Chapter 1
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Kalyn whispered.
The snip, snip, snip of scissors sounded in the salon. Kalyn breathed in and was glad that her client, Kelly, who came in regularly to turn her thin graying hair blonde, didn’t hear her. Kelly was busy flashing her fingers over her phone and not paying attention to the way that Kalyn sculpted the older woman’s hair.
The salon was busy but that didn’t mean anything for Kalyn, at least not in monetary terms. All the seats were filled. A woman getting a pixie in the first chair with Deborah, a man getting a high and tight from Mel in the second, and a woman getting a color and cut in Kalyn’s. The cut was easy for Kalyn, she’d been to beauty school, she’d cut thousands of mannequins then moved on to live models then had started at one hair salon after another. None of them seemed to work out for her.
“I want a change,” the woman in Deborah’s chair said. “I don’t want it to be too risky though. I know a pixie is a little edgy but I don’t want it to be too edgy.”
Deborah rolled her eyes and winked at Kalyn.
“I think I know what you mean. It’s important to push the envelope but still be able to mail the letter.”
“Yes. Yes. Exactly,” the woman replied.
Kalyn’s feet were getting tired and she was pushing the boundaries of what she could take. A lot of salon work meant that hairdressers, like Kalyn, were on their feet for hours at a time. It made her feet ache. The first hour or two of the day would be okay then slowly the pain would creep in. At first a tinge, then a dull throb, then finally full-fledged pain.
She hovered her hands over Kelly’s head which tired out her traps as well. She wished she could exercise more to make herself stronger, then maybe she’d be able to stabilize herself in the position for a bit longer but the salon didn’t pay that well and she didn’t have time. So, there was the ache of standing and the nagging sensation in her arms from holding them aloft for hours on end.
Each day was an exercise in exhaustion. Back strain, muscle tension, break outs from all the stress and carpal tunnel along with foot and shoulder pain. Kalyn tried not to think of all the clothes that she’d ruined from hair color dye or the blouses with bleach spots. She set down the scissors and looked at her hands. They were cracked and dry from all the washing and sanitizing.
Kalyn shook her head and inhaled the combination of bleach and dye that rose from Kelly’s head. People didn’t respect hairdressers these days. It was a lot harder than most people thought. She’d dreamt of cutting people’s hair and creating magnificent styles for days on end. She looked away from Kelly and thought of her apprenticeship and the hair show that had been her crowning achievement.
The studio had been packed. She’d gotten 10 women and 3 men to let her do their hair and make-up. The show had been themed of course. It was gothic romantic. The models were all dressed in lace and black. The outfits were minimal to highlight the hair and she’d received a more than a dozen bouquets of flowers from various other students and teachers. It had been a proud moment for her.
Peter hadn’t come. He rarely did. She’d finally decided to end things with him after that. He wasn’t showing up to the events, he didn’t do his share of the work at home, and mainly sat around complaining, wanting Kalyn to come crawling to him for his every beck and call.
“I am thinking about a new moisturizer,” Kelly said aloud.
Her crocodile skin could certainly use some moisturizer, Kalyn thought.
“But a lot of them are expensive and I’m not really sure exactly what I should get. Maybe I’ll just get botox,” Kelly continued. “Do you know of a good spot for Botox?”
“Usually the face but personally I like my botulinum toxin injected into my chin area that way there is paralysis and I can’t move a muscle,” Deborah said.
“I’ve been working on my muscles a lot lately,” Kelly said. “I started doing high intensity interval training. My personal trainer is very big into it. He works with a lot of people in San Francisco. Right after he trained with me he had a meeting with one of the CEOs of Yelp about a potential fitness app. Our session went long.”
It was Kalyn’s turn to roll her eyes and she stared at Kelly for a moment. She could feel Deborah grown behind her and even Mel was tsking under her breath. The man that was in Mel’s chair seemed oblivious to everything except for Mel’s ass which he kept his eyes glued on almost turning himself around in his chair to keep an eye on her dearie.
“I remember you said that you liked your personal trainer,” Kalyn said. She knew how to butter people up and how to keep them going. It was an important trait in a service job like hairdressing. You relied on repeat customers and you relied on their tips. Some of her customers Kalyn actually enjoyed and cared about and for the rest, well she was good at wearing a mask.
“Yes. He’s magnificent. Top of the line really. Also costs me a fortune,” Kelly said.
Everything cost Kelly a fortune despite her ability to come up with riches continually. Kelly was a well fed and well cared for Walnut Creek wife who came into Oakland every month for her color and clip from Kalyn. She’d followed Kalyn since she’d been cutting at a studio in Marin. Kelly often talked about how edgy Oakland was and how exciting being around all the energy of the city was.
“How many times a week are you seeing him now,” Kalyn asked. She looked at Kelly’s hair and then looked at the clock. These colorings were taking longer and longer as Kelly’s hair was getting grayer and grayer. Kelly could also be quite fussy about the whole process.
“I see him three times a week,” Kelly said. “More than my husband and to be honest I’m glad of it.”
“You don’t want to see your man,” Deborah said.
“And he doesn’t want to see me. We have a pact of mutually agreed destruction. We don’t ever meet and when we do there are others skilled in the art of negotiation there. After you’ve been with someone as long as I have you’ll understand. Love withers and fades and the handsome young stud next to you becomes a withered bag of bones. Paul, that’s my trainer, he’s not withered at all. The exact opposite,” Kelly said with a smile.
“You aren’t,” Kalyn said.
“I don’t kiss and tell but I have been known to kiss and whisper.”
