Leaving Serenity Read Free Page B

an electric razor. I waited to see if blood would gush out of his skin when she cut him. I blew a sigh of relief when Adam hopped out of the pink and white chair without a scratch. Jeff jumped in the chair behind Adam. He pulled his cowboy hat off his head so that it hu ng around his neck by a string.
    “I want to be just like Adam.”
    Miss Ruby took Jeff’s hat off and pushed it down over his eyes. “You got it, Pardner!”
    Miss Ruby shaved Jeff’s head , too , without any blood. Then she walked over to Mama and pulled a curler from Mama’s hair. A curl snapped back tight against Mama’s bare head.
    “You’re done.”
    Miss Ruby turned toward Beth and ran her fingers through Beth’s dark, curly hair, fluffing it up. “Law, Shirley, this child has the most beautiful head o’ hair!”
    Mama looked at Beth lovingly as she pulled the sticky, yellow and blue curlers from her hair. “Yes, she’s such a beauty, and blessed with my mama’s hair.”
    Miss Ruby let Beth sit in the chair, but she didn’t cut her hair, just fluffed it up a little more. Then she looked down at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, well. What are we going to do with this little one?”
    Mama tossed the last of her curlers in a big plastic basket and jumped into the pink and white chair. “Comb me out first. We need to be moving along.”
    Miss Ruby teased Mama’s dark hair real high and sprayed it back down flat . Then, she pumped me up high enough to see myself in the big mirror behind the counter.
    Miss Ruby held up a few strands of my colorless, fine hair. “We’ve got a few cowlicks going on here.”
    I turned my head and looked up at Miss Ruby’s pretty face. “What does that mean?”
    Miss Ruby chuckled. “Well, Darlin’, that means that the cow licked you before you was even born, and now, there’s no hope for this hair of yours.”
    I turned back around in the chair and looked in the big mirror. Grandpa Zeke said that we all came from Heaven. I tried to picture a cow licking me when I was still in Heaven.
    I gave Miss Ruby my best snaggletooth smile. “Can you make me have yellow hair like yours?”
    Miss Ruby laughed out loud this time. “Sure I can, when you’re old enough. But, until then, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to settle for dishwater blonde.”
    Miss Ruby sighed real loud like she was feeling tired. “Now, Miss Shirley, what are we going to do here?”
    Mama cocked her head and looked at the gold wrist watc h Daddy gave her for Christmas.
    “Annette’s hair has a mind of its own just like her daddy’s . Do the best you can.”
    My face fell to the ground when Miss Ruby turned me around to look in the big mirror. My sawed off hair didn’t look anything like hers. I wondered if Miss Ruby didn’t like me, or if she was just too tired to make me look pretty since I came last.
    Outside the beauty parlor, Adam slipped his hand through the crook in Mama’s arm.
    “Mother, can we take a look at that new bike at the Western Auto?”
    Mama hugged him close and placed a peck on his brand-new flat top. Adam always had his way with Mama because he was the oldest and called her Mother. But I didn’t care, as long as it meant going to the toy aisle in the Western Auto store. Adam and Jeff jumped on the red Western Flyers and made motor noises with their lips. Mama filed her nails and smiled at Adam perched on the new bike.
    Beth and I climbed inside the Lincoln Log playhouse. Inside the playhouse, I cried because the cow licked me, and my haircut made me feel ugly.
    Beth sat on the bench next to me. “What’s wrong, Annette?”
    “I’m not pretty like you,” I sobbed.
    Beth patted my shoulder and sighed. “Aw, you can’t help it. You just wasn’t blessed like me.”

Chapter 3
    Lessons
    Neglected Victorian-style houses greet me as I turn the corner. Their turrets and gables look majestic, even in their ruined state. The sad looking street reminds me of the hard less ons I learned on