Down and out in Albany, Part VI by Vegard

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Part VI
Indistructable.

He met Bill in shop the next day, where Bill was the natural center of attention, sporting his new look. There was a lot of jokes and laughter about it, but Bill laughed with.
Grinning broadly as Danny came in, he walked over.
"My dad came and had a talk with me in my room yesterday." He said.
"Ok?" Danny thought about the surprising reaction from Mister Reilly, and hoped Bill hadn´t experienced anything similar.
"Yeah." Bill pretended to look disgusted, but did a poor job of it.
"He actually came in and told me how proud he was. "
"Hey. Cool!" Danny said, hoping he managed to sound positive, and he must have pulled it off, because Bill didn´t react.
Hearing about Bill´s Dad liking his son´s new haircut brought back the bitterness he felt towards Mister Reilly though. But he didn´t mention it.
He knew Bill and his dad had had a bit of a rough time after Bill had been caught smoking weed, and felt good about him having gotten a better relationship with his dad again. With Bill now on the football team, and with really short hair, his dad felt he had good reason to be proud of him.

The day went by quickly, and it seemed all the guys on the team were filled with anticipation as coach Bradshaw came in to the locker room to talk to them before practice.
"Ok! So, who´s in?" Coach asked, "Show of hands!"
Danny looked around, craning his neck, so he could see them all.
Damn! It was about two thirds. Some arms where held up high, and some were berely up at all. Andy sort of pointed one finger towards the ceiling, and Danny laughed when he saw. Andy gave him a bit of a sheepish grin.

Holding his own hand up, Coach looked at "his boys" with pride,
"Awesome!" he said.
His mood was infectious, and three more guys put their hands up, grinning.
Some teasing began against the guys who still hadn´t raised their hands, and Mark exclaimed, "I can cut it, you know! But not THAT short!"
The others laughed.
"How short will you go?" Kyle asked.
"How ´bout a crewcut?" Mark asked, looking at Coach as he said it.
Coach practically beamed at him, "If the rest of you guys can go for crewcuts that would be awesome to!"

The power of peer pressure is a curious thing. A few of the guys had agreed between them the day before, NOT to go through with this. But by the end of the locker-room talk, all had agreed to get skinned, or get a crewcut, or similar.
Since a lot of the guys needed to hit the barbershops before closing time they quit practice after just over an hour, and as they left the field, to hit the showers, Coach yelled after them,
"As short as you dare, and then a bit shorter!"

There was quite a bit of exited chatter in the locker room, as the boys were telling each other what they had planned, and discussing where to go.
Danny and Mike took it upon themselves to bring a group to Bob Grant´s.
"How about you?" Danny asked Benny, who apparently sat in deep thought by his locker, "Are you comin´?"
"I think I´ll just tag along and watch." Benny said and came with.

There was one customer waiting as they trooped in to Barber Bob´s, and one getting finished up in the chair, and Bob looked up, startled as the boys entered.
"Hello boys!" he greeted as he saw them coming in, "What´s happening?"
"Gettin´ buzzed for the game Saturday!" Danny grinned, "If you have time?" he added.
Bob looked them over, and counted, "There´s 6 of you!" he stated. "I guess I´ll call my wife and tell her I´m coming home late!"

"Ok! So, who´s first?" Bob asked, smiling at the group of boys.
"I am!" Mike was already on his way out of the chair in the waiting area walking towards the barber chair, looking seriously at Danny as he said it.
They hadn´t talked about it, but Danny had decided what his Dad had said the day before, well, sucked. And what better way to show him, than to go through with this despite his Dad´s view on it.
Danny gave a grateful smile, understanding what was in this act of rebellion, and apprieciating the support.
Mike sat down, grinned at himself in the mirror, and said, "All off please, Mister Grant!"
"Ok! One football special coming up!" Bob exclaimed, laughing and shaking his head at the same time.