“Isn’t having an affair risky,” Kalyn said.
“It’s not if you are good at it. My husband is not. He’s been having an affair for so long. As these rich powerful men are. They lose interest in everything, especially their wives.”
“I should saddle up with a poor man then. He’ll be too worried about paying the bills to be hustling around on the side,” Deborah said.
“Or you could have no man at all,” Mel interjected.
The man in her chair looked suddenly disheartened by Mel’s words. He slouched in his seat and Mel had to pull him up straight in order to continue the haircut.
Kelly continued to talk about her affair and the hairdressers and their clients found out about all the dirty details despite Kelly’s insistence that she wasn’t telling that much. There wasn’t much left to the imagination, the size, shape, and color of every part of Kelly’s trainer’s body were revealed along with its various capabilities and the length of period they worked.
Kalyn was a little jealous of Kelly’s active love life and her ability to keep herself comfortable with nothing more than the generosity of her “withered” husband.
After Kelly was all done she rose from her chair.
“Gentlemen prefer blondes,” she said and she spun around in the salon. Kalyn had done a good job and the hair was platinum. It made Kelly’s sun kissed skin glow strong and took years off her face.
“It looks great,” Deborah said. She wasn’t especially fond of Kelly and usually sniped at the older lady when she came in. Kelly never noticed her sarcasm.
“Would,” Mel said.
The man in her chair sunk even lower into his chair and so Mel kicked him out and sent him to the front to pay.
“Well ladies. I’ll see you later. Ta ta for now,” Kelly said. She walked out the door pushing it wide open and letting some of the evening sun into the studio.
The salon was located on 40th street between Broadway and Telegraph. It was a new shop and had been opened by a friend of Mel’s. Mel had recruited Kalyn and Deborah with the promise of never ending business with rich white ladies. The majority of their clientele was indeed rich white ladies, who else could afford the San Francisco at the time, but the business was never ending and Kalyn was free after her cut with Kelly.
She cleaned up her station and walked outside. The orange sun of Oakland’s summer was setting. It cast an almost pinkish light upon the street as if a ripe grapefruit had been opened and its colors had spilled across the city. Kalyn took a deep breath and then walked to her car.
It wasn’t that late and with no more clients at the salon and the coming bills Kalyn did what she normally did when she had time to kill she turned on her Uber app. The first ride came in a few minutes later.
Pushing the gas pedal and starting the car moving was easy and thoughtless. The first ride was a few blocks away at a macaroni and cheese place. The restaurant specialized in the dish along with salads. Kalyn had been there once on a failed Tinder date. She’d been hoping for a free meal considering how ugly the man had been but not only did she have poor company with a bankrupt looking man but he’d also walked outside when the bill came for a cigarette. She waited for twenty minutes before she paid for the check herself. The man was just standing on the corner by the restaurant waiting for her. He asked her for a ride home and had told her she was frigid when she didn’t want to have sex with him that night.
“Kalyn,” the woman said. She was well dressed and smelled of success.
“Yes that’s me,” Kalyn replied.
The woman got into the back of the car and then shut the door. The ride began and took them into the Berkeley hills. The woman was well kept. Her nails were perfect. Her hair exquisite. She wore the type of lipstick that would never become smudged on one’s teeth. Kalyn dropped her off at what looked like a mansion. The woman sashayed to the door. She of course was wearing heels and despite coming from a restaurant that specialized in macaroni and cheese had the class and taste of a kobe steak. Kalyn sat for a moment in the driveway and watched the woman disappear. She was probably someone’s mistress.
Kalyn sighed. A few more hours and she might be able to make rent. Just a few more hours. She used to think to herself that she would survive anything one minute at a time. Then there would be one more minute that she would survive. Then another. The minutes added up into hours.
Eventually Kalyn hit her mark and she made her way back home. Her apartment was too expensive but whose wasn’t? She’d gotten the place with her old boyfriend. Not Peter but another one who had been just as bad and just as useless. She loved the apartment though and she knew that moving out would mean having to leave the Bay area entirely so she worked hard for her rent.
She walked upstairs to her second-floor apartment and unlocked the door. She could hear scuttling paws on the floor. Kaboose was there waiting for her. He looked ecstatic and beyond. He’d been abandoned at a shopping mall one day and Kalyn had found him. She’d brought him to an animal adoption shelter but no one wanted to take him because he was too old.
He was a tough old dog though living up to the breed’s name. Kalyn had done her research on the breed and found that the dogs used to be bred to fight badgers. She was sad that she didn’t get to spend more time with him and thought more and more about bringing him to the salon. She’d seen other stylists do it and she was sure that Deborah would be okay with it but she couldn’t afford to risk it. Even though the salon was slow Kalyn needed the money.
Kaboose yipped at her and did a figure eight through her legs. She put on his leash and the two went for a walk through West Oakland. The area was changing a lot because of the new tech money. Sometimes she would see people with their pure-bred dogs walking around the block that just yesterday only had pit bulls.
Kaboose went to the bathroom and the two went back to the apartment. Kalyn sat on her couch and stroked Kaboose. She flipped through various movies on Netflix and wondered when her life would change.
“I love you Kaboose,” Kalyn said.
He looked up at Kalyn with doe like eyes. His face had more than a few tufts of gray hair but his eyes were still large and dark though. He nuzzled his nose against Kalyn and fell asleep.
“You’re the only man in my life,” Kalyn sighed. She let the glow of the tv screen lull her to sleep and she feel into a dreamless sleep.