Going to Granny's by Manny

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Kevin tooted the horn briefly as a celebratory act as they sped past the city limit sign. "Almost there," he explained to his companion, Lyle. "Just a few more miles."

"That was a long drive! Five, six hours? It's a good thing we left at the crack of dawn. And, thanks for inviting me to spend the summer with you at your folks' place," Lyle said. "With my parents moving toward divorce, the last place I want to be is with them."

"So sorry to hear that," Kevin said.

"It's sad, but I think they'll both be happier, living apart," Lyle replied with a tone of resignation.

"Actually, I should explain that we'll both be staying at my grandmother's this summer. There's more room there. My little brother took over my bedroom when I went off to college. If we stayed at home, it would be a sleeper sofa in the basement. At Granny's we can each have a bedroom," Kevin explained.

"The two of us in a sleeper sofa might be a little too cozy," Lyle laughed, glancing quickly at the driver.

Simultaneously, Kevin glanced over at this companion for the summer. Lyle's gorgeous mane of flowing blond hair and sparkling green eyes were two of his best features. It was a secret crush. Lyle could not possibly imagine that Kevin aspired to something more than close friendship -- hence his invitation to spend the summer together between their junior and senior year in college.

"There's something else I need to explain before we arrive at our destination," Kevin said as he pulled into a small shopping plaza.

He parked and examined his floppy moptop in the car mirror. His shiny dark brown hair covered his ears and his thick forelock dangled about his piercing blue eyes.

"You can wait in the car or come into the shop with me. I need to get the big chop before we get to Granny's," Kevin explained, still pawing away at his shaggy locks.

"A haircut?" Lyle asked. "The old bag doesn't approve of longhaired men?"

"Definitely not! And since she is totally financing my college, I know better than to spend the summer at her place looking like this," Kevin answered, with a slight tinge of regret. "You might not recognize me scalped -- whitewalls, short taper on the bag and sides, straight part, and slicked to the side with brylcream! Granny still thinks it's 1962!" Kevin laughed.

"And you don't mind having your nice hair butchered like that?" Lyle asked incredulously.

"Well, it's not my preference. But, it'll grow back before the end of the summer. Plus, I wanted you to come home with me, and this is the only way things would work, practically," Kevin said.

"What about my hair?" Lyle suddenly asked, pawing nervously at it.

"Expect a few salty cracks -- you know, 'what's your girlfriend's name' and 'care to borrow my hair curlers this evening'. Just laugh it off," Kevin suggested.

Kevin opened his car door. "Are you coming in with me or staying here? I can't tell how busy things are in the barber shop. Could be 15 minutes, could be an hour."

Lyle threw open his car door. "I'll come. Might even take some photos of your transformation from shaggy delinquent to clean-cut grandson. You're going to look downright geeky with whitewalls and Brylcream!" Lyle laughed, hardly trying to conceal a bit of gleeful kidding.

Kevin led the way to the shop. Lyle trailed him, examining the thick dark mane that was going to get shorn off -- and all for his sake, so that they could have a better living arrangement for the summer. Kevin was such a caring, kind friend....

Then Lyle thought of the other option -- the two of them snuggling up together in a dark basement on a sleeper sofa. If Kevin only knew his big secret, the crush he had on his longhaired friend. A private basement....oh, how fun that would have been.

Kevin pushed open the door of the barber shop. Two gentlemen, clad in matching white tunics, gave a simultaneous nod of greeting to the two fellows.

The barbers continued working on their current clients while casting furtive glances at the next two, who were now squirming the in the waiting area. One was shaggy and the other longhair was positively in need of a vigorous shearing. Both barbers secretly hoped for the chance to send a good twelve inches of golden locks to the shop's checkered, linoleum floor. What they wouldn't give to take the pretty boy and turn him into a marine recruit -- watch him wander out of the shop in a daze, rubbing his stubble!

"Who's first?" the barber asked Kevin and Lyle.

"Oh, it's just me today," Kevin explained. "My friend's just along for the ride."

One could almost feel the barbers' disappointment about that revelation. But there was the consolation prize. The barber eyed the thick brown shag as Kevin mounted the iron foot stand.

The large white cape sailed through the air and was pulled snuggly around the neck. In a flash, the big metal clip secured it in place.

"So, what'll it be today?" the barber asked perfunctorily.

"I want it cut very short. Tapered tight around the ears and up the back, parted on the side and slicked over," Kevin instructed.

The barber smiled in approval. Yes, it would be a radical transformation.

"That will be a big change," the barber noted. "Angled bangs?"

"Yes, please. And thin them out too. Nothing bulky or heavy so that they stay plastered to the side even during the most humid of days," Kevin instructed. He'd been through this routine before.

Lyle's eyes were riveted on his caped pal as the barber forced Kevin's head down and snapped on the clippers. Without delay, the screaming teeth were brought up through the nape chewing off a vast amount of hair. Clump after clump fell to the floor by the barber's feet.

Lyle snapped a photo of the first of Kevin's locks falling from his head to adorn the checkered linoleum floor. The clumps landed on a white square, so they really stood out.

He watched the barber expertly clear away vast swaths of hair, revealing a creamy white scalp at the nape. All the while, Kevin remained subdued and submissive in the chair. Lyle couldn't get over the fact that Kevin was making the huge sacrifice for him. Poor guy would end up looking like a geek from the 1960s!

Lyle was so engrossed watching Kevin's haircut, he didn't realize that the other barber had finished collecting the $15 payment from his client and was staring at Lyle.