One by one the boys were shared, with Barber Bob´s shop looking like the barbershop at an Army base, with the floor almost carpeted with hair as the boys were transformed in front of the mirror.
Mike´s hair wasn´t very long to begin with, and there wasn´t that much falling to the floor, but with the next four, there was plenty!
Steve, another junior, could hardly remember the last time he´d had his hair cut, and had hair reaching well below his shoulders. It was with quite a bit of regret he saw it mowed off.
He felt his head looked so small as it appeared pass by pass from the clippers. Small and white, with his tanned face in stark contrast to the freshly shorn scalp.
Rubbing his head as he left the chair, he walked over to the others and sat back down.

"So you´re next son," Bob looked at Benny, the last one waiting.
Benny looked trapped.
"I, eh, I don´t,…." He looked down, feeling ashamed of himself for not having the guts the others did to go through with this.
His hair was so light, shaving it wouldn´t look good. Plus he had one of those round, innocent faces, and having a shaved head would probably not make him look fierce at all, but just younger and fuzzier.
"Not quite ready for a shaved head are you son?" Grant asked.
Benny muttered something none of the others quite caught.
Bob looked over at Danny, but he was staring absently out the window, seemingly miles away. He had a sort of dreamy look about him, which Bob would have asked him about if they´d been alone.

Mike came to Benny´s rescue. "You don´t have to shave it Benny! How ´bout just cutting it short?"
Benny nodded, and walked slowly over to the chair. Like a man walking to his sentence.
Combing it down, Bob asked "How about a flattop Benny?"
"Uh?" Benny said, still with a look of being cornered.
"Yeah. You would look great with a flattop!" Grant told him.
Looking at Mike almost pleadingly Benny didn´t say anything.
"Go for it!" Mike said, glancing over at Danny who now seemed to be with them again, and who nodded encouringly to Benny.
Danny had indeed been miles away. 2 ½ miles to be more precise, back at the Reilly´s, forgetting himself in a set of blue eyes, and long chestnut hair, and wondering how to ask her out without rocking the boat with her Dad.

Using clippers over comb Grant reduced the length of Benny´s hair first, to make it easier to work, before starting with a number two guard on the back and sides. He didn´t want to cut this timid kid´s hair too short, and worked on creating a nice taper towards the top of his head, leaving about an inch and half on the top.
When he was satisfied with the back and sides he applied some wax, and combed the hair up, while blow-drying it. Making it stand at attention.
Bob Grant enjoyed this. Shaving heads wasn´t really his thing. There was no craft in it. But a proper flattop, on a full head of hair, that was something!
He ordered Benny to be still, as if he needed to. The poor kid was gripping the armrests so hard his knuckles were white, and sitting as if petrified.
Grant felt sorry for him, but was fairly sure he would look good with a fresh cut.
Grabbing his flattopper comb he carefully used his clippers over comb to create a flat surface, cutting it to about a quarter of an inch in the middle, and gradually longer towards the sides. The flattop shaped up really nicely.
And with Benny´s fairly round face, this cut made him look a lot better and more mature.
Carefully adding the finishing touch, Grant looked at Benny watching himself in the mirror in the shop.
"Do you like it?" he asked gently.
Still lost for words, Benny just nodded. He was staring at himself in the mirror, but as he was uncaped, he managed to tear his eyes away from his own reflection to look at Mister Grant.
"Thanks Mister Grant!" he said, smiling a satisfied grin, while feeling the brush-like texture of his head.

