Chapter 10
“Hey Kaboose,” Kalyn said.
He’d been waiting for her as normal at the door. He looked happy to see her when she walked in but after her shower and after she’d prepared for bed he didn’t go up and lick her face as normal. Instead he did his usual figure eight at the end of the bed and plopped down to sleep.
“What’s the matter Kaboose,” Kalyn said. “Is it something that I did?”
He ignored her voice. Kalyn knew her dog wasn’t asleep and that he instead was just lying there quietly. She didn’t know what had caused him to change but she didn’t like it. Maybe it was her. She laid her head down and fell into sleep.
Kalyn wasn’t a vivid dreamer but her dreams that night were alive. Joy was in front of her. Her breasts were full and flush and pointing at her like rockets. She’d grown a tail and sprouted wings. Joy flapped her wings in front of Kalyn and begin to float over her. A pitchfork appeared in her hand and she began to prod Kalyn.
“Mistress, adulterer. You’re a sinner. You’ve fucked it all up now haven’t you,” Joy said. Her voice was high and pitched and soon Kalyn was crying.
Joy continued to flap her scaly wings and her face turned demonic. An evil grin passed over her face and she grew jagged teeth.
“’Was it good? Did it feel good to take something that didn’t belong to you,” Joy pierced.
Then Gary appeared before her. He chased away Joy with a sword. He chopped at the air with his edged blade trying to fell his wife.
“Out, out, out,” Gary screamed. “Don’t harass her. She’s done no wrong.”
Gary then turned to Kalyn. He didn’t sheath his sword but instead stepped towards her with it.
“Love me,” he said. The point of his sword came dangerously close to Kalyn’s body. “Love me. Need me. Want me.”
Kalyn backed away and then turned around and started to run. She was on a street in Oakland. She wasn’t sure where it was but all seemed familiar. When she turned around Gary was gone. Instead Mel was in front of her waving her down.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Mel said to her friend. Kalyn was balling at this point. The tears didn’t seem to stop flowing out of her eyes. Mel held onto her.
“But we have to go back to work,” Mel said. “We have to make money with our busy scissors. We can’t stop. We have bills to pay.”
Kalyn woke up with a gasp. Sweat covered her forehead and her sheets were damp from her nightmare. She hadn’t had a bad dream in years. She knew why though. It was because of everything with Gary. She had to end things. It was bad. Her conscience was getting to her too much despite what other people said.
She picked up her phone. There was a message from Gary.
“Where did you go? I didn’t scare you off did I,” he wrote. He ended the sentence with a smiley face.
She considered what she would say. She wasn’t sure. He would get the read notification though. She hated that. He might stare at the phone for a long time wondering what was going on. Kalyn didn’t want to confront him there and then.
“I was having a hard time sleeping,” she wrote. “I came home to see Kaboose. I was worried about leaving him alone for the night.”
The speech bubble popped up immediately. He was writing her back.
“Okay. Well tonight was great. Even better than the last time. I hope to see you soon,” he wrote.
Kalyn couldn’t answer him. It was too much. He wanted to have a full-blown affair with her. She didn’t want that. She wasn’t sure what she wanted but she wanted more than what she was getting from Gary. So far not much had happened besides the attraction and of course the sex.
She was worried about going back to the Salon. What if Gary showed up? What would she say to him? Or even worse what if he said something to Joy and she showed up at the salon. She got ready for work and then hesitated about actually going. She sat in her bedroom and made herself a cup of tea.
“I’ve really fucked myself this time haven’t I,” Kalyn said to Kaboose. He wagged his tail at her. His mouth opened into a wide smile. He obviously thought that she was going to take him for a walk. She shook her head.
The decision was made for her a half an hour later when Mel called.
“Where the fuck are you,” Mel said when Kalyn picked up her phone.
“I’m still at home.”
“Are you dying?”
“No.”
“Did your mom die?”
“No.”
“Then get your ass down here. I can’t run this place by myself.”
“Alright. I’ll be there in fifteen,” Kalyn hung up the phone and looked at Kaboose.
“Well I haven’t taken you for a walk. How do you feel about going to the salon? I can maybe make you my guardian in case Joy comes in and flips her shit on me.”
