Carly’s Adventures in Hair Design

by

Paula Dillon

Carl Simon sat with his mom Anita Simon, in his Aunt Margret’s home. They had just buried Margret, Anita’s sister and Carl’s aunt, after she had been involved in a multi-vehicle accident on I-35 near the I-20 junction. The accident had been a horrible Rube Goldberg sort of accident. On a very busy interstate highway, a Mazda RX9 entering the interstate; drove into a gap that was too small. A Honda Accord in the back of the too small gap, veered left to avoid rear ending the interloper. A minivan with children in the second lane, also swerved left to avoid hitting the Accord. That put the minivan in the pathway of a Peterbilt tractor pulling forty thousand pounds of fresh produce. He swerved right to avoid killing the occupants of the mini-van. The Peterbilt actually made his maneuver without a scratch; unfortunately the Mack truck carrying a dragline on a lowboy flatbed had nowhere to go. He locked the brakes up and violently fish-tailed hitting cars on either side of him. Margret Jennings had maybe been driving a little too close, or not paying quite enough attention, drove her BMW under the flatbed. The police determined whose BMW it was, but it took a week to officially determine that the body was Margret Jennings.

A traffic-cam caught the whole situation and traffic-control was able to identify the RX9 by its license plate. It was actually pulled over just before the I-30 interchange. The driver was an unlicensed fifteen year old boy, who stole his 20 year old brother’s keys to go joy-riding. The boy’s actions were found to be the cause of the accident and he was arrested for failure to stop and render aide and negligent homicide.

Anita Simon looked at her nineteen year old son. He sat on the floor in front of her. She pulled his long hair out from beneath his shirt, where he kept it tucked during the day, “Carl I need to get back to work. I can’t be gone any longer.”

“I know mom, so what do you want me to do?” Carl asked.

“I want you to run Margaret’s salon and ascertain its business condition. I know you are supposed to go to U Con (University of Connecticut) this fall, but I am asking you to put it off for a year. You can live here and keep up your Aunt’s house. Find someone to manage the salon and see if you can make the business prosper.”

“Mom, I don’t know anything about running a hair salon.”

Anita began to play with his long brown hair and braid it, “No and neither do I. I didn’t know much about your father’s business either, but I do now. You have a good head on your shoulders. I have an unlimited power of attorney that gives you the right to operate the business as the proprietor, till the will comes out of probate. I was named as Margaret’s sole benefactor and executrix. So I will transfer ownership to you. I will give you two hundred thousand for operating expenses, if you need it.”

“Why don’t you just sell the shop?”

“For two reasons, first it is a part of my sister and I don’t want to let go of it just now. You understand don’t you?”

“Yes, I know. I like being in this house right now. It almost feels like she is here with us.”

Anita smiled, reached down and kissed Carl’s cheek, “I know, I almost expect to see her come down stairs, make us a pot of tea and sit down to gossip with us. The second reason I don’t want to sell it is… Well, I think this is a wonderful opportunity for you. Running a salon… or any business, will give you a better education than four years at U Con. I will contact the university and arrange for you to start next September.”

“So what do I do first?”

“Find someone you can trust, who knows hair dressing, to be your manager. You go over the books, write up some reports, as you determine what condition the business is in and email me. Try to retain the shops clientele, take a look at the shop’s employees, you will have to make decisions about hiring and firing. You can call me daily if you need to talk. Go see what you can make of her Salon. She would be proud of you for keeping her business going.”

“Ok Mom. I will start on Monday. The shop is closed on Monday’s.”

“Take me to the airport in the morning and turn in the rental car. Stop at a dealership and buy yourself a good car. Have the dealership call the Dallas corporate headquarters, they will issue a purchase order and issue you an insurance card on the car. If you need clothes, buy them.” Anita said, tying off the braid with an elastic hair band.

“Ok Mom, I will.”

>>>>><<<<<

Buying a car, after he dropped his mom off at the airport, was interesting. He called the Dallas corporate office, when he arrived at the Arlington BMW dealership. He talked to the supervisor and told him that Anita Simon had authorized him to buy a car. The supervisor confirmed he had talked to Mrs. Simons and was aware of the situation. They had already issued him an insurance card and would fax it to the dealership after he made his selection. He wasn’t in the lot long before a salesman descended on him.

Carl was dress in black jeans, a baby blue polo shirt, a pair of New Balance running shoes and his hair was still in a braided ponytail, which came between his shoulder blades.

“Hi I am Rick Devereux,” the salesman said.

“Hi I am Carl Simon. I found myself stuck is Texas for a couple of years and I need a new car.”

“Do you have your eye on any particular car?”

“Yes, that Silver 535i.”

“Do you have insurance and a driver’s license?”

Carl got out his smart phone, hit the State Farm icon and after a few clicks, he showed the salesman. The screen showed he had comp, collision and liability for 150k/300k/150k, towing, driver assistance, rental car and uninsured driver, a lot more than your basic insurance package. He then showed the salesman his New Jersey driver’s license.

“Everything seems to be in order, I need to verify your insurance, make a photocopy of your driver’s license and get the keys to the car.” Rick said, as he led Carl to his desk.

“Where will you be staying while you are in Texas?”

“I am staying in my Aunt’s home, while I handle her legal affairs. She passed away on Monday,” Carl said, writing down her name and address.

“I am sorry to hear that Carl. How did she die, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“She was involved in that conflagration on I-35 on Monday.”

“Damn, I saw that on the TV, they had I-35 inbound and the service road on the east side, tied up for hours.”

Rex contacted State Farm who faxed him an insurance card. They got the keys and headed out to the car he wanted. Carl belted in and after the salesman did his spiel about the cars features. He drove a four mile loop around the dealership.

“I’ll take it, Rick.”

“Ok, let’s get the paperwork done.”

Rick took Carl to the finance office and introduced him to the finance director, Sam Walters.

“How are you going to finance the car, Carl?” Sam asked.

“Corporate purchase order,” Carl said, pulling out his Craig Simon’s Investments a LLC id and business card. He was listed as executive assistant to the president. “You can call the office in Dallas. They are expecting to hear from you.”

“Do you have their number?”

“Yes, but I am sure you would feel better looking it up yourself. I know I would.”

Sam thought it was strange that a corporation would be open on a Sunday, but he got their number from directory assistance and called. He asked for corporate purchasing and was put through to a vice-president and within thirty seconds his fax machine was humming and spitting out paper.

They filled out the paperwork and signed a stack of pages. “I just need to run this by my boss. I will be back in a minute.”

The Dealer showed up in two minutes, “Hello Mr. Simon. I am Mark Matisse. I own the dealership. Your car will be ready in two hours. Can we take you home and deliver the car to you.”

“That would be excellent,”

The dealer himself drove Carl, “Can you recommend a good computer store?”

“There is one just three blocks from here and they do all of our computers. Would you like to go there now, I believe they are open right now.”

“I would like that very much.”

Carl spent forty-five minutes buying a laptop, software and accessories and spent nearly seven thousand dollars.

They got all of Carl’s gear into Margret’s home, when Mark got a call. After a brief conversation, he told Carl his car was on its way.

While they waited for the car, Craig began to get his new Laptop lined out, and began installing software. He had just started installing MS Office Business when the doorbell rang. Carl and Mark inspected the car, and the dealer set the remote garage door opener and discussed many of the deluxe features. He set the home on the navigation system, demonstrated the system controls and had Carl signoff on receiving the car.

“The tags should be coming to this address in ten days to two weeks. The dealer tags are good for a month. Call me if you have any problems. Thank you for coming to us for your automotive needs.”

“Thank you, Mr. Matisse.”

“Please call me Mark.”

Carl spent a few hours getting the laptop set up the way he liked it and even ordered a pizza online. At three in the afternoon, he called the security company his aunt used and asked for a supervisor. He explained the situation to them, he didn’t have the alarm code, but he had a death certificate, a court order and a power of attorney. The supervisor asked that Carl call them when he was on his way to the shop, a security manager would be there to inspect the documents and to clear and reset the alarm codes.

>>>>><<<<<

The next morning Carl got up at six in the morning. He showered and shaved a few sparse facial hairs before he dressed in his dark gray “Bankers” suit. His long hair was hidden between his undershirt and his dark blue dress shirt. An Armani tie was around his neck. He called the security company and headed for his aunt’s shop. A response vehicle, from her security company, arrived minutes later. The two men talked and the man from the security company read all the documents.

“Do you have a key?”

“I have my Aunt’s key.”

“Let’s go inside then.”

Carl unlocked the door, while the man from the security company was on his cell phone with his office. He entered a code and a light on the key panel went from red (armed) to green (unarmed).

“Do you have a fax machine?”

“There should be one behind the reception desk.”

The security manager faxed the paperwork to his office and then instructed Carl on the operation of the security system. Carl then set his entry code and security password, “goodness, gracious, great balls of fire.” He also got the name of a reputable locksmith to re-key the store, open the safe and Install a key safe in his Aunt’s office. While he waited for the locksmith, he took a good look at the Salon. It was pretty clean but needed some work. It looked like the store had been closed during the day, as some things were left out, instead of being put up.

He booted up the store’s computer, created a VPN between his laptop and the store’s server. He found the accounting software and salon management software and began loading them into his laptop. When the three locksmiths came in, Carl had to go through his documents again, before they would begin to work. The doors took forty minutes; the key safe took an hour and was hidden behind a motivational poster. The safe took three and a half hours, at three hundred per hour, since Carl didn’t want it drilled out. The safe man then reset the combination.

While the safe man worked, Carl carried his laptop up front in the reception area, where there were couches and began loading Margret’s accounting files to his laptop, and read the personnel files. After the safe man left, Carl locked the front door and walked to the sandwich shop.

When he was coming back, he saw someone he recognized from the funeral, “Hello, I am Carl Simon, Margaret’s nephew and you are Kathy Brennan.”

“Yes, I am the assistant manager. My key doesn’t seem to work.”

“I know. I had the doors re-keyed. I didn’t know who had keys,” Carl said, unlocking the door. “Come on in Kathy, I would love to talk with you. Have you eaten yet?”

“No, I just came by to see if there was anybody here, make Monday’s deposit and try to find out any news to tell the stylists.”

“Sit down please, you can help keep me from being a pig, chowing down on a foot long sandwich and I hope I have good news for the stylists.”

Katy Brennan looked to be in her late thirties, but she could still turn heads. She had copper toned red hair, gorgeous green eyes and a wonderful smile, above some very prominent ah… lungs. They sat up front.

“I only have one drink…” Carl said.

“Don’t worry, we have drinks in the break room,” Kathy said, she got up and scurried to the back and brought back a diet soda.

They sat down and divided the sandwich and chips. They talked pleasantries, while they ate.

“So, what is the good news?”

“If the stylists want their jobs, we will reopen on Thursday, or Friday.”