Kyle didn´t mind them messing with him about having to ask Karen. When he had a girlfriend as great as he did, he had no problems with it at all.
She wasn´t happy about it. She loved his hair, almost as much as he loved hers, but she reluctantly agreed that he could go ahead with it since all the others were doing it.
Having to promise though, that he wouldn´t go for "just a shaved head", Kyle drove off to his Dad´s barber. He´d gone there with his Dad as a boy, but that was years ago now.
Parking directly in front, he was surprised when entering to see Coach Bradshaw sitting there in the waiting area. By the looks of it, Coach was next in line. And there was one other customer waiting.
They chatted a bit, and then Bradshaw was asked to take the chair.
"What´s it to be?" the barber asked.
"Shoe me!" Coach said with relish.
"Sure!" the barber lit up. That was not a cut he got to do very often.
Watching in fascination Kyle looked on as Coach was cleaned up, back and sides, before the barber started working on the shoe. Working meticulously, and shaping the hair left on top in to the horseshoe shape, with a prominent landing strip in the middle.
Having finished with his clippers, the barber applied lather and shaved the back and sides, as well as the landing strip.
The other barber was now buzy with the other customer in the shop, and the one cutting Coach was done. Getting up, Bradshaw paid, and turned to Kyle and asked "What are you going for Kyle?"
"Uhm. I´m not sure." Kyle said, and adressing the barber he asked, "What would you recommend?"
"Can´t go wrong with a shoe Kyle!" Coach said, stroking a finger down his landing strip, adding, "Isn´t that right Pete?"
"He´s right you know," Pete, the barber said, studying Kyle a moment, "I´ll bet you´d look real good with it to!" You look like you have the right kind of head shape for it."
Hesitating Kyle sat down in the chair, and said, "Let me think about it."
"Sure!" Pete, began combing his longish hair down, and asked, "Do you want it short though?"
"Yeah!" Kyle answered, and they agreed that Pete should trim the length down to a couple of inches on top, and shorter on the sides, and they´d see where it went from there. Coach sat down to watch, and soon there were two other customers waiting as well, all involved in the lively chatter about how Kyle should cut his hair.
Cutting with clippers and comb Pete took the length down to about two inches on top, and quite short on the sides. Combing it, and getting the hand-held mirror to allow Kyle to see his own head from the sides and from the back.
"See?" he said, "You have a good shape to your head! You can go real short, and pull it off!"
Kyle studied his reflection, and glanced over at Coach.
"Thanks. I´m not sure I´m ready to go quite as short as Coach Bradshaw though."
Pete laughed, "Nah, that may be a bit drastic for a first timer. How about you leave it to me though, and we can cut it shorter if you want? I promiss I´ll make you look good!"
Kind of relieved to have the descision taken for him, Kyle agreed, and settled on being a passive participant in this. Eager to see what was in store for him. And not least how Karen would take it.
Pete fired up a set of clippers with no guard, and began removing hair on the back and sides, below a sharp line, which Kyle found to be very high up. But he was on board with this though, and sat watching, as Pete continued by expertly creating a taper from zero to a number 3 on top.
Satisfied with the perfect blending of skin with the hair he began work on the shoe. As Kyle sat perfectly still Pete sculpted away in deep concentration. Coach and the other customers watched in quiet fascination.
Rather than shave smooth down the middle, Pete left a number one on the landing strip, shaping the top of the shoe like an extremely short flat top. But cutting the outer border at an angle, so it was still a definite shoe.
Finally happy with the cutting on top, Pete put a hot, wet towel around the sides and back of Kyle´s head.

Removing the towel Kyle was lathered up, and Pete, still in deep concentration, shaved the neck and sides before removing the cape, and taking care of any little stray hairs.
"There!" he said.
Kyle could hardly believe it was still him. Lifting his hand he felt the smoothness of the back, and felt gently with his fingers at the perfect transition between the smooth skin, and the short hair, letting three fingers follow the landing strip towards his forehead.
Pete looked proud. It really was a great cut, and the kid seemed to like it.
"Wow!" Kyle said, his hand still feeling the strip. "It looks great!"
Turning around he grinned at Coach, who was smiling back at him.
"I can´t wait to see Midvale´s reaction when you´re standing front and center with the others facing them Saturday!"

