Six
‘Tell me, Beth. Who’s Lisa?’
‘She’s … my … my … oh, she’s no one.’
Nanna was unconvinced. ‘You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?’
‘I … um …’
‘I mean anything, darling.’
‘I know. It’s …’
‘If another girl was treating you badly, you should’ve told someone. I can’t abide bullies. You know that. You remember how I dealt with that one when I was at school?’
‘No? What did you do?’
‘Are you sure I’ve never told you?’
‘Definitely not. Tell me now, please?’
‘Oh, she was horrible, as thick as mince, as my dear Malcolm would’ve said, and just plain mean.’
‘And …?’
‘OK. Well … I’m not saying it was exactly the right thing to do, but … what you need to know is, she was horrible to all the other girls, and I just couldn’t stand it any more.’
‘Nanna?’ Beth asked, apprehensively. ‘What did you do?’
‘Oh all right. I waited until she went to the lavatory and I … well, I pushed her head down the pan.’
‘You didn’t?’
‘I did!’ Nanna chuckled. ‘She was lucky I didn’t flush.’
Beth couldn’t help grinning at her nanna, she was tiny and she’d always been as skinny as a rake, but she’d clearly been a feisty one, even then. ‘Didn’t you get in trouble?’
‘There was a lot going on, the teachers had bigger fish to fry!’ Nanna returned to their previous topic. ‘Anyway, tell me. Who was this Lisa? A school bully?’
‘No. It’s not that.’
‘What is it, then?’
‘The thing was, it was just hard to concentrate because she ‒’
‘You’re such a moany bitch!’ Lisa blew a loud raspberry in Beth’s ear.
‘Because she what?’
‘Don’t you dare slag me off to Nanna.’ There was threat in Lisa’s voice.
Beth shook her head. ‘Oh … nothing. I should’ve concentrated more at school, that’s all. You’re right, I was a bit of a chatterbox.’ At the thought of the bully’s head in the toilet, she asked, ‘So tell me, Nanna, what did the other girls at school say?’
‘I was their hero for the rest of the term!’
Lisa was less than impressed with Beth’s choice of hair salon. ‘Of all the places you could’ve worked, you’ve gone for a boring hairdressers in a quiet parade of shops. Why the hell have you picked Daphne’s?’
‘Nanna knows the manageress. She sorted it out for me.’
‘Christ, you are dull. I would’ve chosen one of those flashy places in town.’
‘You know how I am around fashionable people. It’s awkward. Those people scare the hell out of me.’
Lisa’s disappointment was obvious. ‘Fashionable people! Listen to you. You could be fashionable too. Why do you let everybody intimidate you?’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘So you should be. We’re going to be stuck in there, day in and day out. Forever!’
‘It’s a nice place.’
‘It’s a shit-heap.’
‘You say potato, I say potahto.’ It was a song, Beth had heard Nanna sing.
‘Nobody says potahto, you idiot!’
‘I guess not. Sorry, Lisa.’
Her sister wasn’t done yet. ‘That place is awful. With all the trendy hairdressers in town, you’ve managed to end up with a job in the “little old lady poodle parlour” around the corner.’
‘It’ll be good for me. Those other places are too flashy. Nanna says I’ll learn my craft from the bottom up.’
‘Learn your craft? Learn your craft! You’ll be washing old ladies’ hair and sweeping the floor.’
‘Why do you keep doing this?’
‘Doing what?’
‘Making me feel bad about myself. Why can’t you just be happy for me? Like you were when we were kids. You used to be supportive and nice …’
‘And where did that get me? I’m still stuck in your head, watching you live your life, and watching you mess it up.’
‘Just because I don’t want to take risks, the way you do. You have no idea what it’s like to have to sit exams and remember facts …’
‘I have no idea what it’s like to do anything!’
Beth experienced the usual rush of guilt. ‘I know. I’m sorry, Lisa. But … I’ve got a job, can you at least try to be happy for me, please?’
‘Happy? You got crap exam results and now you’ve got a crap job. Forgive me if I’m not jumping for joy. What a waste of a life.’
And there it was again. Lately, Lisa was repeatedly returning to this theme.
‘I’m not wasting it. I’m living it. I’m grateful to Nanna for getting me the job.’
‘Don’t be. She’s done you no favours.’
‘Why are you nasty all the time?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘You were always yakking in my ear. That’s why I did so badly at school. You laughed at me when I couldn’t add up the sums. You smirked at any attempt I made at literacy. How the hell was I supposed to finish an exam with you shouting, “wrong” in a sarcastic voice, every single time I tried to answer a question?’