“Who is going to be running the salon?”

“I am, I’m not a stylist and I don’t know a thing about what they do, but I want to make this business a success. Who has the most seniority and skills, right now.”

“I do, I was with your aunt for twelve years, Jeff Wilkes has been here for ah... ten years or so. I was Miss Jennings’ assistant manager and ran the shop when she wasn’t around. I also have a cosmetology instructor’s license. Carol Davis also has an instructor’s license, but she has only been here seven years.”

“Well, I need a manager and someone to handle staff development. Do you know anyone who fits the bill?”

Kathy smiled, “I think I know someone and I am glad that the shop isn’t going to fold.”

“Tell me something Kathy. If a zero was a beauty salon, that only a half-blind Aunt Beatrice would go to, and a ten was a salon, on Rodeo drive, where would you put this salon?”

“About a seven, with ambitions of being an eight. Margaret was saving money and trying to upgrade our stylists and the Salon.”

“I have read all of the personnel files and the employee evaluations, but I want your take on the stylists.”

“Jeffery Coleman is a good stylist, he is a little weak in Perms and coloring. Mr. Charming is his nickname, brings in the girls. Terry Upton is very good, he just doesn’t know it. He needs to work on his confidence. Carol is good all around, needs some work with her people skills a few days each month. She has a instructor’s certification, like I do. Bridget Cole is a mean one, when it comes to dying hair and adding highlights, or special dye jobs. Olivia Long is the wild one; she’s a cross between punk, emo and goth. She is very popular with girls wanting edgy hair styles and she’s a wizard with razor cuts. Danielle Murphy is our problem child, she is good, but sometimes can’t control her temper. Toni Abernathy is a rising star, she’s good, but thinks too much about her skills. She’s young and needs more experience. Liz Carter is our star at doing fingernails, she’s really quite the artist. She is also going to Paul Mitchell’s School in Dallas, to gain her skill and certification as a stylist. It will be four or five months before we can use her. We let her get some hours in training here. Our best esthetician is, Alesha Cooper, don’t call her Alice please. She is a wiz at makeup. Lorna Stone is our wax specialist. Lastly we have Regina Whitaker; she is our receptionist, keeps everybody’s appointments straight, collects monies and she is the coffee girl. She is insanely cheerful and could sell sand in the Sahara, we can’t lose her.”

“Are they interested in staying with us? Can we retain them?”

“I think we should have no problems keeping all of them.”

“We have one waxer and six wax rooms?”

“Yes, Margret wanted more, but waxing is a ‘sometimes’ thing.”

“What would you say we need, in regards to personnel?”

“We have nine stations and eight hair dressers, with me. I would like to see two more Jeff’s or Carol’s. Please, no drama queens. We could also use another nail tech and another esthetician.”

“Do we have enough business in waxing to require another waxer?”

“Possibly, I think two mani-pedi stations, would pay us more.”

“Do you think the shop is a little tired?”

“Yes, Margaret was saving up to remodel the place. She didn’t want a big debt.”

“Would you give me a tour of the facility?”

Kathy took Carl through the salon and told him who belonged to which station, “Liz and Alesha don’t have regular stations, they go to our clients to do their work.”

“Would you like to keep your station, or would you like to move to Margaret’s old station?”

“Till we get rolling again, I will keep my station, but I would like to move to Margaret’s in a little while. What are your plans?”

“Looking at the place, I would like to reopen, for about six weeks, to regain patronage with our clients. Then have a week of promotions, for our regular customers, before we close for remodeling. I assume that would take up to ten days. I want to possibly cut three waxing rooms and open two more hair stations.”

“I think that is what Margaret had planned. Are you really going to run a salon, dressed like that?”

“I want to look professional.”

“This isn’t a law office, this is a salon. Do you trust me?”

“I am about to make you a manager.”

“Lock up and come with me.”

“We’ll take, my car, it’s new and I want to put some miles on it.” Carl said.

“Just don’t think badly of me, Carl. I’m not saying anything about you as a person.” Kathy said, as Carl drove. “I am saying, if you are going to run a salon, you’ve got to look the part.”

Kathy led them to the parking lot of an upscale ladies boutique.

“Oh, I see,” Carl said.

“You don’t have to do this. What I plan to have you try on are ladies slacks, ladies tops and ladies shoes, flats mostly. That is all. You see Carl; the men in beauty, tend to dress rather flamboyantly. You won’t be embarrassed or ridiculed in there. Do you want to try it?”

“Sure, I can always wake up tomorrow and pretend this evening didn’t happen.”

Kathy and Carl entered the Boutique. The shop was somewhat busy, but not crowded. Kathy walked up to a sales clerk and asked, “Is the boss, in?”

“Sure she is in the back. You can go on back and see her Kathy.”

Kathy led Carl through a curtain that had a sign over it that read employees only. In the back there were racks of clothes, boxes of whatever, an office and a dressing area, off to the side. Kathy led him over to the dressing area.

“Aren’t we here to see the boss?”

“We already did see her. That saleslady is Dotty Gordon, she owns the store. “Is the boss in”, is the code for a special customer. Dotty has more than a few male customers who like, or need, to dress in lady’s clothes.”

“Ok girls,” Dotty said, after she came through the curtain. “What can I do for you?”

“Carl here, is taking over for Margret; in fact, he is her nephew. I was telling him, a three piece suit isn’t the key to running a Salon.”

“You could do it in a three piece suit, if you were a Justin Timberlake, a Zack Efron, or a Brad Pit type, which you are not. I still think you are a cutie. So, what were you thinking Kathy?”

“Low Rise slim fit slacks, in a solid color, some flamboyant tops, trouser socks and ladies flats.”

“Hmm, take off your coat and vest, Carl and step up on the pedestal.”

Carl took off his suit coat and vest, handing them to Kathy, who hung them up. He then stepped up on the pedestal. Dotty walked around the pedestal and inspected him, “Yes, flamboyant, but not too feminine, Ok take off your shirt.” Dotty said, retrieving a measuring tape.

When he took the shirt off, Kathy was surprised by the length of his hair. She stepped up on the pedestal and began handling it like she would a customer’s hair.

“Why are you hiding all this wonderful hair, Carl? You could use a dye job, a honey blond, or a warm brown, would look lovely on you.”

“I like my hair long, but I hide it under my shirt when I dress up. It doesn’t fit the business man image.”

“As a hairdresser, it is an asset.”

“But, I’m not a hair dresser.”

“You may not be a hair dresser, but you are running a salon, so keep it out. I will work on it at the shop.”

Dottie measured Carl in about a hundred different ways, or so it seemed to Carl. Then for the next two hours, he seemed to be in the middle of a tornado of clothes. He tried on the first pair of pants and a silk blouse that was a splash of colors. Carl actually loved the blouse. When Kathy saw the outfit, she said, “The pants needed something”. She disappeared for about ten minutes and came back carrying a type of panty.

“Carl, you need just a bit more tush, go into the dressing room and put these on.” Kathy said, handing him a padded spandex brief.

It took him a while. First he pulled the brief on over his BVD’s and it didn’t feel right, his BVD’s wanted to bunch up beneath the padded brief. He took off his underpants and pulled up the padded brief. When he got them up, he was very uncomfortable. He took a few minutes to get himself situated, balls up and penis back. When he got the pants back on, he had to admit they looked better and fit better through the seat. He especially liked the rounded seat that stood out a little. When he showed the girls, they were silent for a few minutes, as they carefully appraised him. Then the two women went into hyper-drive. He stopped going into the dressing room, as he didn’t have time to. He must have tried on every pant in his size the store had and maybe fifty or sixty blouses.

Somewhere, his suit disappeared, and when the girls were finished playing Barbie on him, he was left wearing a red, blue, green and yellow silk print blouse, a pair of black low rise wool/spandex slim fit slacks, red trouser socks and red suede ankle boots with a 3 inch block heel.

He wound buying a mountain of pants, at least eight pair, a mountain of blouses, a dozen padded briefs, two dozen trouser socks, in a rainbow of colors except no yellow, and ten pair of shoes, three had large block heels like he was wearing. He didn’t look at the bill or he might have fainted.

He drove back to the shop to drop off Kathy, get his stuff from the shop, set the alarm and lock up. The last thing he told Kathy was nine o’clock tomorrow, be here. When he got to Margret’s place he took all the clothes up to his aunt’s bedroom and carefully laid them out on her king size bed. Two of the tops stood out. He knew he hadn’t tried either one on. They were sort of tunic type tops, instead of tuck in shirt type, blouses. While they were both pretty, one was beautiful. It was sort of like a dress, the back of the blouse hem would come below mid-thigh, but the hem arced gracefully, as it came around the front. The front of the tunic probably wouldn’t hide the zipper placate. The fabric was a deep rich burgundy and Carl had no idea of what the fabric was. He picked it up and saw it was a cotton/linen blend fabric. It felt nice to the hand. Up the back were twenty-one pearl seed buttons.

He didn’t know why, but he took off the blouse he was wearing and tried to put this blouse on. He had to completely unbutton the back and the tunic had to come over his head. With it at his waist, he slipped his arms in the long sleeves and pulled the tunic up to his chest. It took ten minutes, starting over twice, to get all the buttons buttoned. He had to contort in a hundred different ways, to be able to reach all of the buttons. He then buttoned the six smaller pearl buttons, at the end of each sleeve.

He stepped back and looked at himself, in his aunt’s tri fold mirror. A girl couldn’t help but love this top. It looked like it was painted on, instead of being a piece of clothing. The fabric was taught everywhere, but moving was easy. The tunic’s one flaw wasn’t the tunic’s fault. There were two areas where the fabric hung a little loose, because he didn’t have breasts. It wouldn’t take much, a pair of A cup breasts would make the top look good and B cup breasts would make the top look great, he thought. The hem had a cute ruffle that went all the way around. He thought this top made him look good.

He then held the other tunic up. This one was silky fabric, in a deep blue. It had a square neckline, meant to show off a nice amount of cleavage, sleeves that flared from the shoulder and became asymmetrical at the wrists, which were awash in lace.

“That is definitely girly.” Carl thought.

He didn’t really feel like putting everything up, they were smoothly laid out on his aunt’s bed, so he would hang and fold them tomorrow evening. Carl went downstairs to the family room and watched about ten minutes of TV, while munching on a banana and a muffin, while drinking a diet coke. Carl wasn’t a finicky eater, but he often got wrapped up in what he was doing and didn’t eat enough, at times and a little too much, fewer times.

He got up and headed to his room, intending to undress and go to bed. He sat on the bed, set the alarm and laid back, staring at the ceiling. It wasn’t too long till he drifted into oblivion.

