find it and the correct name of the author, please let me know in the comments. The story is about a woman called Charlene, Charlie for friends, who goes to a barber shop to have her friend Anne trim her hair. Anne gets called away and Charlene ends up in Leon’s chair who gives her a nice military flat top. The story coined the phrase ‘Samson in Reverse’ which I stole for my story.

So in order to not let the nice drawings go to waste I wrote this little story.

Samantha was late, she hurried up as much as she could, She couldn’t help it, mother had asked her to do some chores which took up time. She never dared to speak up, or even to ask if she could do it later because she had plans for the afternoon.

Finally she arrived. Brenda, Juliet, Rebecca and Nancy were already waiting impatiently. Samantha could only hope they wouldn’t be too angry

There she is, you surely took your time’, greeted Brenda.

‘You made us miss the Bus’, Nancy added.

‘Yeah,’ Brenda continued, ‘now we’ll be late, except if we can get my Dad’s car. And seeing you caused this, you should go and ask him’

‘But…’ Samantha started

‘No but’s,’ Nancy furiously interrupted, ‘your fault, you’ll fix it’.

‘I don’t know Brenda’s dad’, Samantha sniffed.

‘Well, my dad works at Tommy’s barbershop, just ask for Leo’, Brenda informed.

‘And hurry’ added angry Nancy.

 

Samantha didn’t feel like arguing. Luckily she knew the shop. It didn’t take  her long to get there, but once she got there, she was hesitant to go in.

After a slight hesitation, she entered, figuring it wouldn’t be worse than her friends getting even more angry.

The man at the desk  greeted her, ‘Hello, how can we help you?’

‘Argh, Leo,’ she uttered softly

‘Leo, customer, are you free ?’ The man yelled to a bearded elderly man.

‘I got 15 minutes before my next customer, so I can take him now’ he answered.

‘It’s a she’

‘No matter, hair is hair, I can get it done in time’

Before she knew she was stumbling in front of Leo.

 

‘Sit down, we don’t have much time’ Leo instructed.

‘Oh, but. . . . .’

‘Come one, don’t waste my time, get in the seat already’.

Obedient Samantha sat in the chair,  a cape was thrown over her, the tied up tightly in the neck, a paper was pushed.

In no time of all her long hair was cascading to the floor.

‘Uhm’, Samantha tried ‘ I want . . . .’

‘Yes, yes,’ Leo interrupted, ‘I know what you want, when they ask for me it’s always for the same cut’

‘Ah but’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll look amazing’

 

Realizing there was no way to stop him, Samantha resigned to her hair falling victim to her inaptitude to speak up. In just a few minutes she went from Godiva to Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby.  Not much to be done now, she relaxed in remembering she really liked that cut.

The tension ebbed away until she heard a click and a buzzing sound. Leo firmly pushed her head forward and put some cold steel in her neck. She couldn’t believe it, she never felt so enticed she had a hard time to keep a straight face and not succumb to her enjoyment.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling, Leo pushed her head to the left, to the right. Short bristles of blonde hair tickled her cheeks and neck.

Ther head was pushed every way and she could feel the clippers do her work. She had never felt so relaxed.

Finally the clippers fell silent. Samantha was a bit disappointed, it could have lasted a little longer.

Leo brushed the stray hair to the floor and removed the neck paper, and removed the cape.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPMpvdQ9itmaTJWCTp9o51YJTxY6GTmqLCSP0q_

 

Samantha opened her eyes and stared in the mirror.

‘Is that me,’ she thought, ‘I look amazing’

She got up

 

‘Thank you Leo,’ she started, ‘I didn’t come to get my hair cut, but I like it very much, it’s the best thing I could have done. I only came here because Brenda wanted to borrow the car to go shopping  with us’

‘Ouch,’ Leo said, ‘I’m awfully sorry, I thought you were a customer asking for my special’

‘Don’t worry Leo, it’s just perfect’

‘Thank you, and you can tell Brenda, if she doesn’t have the nerve to come herself to borrow the car, she can’t have it’

‘My sentiment exactly,’ Samantha agreed, ‘anyway, she’ll have to sort it out for herself, I’m kind of done with their childish behaviour anyway’.

‘Good on you’

‘How much is it ?’ Samantha inquired.

‘Go see Bill at the counter, I see my client has arrived’.

He beckoned a middle aged man entering the shop.

Samantha looked at the young guy sitting there in a chair waiting for a barber to become available.

Isn’t that  Josh ?

 

It was another strange feeling, not blushing as she usually did when she saw him. That was a good thing as she no longer had her long hair to hind behind.

Confidently she strolled to the counter.

‘Hi Bill, how much do I owe’

‘Gee, that turned out very nice,’ he beamed. ‘You look like a model, can you come in tomorrow so we can take pictures for advertisement, maybe we’ll attrack more female customers that way’.

‘Sure what time ?’

‘2 O’clock fine ?’

‘That’s excellent, he answered, ‘The cut is on the house’

Samantha thanked him.

She took her phone and texted Brenda

‘You Dad said NO. Also you can take the bus, I won’t be joining’

Samantha took another look at her new image, she just couldn’t believe how confident it made her feel, she usually was very shy and timid. It must be a Samson in Reverse, lose the hair and get strong.

Her phone buzzed, she ignored it, probably Brenda anyway, she was so done with that kid.

 

Did she see that right, Was Josh taking pictures behind her back ?

Unwavered, she walked up to Josh and snatched away his cell phone. Sure, he had taken several pictures of her.

‘Now Josh, that’s not a nice thing to do, taking pictures of a lady, least you can do is ask a woman out for a date, I might be free’.

She tapped in some numbers and her phone started to ring. Quickly she saved her number on his phone and gave it back.

‘The name is Sam, give me a call if you want to see more’

She smiled as she left the shop.

 

Confidently she walked along the streets. She could feel the admiration of men walking by and looking back to see if they weren’t dreaming. She felt the jealous eyes of women, clearly lacking the nerve to get such an extreme haircut.

She couldn’t stop glaring in shops window, glaring at herself.

When she turned the corner of her street her cell buzzed, she looked up, did she see that correctly ?

Yes, it was Josh.

‘Is 8 o’clock okay for you? Were do I pick you up?’

The End