Chapter Six, Part II

Kara turned out to be totally different than Jake's initial impressions. She slowed down enough for Jake to recognize that it was nervousness and not illegal stimulants that made her talk fast. Jake could answer her questions without being railroaded. Most of her questions focued on what Jake did. He mentioned he was a law school student which made Kara act even more desperate for Jake to pretend to be her boyfriend. He saw her reflection in the mirror and she had that weird look in her eyes, that look that certain females get when they discover a man is relatively good looking and has a good job or has the potential to have a good job, as in attending a professional school like law or medicine or business. He had to end this line of questioning quickly.
Jake said, "I'm dating someone right now, as in serious relationship. If I weren't seeing someone, I might might have been crazy enough to do something like that. People at law school are notorious for spreading gossip."
"Oh." She resumed cutting his hair and she asked, "By any chance, do you have any single male friends?"
Jake laughed. Kara was persistent or possibly crazy. One could never be too sure as the line between the two was blurry. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times in trying to find a suitable material for the part that glowed and carried current in the incandescent lightbulb. Some might have called this effort futile after failing a thousand times, but he persisted in his pursuit. He finally found the right material and the rest was history. He had to admire her in this respect.
"Yes, in fact, I do. I'm not too sure if they would go along with this." He laughed. "I might, however, suggest they come over to this place for haircuts. You might find someone you like. What about that?"
"That would be nice."
Jake quickly glanced at the mirror. Something appeared different for some reason. It took a while, but his hair seemed shorter than normal. Then again, hair a half-inch long was pretty short. Most people didn't know the difference anyways. It was probably a half inch long.
For a person cutting hair the first time, at least on an actual customer, she was doing very well. Kara had a friendly personality and interacted well with people. Judging her progress, Kara was halfway done with cutting his hair. She was efficient with cutting hair, a quality that most places were lacking. Jake was confident things would turn out fine, despite the nagging thought that his hair was too short for his tastes. He was probably just mistaken.
As it so happened, the owner walked by and said, "His hair is very short. It looks like a quarter inch, if I'm not mistaken." She asked Jake, "Did you ask for your hair to be this short?"
Jake answered, "I wanted my hair a half-inch long. How long did you say it was?" Maybe that nagging feeling was correct. He should have listened to his instincts a lot more.
"Based upon experience, I'd say a quarter inch? Kara, what guard number are you using?"
From Jake's experience, he knew that the guard number refered to the length the hair would be cut. The lower the number, the shorter the length of the hair. Most places used Wahl electric clippers and a number six was an one-inch' guard and a number one was an one-eighth inch guard. The quarter-inch guard would be a number two. The half-inch guard would be a number four. He knew this as his next-door neighbor worked at a hair salon equipment store. She sold equipment to all the hair salons in town. If Kara said, "Number two," his hair was a quarter-inch long, and not a half-inch long. Jake hoped it was a number four.
"Um, let me see." She looked at the number on the guard and said, "Oh, it's a number two. Uh oh, I used the wrong guard. I'm so sorry. I guess I didn't notice."
Jake, for some reason, didn't get angry or furious. He stayed very calm. When he was younger and he got a bad haircut, he would have experienced a sudden upsurge in anger and other nasty emotions, but never violence. That would have been extremely stupid. It was also expensive. He had to help pay for many shattered windows as a young child. Jake quickly learned to stay calm and not act so rashly. Besides, it was hair and it would grow back soon. That and it couldn't be that bad. People made mistakes.
The store owner said, "This really shouldn't have happened."
Jake said, "People make mistakes. It's hair and it'll grow back. Let's see if you can salvage something from this."
"Hmm...let's see. It's possible, but it might be hard." After examining the state of Jake's hair, she concluded by saying, "I might be able to come up with something."
She took scissors and did her best to salvage something from the current situation. It took twenty minutes, but she did manage to come up with an acceptable solution. Jake looked in the mirror and saw that his hair didn't look too military like a crew cut or a buzz cut. It wasn't what what he had in mind originally, but at least his hair style looked normal, just with shorter hair than he would have liked.
With the haircut (more like an aborted haircut and a haircut reconstructive surgery) completed, they went through the post-haircut procedure. This involved brushing the hair off the hair-barrier device, the removal of this device, the disposal of the paper neck barrier, and all the minor details that follow the normal haircut. When these rituals were completed, Jake and the owner went to the cash register for the most important post-haircut ritual, the payment of fees.
The store owner apologized again and Jake replied that it was just hair and it would grow back. Yes, his hair was much shorter than he expected, but it looked normal.
Jake took out his wallet and asked, "How much do I pay?"
The owner said, "Oh no, you don't own anything. This haircut is free."
Jake put his wallet back into his wallet and said, "Thanks. See you later. Bye."
He exited the store and entered his car. Jake drove home. He had laundry to do. He barely noticed his haircut.