>>>>><<<<<

Carl awoke and desperately needed to use the restroom. It was a little awkward, walking in boots half-asleep, but he got there. It was really awkward though, having to raise the hem of the tunic, as he sat down on the toilet. After he finished the toilet duties, It took a while to undress, the boots, pants and padded brief came off easily. But the blouse proved to be a bit of a challenge. Carl got the sleeves unbuttoned and began working on the tunic. He got his mornings stretch in, getting undressed. He carried his clothes to his room and checked the labels; they were all wash warm/dry low.

He went to his aunt’s room to shower, since his new clothes were there. He had been in her room before, but he had never poked around in it before. She shouldn’t mind now, he thought. Carl used her bath body wash, loofah, and Paul Mitchell hair care products. He came out of the shower and put his hair up in a turban towel, his aunt had stocked up, before he dried. He looked at what she had sitting on the counter. He used her deodorant, she had some body lotion he used and brushed his teeth with a new toothbrush. He remembered how hot that padded brief had been, he was looking at the body powder by Estee Lauder. He went ahead and lightly dusted his whole body. He smelled wonderful.

In his aunt’s room, he grabbed a padded brief and started to put it on. He stopped, thinking he would like having something between his body and the brief. He knew his briefs wouldn’t feel right under the padded brief. He went to his aunt’s dresser and opened her panty drawer. He couldn’t believe how many panties he saw, thongs, bikinis, boycut briefs and full briefs. He picked up a silvery satin boycut brief. He looked at the panty for twenty or thirty seconds, before he took a deep breath, stepped into them and pulled them up. He thought they are just a piece of fabric and wearing them doesn’t mean a thing. He was surprised that they actually felt good. He then stepped into the padded brief and pulled it most of the way up, before arranging things down there and firmly seated the padded brief.

He dressed in a green blouse and green trouser socks. Carl stepped into a tan pair of slacks and a pair of tan, lace up, block heels. The slacks were low rise and fit nicely. His slacks had belt loops but he had no belt. His suit belt wouldn’t go with the slacks. He knew his aunt had lots of belts, and they were most likely in the closet. Just inside the closet was a rack of belts. Carl selected a gold chain belt. He got his wallet his keys, and his aunt’s keys, and realized the pockets were mostly token pockets and wouldn’t even hold his cell phone. His aunt kept her purses in a rack at the back. He selected a purple Gucci shoulder bag. Inside the bag were a few items, a makeup bag, tissues, tampons, perfume, breath mints and a few other things. He put his things in and shouldered the bag.

He stopped at a Wal-Mart before he hit a Denny’s. He needed a holster for his smartphone. He selected one that he could clip on the waist band of his pants, and paid for it with his debit card. He went to Denny’s, had their big breakfast and read the morning newspaper, even the fashion section.

He arrived at the shop, unlocked the door and turned off the alarms. In his aunt’s office, he started up her computer and his laptop, to log into the network. He pulled up her accounting software and pulled up payroll. He found that the employees needed to be paid. He had to go to the bank today and put his name on the account. The desk buzzed and he heard the doorbell ringing.

“Kathy, is that you?”

“Yes it is, Carl. You in the office?”

“Yes, come on back.”

When Kathy came in the office, she gave Carl a little hug.

“Can you sign checks, Kathy?” Carl said, as he began to work on payroll. He gave each employee full credit, even for the days since Margret died. It wasn’t their fault. He saw that there was plenty of money in the bank and paid each employee a bonus, based on their years of service. Each employee would get two checks.

“Yes, Carol and I can sign checks.”

“Call our people and ask them to come to a staff meeting tomorrow at nine, tell them they are getting their paychecks and a bonus. Tell them to be ready to clean this place from top to bottom. I want this place to sparkle. See if Regina can begin this afternoon. I want our regulars to know we are coming back,” he said, handing her a stack of checks.

Kathy got a pen and began to sign checks, but she stopped, “Are you sure this is right, Carl?”

“You can’t buy loyalty, but a good paycheck can gain a bit of goodwill. I need all the goodwill I can get.” Carl stated.

He took the checks and locked them in the safe.

“Also, check your supplies and order fifty percent more than what we need. I plan to run some promotions.”

They both got busy. Carl looked at the accounts payable and saw they weren’t late on any payments. He chose to pay bills according to the records. He made a note to get an accountant to verify everything.

He pulled up the balance sheet, the P&L, the debt ratio to assets, and the debt ratio to income. He wasn’t an expert, but they seemed to be in very good shape. The balance sheet showed an asset account marked remodeling fund. Margret was indeed almost ready for remodeling. She seemed to want to do it without financing it through the banks.

He wrote a report in which he stated the facts as he saw them, and what his intentions were. He included all the pertinent documents and emailed his mom.

The desk buzzed and the doorbell rang. Carl got up and outside the door, he saw a girl who could only have been Regina, “Hello Regina, You’re a couple of hours early,” Carl said. “I am Carl Simon, the new proprietor.”

“Then this is yours Carl,” the girl said, giggling as she handed him a postal crate a little less than half full of mail. “I got tired of counting the spots on my walls.”

“Oh, so you pick up the mail too!” Carl said.

“Yes sir. I am the go to girl.”

Carl sat down at the couches in the reception area and asked Regina to sit with him as he sorted through the mail.

“So tell me about yourself Regina,”

Regina sat next to Carl and began to help sort the mail. They sorted the salon’s mail, from the mail sent to the stylists, in care of the shop and the junk mail. Regina talked as they worked. She took the stylist mail and put it in their boxes. Carl then began opening the stores mail. Regina sat at her desk, and booted up her computer, she asked him to tell her about Carl.

Carl sorted out bills, business offers, letters from Cosmetology schools and product offers. He told Regina about himself, his aunt and how a nineteen year old boy wound up the proprietor of an upscale salon.

“Regina, Kathy and I have to go to the bank and get the account signature cards straightened out. Go through the salon’s appointment books for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, call the clients and tell them we will be open.”

“On it boss,”

Carl dropped off his mail in his office, got his purse and went to check on Kathy.

“Hey Kathy, how’s it going?”

“Almost done, whasup?”

“We need to go to the bank to get the signature cards sorted out.”

“I can stop now. Let me get my purse.”

Kathy and Carl headed out together, “Oh Regina, can we get you something to eat or can you wait till we get back, to go out.”

“You’re training him well, Kathy. No, I usually order a salad and a sandwich from the shop four doors down. They deliver to the mall.”

“Alright, we will be back as soon as we can.”

>>>>><<<<<

The bank was like pulling teeth. They read and reread every document Carl produced for them. Then they called to courthouse to confirm the courthouse documents. After two hours of just sitting there. They allowed Carl to sign the shops signature card, as the proprietor.

Carl was frustrated, as he and Kathy left, “The next time I deal with them, I am calling one of Mom’s sharks to go with me.”

“Sharks?”

“My Mom keeps some dedicated and efficient lawyers on retainer. She has a couple in Dallas. They would just love feeding on people, like those bankers. Are you hungry Kathy?”

“Thought you would never ask. There is a Crab shack just around the corner. I think some of the problem they had with you was the way you were dressed. You look like an effeminate male. I saw them looking you over when you weren’t looking.”

As they ate they talked, “I will take several lawyers when I go back to the bank then. Kathy, I need some blazers to go with my slacks. I feel positively naked without a coat or something.”

“We can get you some after work tonight. I hadn’t thought about that.”

“I want to get some jeans and some knock around clothes too. If I am going to dress like this, it is no good switching back and forth every day.”

“I see your left ear is pierced, is your right ear pierced too?”

“Yeah, I pierced my ears in my rebellious fourteen year old phase. Mom didn’t even flinch; she just stopped taking me to get my hair cut too. I have grown it out since then. She makes me take good care of it though.”

“That seals it. You’re in my chair when we get back to the office. No matter how good you take care of it, it still needs trimming to stay in good condition.”

Carl’s phone rang while they were finishing up eating. It was his Mom, “Hello Anita,” Carl said. “Really… I thought that banker was a dickhead. After all the paperwork I laid on him. We spent two hours trying to get control of the bank account. I was about ready to call one of your sharks in Dallas.”

“Oh, my manager and I got hungry after fighting with that banker, we stopped at a crab shack to get something to eat. Ok Anita, we need to get back at the shop. We have a lot to do, if we’re to open on Thursday. Ok, Love you Mom,” Carl said. He hung up and parked his phone in its cradle.

“You call your mom by her first name?”

“Bad habit, Mom was at work. When I act as her executive assistant I was told to call her Anita around her associates and Mrs. Simon around people she was doing business with other people. The bank called her to confirm that a nineteen year old kid was taking over a business. Let’s go make sure Regina hasn’t sold the salon.”

When they got back to the salon, Regina was sitting with two ladies and an exuberant four or five year old girl.

“Hello Regina, do you have company?”

“No, you do. Carly this is Mrs. Joyce Holder, her daughter Melanie Holder, her grandchild and Melanie’s daughter, Stacy Holder. Joyce this is Carl Simon and Kathy Brennan. Melanie wants to interview for a job.”

Melanie was beautiful, she had a heart shaped face, high cheekbones, cute little ears a small pug nose, black curly hair in an updo and blue almost violet eyes, a guy could get lost in

Carl decided to play with Stacy, he turned to the four year old and said, “Melanie, aren’t you a little young to be working?”

“I not Mel…lony, Mommy is Mel…lony.”

“Oh, sorry Joyce,”

“I not Yoyce, I are Stttacy. Granmaw is Yoyce,” Stacy said. Getting up and indicating her grandmother. “Tis is Mommy,” she said raising her mother’s hand. “An I Stttacy.”

Kathy, take Melanie back to Margaret’s station, I need to go to the office a second. Regina followed Carl back and asked, “Can I keep them, they are all so nice, especially Stacy.”

When he got to the door he wanted, Regina was still by his side. “Regina, can I go to potty alone. I promise to wash my hands.”

“Be sure that you do, going to the office, what a lame excuse.”

Carl did wash his hands and joined Kathy and Melanie. Melanie was laying out her paperwork, license, letters of recommendation, references and work experience. She had graduated from Paul Mitchell in Dallas, taken several seminars, the most notable being from Aveda, and had worked at one salon in Houston. Kathy was speaking the arcane language of Cosmetology, with Melanie.

After thirty minutes, Carl saw the smile on Kathy’s face, “Well, as we say, the proof is in the pudding. Kathy thinks my hair needs work, pretend I am your customer,” Carl said.

Melanie had him sit and Kathy went to get a clean cape, which Melanie put on Carl.

“Hi, I am Melanie and I will be your beauty consultant today. What can I do for you today?”

“I am Carly. It’s been five years since my last styling and Kathy thinks I have been a bad girl.” Carl teased.

“If it has been five years, you have been a bad girl.” She took a comb out of the sanitizer, rinsed it off and began to comb out and inspect Carl’s hair. “You have really nice hair, except for the millions of split ends at the tips. What kind of style do you like?”