Tyler and Andy walked towards the parking lot together.
"Are you having your head shaved?" Andy asked.
Tyler nodded eagerly, "Yeah! Are you?"
Andy hesitated, "Maybe".
"What do you mean, maybe?"
"I dunno. I wan´t to, but it´s just so drastic. You know what I mean?"
Tyler nodded. But this was maybe their one chance to do this, and he told Andy so, and added,
"I´m wondering where to do it though."
"We could do it at my place!" Andy said.
"You have clippers?"
"Yeah! My dad does. And my folks aren´t home for hours."
"Great! Let´s go!"

"Can I cut yours first?" Tyler asked.
"Yeah, I guess." Andy was still hesitant, "But you will go through with it to, right?"
"Absolutely!"

They took one of the chairs from the kitchen and placed it in the bathroom, and Andy went and got the box with the clippers, plugging it in.
Taking the guard off Tyler directed the clippers at Andy´s forehead, and started cutting in a slow, steady movement. Up to the crown and a little bit past, before pulling back and beginning on the next pass.
Working meticulously on top, he was laughing quietly to himself.
"What are you doing?" Andy asked. The chair was too low for him to see anything in the mirror, and he was getting nervous about what was happening.
"Trust me, ok? It´s all coming off, we´re just having some fun on the way there!"
Andy laughed nervously, and let Tyler keep working. He kept running the clippers over the top of his head. Andy lifted his hand to check, but Tyler pushed it away. "Just wait, ok?"
"There!" he said, "That´s stage one done!" and Andy got up.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he didn´t know whether to laugh or cry at first. He hardly recognized the person looking back at him. His was shaved as an old, balding dude, who hadn´t had a haircut in ages.
His head was bald, except for really short stubble on top, and long, now quite thin hair down to his collar on the sides and back.
Feeling the shaved part gently with his fingers he began laughing. And soon he was laughing so hard, his eyes were tearing up. Tyler laughed with him, and stroked Andy´s bald patch with the grain, then back, feeling it rasping against his fingers.
"Ready for part two?" he asked.
"Yeah!" Andy was ready, and sat back down, wondering what was next.
Tyler attached a number four guard and began cutting the long hair on the back and sides. Stepping back to admire his handywork, he attached a smaller guard and created a taper at the neck and by the ears. His stomach was squirming, he was enjoying this so much, and at the same time feeling there was something wrong to it, which somehow made it even more pleasurable.
"Hold your hands down! No touching ´till I´m done!" he ordered as Andy tried to cop a feel again.
Grabbing a washcloth Tyler put it under warm water, wringed it slightly and placed it on Andy´s head, and searched out Andy´s Dad´s shaving cream and razor.
Realizing what Tyler was about to do, Andy´s eyes opened wide in horrid fascination.
Tyler applied the foam, and began gently scraping the razor across Andy´s head. Andy sat quite still, feeling the blade across his head, and hearing the rasping sound as hair was shaved off. As more and more hair was removed, it was just the smooth movement of the blade, and he found it strangely relaxing and arousing at the same time.
Wiping his head with the same washcloth, Tyler pronounced him done with stage two, and Andy got up, uncomfortably trying to hide the large bulge in his trousers.

He now looked like the same balding guy, but after the balding guy had been dragged to a barber and "cleaned up". He was shiny bald on top, and sported a neat open ring of blond hair around. Having relatively thin hair to begin with, it looked so incredibly real!
"Wait!" Andy had problems talking, he was laughing so hard, "I´ll get dad´s Polaroid!"

"When are your folks coming home?" Tyler asked, as he took a picture of Andy with his bald top, and short back and sides.
Nervously checking his watch, Andy looked relieved, "Not for almost three hours! Dad picks Mom up on his way home from work, and they both work late Thursdays."

