Saucy Girl
By Cookirini
"Hold still, hon."
The young woman, her skin as white as alabaster, gave a frown as the large,
rough hands of the large black hairdresser tilted her head to an upright
position. Her spotless face was speckled with short, straight strings of black
hair as she stared into the mirror.
"I can cut your mighty pretty neck right well, hon,"
the hairdresser gave the woman a nod, "If you don't hold yourself still here."
"Just hurry up." The woman didn't look at the hairdresser in the eye. "I have a
function I need to be at tonight. Why
I decided to come here, I'll never know."
"Um hum." A comb brushed through the white woman's hair. "Just you hold
yourself still. You'll look good for your party yet."
Luella Bates Washington Jones had seen this woman's type before. She wore an
expensive silk dress, a pair of black high-heeled stilettos,
and before Luella had her take them off, she had worn very expensive jewelry
and a coat lined with the most expensive mink money could buy. Always showing
off, these were the women that Luella catered to, from ten in the morning until
ten in the evening, at the Plaza Hotel's exclusive hair salon.
"You have a fine coat, I should say," Luella returned to cutting the woman's
hair. "It look like mink to me, ain't it?"
"How would you know?"
"Customers of all kinds, hon." Luella looked up for a moment before resuming
her cut. "I get rich ones down here, see, with the poor ones."
"Uh huh." The woman was disinterested as she examined her nails. "Do you do
manicures at a decent price? I need my nails done for the function I'm going to
– or do you know how?"
"I don't do manicures. So, you have some kids, hon?"
The scissors snipped across the back of the woman's hair. "I have a few of 'em at my stoop. You have some?"
"I have no children, thank you." The
woman seemed repulsed that Luella was talking to her. "And no, I do not plan to
have children. How long do we have until you are finished?"
"A few more snips, hon, and you'll be on your way for
sure." Luella hated sassy, saucy customers such as this woman, but she kept the
smile on her face. "You want to adopt then?"
"Absolutely not. I'm no Warbucks."
"Shame, though," The scissors kept
snipping, "that there be children without parents on the streets of this here
godly city. I see a child be taken by surprise this morning – was minding his
business, and someone come accusin' him of robbery!
He had nothin' –I saw him the whole morning just
peddling with nothing going – and an old man dressed like a banker who weren't nowhere near him says he robs him! It's a shame,
I tell you – if God intended our children to grow up urchins, then we older
ones should be taking care of them when we can, hon."
"Thank you for the patronizing, madam." The woman, by this time, had had
enough. "But I haven't the time or inclination for such petty thoughts. I'm
sorry I don't share your views, but can you finish this?"
"Oh, of course, then, hon." By this time, Luella was finished, and she let the
woman go. "Just preaching from the pulpit a bit, hon,
I tend to do that. Of course, hon, I used to be rich
myself from my second husband - I married well like you - before he squander it
on gin and Florida swamp. I had purple mink and blue diamonds, sweet, and
remembering what I had I know things is so
hard when you're a rich woman."
"And for that, you won't get a tip." The woman immediately walked off as soon
as the cloth covering her dress was off. "I did not come here for a sermon.
Have a good day."
Luella could not help but smirk at the woman as she left, putting her coat and
jewelry on as she slammed the door. She turned to her co-workers, who were
snickering along with her.
"Get a look at that tender chicken, sweetheart! Guess she ain't
happy." One of them was shaking her head. "What you tell her, Lue?"
"Nothin' I don't tell other customers. She be a new
socialite, it looks to me." Luella gave a nod. "Can't be much more then twenty,
no more then twenty five. Has a mighty stance on them street kids, though."
"Wasn't we all amongst 'em once! You thinkin' she'a gettin' robbed t'day, Lue?"
"Reckon she'll be mugged sooner enough. Of course she'd be callin'
the police too if it happened, that little child." At this, Luella looked up at
the ceiling and raised her hands. "If I weren't where I was today, and if I
hadn't been how I was before, I'd be most unhappy like her. But God knocks
y'all down when you're up there, and when you finally down and out, you
understand. Better to give your love and charity to the meek who can't do it on
their own rather than kick 'em down; we all knows
who'll be the ones left poor when the Almighty finishes his work!"