“I like long relaxed curls, like Avril Lavigne or Keri Hilson, sometimes wear.”

Melanie turned the chair slowly giving Carl a close inspection, “I think you would look really nice, don’t you think so Kathy.”

“You have good tastes, Carly,” Kathy teased, as she took several photos from many angles with her digital camera.

“What about color?” Melanie asked.

“Let’s see… How about honey blonde, with small highlights, small lowlights and mixed in with just a few red hairs.”

“Why don’t you tell your family to go home? We’ll get you home when we finish, Melanie,” Kathy said.

An excited Melanie rushed to the reception area and sent her mom and daughter home.

“What do you think of her?” Carl asked.

“She has some outstanding credentials, just not a lot of time at work. So far though, she has been spot on.”

Melanie came back ready to work, “Normally, I would wait to cut your hair till last, but I really want to get these split ends out now, so I won’t lose them in the curls.”

Melanie showed the split ends to Kathy and proceeded to excise them. She then washed Carl’s hair. Kathy and Melanie spent a few minutes talking and then they both attacked Carl’s hair, sectioning it and rolling it on rods. Carl had lots of hair, so this step took a bit. Carl thought they were pretending pretty well. When they finished, they both left for a few minutes. Carl was half asleep when Melanie started adding the chemistry for a perm to his head.

“I guess they aren’t pretending.” Carl thought.

They covered his hair, placed him under a dryer and disappeared. After a long hot time under the dryer, Melanie checked his hair and pulled him out from under the dryer. They rinsed his hair, neutralized it and rinsed it again. Then came the coloring, another tedious job. Carl could swear that he had enough aluminum foil on his head; he could block psychic intrusion and hear BBC London in his head. Thirty minutes later, Melanie rinsed and conditioned his hair.

Carl didn’t know much about perms and coloring, but he knew they lasted a long time. He was going to look like this a long while, so he decided that he loved his long hair and didn’t want it cut off. So he decided to go whole hog. While Melanie was partially drying his hair, Carl said, “While Melanie is drying and styling my hair, Kathy, why don’t you give me nail extension and gel nails.”

The girls realized what had happened and knew the lasting consequences of what had been done so far. So they got right to work, with Kathy doing his nails as Melanie was styling Carl’s hair.

“What shape nails do you want, Carl?”

“I don’t think square tips look elegant and I don’t want pointed. Oval sort of.”

“We will go with a squoval. We can change them later, if you like.”

At some point, Carl was leaned back and Melanie began working on his brows. She didn’t give him a skinny arch, but she followed his natural brow line, which gave him a bold “me girly” arch, like Camilla Belle’s, which Carl had to admit to himself, looked fantastic. Kathy was buffing his new longer nails, while Melanie began working with makeup.

The two women finished and stood back to look at Carl, “Looks wonderful, but needs something?” Kathy said.

“Jewelry” Melanie said, as she took one ear in hand and looked at both sides of it, then the other. “Ears are pierced, she needs long dangles.”

Kathy headed to the office and asked, “Is your top drawer unlocked, Carly? Margret use to keep some spare earrings there.”

“Should be.”

Kathy came back with some very pretty jeweled chandelier earrings. Melanie inserted one, Kathy inserted the other.

Carl was stunned, as he looked in the mirror, Kathy didn’t say anything, she just shot more pictures with her Digital camera. Before Carl had just been a girly guy. Now he was a Lady that the titty fairy had missed. His hair looked wonderful. The coloring almost glowed, the highlights, lowlights, and reds gave his hair a vibrancy he had never had before. The long relaxed curls did something for his looks that he just couldn’t describe in more than one word, “WOW!” The earrings helped, but he needed more jewelry. He looked in the mirror and saw Regina standing there with a fish mouth look, you know the lips parted in an “O”.

“Close your mouth Regina, you are drooling. Kathy, how much would you charge for what I had done?”

“Two hundred for the dual process color, fifty for two extra colors, a hundred for the perm on long hair, fifty on the hair styling and another seventy five for the nails. So four fifty total. The prices are higher because your hair was so long.”

Carl got his purse, took out his wallet and counted out five hundred dollars and handed Regina the money. He handed Kathy forty and Melanie a hundred dollars as a tip.

“Kathy, move to this work station and Melanie will move into your old station. Melanie, you can do this nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Dress for cleaning detail. You can fill out your employment paperwork tomorrow. Clean up this workstation while I shut down my computers. Oh, and I guess Regina was right, call me Carly now. Melanie I will be ready to give you a lift home in a few minutes.”

Carl went to his office and sat for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and relaxed. How had all this happened to him. Things started fast and reached warp nine in hours. There was a mirror in the office; he looked at himself… no she looked at herself. She couldn’t see Carl and probably wouldn’t ever see him again. Was this inevitable? He had never dressed as a girl before, not even for Halloween. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at things, SHE liked what SHE saw. Carly began shutting things down, and made some notes on what she should do tomorrow.

The girls were ready when Carly left her office.

“Do you still want to do shopping tonight, Carly?” Kathy asked.

“Not tonight, I have a lot to do. I expect we will finish tomorrow early in the afternoon. Can we do that after work. Is that alright with you?

Carly heard, “Great! I can be there! Me too!”

“Do we go potty together, also?” Carly asked.

“Now we do, we’ve got to look after our little sister now.” Regina added, giggling.

Melanie’s eye got really big, when she saw Carly’s new car. Carly saw the girl’s reaction, “I got a good deal on the car. My Mom knows the Dealer.”

Carly programmed the navigation system with the address Melanie gave her and began to follow its directions.

They had just left the shop’s parking lot, when the dam broke on Melanie’s emotions and she began telling Carly her life history. She had just packed up and left an abusive husband. He divorced her and as a part of the settlement, he wouldn’t contest her custody of Stacy, if she would sign away her share of his property. He couldn’t do anything about child support the State of Texas sunk their fangs into him for that (his words not hers,) but Melanie wasn’t getting half of shit. Her mom works, but was barely making it on her own. Melanie felt she had to do something. She had been a good stylist, working a good salon in Houston.

Carly saw a branch of her bank, she pulled into the bank lot and up to one of their ATM’s. She could only get forty twenties so she took the max.

“Melanie, tomorrow I am handing out a lot of money to my employee’s. I know it’s extremely early, but I consider you to be one of the top three or four. Consider this a signing bonus. I just need you to sign this ATM receipt so I can add it to my business records. Just don’t tell the others.”

Melanie started bawling, she had a hard time signing the receipt, because she couldn’t see through her tears. When she did get it signed, the receipt looked like it was written in Hindi or Farsi instead of English.

“Now stop crying. I would do that for any of my stylists. We are going to be the best salon. Now fix your face, you want to look beautiful for your daughter. I am starving; do you feel up to eating?”

“Can we pick up Mom and Stacy? I know they are waiting for me.”

Carly was a little disappointed; she had hoped to spend a little time with Melanie. She really like the girl, but she said, “Sure, just clean up your face and we will go pick them up.”

Melanie quickly cleaned her eyes and the tear streaks in her makeup, put eye drops in her eyes to remove the redness and repaired her face.

Stacy ran to her mother and jumped into her arms, before she had taken a look at Carly. When she finally had time to look at her, Carly wondered what was going on in that little girl’s mind. She had an absolutely strange expression on her face. She then reached out to Carly in the universal hold me gesture. Melanie passed the little dynamo over to Carly. Grandma couldn’t believe her eyes. She had seen an effeminate Carl earlier, but what she saw now was an entirely feminine, flat chested woman.

“ Get yer handbag Ma, I’m a taking this posse out to get a bit of vittals, ta ahner my newest stylist.” Carly said, in a cowgirl type voice.

Carly drove to I-HoP. They were given a corner booth and after they ordered, they sat talking. Melanie did most of the explaining for Carly, to her Mom, while Stacy was drawing on her children’s placemat and telling Carly what she was drawing. It was hard paying attention to Stacy and eavesdropping on Melanie and Joyce. Stacy’s determination won out, when she handed Carly a crayon and asked her to draw with her.

As they were finishing up, Carly needed to go to the restroom. She whispered to Melanie, Melanie took Carly’s hand and told her mom that they were going to the girls’ room. “Me too, Mom,” Stacy said. Joyce came with them. There were three stalls in the ladies room, Carly took one, Melanie and Stacy took another and Joyce the third. Carly came out and Melanie asked Carly to watch Stacy while she did her business. Carly and Stacy were washing their hands when Joyce joined them.

“You have such wonderful hair Carly.” Joyce said, fussing with Carly’s hair.

“Melanie is a real wizard with hair.”

“Yes she is and thank you for hiring her.”

As Carly drove the trio home she asked, “Can you be ready by fifteen of eight? I will drive by and pick you up.”

“Sure, I will be expecting you.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly got home and was too keyed up to sleep. So she put up all her new clothes in Margret’s closet and drawers. In the closet she noticed her aunt’s jackets and tried them on. They were alright as long as she didn’t button them up. They were tailored for her Aunt’s bust. When Carly tried to button them, they emphasized the difference between Margret’s and Carl’s chests. His aunt had big lungs. She found one that wasn’t too bad and selected an outfit, which went well with the blazer, for tomorrow. She wanted jeans and a T, but decided on a more professional look. Tomorrow she’s the boss.

>>>>><<<<<

It was easy getting up the next morning, Carly kept waking up throughout the night. She gave up getting any sleep by four twenty. The funny thing was, she wasn’t tired. She decided to take a quick shower.

Somehow she got her huge mane into her aunt’s shower cap. She knew that would cut the time it would take getting ready. For some reason, she shaved her underarms, arms, legs and face. She dried herself, moisturized her skin, used deodorant, powdered herself and brushed her teeth, before she took off the shower cap. Her hair looked OK and after combing it with her fingers it looked better.

In the bedroom, Carly went through each drawer of Margret’s dresser. She picked up a bra. The cups looked ginormous. The label on the bra said, 38DD. Carly took all the bras out and set them on top of the dresser. Carly saw a lot of things she would try on later, and some, like the bras, she could never fill their potential. Her aunt had nothing that would give her the illusion of having breasts. There were four corsets, but two had cups and were out. She selected a panty, a pair of pantyhose and put them on, with the padded brief.

Margret had a lot of three and four inch stilettos, all of them were too small for her feet. She did find a few stretch jersey dresses she might be able to wear. There were some winter coats she could wear. Carly’s gold mine in the closet was accessories and purses. There were nine high dollar bags besides the Gucci. In fact the Gucci didn’t go with her selected outfit, but there was a Channel bag that looked nice. She sat on the bed and transferred her stuff to the new shoulder bag.

She opened the nightstands next to the bed and received many surprises. The first was a baby Glock 21 in a .45 ACP. Carly had fired guns before. She removed the magazine, racked the slide several time to clear the chamber and looked at the gun. She loaded the loose round back into the magazine reinserted the magazine into the gun and racked a round into the chamber. She knew Texas had a concealed carry license program. She would have to take the course and get licensed.