"Ready to loose the rest?" Tyler asked.
But Andy shook his head, "Nah! You´re up first sport! Then we can finish off after!"
So, it was Tyler´s turn in the chair. Andy combed his thick, reddish blond hair straight down thinking about what to do. He couldn´t do exactly the same.
Tyler sat still, wondering what was in store for him. His stomach chock full of butterflies.
They were fluttering away in there like crazy as Balding-Dude-Andy fired up the clippers, with no guard.
Working with comb and clippers he cut Tyler´s hair off below a level about an inch and a half over his ears. Combing the hair down, and cutting all the way to the skin, leaving a thick, and completely ridiculous looking, severe, bowl cut on top of his head. Tyler looked almost like one of the Marx brothers, but Andy couldn´t remember which one.
Sneaking peaks at himself in the mirror, he shaved away all the hair from Tyler´s back and sides, then used the washcloth to moisten the shaved parts.
He allowed Tyler to feel the skin in the back of his head before he foamed him up and shaved it carefully.

"Wow! This is the dumbest haircut I´ve ever seen!" Tyler exclaimed as he was allowed to stand up and look.
It had to be the dorkiest look, ever! His bowl cut looked like a funny sort of hat on his head.
"It will look even dumber by the time I´m done!" Andy told him, and asked him to stand against the wall for his first photo with the Polaroid.
For round two Andy moved in on the top of Tyler´s head, cutting carefully from the crown, and in an area covering most of the top.
It felt like he was given a weird balding haircut, except for the short bangs left in place over his forehead. Tyler sat still, wondering what he would look like when Andy was done.
The washcloth was put on his head, and Andy readied the razor again. Being very careful when scraping away inside the ring of hair that was left.
Wiping away the last of the foam Andy had serious problems keeping himself from laughing. "You´re done!" he said, and Tyler got up.
Tyler cracked up as he saw the result.
"I´m a monk!" he laughed, staring in disbelief at himself with the weirdes haircut he´d ever seen. Feeling the smooth skin on the top of his head, he felt along the full ring of hair around his head.
He did look like a monk, except for the shirt. Telling Andy to wait with the next polaroid shot, he put on Andy´s Dad´s bathrobe, which was dark blue and was the closest thing to a monk´s robe he could see, before standing against the wall again.

Almost giggling, Tyler said, "Think if your parents come home early dude!"
Andy stood next to him looking at them both in the mirror. The bald man and the monk looked back at them.
"I think we´d have to barricade the door!" he laughed, "I´d never live it down, if they were to see us like this!"
"Me neither! How long ´till they´re back?"
"An hour and a half," Andy checked his watch, "We can grab a quick bite to eat before cutting off the rest?"
"Yeah! But maybe eat up in your room, so that we can rush in here if they´re early?"
They agreed on that, and scared to be seen, they put on baseball caps before going down to the kitchen to make a few sandwiches. The hats felt loose around their heads, with so little hair left.

Checking his watch frequently, while they ate, Andy announced that they had to finish up, and they headed back to the bathroom.
"Maybe we should clean up a bit afterwards to?" Tyler suggested.
"Yeah, maybe?" Andy laughed, looking at the mess after them. There was hair all over the floor, and the sink was full of short hair and foam.

Andy cleaned Tyler up first. He almost felt reluctant to let his own balding look go.
Cutting away Tyler´s ring of hair, he shaved it smooth and they changed places.
A much more somber mood was over them now, as they both began thinking about how their parents and the team would react to completely shaved heads. They very much doubted any of the others would be going as short as them.
Andy was scraped, and wiped clean, and stood up. Seeing himself in the mirror again, and feeling completely smooth skin when he felt his head, he couldn´t help but grinning though. Screw the others. They´d done it! Together. Grinning happily at Tyler he said, "So, now to wait for the reaction!"
"Yeah! Maybe we´d better meet our parents on our own though?"
Thinking it over Andy nodded. Not sure if there was anything they needed to hide, but agreeing they didn´t need to give any wrong impressions.
They divided the polaroids between them, vowing to hide them so well no one would ever find them but them, and Tyler headed home.
Both meeting parents who were shocked initially, but who took it surprisingly well when they were told, a bit untruthfully, "The whole team is doing it!"