Kaboose wagged his tail rapidly and spun around in a circle.
Kalyn walked out of her front door and then to her car. Kaboose followed behind taking quick steps. He ran in front of her and jumped into the front seat. Kalyn rolled down the window and he stuck his head out of it immediately. His tongue wagged back and forth as she turned the ignition and pulled out of her parking space. Despite his eyes getting watery Kaboose showed no signs of removing his mug from the window outside. He loved moving fast in the car.
“Be careful not to fall out,” Kalyn said to Kaboose.
He ignored her and moved even closer to the edge of the window. He put his paws outside of the door and his long ears flapped about.
Kalyn turned on the radio. She didn’t want to think about where she was heading and what would happen. Visage’s Fade to Grey came on. The song was their second single and was released in 1980, a few years before Kalyn was born. The song hit the charts becoming a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom and did well in the rest of Europe. The lead singer of the group, Steven Strange sang out over the synth pop base. A heavy bass sound rang in and a siren called out to her. Kalyn tapped the steering wheel in time to the song.
“One man on a lonely platform,” Steven Strange sang out over the stereo. “One case sitting by his side. Two eyes staring cold and silent, show fear as he turns to hide. We fade to grey. We fade to grey.”
When Kalyn pulled up to the salon and parked Kaboose looked disappointed not to be moving anymore. Kalyn opened up the door and Kaboose fell out of the car. He tumbled onto the ground. He barked loudly and then righted himself. He began to run around in circles. He hadn’t spent much time out of their apartment and so this was a big adventure for him. He began to run ahead of Kalyn sniffing at the grass patch in front of her where a small tree grew.
“Don’t go too far ahead,” Kalyn said.
Kaboose still stayed in sight as they walked to the salon. Kaboose had arrived at the salon before her and was sitting at the front door even though he’d never been to the shop he knew where he was going.
As Kalyn arrived she felt her phone buzz. She pulled it out of her pocket and locked at the notification. It was Gary.
“Have a great day. I’m thinking about you,” he’d written.
Kalyn put her phone back in her pocket and opened the door to the salon.
“What the fuck,” Mel said when she came in. “Where have you been? Now we’re running behind. It wouldn’t be a big deal if Deborah was still here but she’s not.”
“Sorry. I had a rough night.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Alright fine, whatever.”
“Okay what needs doing,” Kalyn said.
“We still need to finish some of the laundry. We don’t have any towels and also we have to set up the register,” Mel said as she busied herself taking stock out of the back and setting it in front of the salon. “Oh, my god,” Mel exclaimed.
“What?”
“You brought him!”
Kalyn began to laugh.
“My knight in shining armor. The only man that could possibly turn me full bore,” Mel said.
Kaboose and Mel had met before when Mel had come over to have drinks with Kalyn. Mel absolutely adored the dog. While she’d grown up with large dogs, mainly German Shepards, Mel loved the small compactness of Kaboose.
“He’s my little hot dog,” Mel squealed. She’d picked up Kaboose and the dog was licking her face rapidly as if he were a little puppy.
“You can put him down if you need to,” Kalyn said. “He might rip your clothes or something.”
“No, it’s okay. I like being licked,” Mel said. She was dressed all in black. Her jeans had a rip in the jeans and she was wearing a slightly oversized black t shirt. Two hands covered the front of the shirt. One hand pointing up the other pointed down. The hands were curled slightly and Mel liked to refer to the shirt as her “finger banging” apparel. Mel had her long black hair pulled back. Her eyebrows were arched a little higher than usual today giving her an intense look. “It’s cute. Although it’s a bit gross. Good thing I didn’t put on any foundation. It would probably poison him.”
“Aren’t a lot of makeups tested on animals,” Kalyn said.
“Yeah and a lot of bunnies because of it,” Mel said with a laugh. “But you’re not going to die are you Kaboose? You’re my little man. You’re gonna live forever.”
“What made you bring him in. I know you were always worried about him when Deborah was running things. I still don’t get why you didn’t ask her if you could bring him in.”
“I was worried that he would get in the way,” Kalyn said. She went into the backroom and picked up some towels to bring to the front.