"Young man, it's your turn. Come, now, take a seat," he said with an air of authority and finality.

Lyle looked up with a deer-in-the-headlights expression plastered on his face. His tongue was tied. He felt paralyzed in fear. Surely, the barber did not expect him to climb up into the big throne-like chair and sit submissively and watch all his hair get chopped off. And Kevin had already explained....

The barber's stare turned into a glare and Lyle felt no mistake about it...the summons to the chair was serious and compelling.

Lyle shifted momentarily and felt himself preparing to stand. He was opening to the course of least resistance -- to not answer back, to not explain he wasn't there for a haircut, but to simply stand up and walk over to the empty chair.

"I'm waiting," the barber said with a snippy tone that screamed out 'last warning.'

"Yes, sir," Lyle responded as he stood.

His legs felt like jelly. He glanced in the mirror. His lovely long blond hair -- so pampered and cherished. Yes, it would be cut off! SHORT! Inexplicably, he felt his groin stir. The dread morphed to anticipation.

Then he glanced at the creamy white scalp that had emerged on the lower half of Kevin's head. The whitewalls!

Lyle took a step toward the chair. He was on his way. No backing out now. He pushed forward....his decision was final. The BIG chop -- he was ready to shed the flow.

The barber's determined smile was accompanied by a quip, "And I don't do trims on hair like that. Understood, missy?"

"Yes, sir," Lyle said meekly. "I want my hair cut just like my friend's...."

He eased into the comfortable upholstery of the barber throne.

"What's he getting? A tight butch? You'd would look swell with a baldy cut. A simple, no-nonsense length. After all this mess is gone, you'll feel much better," the barber said, giving Lyle's locks a slight yank. "And you'll look a thousand times better, as well. What do you say I give you a nice, tight butch?"

Lyle was almost speechless at the thought of leaving the chair with clipped stubble. Now that the cape was securely in place there was no getting out of the haircut.

"Whatever possessed you to let your hair get this long? You look like a girl," the barber scolded as he brushed through Lyle's tresses.

"My hair gets lots of compliments," Lyle said defensively.

"From girls who admire the sheen and natural waves?" the barber said in a sissy voice.

Lyle flushed with embarrassment at the humiliation.

The barber picked up the clippers. "So, what'll it be? A #1 all over or a #2?"

"A #2," Lyle eked out submissively.

"Good, that's the blade already on this machine," the barber replied as he snapped on the clippers and they roared to life.

"Turn me to face him so I can watch," Kevin told his barber. He was amazed to see his friend willingly bowing his head, the long locks dangling as the neon lights made them blaze with a golden shimmering radiance.

Like the opening sequence in the movie Tribes, tension and drama of the near-induction cut filled the barber shop.

Lyle stared down in a daze at the collection of hair that immediately began to collect in his lap as the barber pushed the clippers down the top of his head, from fringe to cowlick.

"Oh, it seems like it was a #1 on the machine," the barber smirked. "The shorter the better, I say. Sorry about the little mishap. But, I know you'll take it like a man."

Lyle instinctively felt the 'little mishap' about the blade length was on purpose. He felt so small and helpless.

Kevin enjoyed watching Lyle's divestiture as he had the life thinned out of his forelock. The mighty lock was reduce in volume repeatedly, and then with a few quick snips, he was left with severely angled bangs. Just above the eyebrow on the left and just short of the hairline on the right.

"How is it looking?" Lyle asked in a faltering, hesitant voice, still unable to sit up straight or see himself in the mirror.

"Uh, short....very short," Kevin replied. He let out a nervous laugh as he fantasized about rubbing the clipped head and consoling his secret heart throb.

As if reading his thoughts, Lyle remarked, "I might need some cheering up if I look god-awful."

"Oh, stop being a little nervous nelly," Lyle's barber admonished. "A baldy cut looks good on a man of any age. Conveys a strong, manly, no-nonsense attitude. Why, just yesterday, I gave one of my long-time clients a baldy cut. A banker who was always so picky about his thick chestnut-colored hair, swept back in an every-hair-in-place executive coif. 'How about a butch cut today?' I asked. And to my surprise, he said, 'Go for it!' Left here clipped down to the wood, wondering why he hadn't had the fluff mowed off years ago. Sit up and see for yourself how good you're looking!"

Lyle got the courage to examine himself in the mirror for the first time since his makeover began.

"Oh!" he gasped, seeing the new him with a clipped head. He looked and felt like he was 11 years old! "My hair....."

"All on the cape and at my feet!" the barber declared triumphantly. Then he rubbed the stubble somewhat vigorously. "The girls won't be able to keep their hands off this! And they won't feel threatened by your pretty tresses, either!"

Kevin's barber was putting the final touches on his short back 'n sides. The awful smell of the pomade overpowered the stench of barbicide that had been lingering in his hair. At least Lyle wasn't going to leave the shop alone in feeling awkward about his new haircut. Kevin looked and felt like he was in the 5th grade.

Both barber took the capes off at the same time, and both fellows felt their shorn heads simultaneously.

"Well, who's more pleased with their new look?" one of the barbers asked.

"He is," the two said at the same time, pointing to the other.

As they walked back to the car, their hands momentarily brushed together. "Maybe we could share a bedroom this summer, Kevin. Save your grandmother some work on cleaning and washing of sheets...."

"I'd like that," Kevin stammered. "And I think the baldy cut suits you perfectly!"

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