Your Brother Wants It Short, Part 4 by Jonathan

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I am 15 years old. My name is Jonathan. I live in California and it is 1975. I am now the star player on my soccer team. I have recently taken up surfing too. It is nearly the summer of my sophomore year in high school.

My soccer season is about finished and I have scored more goals then anyone on the team. This has brought me a little popularity at school as well. I know this could change at any minute. I understand I could lose my touch on the soccer field. I used to not be so good and my younger brother was the soccer star two years ago. I was determined to get better, and I have. Right now I am enjoying this part of my life.

My girl friend Nancy and I have been together for five months now. We got together around last January and now it's the start of June. We are only 15 and have only made out. We have not gone all the way yet. She hasn't mentioned it and honestly I'm a little unsure of all that. When that time comes it will take care of itself. We have fought a little, broken up, and gotten back together. I hope we stay together for a long time, I really like Nancy.

I have my new found freedom of riding my bike everywhere. My mom trusts me as long as I come home around when she's said I need to. A couple of times I stayed out too long and she grounded me for three days, not fun! I learned my lesson. I like being free to meet who I want and go places I've never been. It's just so different when you go everywhere in your mom's car with her.

I go to the beach now. I have met some surfers from my high school. They are 15 like me. They live in the rental apartments near the beach. Their names are Paul and Jeffery. They have long surfer hair and are very tan. They both are pretty cool. They smoke cigerettes, but I just smoke a few around them. I haven't fully picked up a taste for those yet. I only hang out with them on Monday and Friday evenings. I have soccer practice after school and too many other things to do the rest of the days. They have taught me how to surf. Right now I'm just ok at it.

My brother and I don't spend as much time together as we used to. He is still in jr. high and has his own friends. We still do things together at home. My brother has very short hair and dresses preppy style. He also started doing better in school now too. I would say he's a little different than I am now. I turned a bit more wild and dress more like a young rebal.

I wear beat up clothes and a lot of t-shirts. About four months ago I went to a Mexican barber to get my haircut for soccer season. Since then it has not been cut. At the time I had gotten my first flattop haircut. Well it sort of happened by accident. The Mexican barber cut it that way, I am not sure why. It wound up being a big hit at school. People loved feeling it. It made me stand out. It's the 70s and nearly all the boys have hair covering their ears. My girlfriend Nancy liked my flattop a lot!

I never believed I'd be brave enough to cut my hair that short. I have kinda big ears and could never do it. Since my brother wanted his hair clipper short one time I did it too. This made my fear of short hair go away. It had gotten long sometimes, but has been shorn short many times since.

It has been nearly four months since my last flattop. I was going to get another flattop two months ago. It grew out past that bad spiky stage now and I have just let it start to grow over my ears now. It's kind of irritating me. Not that it's in my eyes yet, but I'm not liking the feeling of longer hair again. For a year or so I'd grown it out. Previous to that year it had been clipper short since I was 13. Then came the flattop, I liked the sensational feeling of this haircut. I should never have let it get this long.

Soon soccer season would be over. I'd spend more time at the beach and surfing. I also wanted to spend as much time with Nancy as I could. This summer I'd be going to camp for two weeks in the start of July. I could not wait. I am going to turn 16 in December.

I had recently been thinking about getting my haircut again. It would be summer and I wanted it shorn off again. It was getting hot out too. Maybe go back to Sanchez Barber Shop I thought. I had a facination with that place. I wondered if that same good looking barber was still there 4 months later. Maybe he had different shifts and wasn't always there. The more I thought about it the more excited I started to get. I loved how his big hands had held and twisted my head. Also how he had touched and folded down my ears. I needed some money from my mom though.

It was a Friday morning and my mom gave me money to get a haircut after school. All that day I kept thinking about that haircut. Would he be there? Should I go to another shop? How should I get my hair cut?
I couldn't wait for school to be over that day.

Soon my last class came. I planned to rush off on my bike and not say any good byes, not even to Nancy. I had a strange feeling of trepidation and excitement as well. I stared at the clock waiting and begging for 3:15 to come. Buzzzzz the end of the day high school bell!