Carly then pulled out three… ah… (do I really have to tell you what some women keep in their nightstands besides firearms.) long cylindrical items. One vibrated, had pearls that rotated and had this soft gel thing on the side. In the other nightstand there was another handgun. A M1911A1, “Damn Aunt Margaret, you could have killed a bear with these.” Carly made a note to check everywhere for guns, before she brought people over, make that before she brought Melanie and Stacy over.

Carly’s second alarm went off at five thirty. She finished getting dressed and put her phone on her belt. She walked over to her aunt’s jewelry cabinet. The cabinet was eighteen inches by eight inches by six feet tall. Carly could sell jewelry for a month and not run out. She selected a pair of long chandelier earrings and put them on. She found a thirty inch, twenty six inch and twenty two inch beaded necklaces that looked similar and put them on. She selected a broach for her jacket, a gold cuff bracelet for her left wrist and four bangles for her right.

She looked at herself. She went to the bathroom and took one of her aunt’s large round brushes and brushed out her hair. Carly was pleasantly surprised at how easy her hair fell into shape. She grabbed her stuff and went to a coffee house for her coffee fix and to read a newspaper.

Carly first read the fashion section of the newspaper as she drank her mocha latte. Carl never read the fashion section. The comics section was excellent and the business section she scanned briefly. After her second cup, her phone alarm told her it was seven-fifteen.

If you are wasting time before an appointment, the time sometimes crawls at snail pace. If you are running late, time travels twice as fast you need it. Carly drove past Melanie’s place twice, before seven forty five arrived, while Carly was a mile away. She was only a few minutes late. Melanie waved for Carly to come to her. Stacy it seemed had to get her hugs from Carly, before she would let her mommy go.

On the drive to the shop, Melanie commented on how good Carly looked, and asked her why she wasn’t wearing makeup.

“I don’t know how to use that stuff. I just got the nerve to do my lipstick and out of self-defense, I brushed out my hair. Nobody told me what to do?”

“Oh… I guess we forgot something. I will make you beautiful again when we get to the shop. We will teach you everything you need to know. Or do you want to go back to being Carl.”

“I don’t know if I was ever him at all. I think this is me.”

Melanie patted Carly’s arm, “We didn’t go too far did we. Kathy and I got so wrapped up with the things we did. I kind of snapped when I covered your hair with the perm solution, that I was working on a guy. I was worried that you would be mad.”

“That is when it hit me too, but when I saw my curls and hair color, it all just fell together. I Sort of surrendered to what I became. I am Carly now. Carly is a woman.”

>>>>><<<<<

At the shop Melanie gave Carly some quick easy lessons and gave Carly some beginning makeup lesson as she created a Hairstylist’s makeup job, which was a little more sophisticated than normal daytime makeup.

Regina was the first one in, she hugged Carly and told her how good she looked. Carly asked Regina to send Kathy back when she gets here and have the others wait in the reception area.

“Regina, it is of the utmost importance for you and the rest to realize nothing bad is going to happen this morning, to anyone. Keep their spirits up. It’s all good news, unless an asteroid hits the salon.”

Regina smiled as she hugged Carly, “Roger boss, I got you covered.” She then scurried over to her corner of the world.

“Dang Melanie, they ought to bottle whatever she is on and sell it.”

“She is high on life Carly. Do you want me up front?”

“No come in my office. I want to face them and then introduce you. I need to feel them out first.”

Kathy came back and adored the way Carly looked. The three of them talked in the office till Regina knocked on the door and said that everybody was present.”

“Go on up front Kathy I will be there in a minute.”

Carly got everything she wanted and put it in her briefcase.

She grabbed her purse and briefcase, and headed up front. She had Melanie wait just out of sight. She took a deep breath, smiled and walked around the corner.

“Hello everyone I am Carly Simon. I am the new proprietor of this salon and I have some exciting news for you. First I know we will all miss, Margret Jennings. She was my Aunt and I was devastated by her death and I know she touched all of your lives, but life goes on.

“I have paychecks for all of you. I couldn’t spend the money till the courts ordered that I could run the business till it comes out of probate. I promise you this; I will still be here after probate.” Carly opened her briefcase and removed the paychecks. She handed each person there, the correct paycheck, she knew who they were by their personnel files. “Please open the envelopes, sign the receipt and return it to me. I am new at this and I want to cover my bases. You will notice that I made up for the fact that you didn’t work for a certain amount of time. It wasn’t your fault and it wasn’t my fault. I just wasn’t authorized till Friday to run the salon till then.”

“I want you to know your jobs are still here and the dawn is breaking on you all. My aunt cared for all of you. Even though none of you were specifically named in the will, I know she would want you to know how she felt. I have personally written checks for each of you based on the years of service you gave my aunt. Take it as a small token from me and my mother, to all of you. It is a gift, so I didn’t take taxes from it.” Carly then began passing out the bonus checks. A few gasps could be heard as they looked at the checks.

“Now on to business. We are a stylist down now. So Kathy and I have hired a new stylist.”

Carly then told them about Melanie Holder. Telling them of her licensing, schools and abilities.

“Is she any good,” Jeff asked.

“You tell me, she did my hair and makeup. I’m not just the president of the hair club. I am the first victim, no make that client.” Carly pulled out a picture of her before her makeover. Kathy had made it last night. Some of the stylists checked Carly out looking at the picture and at her.

“I would give her an A,” Carol said. Carol was the other stylist with Instructor’s certification.

“Melanie, please.”

Melanie came forward and introduced herself to the group. Regina saved her a spot to sit after introductions.

“Now on to business. I can’t operate a salon. I don’t even have a student’s permit. I am here to run a business. I am the proprietor. Kathy Brennan has been with my aunt for ten years. She is the designated operator and manager of anything dealing with Cosmetology. Cosmetology questions go to her. Any business or people problems come to me. I will deal with them. Kathy and I will do the hiring and I will do the firing.”

“As of today, each of you have a clean slate.” Carly said. Pulling out a stack of envelopes. “These are your personnel files. I will take all your atta boys in these files to your favor and unless you totally screw the pooch, I won’t hold any black marks against you. So you can start building up more atta boys today and you have no oh shits against you.”

For the next two hours they talked back and forth about the business, rules, vacation and such.

“Now for my plans for the future. This salon isn’t old and antiquated, but it is a little tired. I want all of us to work hard and reconnect with our clients, for the next six weeks, because I am going to remodel this place from top to bottom, so we will be the best looking salon in the state.”

“Make it four or eight weeks Boss. We don’t want to miss the beginning of college or Labor Day.” Regina said looking at her tablet.

“Alright we will make it eight weeks. We will close for ten days and have a Grand Reopening on the eleventh day. You will each receive a week of pay for that time and five hundred dollars of mad money.”

“Rest up that week, because the day we open we will hit the ground running. We will be running promotions for two weeks to get customers in. This will be the only time I stress speed, but I want speed with quality. Next, the first non-holiday Monday of the month, staff meeting at nine, with training after the meeting and on the third Monday. You will receive comp time for your efforts. Regina make friends with the girls at the stores around us. Free hair services for one girl on training days. Kathy set the curriculum. Also I am going to try to send you to seminars once every two years. I need to study that issue.”

“Questions.”

After she answered their questions she made one last statement. “Since all stylists are responsible for the sanitation of your own stations, please, I want all of your work stations gleaming for tomorrow. You can leave as soon as Kathy checks you out. I would like to spend a few minutes with each of you today in my office. Oh and look sharp no holey jeans, Olivia.”

“Are studded leather jeans alright?” Olivia asked giggling.

“As long as you leave the whips, chains and handcuffs at home.”

Olivia had a surprised smile on her face, which sent chills down Carly’s back. Carly went to her office to work on the books and pay bills. She received a note that Kathy had ordered the supplies that Carly had requested.

Kathy herded one employee after another through Carly’s office, for their talks. Everyone was hopeful and happy, the economy still wasn’t near a hundred percent healthy; so it was good to have a job. Olivia asked one question, “How did you know?” Carly gave Olivia a deadpan expression and had a two word reply for her, “Know what?” Olivia just hugged her and left.

Carly was typing a report of what they had done today and about how she felt about it. Just after two she received her last knock, “Enter,” Carly called.

Kathy, Regina and Melanie entered. “You should have seen everyone cleaning today Carly; ready to go shopping?”

“Just have to send my Mom my report.” Carly said, typing the last few lines.

“Reporting to your mother?” Melanie asked.

“I am mother’s Executive Assistant. You could say I am her ‘go to girl’, gopher and muscle. Margret was her sister. Mom is financing me. I’m not taking pay out of this business. I am reinvesting it back into the company. Can one of ya’ll give me a braid while I finish up. It should make changing clothes easier.”

Melanie went and grabbed two brushes and a pink ribbon. Kathy and Melanie worked together. They started to braid at Carly’s temple and met at the back of her head. Melanie then braided down to the last two inches and Kathy tied it off with a ribbon and a large bow.

When they finished, Carly was ready and was shutting down the system.

“Oh Regina, do we need to get your morning startup money?” Carly asked.

“Got it in my safe. I have a safe in my desk. I start every day with two hundred dollars, in tens, fives, ones and change. Most of our receipts are in plastic and checks, but we get a lot of fifties and hundreds.”

The, three girls played rock, paper and scissors for the front seat. Carly just banged her head on the steering wheel. Regina won.

“Ok, what do you want first?”

“Well, I need breasts while I am in the salon. It would be nice to remove all doubt, if you know what I mean.”

“Monica’s Boutique, North Side Mall,” Regina said, and when everybody looked funnily at her, she said. “I have some friends who know about things like that.”

Carly had to wonder about Olivia and Regina. Regina programmed the navigation system in a blur of motion.

“Do you own a Beamer?”

“No, but I have driven a Lambo. My cousin drives a Beamer, we went on a road trip, boy is she freaky. I have driven Rolls, Bentley’s, Bugotti’s, Porsche’s and Mercedes. I am a bonded parking attendant at the country club during special occasions.” She showed Kathy and Melanie a picture on her iPhone of her in a Tuxedo skirt and shirt leaning seductively on a Lamborghini and behind the wheel of a Rolls Phantom extended wheelbase.

“Didn’t the Lamborghini owner get mad at you leaning on his car.”

“He took the picture and posed me. He gets a kick out of collecting pictures of girls leaning on his car. He’s a bit of a pervert, but he won’t date the hired help.”

Everyone was stunned silent and in the absence of other people’s voices, Regina filled the void with her own voice. Soon though everyone joined in and Regina was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

>>>>><<<<<

Everyone could see that Monica’s sold a line of lingerie that was a little on the racy side. Monica greeted Regina with a cheek kiss.

