Page 50 of Weatherman

Hilda stood shyly behind her grandmother. Her long hair was tied up in a ponytail holder, all one length with no discernible style, uneven split ends, and a bunch of flyaways decorating the strands. On the upside, it was clean and thick. Plenty to work with.

My heart went out to her. She was thin and a little gangly. Her clothes were clean but not stylish or fitted very well. I remembered the story of her parents’ death on the Tail and thought about how much of a shock that was. It was hard to imagine her life up to now and what kind of future she might have. I couldn’t fix everything for her, but I could do this much.

“Hi, Hilda. Nice to see you again. Let me ring Eden up, and we’ll go get you shampooed.”

Eden followed me to the register to pay for her services and said she’d call to schedule her next appointment. Once she was gone, I went back to Hilda.

“So, do you have an idea of what you want?”

Brown eyes glanced up, and she mumbled something.

Burna snapped sharply, “Speak up, girl. No one’s gonna pay any mind to you if you don’t.”

The teenager seemed to shrink into herself. It wasn’t hard to see why. Burna’s presence and sour attitude sucked the life out of everything around her. I imagined the poor girl struggled daily to find anything positive or good. I identified with her and recognized a kindred spirit. It wasn’t easy to survive when you were stuck and had very few choices to get out.

I lifted a tangle. “Let’s get you shampooed and conditioned. Then we’ll talk about what you want to do.”

Burna sniffed. “That costs extra, don’t it? Just spray it down with water first. I have things to do.”

I spotted Tambre burring up for a confrontation and stepped in the gap to avoid it—and hopefully give Hilda a break. “It’s going to be hard to give your granddaughter a nice style withoutsome conditioning treatment first. How ’bout you leave her here while you go run your errands? I’ll take good care of her, and no wild colors. Okay?”

Burna opened her mouth to protest, but then a miracle occurred, and she backed down. “All right, then. I guess conditioning isn’t a bad idea.”

I turned to Hilda and smiled warmly. “You really do have nice hair. It’s got nice body and the perfect amount of curl. Do you straighten it at all?”

Hilda hazarded a quick glance at her grandmother. It was an awkward and stiff move. She didn’t really act scared of Burna, more like she was trying not to trigger her or start a ruckus. Living with the older woman had to be tough. “I don’t have a flat iron.”

“I hope you never do. There are so many women who would love to have hair like this.”

Her eyes came back to me. “Really? I always thought it was plain. Dull.”

Her unspoken“like me”echoed silently, and I wanted to hug her so badly.

Tambre noticed it, too, and we exchanged a quick glance. She gave me a “go ahead” nod and spoke to Burna in her soothing voice. “I understand there’s a new fabric store that opened recently. Have you been there? What’s it like?”

The older woman turned and pounced like a tiger smelling fresh meat. “The service was terrible…”

I let her fade to white noise and sat Hilda in my chair. “What did you have in mind?”

The girl squirmed. “I was thinking, like, layers and… um… bangs? I don’t want it real short, but not so long and maybe not so heavy?”

I nodded with the surety she needed at the moment. “How about some simple long layers just below your shoulders andsome shorter ones around your face? Takes out some of the volume and makes styling easier if you want to add more curl or framing. I can do side-sweep bangs but keep them longer also to blend. Wanna try?”

“Whatever you think is best.”

Uff-da, this girl!“No, sweetheart. This is your hair and your call to make. I can make suggestions, but there’s no right or wrong here. Whatever you want is what’s best.”

Hilda took a deep breath. I didn’t think she’d ever had this opportunity before. “Yes, let’s try.”

Burna raged over the “outrageous price of fleece” as I shampooed Hilda’s long tresses. “I’m going to use a colored conditioning rinse to bring out more of the chocolaty tones. It won’t dye your hair, just enhance what you already have. Okay with you?”

The girl relaxed a little. “Sounds good.”

I wrapped her up in a conditioning treatment and left her to sit while I prepped the rest of my station for the makeover. Burna finished with her critique of the fabric store and moved on to grocery store prices as Hilda left the wash sinks to sit in my chair. I combed through the mass, then clipped up several twisted clumps on top of her head. The cut was a simple one and didn’t take a long time. I took off about six inches of the length and point-snipped the ends. As I worked, I talked to the girl.

“What color is your dress?”

“Kind of a teal. I found it at the Goodwill store. Might have been a bridesmaid dress at one time, but I took off all the ruffle-y parts and hemmed it some to just above the knee. I didn’t want to throw away the leftover material, so I made a flutter drape around the shoulders.”

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