The guys had agreed to meet early, before classes started, and several had baseball caps on as they walked up to the others. As they came one by one, and in small groups, the hats had to come off, and there was quite a bit of laughter and jokes made as scalps were exposed and shown to the others.
Andy and Tyler came together, and pulled their hats off at the same time.
There was almost a collective awe at their "unveiling", and they were the ones who were rubbed the most after that, with gleeful comments about "Going complete Kojak!" and "Cueball!".
Tyler and Andy took it in good humor, and laughed hard with the others, shooting each others stares every now and then, as if they were sharing some private joke in all this.
Danny watched, grinning, glad his head was being left alone now, and enjoying the spirit this stunt had given the team.
None was happier than Coach though. He had a slightly doughy face, but the shoe still looked good on him. Just not quite as good as Kyle´s shoe suited him.
There was no denying it, Kyle looked great!

The game couldn´t begin fast enough, they were all eager to see the other team´s reaction, and to work together on the field.
And as Saturday came they were all geared up, listening to Coach´s pre-game pep talk in the locker room.
Already bulky in their uniforms, their short hair made them look even bigger, and meaner, as they ran in with their helmets under their arm to the cheers of the home crowd.
The team from Midvale was already out, and waiting as they ran up to them and took the agreed positions in the pre-game line up, as Kyle walked over to greet the other teams captain.
With his tall frame, good looks and high and tight shoe, he looked like a commander in battle, and the others like soldiers ready for action. It was hard to see the faces of the other team´s players, but they seemed a slightly subdued bunch.

They felt invincible. They weren´t quite though, but they still felt that way, and put up one hell of a game, winning by 8 points.
After the game they all went out together for pizza, but divided in smaller groups as some girlfriends joined them. Mike and Danny ended up with Tyler and Andy, and had a few beers with them, before heading back home.
Danny was very pleased to see Bernie, and not quite so pleased to see her parents, but received congratulatory hugs from Mary and Bernie, and a strong handshake from Mister Reilly.
Stopping by the house for a little while, to have some supper with them, he found himself sitting next to Bernie, and kept trying not to stare at her, with everybody else around. Smiling politely at Missis Reilly talking about the game. Mister Reilly was strangely quiet, but Danny thought he saw him studying him from time to time.

As he´d gone back to his loft, he heard Mister Reilly´s heavy steps on the stairs, and there was a knock and the door opened.
"Danny. Can I have a word?" Reilly asked.
"Sure". Danny almost added, "It´s your place!" but didn´t. Despite how Reilly felt about him, he had helped him a lot. He couldn´t bring himself to be rude to him.
Reilly sat down on one of the two kitchen chairs, and looked around. It was a neat little get-away, and he appreciated that Danny seemed to keep it clean and tidy. Well, tidy-ish. He was a teenager after all.
Looking at the boy sitting on the edge of the couch, Reilly cleared his throat.
"Look, Danny." He began. This was hard. Danny didn´t say anything, but stroked his head while looking Reilly square in the eye, as if to say he didn´t care what John thought about his shaved head.
"I´m so sorry for saying what I said!" Reilly almost blurted out. Danny still didn´t say anything, but gave a curt nod.
"Will you let me explain?" John asked.
"You don´t need to do that Mister Reilly." Danny really didn´t feel like getting an explanation to why he thought badly of his background.
"Oh, but I do!" John sat back, "I really do!"
"Have you got some beer by the way?" he asked suddenly, and glanced towards the fridge.
Danny figured he probably already knew, and went to get a couple of cans. Handing one to Reilly, and cracking the other for himself, before setting himself a bit further back on the couch.
"Thanks!" Reilly said, and began telling his story.

