Let's bet! by Domko

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Let's bet!
My name is Abraham. When I was a small boy, I used to go regularly to the old-fashioned Marhew barbershop with my father. That changed when I was about 10 years old, because at that time it was fashionable for boys to have long hair, covering the ears, reaching the shirt collar or the boy's shoulders. I haven't been to Marhew barber shop in 4 years. But I had 2 classmates who still went to Marhew barber shop and had short haircuts. One of them was my good friend Philip.
We were at school and Philip complained to me that on Friday after 6 weeks he would go to Marhew barber shop with his father and he would have a short haircut again. I tried to calm him down and talk him into telling his father that he was already 14 years old and would like to go to a modern barber shop like other boys. Well, Philip told me that he has been trying for several years, but father insists on Marhew barbershop. I then suggested that he tell his father that he would go to the Marhew barber shop alone and tell the barber that he just wanted a little haircut. Philip told me that if father would agree to it, he would get a traditional short haircut at the Marhew barbershop. I wanted to prove him wrong and proposed a bet that I could prove to him that the barber in the Marhew barbershop would cut my hair according to what I told him. Phipip agreed and we went together from school to Marhew barber shop.
Upon arrival at the Marhew barbershop, we were greeted by Mr. Marhew. Did Philip ask where his father was or did he just come to get his hair cut? Philip replied that he would come for a haircut in a few days, but today he came with his friend Abraham and pointed at me. The barber looked at me, smiled and told us to sit on the waiting chairs. I looked around the barbershop, but nothing had changed in the 4 years I had been there, only Mr. Marhew looked older, he must have been around 60 years old.
After about 20 minutes, Mr. Marhew said: Abraham, I can attend to you now, sit down here. I got up and sat in the barber's chair. I had a sentence ready that I wanted to cut my hair about half an inch shorter.
The barber wrapped me in a white sheet and lifted me a few inches off the chair with a foot lever. He started combing my hair. He asked me how long I had not been with him, I answered that it would be 4 years. He then told me that when my father was with him, he always asked him to bring me. That's why he's glad he sent me to him for a haircut.
As Mr. Marhew was talking, I was still waiting for him to ask me how he should cut my hair and I concentrated on telling him my request. Well, he tilted my head to one side with his hand. I didn't notice that he was holding electric clippers in his hand. He lifted my hair with a comb. I felt the cold metal of the scissors above my cheek. The barber lowered them and ran them over the temporal bone. I wanted to scream NO, but my throat tightened. When he turned his hand away and my first about 7-8 inches of hair fell onto the sheet. Mr. Marhew, warned me not to shake my head and lift my hair again and remove the hair above the ear with scissors. After 4 years I saw my ear without hair. I began to realize that I would get the same haircut as when I was a little boy. The barber was already pushing my head forward and using scissors to remove the hair from the back of my head. If I hadn't been embarrassed in front of Philip, I would have cried for sure. The barber continued cutting and I saw more and more of my hair on the sheet as it fell to the ground. When I could straighten myself in the mirror, I saw that my long hair was only on the top of my head. Well, it didn't take long and the barber cut this hair too. He untied my sheet, I wanted to jump out of the chair, but Mr. Marhew told me that we had not finished and I should sit down again. He shook my hair out of the sheet onto the ground. He took the second pair of scissors and went with them gradually along the temporal bone, above the ear. I saw a white strip of my skin. He continued with them along the back of the head to above the other ear and the temporal bone. He tilted my head forward and started cutting the short hair from my neck to my waist that he had done a while ago. He styled the hair on the top of my head which he combed forward and cut about 2 inches above my eyebrows. He made further adjustments. He cleaned my neck and the area around my ears with a brush and applied a white cream above my ears and the back of my head, which he began to scrape off with a sharp razor. When he finished shaving, he wiped off the rest of the lather with a towel. He applied cream to my remaining short hair and combed it. Then he applied the barber's smelly water to disinfect the shaved part of my head. As I left the barber's chair and paid for my haircut, Mr. Marhew told me to come again.
Philip told me that even if he came to Marhew barbershop without his father, he would have done the same as me. You lost the bet, said Philip, I think you have been punished enough.
At home, my parents were surprised by my short haircut, I just said that I lost a bet at school, so I had to get a haircut at Marhew barbershop. Dad said he was glad I lost the bet and that I finally looked like a decent boy again.
I examined my hairstyle in the mirror. He was the same as Philip waves after visiting the barber shop. I had an inch of white skin above my ears. At the same level I had white skin on the back and about 2 inches of hair on the top of my head. I wondered how long it would take for my hair to grow back to its original length.
The next day at school my short haircut caused a lot of teasing and I regretted suggesting to Philip that I show him how the barber cuts me to my specifications at Marhew Barber Shop.
On Saturday, dad came back with a haircut from the Marhew barber shop. He told me that the barber was very happy that I returned to him after years and came together with Philip. My father told me that he promised him that we would both come next time. I started begging my father that I don't want to go to Marhew barber shop anymore and when my hair grows back I will go to a modern barber shop like it was in the last few years. After all, almost all boys go to this salon. But the father said that Philip also goes to the Marhew barber shop with his father and younger brother, that the barber told him everything.
I have a month to convince my father not to go to the Marhew barber shop together. I knew that my father always went to see him on the last Saturday of the month.

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