Having my hair cut today was not just for grooming - I went for the therapy of it. Tina, the shampoo lady at Images, has magic in her fingers as she massages my scalp. I have told her more than once that if I ever win the lottery I will come to her every blessed day. Tina is Italian and the only person I still even try to speak Italian with. I may not be able to say more than "Come stai, Tina." but somehow with those few words we connect on a different level.
Sometimes being in the beauty shop is not all comfort - it brings me slap up against reality.
After Soraya put the color on my hair I read while I waited for my transformation. And I listened to the voices surrounding me. Then the voices seemed to focus one one note and I heard it. Guns at the local high school. Yesterday two students were arrested selling guns in the bathroom. There was a shot fired. Thankfully no one was hurt.
The high school girl who is the afternoon receptionist chimed in reminding people that she goes to that high school. Telling them how she was late to work yesterday because the police held all the students on the campus until they had completed the arrests. As I paid my bill I said to her, "your parents must be worried about you." "Oh, yeah - they are kind of freaked out and keep calling and bugging me during the day."
How do they stand it, I wondered to myself. Thank goodness for the cell phone umbilical.
Remember how it was before cell phones - waiting and wondering without being able to connect with your child. I worried and sometimes could only breathe easy as I saw them walk down the street or the car turned into the driveway. But nothing like this - where the schools are armed.
Like a turtle I want to pull my head back in my shell. I do not want to know about this - but that won't make it go away.
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