DAD! (Part 3 of 15) by JB

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Steve Kramer grins as he hangs up the phone, and thinks: "Well Son, this is yer lucky day. Looks like I won't be naggin' you about yer long hair for at least three or four months, hell, maybe even six months. That oughta make you happy... I know it makes ME happy!"

After Jack does the finishing touches trimming Scott's friend Randy's hair, he unlocks the chair's swivel mechanism and rotates it around to face the mirrors above the counter, "There ya go, Randy. I shortened the sides so's the bottoms of yer ears show a little, like ya asked. And your hair in back is just touching yer collar... How's it look?"

Randy tilts his head from side to side, "Perfect... like always." As Jack lifts the cape away, Randy climbs out of the chair and pays for his haircut.

Randy's friend, Dave gets up from his seat in the waiting area next to Scott, "Well, that chore is done. Now our dads can't rag on us about our hair bein' too long."

"Not for a couple of weeks anyway," Randy smirks. He walks toward the door. "Hey Scott, we'll see you at school on Monday."

"Yeah, see you guys later." Scott replies as Randy and Dave leave the shop.

Jack shakes the hair trimmings from the cape and looks over at Scott, who takes that as his cue to climb into the chair. He gets up and, for a second, Jack thinks he's going to get the photo from his vest pocket. But that doesn't happen. Mainly because Scott doesn't even know the photo is there. That's just one of the whoppers that his dad told Jack over the phone.

Scott looks briefly at a few of the bristle-haired team members pictured on the wall behind him, "See somethin' ya like?" Jack asks him, thinking that he's mustering the courage to ask for a flattop. He's not; just another lie.

"What?... Oh, uh..." Scott blushes, "No, I...uh, I was just thinking of something my dad said as I was leaving the house, that's all." A couple of minutes ago, while waiting for his turn in the chair, it finally dawned on Scott what his dad was hinting at when he kept mentioning his birthday.

He walks over and steps into the barber chair, which is still facing the mirror. Jack is partly right-- Scott is mustering his courage, but not for a flattop; that wouldn't even cross his mind.

Jack tosses the cape loosely around Scott, "So. What kind of haircut are ya lookin' to get, Scott?" Thanks to Scott's dad, Jack already knows the type of cut he's going to give; a flattop. How he gets there depends on the answer he gets. Will Scott have the courage to ask for it outright, or will there be a surprise ending?

"Well... " Scott hesitates, "When I first came in here I thought I was just gonna get a regular trim, so I'd look good for my yearbook picture. But Dad has been hintin' around about his birthday comin' up and I'm pretty sure he wants me to get a shorter haircut, y'know, as his birthday present. Sounds kinda screwy, huh."

"Not at all," Jack says, "Several guys have come in here gettin' their hair cut short as a present for their dad... Sometimes they bring in a photo to show how they want it cut." Then he thinks: "If Scott doesn't show me his photo after THAT obvious hint then I guess he's not going to."

"Well, that's what he wants for his birthday, so... " he takes a deep breath and exhales, which makes Jack think he's going to ask for a flattop after all. Scott continues, "I guess I'm gonna go with something shorter... like a tapercut," he blurts out, then is quick to add, "but not real short like my dad, just barely above my ears and a little ways up in back."

Jack is disappointed, and thinks, "Dang. He still doesn't have the courage to ask for his flattop... that's a shame. Oh well, gonna have to do it the sneaky way I guess." He lifts Scott's thatch of honey-colored hair up in back and tucks the paper strip in place then fastens the cape tightly around his neck, "A tapercut, huh?"

"Yeah, short enough for Dad, but long enough so I don't look like a dork in my yearbook picture."

Jack tries one last time, "The way you were leadin' up, I thought you were gonna ask for one of those football player haircuts on the wall there-- a good ol' flattop, maybe."

Scott assumes Jack is making a joke, "Well, I'm sure that would look great on me," he says sarcastically, "but I think I'll go with the tapercut." The sarcasm is lost on Jack however, he's still under the impression that Scott really wants to get his top taken down.

Jack has exhausted all the hints and opportunities for Scott to ask for his flattop outright. He thinks, "Guess I'm gonna have to use stealth if Scott ever wants to see that big ol' landing strip runnin' down the top of his head... No need to be sneaky at first, though. I'll keep him facing the mirror as I start givin' him his tapercut; put him at ease."