“Aunt Monica, it’s so good seeing you.”

“How’s my favorite niece doing?”

“I will ask her the next time I see Beverly.”

“How can I help you girls?” Monica asked.

“One of us here needs a very good pair of TITS! Aunty.”

“Well since I see six very nice examples,” Monica said, walking up to Carly. “What are your thoughts dear girl?”

“I ah… was ah… thinking of a large A, small B.”

“Oh what a waste, you would make a nice double D or E cup.”

Carly blanched a bit, as she thought of her actually wearing one of her aunt’s bras. Monica led them into the back. With very few words spoken, Carly was soon on her back on a padded table and Monica was soon affixing two medium sized blobs on her chest. She then air brushed the breasts to match the skin and hide the ultra-thin seams. Carly raised her head to look but was told to lie there for a few minutes. The adhesive needs to cure before she could stand. Kathy and Melanie were amazed and shocked. Amazed that the breasts looked so natural and shocked that Monica did all of this with them standing here. The breast forms actually changed shapes as Carly changed positions and jiggled like real breasts. Carly poked them with her finger, but she had known nothing to compare them to.

“The adhesive I used will last for a month. You can remove them with a solvent but that will affect the life of the breast form. See you can’t see where the seams are.”

“Do you have any bras, I can try on.”

“You are much too nice a girl for my lingerie. Go without or head over to Victoria’s Secret, if you must have a bra. I do have some other things you might be interested in. Monica pulled out two boxes. One box contained silicone hip pads and the other contained butt pads. They felt like the same high quality as the breast forms. I will ask you ladies to give us some privacy. You don’t get to see the goods yet, but I do.”

Carly was fitted with the pads and Monica spent a bit of time teaching Carly how to hide herself without a gaff or a stiff girdle. When she finally got dressed without the padded brief, or pantyhose, her pants fit rather tightly across the backside and from her hip down the leg a bit. She put her shirt on and was pleased with the look, people could easily see where her nipples tented the blouse, going braless sometimes, might be good; sometimes. The jacket still needed something across the bust, but she and the jacket looked much better.

The breasts, hips and butt are eleven hundred dollars except to friends of my favorite niece; for you though, because I like you, eight hundred. Ah, what’s your name again?”

“I never got the opportunity to say it, but I am Carly Simon,” as she peeled off eight one hundred dollar bills. This was one store Carly didn’t want her mom seeing on her American Express bill.

“That’s one fine tush you got there girl,” Monica said, looking at the seat of her pants. “A butt like that needs tight jeans. The GAP is four stores down on your right and Victoria’s Secret is around the corner to your right almost all the way to Macy’s.”

Carly had to scurry out the door as Kathy and Melanie were both trying to assault her butt. From Monica’s they did head to The GAP. The GAP is a store that sells many different name brand jeans, along with T’s and tops. While Carly was showing off a particularly form fitting, butt lifting pair of jeans, Regina snuck in and took Carly’s slacks and her jacket, and wouldn’t give them back to her. The shirt with those jeans though, was well worth having Carly harangue her. Carly crossed her arms across her breasts as she walked from The GAP to Victoria’s Secret.

It was even more embarrassing having no idea what size bra she needed. Melanie explained that their sorority sister had experienced some growth and that they had stolen her bra so she would be encouraged to get fitted. She explained that Carly was wearing the same size bra she had worn as a junior in high school. Carly had to take off her shirt so she could be fitted. The sales lady told her that in most bras, Carly would be a 34C and maybe a 34D in others.

“The bra measurement just gets you in the ball park. Its how one size or the other feels and fits that’s important. Shall I get you some bra’s to try on?”

“I think that pack of thieves is already doing that. The old one and the smiley one are the most dangerous.”

“It always is. There is always some mischief behind an innocent smile, but I can tell they all love you.”

Carly laughed, “That only makes it worse. Only someone you love can get away with so much.”

“Damn straight,” Melanie said, kissing Carly’s cheek.

The girls tried to mess with Carly again. They left her in a bra they selected. It was a padded to add two cups, which made her look like Dolly Parton. She had to leave the top three buttons open, not out of a sense of style but because the buttons wouldn’t button. She finally convinced the girls that because she wanted to buy work clothes and the fact that she would never wear this bra to work, caused them to relent to a pretty 34C T-shirt bra.

At Nordstrom’s Kathy’s help was indispensable, between her memory and fashion sense and Carly’s memory, they were able to select a number of blazers that would complement her entire wardrobe. Carly didn’t like heavily tailored clothes and appreciated the fact that the jackets she bought were a size large, because of her waist. She had a boy’s waist, which was larger than a woman’s waist of similar weight. She would need to work on that, but Carly was happy to have coats that fit and looked good. She also stopped and picked up some more ankle boots.

All in all, Carly picked up twelve bras, six pair of jeans of which two were a relaxed fit, seven blazers and three high heel block heel ankle boots. She wore one of her new blazers out of the store and Melanie transferred the broach from Margret’s Blazer to Carly’s new blazer.

On the drive back, Carly asked about Regina’s kinky aunt.

“Monica is not my aunt. She likes to tease me when she sees me and asks me to call her Aunty Monica, but she isn’t my aunt.” Regina said laughing. “I am a friend of her niece, Beverly. Monica can be a sweet lady though; she is into some pretty heavy kink. Nothing illegal though. She wasn’t kidding about you being too good a girl for her lingerie, but she has some of the best breast forms on the market.

>>>>><<<<<

At home she put up her new things. The first thing she did after taking off her jewelry was to gather and sort the laundry. She had neglected doing this during the past week. She started a load of colored clothes, stripped the bed and taken the sheets down to the laundry. She took fresh sheets and made the bed back up. She then tackled Margret’s closet and dresser. She took a box of garbage bags with her. Many of her aunt’s clothes were too big, or not something Carly would ever wear. She began to bag those things up, along with the shoes, that were too small. By eight, the laundry was done and there were six large bags of clothes in the living room. She then put her new things in her new closet.

Carly then looked at Margret’s vanity. On the floor next to it was a large aluminum rolling case. She sat and opened it and found lots of makeup, makeup brushes, hairbrushes, blow dryers and applicators. She closed it up and began to search the vanity. On top were the products she was using and in the drawers were boxes of unused makeup, nail care products, and in the middle drawer were her personal makeup utensils. There were no surprises in the vanity. She made a note to herself to get one of her new friends to come over and help her decide what to keep and what to get rid of.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly woke at five and got up. She cleaned up and looked at herself in the mirror naked. Except for his penis, which was about five inches flaccid, everything she saw was female. She turned sideways and looked at her breasts and her backside. She loved the curves she had now. She took a thong out of the drawer and stepped into it and did as she had been told.

She dressed in the uniform of her new profession; a bra, blouse, trouser socks, slacks, ankle boots and blazer. This pair of slacks hugged and lifted her rear like a second skin. She took her hair out of the braid and brushed it out. She selected some different jewelry, wrapped a scarf once around her neck and a different purse.

At six thirty she was at the coffee house for a Carmel Macchiato and a Danish. Carly started reading in the fashion section and was surprised to see a small article about her shop reopening under new management after the death of Margret Jennings. Carly knew it had to be Regina, bless her, but she wished she had been told about it first. Carly now realized she needed to check on advertisement.

Carly left to pick up Melanie at eight. He had to again come up and hug Stacy who didn’t really want to let either of them go. She eventually let mommy and Carly go to work.

The schedule for the salon was; three stylists opened, three stylists at ten and three at eleven. Carly and Melanie got to the shop to find that Regina had already gotten there and was making coffee. Regina smiled at Carly.

“When did you contact the fashion department at the newspaper?” Carly asked,

“Well, she is a client and when I contacted her, we talked. Oh, I should have talked to you about that.”

Fifteen minutes before nine, Melanie, Terry and Bridgett were getting ready; a florist truck arrived and started bringing flowers in. Even Regina was surprised. All hands began collecting cards and arranging the pots. Carly had Regina go through the cards. Many were from customers and friends of Margret.

At nine, there were customers waiting for the doors to open. Carly was with Regina and began greeting the women as they came in. Regina called the third shift and told them about the crowds, as the second shift should be on their way already.

By ten fifteen, the salon was firing on all cylinders; Carly found herself working the front with Regina and also running towels and supplies for the busy stylists. Things started to slow down to normal traffic, but many of the customers stayed around talking to other customers and commenting on all the flowers and how nice the place looked. Carly received lots of hugs and condolences, from the women. At four thirty, the numbers dwindled down to just their appointments. They had a really great day and the customers were really happy the salon reopened. Carly asked a happy Kathy, if she would close.

About noon, Carly had called Mark Matisse at the BMW and set up a deal. Talking with Mark, she explained Melanie’s situation and that she wanted Melanie to have some reliable transportation. Carly asked if she could buy a SUV that was in dependable condition. He said he had just the car she was looking for. He had a two year old; certified, pre-owned, luxury SUV, they had repossessed. The SUV looked really nice, unfortunately, the owner was in no shape financially, to get it back. The agreement was, he would sell her the car for seventeen and Carly would pay twenty six.

Carly and Melanie left at four thirty. There were five appointments and four stylists were on duty. As Carly drove, she explained, “Melanie, I know the situation that you are in. My mom was a single mom. She got pregnant at college and had to drop out, but she married a kind man, who was a good business man. He adopted me and treated me as his own. He died when I was sixteen and Mom took over his business. She began teaching me how to run a business, knowing that someday I might have to run the business too. While I have never known want, I am sensitive to the needs of others.”

“What I am trying to say is, I believe in you Melanie; I think you will become one of our star stylists. You worked hard today and I want to help you and your mom out. I have bought you a used repossessed car, so you can get rid of the clunker you own. I love picking you up in the mornings, but you need a good car. I only ask that you keep this to yourself.”

There was an awkward silence and Carly glanced over at Melanie. She was sitting quietly crying. For the second time in a week Carly pulled over and handed Melanie a tissue from her purse.

“Is this a ‘yes’, that I will graciously accept a gift, that will help you make your family successful?”

Her answer surprised Carly, she moved quickly, she leaned toward Carly, when Carly turned toward her, she caught Carly’s face in her hands and planted a kiss on her lips. Melanie’s tongue invaded Carly’s mouth and had them both panting.

“I am sorry,” Melanie said. “I have wanted to do that since you let me work on you. I know you believe in me. You gave me a chance. I wouldn’t take the car, but I really need one and you better keep on picking me up, Stacy loves you. I have never seen her take to anyone like you.” Melanie called her mom and told her she would be a little late with a surprise. She told her mom to get ready to go out to eat.

Melanie cleaned up their faces; before Carly drove off.

Mr. Matisse had the car ready. Melanie had to be taught to use the controls. They were totally foreign to her. She would have to teach her mom how to use the car too. The test drive went well; Melanie fell in love with it and liked all the storage space in the back. It would be good for grocery shopping. She was like the child in the Miracle on 42nd Street who found out there really is a Santa Claus.

