NOT A BARBER

“Hey, can you do me a favor?” Alex asked as he came into the living room where I was sitting on the couch doing some needlepoint.

“Sure. What do you need me to do?” I put my needlepoint down on the cushion next to me and looked over at him.

“I’m not getting my hair cut until next week and I was wondering if you could clean up the back of my neck until then.” He turned around to show me where it needed to be trimmed.

“Oh…” I must have looked surprised when he turned back around because he quickly said. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No. No.” I got up to follow him into his bathroom. “It’s just that you’re always making fun of my hair cutting skills on my plants that I wasn’t sure you really wanted me to do it.”

“No. I trust you.” He opened his vanity drawer and pulled out his clippers. Plugging them in he turned it on and quickly turned it back off before handing it to me.

“Wow!” I took the clippers from him and turned it on and off myself. “You must really trust me if you’re going to let me use this.”

Alex turned around again showing me the back of his neck. “Just these stray hairs right here.” He was pointing to two patches of stray hair.

“Okay, sure.” I began finger combing his hair down to see where it needed a trim. I took a deep breath in before turning on the clippers. “Well, here goes nothing.”

“Wait.” Alex sounded a bit panicked. “You know you’re not cutting my hair, just cleaning up the back of my neck until I can get to my REAL hair cut?”

“I know.” I was running the clippers down his neck, every once in a while blowing away the cut hair.

After a few minutes I turned off the clippers, stepped back and sighed. “Well, it’s not perfect.”

Alex started to laugh. “What’s that suppose to mean?” He said as he took the clippers from my hand.

“Exactly what I said.” I went to get the hand mirror from my bathroom so he could see what I’d done. I walked back to his bathroom and held up the mirror. “You know I’m not a barber.” I could see him straining to see what I’d done.

“Am I going to have to wear a hat until next week?” He asked.

“Where I trimmed isn’t going to be covered with a hat.” I took a closer look. “Maybe a scarf.”

“WHAT?” He was still looking for any damage I’d done. “It’s June!”

“Yeah, maybe a scarf wouldn’t look right at this time of year.” I moved the mirror for him to get a better look at the back of his neck.

“I’m still not seeing where you did anything wrong?” He was turning his head in different directions.

“Oh, well that’s good then.” I put the hand mirror down on his sink and patted him on the shoulder before I walked out of the bathroom. “When you see Denise at her salon next week just don’t say I had anything to do with it.” I called over my shoulder as I headed back to work on my needlepoint again.

“With what?” He called. “I still don’t see anything wrong!”

“And that’s all that matters.” I said as I sat back down on the couch and picked up the canvas I’d been working on.