Jack stands behind Scott, who is caped up and ready. They both look into the mirror in front of them, "So. A tapercut," Jack says. He grabs a handful of Scott's thick hair at the base of his neck, "All of this bulk here will be taken off and I'll use the clippers on what's left to cut a sharp taper going up about this high." He indicates about two inches with his fingers, "Sound about right to you?"

"Yeah, I guess. Seems kinda high but I gotta make it short enough for Dad; so, yeah."

"Now, on yer sides here," he places his hand just above Scott's ear, "the taper won't be as high, maybe an inch or so above yer ears."

"An inch? Wow, that's more than I thought it would be. I kinda pictured it sorta almost touching my ears."

"Well, ya gotta remember, yer hair will be longer at the top of the taper than the bottom, so it won't look all that short. And ya gotta make yer dad happy, right?"

"Yeah. Okay," he says hesitantly.

"The rest of yer hair," he lays his hand, palm down, on top of Scott's head, "up here, and everywhere else above the taper, will be shortened some as well, so's it blends in with the rest of the cut... Sound good?"

Scott deeply exhales again to release his nervousness, "Yeah... but Dad better not nag me about my hair bein' too long after this," he says with a forced smirk.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he won't," Jack replies, also with a smirk. He is mentally preparing Scott to see a large amount of his hair tumble onto the cape. That way, with Scott facing away from the mirror, he won't be too alarmed by all the hair coming off when Jack squares-up his sides all the way to the top. And Jack's walk-thru isn't exactly a lie, he will be cutting Scott's hair just as he described, a lot of it with Scott watching in the mirror. What he's not telling him is that he will then take it a lot higher, a lot shorter, and a whole lot flatter.

"Okay then, let's get started." Jack grabs his heavy-duty rotary clippers and a flattop comb. Ironically, the comb looks nearly identical to the one sticking out of Scott's back pocket. He runs the comb through Scott's hair a few times, "You've got a nice thick head of hair here. Lots of spring to it, too." Then he silently adds: "Perfect for a flattop."

Scott tenses up as the rotary clippers begin to whir and chatter. He hasn't heard that sound since Jack gave him a tapercut five years ago. At the salon, all he hears is the snipping of shears and the hum of the buzzer clippers tidying up his neck. He has always associated the sound of rotary clippers with kids getting crewcuts and old guys getting flattops.

With the comb in his left hand and the whirring clippers in his right, Jack lifts the hair on Scott's right side a couple of times then slides the clippers across the comb. Scott watches as a two-inch hunk of his golden hair falls onto his shoulder, then tumbles to the floor. Scott has only a moment to see that the lower half of his ear is already showing before Jack lifts and cuts another swath, leaving his ear fully exposed. Scott silently screams to himself, "Why am I doing this!"

Jack places the clippers at the base of Scott's sideburn and pushes them up about an inch above his ear, tilting and lifting them away as he moves upward. Another clump of hair plops onto his shoulder and slides down, this time into his lap. There is scarcely any sideburn left. Scott blurts out, "Geez. Isn't that kinda short?.. My dad's 5 o'clock shadow is longer than that!"

Jack thinks to himself: "Hmm, that's not the reaction I was expecting. I was sure that Scott would be pleased with how short I took his sideburns; boost his confidence and ask me to take the taper up higher. Maybe even ask for his flattop... Oh well. Guess he's still worried about what his classmates will say." He says to Scott, "Well, that's a fairly typical length for sideburns in a tapercut. Yer dad gets it cut that short when he comes in for his haircut."

"Yeah but... well, he's my DAD!"

"And yer dad's birthday is comin' up, right?"

"Yeahhh," he says, sounding all mopey.

Jack takes that as an okay to continue. He positions the clippers near the base of Scott's neck and guides them up and around his ear, angling the clippers outward at the top of the arch. Scott watches as an even bigger and longer hank of his hair falls from the clipper's teeth. He is surprised to actually feel the weight of it as it hits his shoulder. It cartwheels into his lap, leaving a trail of loose strands behind as it goes. The resulting taper blends with the stubble of his sideburn. Scott is about to say something about it being too short again but he doesn't want to sound like a whiney kid, so he keeps quiet. "Dad's birthday present. Dad's birthday present," he repeats silently to himself.

(To Be Continued)

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