I ran to the bike rack, got on my bike and was off! I rode the 4 blocks to Sanchez Barber Shop. Soon I was there. I looked my bike up in front of the same liquor store as before at the old beat up shopping center build nearly 30 years ago. The pavement in the parking lot was crumbling and the paint peeling on the walls.

"What was that barbers name?" I asked myself.

"What if he was not there?" I told myself.

"Jonathan, just walk by the barbershop window like last time and look in first," I thought.

"If he's not there, don't go in!" I convinced myself.

As I got closer to the shop I noticed more people in there. Two barbers! Three young Mexican kids just around my age. Two getting haircuts and one in the seating area.

"What two barbers, and so many custumers?" I hadn't thought of this.

"Just go in Jonathan, you do want a haircut," I said.

I stood there down the way. Thinking like the last time. Open the door and it's too late, there's no turning back! My throat dry and my knees week I walked toward the door. All ten eyes in that shop saw me grab the door handle. I had to walk in now and did! Why was I so nervous? Was it the barber, or I'd soon be shorn?

"Hola, hi," said the barber.

The other barber gave me a head nod. It was amazing. This other barber who was around 35 was 100% bald! I had seen few bald men as it was the 1970s, not many baldies around. He was Mexican and dark like the other barber. I was amazed at his head and ears. No hair at all and so shinny! Both barbers were mid way trimming the two Mexican kids over the ears longish hair. It didn't look like the third kid waiting had his haircut yet. I kept watching both boy's haircuts trying to see who would be done first. I knew the kid sitting next to me was next. He'd get the barber who finished first.

Just one of the three kids gave me a slight head nod. I felt they knew I was white and didn't like me here. Just very minor tension, nothing big. Suddenly the kid with the bald barber was done. Oh, that ment I'd have the good looking barber from last time. The kid sitting next to me got up and rotated places with the freshly cut kid. I could not tell if they were all brothers, cousins, or friends. They all spoke in Spanish with a little English mixed in. I felt a little out of place, but didn't care much.

Soon the blow dryer! The other kid was done now. My turn! I walked over to the good looking barber's chair and stood there as he swept some hair up like last time. Then I sat down and was clipped with the tissue and cape.

"This is not jur first time here, si amigo?" he asks.

"No I was here before awhile ago," I answer him.

"How you want jur hair a cut?" he asks.

"I had a flattop last time, maybe that again," I answer.

That suddenly got the attention of the two Mexican teenagers sitting in the waiting area. They were quickly interested in my flattop. Nearly no one got a flattop in 1975.

"Dude you're getting a flattop?" one of the kids said.

"You might as well go bald, like him," the other one said.

"Jew should chave it todos amigo," my barber tells me.

"Take it all off like him," the kid in the barber chair said.

"I want to watch that," the kid in the right waiting chair said.

"I don't know," I said.

"Raparse todos amigo," my barber said.

All of this happened so fast. I didn't know what to say. Then I realized I was getting excited with all this.

"Ok, shave it!" I said with out really thinking.

The barber took his big clippers and they went claaaaacck on. They came first straight across my head. There was one zero patch straight across my front bangs. They kept going and going. The top of my head was bald. The two kids in the chairs were watching my hair come off with total amazement. The barber held down my right ear and clipped all the hair off around that ear. He then put his big brown hand on the top of my now bald head and tilted my head into his chest. He got very close and was buzzing and buzzing the left side of my head. The right ear and right side of my head was pushed hard up against his chest. I could feel the skin on my bald head touching his hand and fingers as he moved my head around. Wow, what a sensation this was.

The other kid was now done. All three stared at me getting my head shaved for awhile.

"Wow he's bald man!" they kept saying.

"I like that, but I'm not that brave," one of them said.

My barber used some small clippers to finish off any stubble on my head. I could see in the mirror my head was looking shiny. He folded down each ear and clipped around them to get any leftover hair. The my barber clipped away all the small hairs on my neck. I was about done. I thought what have I done. I was bald!! What would people say. Would my mom get mad? What about my girlfriend Nancy.

I got up and looked in the mirror. I did kind of like it. The ears looked bigger and it was so shinny. Now I looked like the other barber in this shop. I felt it, wow so smooth! I paid and walked out. Now Jonathan was bald for the first time and ready for all the stares, rubs, and comments!

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