The Salon – Part 30

Close at Hand

The front door swung open with an enormous sigh. The woman on the threshold was bedraggled and pale-faced, of indeterminate age, with a backpack on her shoulders. She stopped and pushed back the aubergine-dyed strands plastered to her forehead. Her ear-length hair proudly displayed a good inch of grown-out roots. The backpack strap had rumpled her long-sleeved white blouse, gone gray with wear, across her chest and yanked it halfway out of the waistband of her burgundy velvet skirt. The reinforced toe seam of her nylons peeked out of her gold-buckled sandals.

Mia looked her up and down and, without so much as a glance at the booking calendar, nodded toward Nico.

“Please take a seat at the shampoo station. The stylist will be right with you. Nico!” she called.

The woman shook her head.

“I’m here for a manicure,” she said with a smile, holding the back of her hand out to Mia.

The receptionist’s eyes went wide at the sight of the dark purple polish, half of it chipped away.

“Oh. Yes, of course.” She nodded. “So you don’t have anything booked with Nico at all?”

Now it was the woman’s turn to stare.

“I don’t follow.”

Heat flooded Mia’s cheeks. She sucked in her lower lip, as if trying to make her mouth disappear altogether so that no more misguided questions or remarks could slip out.

Lara stepped out of the kitchen. Her face lit up when she saw the client, and she hurried over with open arms.

“Well, look at you! Dorina! It’s been ages!”

“You haven’t aged a day, Lara. It’s unbelievable,” the woman marveled.

They held each other in a long hug. Lara rubbed Dorina’s back gently, then took her hand in both of hers.

“Come on, sweetheart, let’s give you some fabulous nails.”

She led her client to her station, pulled out a chair for her, and sat down across from her. That was when Dorina’s hand flew to her forehead and she squeezed her eyes shut. A shudder ran through her whole body.

“Oh no…” she breathed.

“Are you okay?” Lara asked, concerned.

She got up and went to her side.

“It’s fine,” Dorina mumbled. “It’s just…” Eyes half-closed, she started rummaging in her backpack. “Thank God, here it is,” she panted.

She pulled out a small bracelet set with red stones, hurriedly slipped her hand through it, clamped it to her wrist and pressed her arm to her chest. Breathing hard, eyelids lowered, she slumped against the back of the chair. Lara watched her movements in alarm.

“Is there anything I can do?”

Dorina shook her head weakly and took a few deep breaths. Her knuckles had gone white from gripping. Then her eyes snapped open, and a wide smile spread across her face.

“Oh my God!” she sighed with relief. “Phew, that gave me a fright.” She giggled. “I thought I was going to drop dead right here.”

She swept her hair off her forehead. Lara stared at her, baffled.

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

The woman waved it off with a laugh.

“Oh, that was nothing. You should’ve seen what stress did to me at the start of the summer… My daughter had her final exams, and then, you know, college applications, the works. I was a total wreck. I honestly don’t know how I’d have survived without my bracelet. I mean, seriously—how the hell do other people dare to risk their lives day in, day out?”

Lara’s eyes narrowed. She leaned in close to her client.

“Why, is it some kind of magic bracelet?”

Dorina threw her head back, and a shrill, forced laugh burst out of her.

“Oh, if I had a wad of cash for every time someone asked me that!”

Lara went back to her chair and sat down. She took the color wheel off the hook on the edge of the shelf, but never took her eyes off her client.

“Shall we pick a color?” she asked coolly, studying Dorina’s face.

“Of course,” the woman trilled. She laid her braceleted hand in front of her. “Something that goes with my little darling.” She ran a finger gently over the tiny red stones.

“It’s a lovely piece. Very elegant. Is it gold?”

Dorina carelessly let her other arm drop onto the table.

“Gold? Oh, please, don’t be ridiculous! That’s the worst… I mean, sure, it can be pretty and all, but if you want to calm the nervous system effectively, you need a special alloy.” Her voice changed completely. “I’m sure you took chemistry, physics and biology too.”

Lara gave a curt nod. Her fingers flicked through the colorful, nail-shaped plastic swatches at an unhurried pace. She stopped at a deep red and held it up to Dorina.

“How about this one?”

“Mm-hmm,” the woman hummed. “Your daughter just finished high school as well, didn’t she? Your days must be insanely stressful right now. And hers, at college… Oh, my poor babies, it’s so hard for them. Well, not for my daughter, obviously, because she’s got a bracelet. She’s not stupid. She’s not going to walk into exam season without one.”

“My daughter didn’t get in,” Lara said evenly. “Right now the biggest stress in her life is whether to put the laundry on before or after breakfast.”

She gave a faint smile.

Dorina’s jaw dropped, and she clapped both hands to her cheeks.

“Oh my God! Lara, I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say, that’s terrible,” she lamented.

Her voice was getting shriller by the second.

“We’ll manage. Your hand, please.”

Dorina obediently held out her arm, and Lara got to work.

“You know, I’ve always thought of you as such a responsible person. I remember how much I looked up to you in high school. You were always more serious, more mature than the rest of us.”

Lara didn’t look up.

“That’s sweet of you. Thanks.”

“That’s exactly why you were the first person I thought of once this little miracle had proven itself to me,” Dorina went on, misty-eyed. “I knew I wanted to help you, because you really know how to appreciate a good thing. And I’m sure you care about your daughter and would never put her at unnecessary risk.” She cleared her throat softly. “Especially when you know how you could help her. I mean…” She paused for a moment. “How you could make her life easier.” A little cough. “To be specific, how you could give her a real head start. Her, and maybe her little friends too, and yourself, obviously, and your coworkers, your friends, and of course your relatives. Right? Because we help them too, whenever we can. So they’ll be grateful to you for the rest of their lives.”

Lara sighed.

“Does the bracelet only come in this one color?”

The woman drew herself up proudly.

“Of course, because this particular color combination…”

Lara raised her free hand. She’d known Dorina since high school: it would cost her less to cut the pitch short than to sit through the whole thing. Besides, the bracelet was pretty.

“I can take three right now, if that works for you. If you’ve got a flyer, you can leave it here. The manicure’s on the house, for being so sweet and thinking of me.”

“Fantastic! Trust me, you won’t regret it.”