"Like I said, so increadibly rudely, the other day, only boys from poor families had shaved heads back in the time and place that I come from." He took a sip, studied Danny carefully, and continued.
"And I was one of those kids."
Lifting his can to take a sip, Danny´s hand stopped mid-air. He had not expected this.
"Before the War we lived in, well almost a slum really, and a lot of the boys there had shaved heads. Including my three brothers and I. And it was okay, because everyone had it. But, if we were doing our Mum´s shopping or anything, and went to the shop, some of the better off people had a certain way of looking at you. Like with contempt I guess. And I was quite sensitive to that, even then."
Danny could hardly believe what he was hearing, but he didn´t want to interrupt.
"During the War we were better off, thanks to my Dad working in England for a munitions factory, and we moved in to a better house, in a better area. And me and my brothers began getting "proper haircuts".
It was still our Mum doing it, but she would use scissors, rather than the old clippers, and we felt a lot better about ourselves."
Studying a cut on one of his fingers, while in deep thought , he eventually continued.
"Now, this is kind of hard to talk about. I´ve never even told Mary about it.
We´d started in a new school as well, and we were trying to fit in. And with a background from the "bad" side of town, that wasn´t so easy.
Not many would say it out loud you know, but there were some boys, where you´d get the impression their parents didn´t want them to have anything to do with us."
He took another sip, and sighed before he went on.
"Then there was a lice inspection, and you won´t guess what happened."
"You had lice?" Danny asked. His animosity and disappointment in John Reilly was now completely forgotten as he listened.
"Nah. It was me brother!" Reilly looked angry.
"At least that´s what the nurse claimed. She said my younger brother was infected, but I was called to the office as well, where my brother stood crying. And we were both told to go straight home, and to be back the next day, with our heads shaved."
Reilly scratched his now slightly shaggy flattop, as if the mere though of lice made his head itch.
"And it turned out, my brother didn´t really have lice either. He´d just made fun of the nurse, who was shall we say, quite large. And she´d overheard him, and called him forward for a check ahead of the other boys. And she hadn´t even touched his head, before she shouted out, "Lice!"
"And that was it!" he finished, looking at Danny who was staring at him, "There was no pleading with them."
"That sucks!" Danny said.
"Oh yeah! It sucked so bad, I pleaded with my mother to let us go back to our old school, instead of shaving us, but she wouldn´t have it.
So, when I was 12 years old, and thought I´d never have my head shaved ever again, my Mum told me to take my shirt off, and to sit on a chair in the kitchen, while she cut it all off."

They sat in silence for a while, occationally taking a sip from their beer. John Reilly thinking about how he´d sat in that kitchen, with tears running down his cheeks watching his black hair falling to the floor around him over 30 years ago. And how that had made him react, when Danny had come home with a shaved head that day.
Looking up, he said, "I think I know what you´ve been thinking Danny, but believe me when I say I´ve never looked down on you. Or where you come from! And I´m truly sorry for saying what I said."
Danny nodded. He believed him, but didn´t know quite what to say.
Smiling he said, "That´s okay Mister Reilly."
"So," John stood up, "Me and you are good?"
"Yeah!" Danny grinned.
Reilly smiled fondly at him. "I´m glad!" He said.

As he walked to the door and opened it, he turned back.
"Hey Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"If you´re to start taking Bernadette out, you´ll need to get your licence! You´re not taking her out just riding a bike!"
And with a booming laugh he walked down the stairs.


Afterword:
This has been the hardest chapter to write, as there really only seemed to be a lot of haircuts in it, and little else. There will be more "real story" in the last chapter, which will be chapter VII.
That chapter will still take some time in the making though.

For some of the haircuts here I´ve found inspiration from stories by others on this actually quite amazing site, for "us with a haircut fetish". I really didn´t think before, that there were quite a few of us, and find it great that there is. ☺

The story about Tyler and Andy is based on something that actually happened to some fellow students of mine. I shared kitchen and living room with 6 other students, and one day as I came back home, three of the guys had had some fun with clippers, and razors, and two of them sported MPB´s, looking quite hilarious. One looked like a creapy old man, and another like a young clown. It didn´t look good on either.

So, hope you enjoy the story.

Vegard

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