Carly wrote a personal check out for the car, an extended warranty and a service agreement. Carly programmed Melanie’s home into the navigation system and taught her how to use it, by programming her own in. Melanie insisted that Carly follow her home.

When they got to Melanie’s home, Stacy ran to her mom for a hug and then to Carly to be picked up. Joyce was flabbergasted that Melanie drove a BMW home and almost fainted when Melanie told her it was hers. Melanie put Stacy’s booster seat into her car and hooked her in. She handed the keys to her mom and had Carly teach her about the car. Stacy told her grandma to drive to I-Hop, she loved their funny face pancakes.

Joyce asked Melanie how her day went.

“I know it will probably slow down shortly, but I had nine clients today and two wanted double process color jobs. I got one ninety in tips today.”

“You didn’t send clients to her, did you Carly?”

“We were so busy today, we needed Melanie, and we called in everybody early to handle the overflow. It was a zoo. Oh Melanie, what did you think about the flowers. I might have them sent to us weekly and I need to see about putting an ad in the fashion section. Toni and Olivia said, they were coming in early tomorrow.”

“I love the day lilies and the marigolds at my station. Jeff and Olivia did the best today and I came in third, with just walk-ins.”

“You probably got more than a few of Margret’s clients. She was usually pretty booked.”

“Four told me that they wanted me to be their regular stylists.”

At I-HoP they sat in a long booth with Stacy next to Carly. Carly didn’t have to be asked to color with Stacy. She even cut up the funny face and poured syrup on it for the little girl.

“Oh Melanie, I have tons of makeup and a huge rolling make up kit that has curling irons, hair dryers, makeup and such in it.”

“That is probably what your Aunt used when she went to a client’s home.”

“That’s what I figured, but I mentioned it because I want to learn how to do makeup. So I can do my own makeup.”

“Are you always going to be like this?” Joyce asked.

“I think so, I hope it doesn’t bother you, but I like the look and it fits the job.”

“I will teach you makeup; you are a walking billboard for me. I can’t have you looking tacky. I was pleasantly surprised to hear all the comments about you. Some even knew you were a guy?”

“Really”

“Yeah, they knew your aunt and she told them she only had a nephew.”

“It didn’t bother them?”

“No, as long as you look nice, they know there is hope for them.”

>>>>><<<<<

Friday was much the same as Thursday; the salon business was up by thirty percent; all the stylists were kept very busy. Carly was in greeter mode, with Regina. Their customers seemed to want to meet with Carly and offer their condolences. Carly was charming and expressed her thanks to all the clients, along with her hopes that they would continue to be valued clients of the salon.

The accountant showed up at about ten thirty and Carly was ensconced with him for a time, as he performed an audit and verification of her books. He reported that the books seemed to accurately reflect the condition of the business. The salon, he said, was in the black and doing better than many of the businesses he dealt with. He identified the accounts for remodeling and stylist seminar budget, where Margret was setting aside funds to send her stylists to hairstyling seminars. He told Carly, that he would go over the information and prepare his report for the courts by next Friday.

Carly asked the accountant a slew of business questions and he informed her of when the quarterly tax payments were due and of the tax accounts that she was required to deposit the monies into. He would be glad to assist her in keeping abreast of all the laws and requirements from a business perspective.

When the accountant left, Regina brought Carly a sandwich, chips and a diet cola. Carly didn’t realize that she had been busy with the accountant for four hours. At four in the afternoon, Carly came out of her office and saw that all nine of her stylists were still busy. Melanie was in the middle of a perm and color.

In reception, Regina was talking to some women and thanking them for their patronage. Carly looked over to the shelf with the hair care products and saw many vacant spaces. When Regina was free, Carly spoke to her.

“How have things gone today?”

“Very busy, our busiest days are Friday and Saturday. Women want to get ready for a big date, or for the weekend, or don’t have time to get in on a weekday. Tuesday is busy, because some women couldn’t make it in earlier.”

“I see you sold a lot of shampoo and hair care products.”

“A little above average, we usually sell a lot of product. They don’t sell name brand hair care products at Walmart.”

“So how is appointment scheduling going?”

“Very good, we are up to par compared to the previous weeks. Melanie is even getting her fair share of appointments.”

“Who do we contact for advertisements?”

“The Mays agency does most of our ads. We contact them; they will design the ads and after our approval, will see they get to the right places. Oh, tell Melanie that there is a new Disney movie out this week, it’s supposed to be good.”

>>>>><<<<<

After work, Carly told Melanie about the Disney movie. Melanie told Carly to pick her up at seven. Carly hadn’t planned on asking Melanie out, but thought “Why Not.” She dropped Melanie off and drove home to change. After a quick shower to wash the salon smell off, she dressed in tight fitting jeans, blouse, socks and flats.

Melanie dressed casually also, but Stacy looked so cute in her princess costume. At the movie, Stacy sat in Carly’s lap, while Melanie leaned into Carly and held her hand. Stacy stayed awake the entire movie, but Melanie was softly snoring on Carly’s shoulder and had to be awakened when the movie credits began to roll at the end.

>>>>><<<<<

Saturday was mostly for the businesswomen, the workingwomen, or the women getting ready for a party or a date. They generally spent more money, and had more done, than the stay at home mom. Most already knew what they wanted done and left more generous tips, when they got what they wanted.

The salon was very busy, but Carly was able to greet and mix with her customers. Clients were calling her over during their consultations to talk and asked her opinion. Carly would talk with them, but said she wasn’t a stylist and that she had to leave any opinion to her professionals. They still enjoyed talking with her.

Everybody was still there at the close of business. When Regina locked the door, Kathy pushed out a cart that had two buckets with champagne. Carly was offered a glass, but she turned it down, as she was under 21, but she let her stylists celebrate.

“I want to thank all of you for your patience and your work. Together we can make this salon the most successful in the state. Monday, I will meet with a contractor and we are going to redesign this salon. I want your input, so be thinking about it… and I want to thank you for what you’ve done for me. Go have a good Sunday and Monday off, you deserve it.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly was driving Melanie home and she asked, “What do you plan on doing on your time off?”

“Well tonight I plan on watching TV and tomorrow I am going to a baseball game.”

“Who’s playing?”

“The Rangers are playing the Yankees tomorrow. Darvish vs C.C. Sabathia.”

“Why don’t Stacy and I come over tonight? Stacy can watch TV, I can go through your makeup, and then I can teach you how to use it.”

“If you like, that would be alright. Just give me time to take a bath.”

“Ah, don’t you know it, I love taking a bath after work too, just to get the smell of the salon off of me.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly hurried home, took a quick shower and washed her hair. With her hair in a turban, she dressed in a thong, a pair of her aunt’s spandex shorts, bra and a T-shirt. She was blow-drying her hair when the doorbell rang. She answered the door to find Melanie and Stacy there.

She took Melanie and Stacy on a tour of her home; yes, she knew it was her home now. She ended in her bedroom. Stacy ran and jumped on the bed. She loved the bed immediately. Carly asked Stacy if she wanted to watch Disney on the TV, and she said NO! She wanted to watch Mommy and Carly. Carly wheeled the mobile beauty salon over to Melanie. Melanie then cleaned out the makeup kit, discarding open cosmetics.

“I know Margret being a cosmetologist, used sterile procedures when using her makeup and hair kit, but I am not going to put my license in jeopardy, risk ruining my reputation and being involved in law suits, because a client gets an eye infection, or skin infection, from my use of cosmetics.”

After she finished with the makeup kit, she dug into Margret’s vanity. She first found Margret’s makeup brushes rolled up in a felt pouch. The brushes were really high quality brushes, so she took them to the bathroom and washed them and the pouch, in warm soapy water. She found a spray bottle, a bottle of Everclear (95% potable grain alcohol), and a bottle of distilled water. She made a disinfecting spray, of half distilled water and half Everclear, then sprayed the brushes and let them sit for ten minutes, before blow-drying the brushes and the pouch.

“Washing the brushes every now and then, is good. We sometimes use brushes, instead of disposable applicators, on our clients; because we get better results. When we do, we disinfect the brushes with the alcohol and water, in front of our clients.”

She replaced the brushes into their pouch and she went to the vanity, “I don’t know if Margret used sanitary procedures on her personal cosmetics, but I bet she did. Still, if it is open, we get rid of it.”

Melanie discarded much of the cosmetics on top of the vanity. She took more of Margret’s tools to the bathroom, to be cleaned in the sink. Things like eyelash curlers, some white porcelain makeup palates, her nail care equipment and such, went into the sink with hot soapy water. Melanie then sprayed the marble table top, of the vanity, with the disinfectant she had made. She then went through the unopened cosmetics and matched them to Carly. She took a whole box of lipstick out and put it with her makeup kit. Margret had cool skin tone, but Carly has a neutral skin tone, with slightly warm skin tones.

“You could wear these lipsticks and they wouldn’t look bad on you, but they aren’t the best colors for you. The foundations and blushes will be wrong for you too.”

Melanie began setting out makeup Carly should use, eye shadow palates, eyeliners, mascaras and more. She arranged them in a logical order, so Carly could go from right to left as she did her makeup. Melanie did find some foundation, in the rolling makeup kit, to give Carly, which fit her skin tone and complexion.

Melanie then began to teach Carly the sanitary method of doing makeup. First she cleansed and moisturized her face and décolletage, “Do that several times a day, whether you use makeup or not.”

Melanie then taught her how to use concealer, to minimize problem areas. She used a disposable applicator and never went back to the concealer, once the applicator touched her skin. Carly did the same on her side of her face. Carly blended it in to her face till it disappeared and she brushed on powder to set the foundation.

She took a porcelain palate and poured a small amount of foundation on it. She took a sponge and began applying foundation to half Carly’s face. Carly had to match and then blend the two halves of her face together.

“A little foundation goes a very long way. Use just enough to get a complete coverage, but not so much that it looks ladled on with a spatula.”

“Those are the first steps you do, regardless of what else you do. I usually do eyes next, but you can do eyes or lips, next. You don’t need to shape your brow for a while, but I will show you how later.”

Melanie then began to show Carly how to do a basic daytime look. Melanie would do one side and Carly would do the other. Then Carly was tasked to clean her face and start over and over and over.

“Now do that several times a day, over the next ten years and you can be as good as any girl,” Melanie teased.

“Carly, Stacy and I love baseball, can we join you tomorrow?”

Carly took out her phone and returned the reserve box seat ticket she had near the dugout. It had been a single and will easily be resold. Carly did find some box tickets down the foul line, on the first base side and near the top of the section.

“Ok, I bought us some tickets.” Carly said, showing Melanie where their seats were.