“Fuck no,” Mel said loudly enough that Kalyn could hear her. “He could never be a problem.”
Kalyn could hear his paws scratch against the floor as he scuttled around. Kalyn grabbed an extra towel for the dog and brought it to the front. She put it in the front next to the register out of the way. Kaboose took it as a cue and went over to the blanketing. He did a figure eight and then laid down. He looked up at Mel before he put his head down.
“He’s tired already,” Mel said.
“He’s a lazy dog,” Kalyn replied.
“That he is.”
“So what do we have on the books today?”
“Well we’ve gotten a bunch of online bookings. Did you read your email?”
“No. Why?”
“Gary emailed us. He told us he was beefing up the online marketing.”
“Oh,” Kalyn said. She put the towels away on a shelf and then looked up at Mel.
“Fuck. Something happened again right,” Mel said. She stood in front of her friend with her hands on her waist. “You guys fucked and now you’re feeling weird and bad about it and that’s why you were late today because you were afraid about what might happen.”
“You know me too well,” Kalyn said.
“Listen girl, I got you. It’s not a big deal. Things will sort themselves out and maybe you can be his expensive mistress,” Mel said with a laugh.
“I’m not sure I want to be kept,” Kalyn said. The tone of her voice had fallen and she was melancholy. Things were Gary had been too rushed. Everything had happened to fast. It was only a week ago that Deborah was the owner of the salon. Now everything had changed. Joy owned the salon, and the building. She’d hooked up with Gary twice now and everything about her life seemed to be in upheaval.
“Girl you need to be kept. You got bills to pay. Shit don’t pay itself,” Mel said.
Kalyn nodded and went to the back for the bank of cash. She brought it to the front and began counting it out.
“As usual though I don’t know what I’m doing,” Kalyn said.
“One of the greatest secrets in life is that actually no one really knows what they are doing,” Mel said.
“You’re so smart,” Kalyn said rolling her eyes.
“Thank you. I didn’t study art history for nothing,” she said.
“Anyways,” Kalyn said. “What did the email say?”
“Why don’t you read it yourself?”
“Fine.”
Kalyn opened her phone and then went to her work email. She’d never had a job that wasn’t connected to her at the hip. Whether it was Uber or one of her past jobs she felt she always needed to be on call and her work email was always connected to her phone. Sometimes she longed to live in France where receiving emails during non-work hours was considered illegal. She saw the email and opened it:
Hey Guys.
So a couple of things. Things have been slower at the salon than usual. I’ve looked at the books and for the location and the clientele the salon is marketing to, things should be much busier then they are. I’ve started some online campaigning. I asked a few people to write yelp reviews. If someone does write a positive yelp review I’d like you to reach out to them and email them. Tell them that they will receive a 20% discount the next time they come in as a sign of appreciation. I think things will turn around shortly for you all.
“He used the wrong word. It should be than and not then,” Kalyn said. She put down her phone and looked over at Mel who was staring open mouthed at her.
“Oh, now you are some sort of grammar Nazi,” Mel said. “Who fucking cares? Soon I’ll have enough money to expand my baking business. I got the oven fixed but I haven’t made the payments yet. I’ve been worried about it to be honest. Look at the books,” she continued. “We’re almost all full up.”
Kalyn went over to the computer where they had their online booking system and Mel was right. The day was almost fully scheduled. Monetarily it would be a very lucrative day for Mel and Kalyn both.
“Did you see the Yelp review,” Mel said with a smirk. “Someone, a special someone I think, wrote you a positive review.”
Kalyn arched her eyebrow up and then looked down at her phone. She brought up the Yelp page of the salon. There was Gary’s review.
“It’s funny,” Mel said. She watched as her friend read Gary’s review with amusement.
Kalyn’s face widened into a grin as she scrolled down through the message. She checked the time stamp. It was from yesterday, before they’d met up, before they had had sex.
“Yeah. It’s funny,” Kalyn said. She kept her grin on for a moment and then frowned as she remembered all the complications of having any sort of relationship with him entailed. It would not be easy going with Gary. Nothing ever was easy for Kalyn.