‘What you wrote didn’t look right to me. Pardon me for commenting.’
‘It wasn’t helpful. Now, please, just let me have a go at this job. Can you try to be glad for me? For us? In it together, like when we were kids. OK?’
‘Fine. I’ll try. But if it was up to me …’
Exasperation exploded from Beth. ‘Well, it’s not up to you. Things are up to me. Remember?’
‘Yes, of course, things are up to you. Things are always up to you!’ Lisa’s tone became snide and resentful.
Beth instantly regretted the argument. Trying to change the mood, she gently reminded Lisa, ‘It’s not my fault.’
‘What isn’t?’
‘You know what. It’s not my fault I lived.’
‘And it’s not my fault I died!’ Lisa sulked.
Beth pushed the door nervously, not sure what to expect from her first day at work. Before she was even properly in the salon, she was hit by an array of chemical smells. Met by a middle-aged lady with severely back-combed hair, it was less than a minute before she was presented with her very own tabard. Then, together with the back-combed lady, whose name was Kath, they embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the salon. It was immediately obvious there wasn’t a single client under the age of seventy.
‘I bloody told you it’d be like this.’ Lisa made no attempt to put a brave face on it.
Every so often one of the customers popped out from under the dryer, like a piece of well-done toast, and their hair was teased and tweaked.
Lisa gave a fake yawn. ‘Another one who wants to look like the Queen on a friggin’ stamp.’
And so it went on, for the whole day. Some of them needed a trim, which resulted in Beth being ‘taught’ how to sweep the floor. Some of them needed a perm, which resulted in her wanting to throw up due to the bad egg smell. She had half an hour to eat her packed lunch in the tiny back room that doubled as kitchen and store cupboard, before it was back to the grindstone. Unfortunately, her short lunch was far from a peaceful break. Lisa spent the entire time berating her for taking the job in the first place.
By mid-afternoon, Beth was declared ready to learn how to wash hair.
Leaning the chosen victim back into the basin with shaking hands, her heart hammered in her chest.
‘Why the hell are you nervous?’ Lisa asked.
‘Shush. Go away!’
‘Why is your heart beating like a race horse. It’s just an old lady.’ Lisa seemed determined to put her off.
Distracted for a second, the water spray slipped out of Beth’s grasp. A gush of water made its way down the customer’s back, through her woolly cardigan and beyond her crisp blouse.
‘Idiot!’ Lisa sounded delighted.
‘Perhaps if you’d just keep quiet.’ Beth wanted nothing more than to learn to do the job alone.
As the day ended and Beth gave the floor its final sweep, Kath approached her with a small brown envelope in her hand.
‘I haven’t had time to sort you out properly, sweetie. It’s all dead confusing and I need my husband, Beppe to help me with the paperwork side of things. Anyway, I thought I’d give you some cash for today, just until I get sorted, then I’ll pay you weekly. OK?’
Beth nodded. Is some cash OK? Too right, some cash is OK. She’d thought she was going to have to wait at least a week to get some money. It took all her restraint not to snatch the envelope from Kath’s well-manicured hand. Instead, she politely took the brown envelope, thanked her boss, and skipped out of the door.
Racing through the streets with the envelope clutched in her hand, Beth was determined not to open it until she was home. Despite Lisa’s protests that if it were her money she’d want to find out immediately, she ran on.
Arriving home, she noted her mum was still at the hospital, and her dad wasn’t home yet from his job at the engineering firm. As Beth was working now, Nanna had no need to come over during the day. So she was alone in the house. More or less! ‘How much do you think I got paid, Lisa?’
‘I haven’t a clue.’
‘I never thought I’d get paid this quick. She can take as long as she likes to sort it all out, if it means I’m going to get cash every day.’ Beth walked into her room and flopped on to the bed. Tearing the edge off the envelope, she tipped it up. Oh, the excitement when a ten-pound note fluttered slowly onto the bed. ‘Yes!’
‘Is that what you were expecting?’
‘Lisa, it’s £10! Do you think she made a mistake? It seems so much. Think of all the things we can buy. We could go to Woolworths for pick ’n’ mix.’ At this point, she was delighted with her booty, she wasn’t even thinking about the fact that she was going to have to go back and do it all again the next day.
‘That’s absolutely crap. You’ve been there all day. What a mug.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Yeah, you are. I wouldn’t do all that for a tenner. You’re knackered and your back aches from sweeping that friggin’ floor.’
‘No, it doesn’t.’
‘Why do you even bother lying to me?’ Lisa sighed.
‘I’m not. I’m just …’
‘So, are we getting pick ’n’ mix or what?’