The Dreadlocked Barber

EPISODE 3

CHAPTER 5

The time struck 7 bells without Thompson having left the Health and Beauty centre. The persistent trickling in of clients that had kept them on their feet throughout the day had somewhat steadied. Lisa and the other ladies were finishing off the last head after having requested two other clients to peach up the next morning owing to fatigue and time. What a busy day it had been in the saloon!

“Hi darling, I am almost done, will be there shortly,” Thompson said as he responded to Lydia who had called to inquire about his whereabouts.

Upon hanging up he walked straight behind the saloon counter where he started counting the daily sales. Moments after he swung his charismatic figure towards the Centre bar where he used a finger gesture to summon Anisha to a corner where he gave her some of the money that he had counted. Gregory who was downing his favourite Scotch whisky stared curiously as the two went about their confidential ordeal.

“It seems we are not leaving together this evening” he rhetorically indicated his intentions to Gregory who seemed engulfed in his booze.

“I will not be leaving any time soon my boss” Gregory replied as he stands up to dance to a playing David Guetta party tune.

“No worries my man” Thompson acknowledged as he grabbed a bottle of his usual wine before walking out in a rush.

He had been in the Centre bar for just a minute, but he had accomplished all his intended missions with astonishing brisk time management drills.

When he got back to the saloon, the client whom the ladies were finishing off requested to defer the final touches of her head to tomorrow upon receiving a call that she had unannounced visitors urgently waiting for her at home hence her intuitive decision to call it prompt quits. The ladies candidly tied the already planted braids together covering the central part of her head for it to appear as finished, although she had a cap to put on as a concealer of the semi-completed braiding. As the girls winded up their highly demanding day to depart, Thompson reached for his phone and started dialing Lydia.

“I will be there in a sec” he uttered as he reached for his Cressida keys that were on the chemicals table.

“Make it fast girls” he passionately urged the girls who were brushing up themselves of some fluff as a result of the flying pieces of cotton.

His mood had taken another form as it swung from that of unseen strangeness to a subtle version of his usual self. He stood by the door with all his take-off belongings thereby signaling to the girls that it was lock-up time.

“Let me just finish off Thom” requested one of the saloon ladies as she applied ponds to her face while looking at her gorgeous self in the mirror.

She was ravishingly beautiful. Her outstanding looks invited compliments from most of the people who walked into the saloon with most men preferring their hair cut by her. Lisa often took advantage of her introverted nature by hijacking her attention seekers through her basket mouth, let alone her shameless posture. She was purely irresistible to such an extent that Thompson had to employ her based on attractiveness and not any proven merit. Her illumination of the saloon with an incomparable and inviting appearance augured well for marketing strategy as some men, Gregory included, would walk into Thompson Health and beauty centre just to have bits of her dear attention. Thompson, being so calculative and imposingly charming, had had to use the carrot and stick method to bring her to intimate submission. However, she made it clear before him that she would just surrender her mesmerizing self conditionally for the sake of the lined job, but would not be erotically available for him as he pleased because she was engaged to someone whom she deeply loved and immensely respected. By virtue of having a lot on his plate, Thompson did not take that excuse with hard feelings given that he had also bedded all of her saloon colleagues. Furthermore, he had made it a rigid policy not to take any relationship seriously. It is astounding that Lydia’s stepping into his intimate life had suddenly triggered a paradigm shift.

He locked the entrance door and burglar mesh of the saloon as soon as the cute lady was done. Within Jody's complex, the ladies had a knack for entering mama’s kitchen and the centre bar before walking to their shared residence which was just a walkable 150 metres from Greenstone shopping mall. Thompson rented it for his staff who only had to foot the utility bill in commensuration with their consumption. All the saloon ladies drank alcohol, but they normally did that during weekends, save for Lisa who had no specific boozing timetable as long as she was off duty and in the mood. Thompson, who was set to go for a tempting rewind of the previous day’s obsessive thrills at the same venue, walked fast to his vehicle. He violently opened and bang-closed the Cressida door whilst simultaneously starting it to reverse out of the parking lot. As was always the case, the beast screamed off the mall heading for Verandah lodge where the endearing Lydia was waiting for him.

Whilst on the road, Thompson was always accelerator-happy, and this day was no exception. With the time gone past 8 bells, his arrival was long overdue prompting his usual dose of impatience. He blew the horn frustratingly at the vehicle that was in front of him before steering the beast to the right-hand side of the road as he intransigently overtook the slower vehicle. Out of annoyance, the Toyota corolla driver responded by also blowing the horn indignantly at him, a wasted resentment gesture because the intended recipient of the “DAMN YOU” signal had fast and furiously cruised off into invisibility.

The beast noisily squeaked to an abrupt halt as the amber robot turned red before it. Virtually all the drivers who had pulled up by the intersection cast their eyes on the driver of a pimped vintage vehicle with justifiable curiosity. It was not the appearance of the old model Toyota vehicle that incited that suspicious reaction, but the alarming and unscrupulous manner in which it ground to a halt. As soon as the green lights appeared, the beast took off violently thereby provoking head shakes from drivers of trailing vehicles. The beast groaned further off as it swiftly disappears into Slaughterville. Thompson was always given to such reckless, inconsiderate and perilous road stunts, thank God he observed the red robot that time around. He was many a time followed behind by traffic police for flouting road rules on the pretext of indulgent truancy and not ignorance. Such irresponsible road conduct had seen him parting with cash as he bribes the traffic police details for exoneration and impunity.