“Stacy and I will meet you at the salon at nine thirty and get you some foundation, powder, concealer and some eye shadow palates, that match your skin.”

“Now, I am going to wipe that makeup off that face of yours,” Melanie said, with a sinister tone to her voice.

She planted a deep kiss on Carly’s mouth. Carly saw that Stacy was sleeping quietly and returned Melanie’s affections. Carly was backed into the wall and Melanie was groping Carly intimately.

Melanie finally broke the kiss and realizing it was late, said, “Remember where we were for the next time. I need to get the little one home.”

Carly carried Stacy down to Melanie’s SUV and buckled the child in her booster seat. Melanie grabbed Carly one more time and kissed her, before getting into her car and driving off. Carly didn’t know what to make of it all, but she decided she wasn’t going to complain.

>>>>><<<<<

The next morning Carly got up at five and spent an hour practicing doing her makeup. After cleaning up and doing her other morning things; She got dressed in a thong, red trouser socks, tight jeans, bra and blouse, with a pair of her flats. She added bangles, bracelets, watch and a necklace. She emptied her Gucci bag, dumped her makeup bag and restocked it with the things she could use and filled up a denim shoulder bag, which Margret had.

Carly drove to Denny’s, after grabbing a Sunday newspaper. She ate her breakfast and drank her coffee. After reading the comic pages, she got into the paper. She read every page of the fashion section, paying close attention to the salon adds and promotions they offered. She made notes on her Galaxy note pad, of things she wanted to consider and made a note to call the May’s agency.

She got to the salon about five minutes before Melanie. Being a Sunday, she had to call the security company and give her security password. Melanie came in with an excited Stacy. Carly hugged and kissed, Melanie. Then Stacy wanted her hugs and kisses too. So Carly picked her up and gave her a kiss too.

Melanie got right to work and after she painstakingly matched Carly’s skin, she selected two each, of about a dozen products. She had Melanie write up a bill for her and she taped it to Regina’s desk. She would have Regina bill her on Tuesday. Melanie checked Carly’s face and made a few corrections. She also made a show of giving Stacy a little strawberry chap stick, before they left the salon.

Melanie insisted that they take her car, Carly’s was too nice to drive to a scratch and dent parking lot. They picked up their tickets and wandered around till they found the gift shop. Carly bought Melanie and herself game jerseys in red, Stacy a red Rangers T-shirt and they all got matching baseball caps. Carly also bought Stacy a baseball and a sharpie pen. From there, they leisurely strolled around to the Diamond club, where they all ate. An hour and a half before the game, the players were out on the field warming up.

Carly took Stacy near the dugout, and told her to hold the ball and pen up when the players came near. One player saw the girl holding the ball and a pen; He autographed it and had another half dozen player’s autograph if for her. She even had her photograph taken by Carly, when one of the players picked her up and posed with her.

They were eventually run out of the reserve box area, as the time for the game to start got closer. Stacy ran to her mom and showed her the autographed ball; then her mom put the ball into her purse.

Carly was surprised by how much Melanie knew about the game and the players. Being a Houstonian, she had been to many Astro’s games, but they weren’t that great. But, she still was a Rangers fan. Stacy covered her ears and Carly’s eardrums were shattered, when Melanie gave a very loud shrill whistle, when Beltre hit a two run shot in the first inning. The Yankees tied the game in the third and then jumped ahead in the fourth inning. Elvis Andrus hit a three run shot in the fifth.

After Andrus’s homerun, the cameras panned the crowd in the stadium. Melanie was so vocal and active in her support, the camera stopped and panned in on her. She was shown on the big screen and the image was shown on national TV. The Rangers got two more runs, one in the eighth and one in the ninth, to win the game seven to three.

>>>>><<<<<

Two hundred and fifty miles away, in a sports bar near Minute Maid Park, a man drained his beer and slammed his mug down, as he watched the Ranger’s game on the large projection screen TV. There was that bitch. He was glad he didn’t see her with any guys. That bitch owed him and he was going to see that she paid him in full.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly did her makeup and dressed for work, as she headed into the salon, at eight o-clock, on Monday morning. She checked the mail, did the bookkeeping and paid the salon’s bills. Kathy came in about nine, to check the inventory and to be there for any deliveries. The salon paid to have ten a.m. deliveries. Kathy and Carly sat and talked about how they thought things were going and about any problems they might have overlooked.

At about ten, William Cargill and Donna Adams, from Salon Consultants Inc. came in. They talked about the salon and what they hoped to get out of the remodel. Three times Carly emphasized that the work would need to be done in a week and that there would be a penalty/bonus clause in the contract.

The two consultants then inspected the place from top to bottom and front to back. They already had the salons blue prints, so they knew somewhat what to expect, but checking the facility was always important. They took the measurements of the reception area, work areas, waxing areas, chemical storage, storage areas and the employee break room.

They all went out to eat at the Olive Garden for lunch, the consultants said they would work up some drawings with preliminary plans and return in two weeks.

>>>>><<<<<

The salon was still busy through the next week. Carly got ads into the newspaper, with ten percent off coupons for perms or hair coloring, and twenty percent off coupons if they got a hairstyle, a perm and a dye job. Satisfaction was in the high nineties. Two women however, had problems; they didn’t have realistic expectations when they came in. One woman they worked on, they made as right as they could. They had plenty of before and after shots, to cover their butts. Kathy and Toni wrote up the reports.

The other client got into a shouting match with Danielle. Melanie took over for Danielle and Carly took Danielle out the back door to cool off. Kathy and Carly had to counsel Danielle and had to add a black mark to her personnel file. Danielle stated in her defense, that she had done a great job improving her looks and the woman had called it garbage. Carly apologized to all of her clients and offered them half off for today. One client from one of other stylists, asked Carly not to be too hard on Danielle, she had done a very good job on that woman. Some others agreed that it was the woman’s fault. Kathy and Carly told Danielle, that no matter what the client said, you can’t get into a shouting match with them. They informed her that any more serious infractions of company policy would lead to her termination.

“Look Danielle,” Carly said. “If a client is rude, insulting, or troublesome, you don’t have to deal with them, come get Kathy or me. We will smooth ruffled feathers and ask her not to come back. I will pay for you to take some anger management classes. You are too good a stylist to lose.”

“Take the rest of the day off with pay. Go get your head together.”

Alone in her office; Carly made copies of the security camera files on her computer and saved them. She wasn’t an expert, but it looked to her like the customer was attempting to provoke Danielle. She made notes to contact the salon’s lawyer. She also needed the lawyer present for the contract negotiations with the Salon consultants.

>>>>><<<<<

Saturday, Carly took Melanie and Stacy out after work to a Chuck E Cheese’s. They ate some pizza and salad, before they went to the arcade. Stacy played Whack-A-Mole very well. Carly racked up a lot of tickets playing SkeeBall, while Melanie won a lot of tickets on Deal or No Deal. She got the big prize the third time she played. Stacy went home with a five foot stuffed snake.

After they left Chuck E. Cheese’s, Melanie took them to the mall, where she got Carly into all kinds of skirts and dresses, much to the delight of Stacy. Melanie stole Carly’s pants, while she was modeling a mini-skirt for Stacy. Carly wound up in a black mini skirt, stay up stockings and black stilettos. Having walked in her ankle boots, helped her to be able to walk in the stilettos. Stacy couldn’t help laughing at Carly’s discomfiture. Carly picked up a laughing Stacy around her waist and got even with Stacy, as she got Stacy into all sorts of pretty dresses. Carly swore she would get even with Melanie when she least expected it.

Melanie took Carly home, but there was a strange car parked in the drive… a rental car.

“Oh shit, Mom is here.” Carly said. “She is expecting a boy, Melanie.”

“Don’t worry, we are here with you.”

Instead of just dropping Carly off, Melanie got out and got Stacy, and went in with her.

Anita was asleep on the couch when they came in. Carly knelt on the floor in front of Anita and gently shook her awake, saying, “Momma I’m home.”

Half asleep, she gave Carl a hug, but things didn’t feel right. She sat up and held Carl back a bit, shaking her head a bit to wake up. She took a good and confused look at Carl. “Oh my, is that you Carl?”

“Yes momma and this is my friend Melanie Holder; and this little rambunctious pest is her daughter Stacy.”

“I ‘m not a pest, Carly. I’m Staaacy.”

Carly picked up Stacy and said, “Yes you are a pest, Stacy,” Carly said, tickling the girl.

Stacy laughed and giggled until Carly stopped, Stacy kissed Carly’s cheek and hugged her.

“Melanie, take Stacy upstairs and put her in the bedroom on the right. We need to talk to mom.”

Stacy pouted, as her mom took her and headed upstairs.

“I have been gone almost two weeks and I see a lot of things have changed. Why?” Asked Anita.

“It’s a long story momma, but basically, Kathy, my salon manager, didn’t think the three piece Italian suit was the proper image for a salon proprietor. She thought that a slightly effeminate, possibly gay male would be better, since I couldn’t do the Brad Pit or Justin Timberlake bit. So, I bought shoes, pants, and Blouses. I thought I made the clothes look good,” Carly said.

“And then I happened, Mrs. Simon. I was an unemployed hair stylist, with a daughter and a Mom, I needed to help take care of. Mom works some, but not enough to keep three people fed and clothed. I applied at Carly’s salon and to prove myself, I cut, colored and permed Carly’s hair.”

“I told them to pretend I was a client and asked what she would do. Kathy and Melanie got carried away and forgot that I was pretending. I realized I had stuck my foot in it, when they started using chemicals. I guess I could have stopped it at that second, but I wanted to see what Melanie could do and Voilà here I am.”

“I did the styling, color and the perm, Anita. He realized once he looked at himself, that there was no halfway. He would have to cut all his hair off, or go whole hog, he opted for the full treatment, which included brows, makeup and nails.”

“But he has breasts, hips and a derriere too.”

“The girls took me out to celebrate the reopening. I told them I wanted to look somewhat normal for a girl and the rest is silicone. Mom I’m not going all the way, but I like what I am now. I don’t think I will ever go back to being obviously a boy.”

Anita was frustrated, that much was apparent. She had a lot on her plate right now, “Ok, I guess I have to accept what you have said. Now tell me about you three?”

“I like Melanie and Stacy very much; I might want to keep them around for twenty, thirty or forty years. We are just very good friends right now. It’s too early to say.”

“I would like to keep Carly for forty or fifty years too, Anita. Coffee or tea, Anita?”

“Good idea, coffee please.”

The three women moved their talk to the breakfast table.

Anita just couldn’t get over just how feminine Carly was. Yes, she was Carly; there was no doubt of that. Two weeks tomorrow, was it even possible to change your whole core being in just two weeks, apparently without intense training and brainwashing? Or had she missed who Carl had been. Carly looked comfortable in her heels, she sat nicely, tucked and smoothed her skirt. How had she learned that?

“Is that Margret’s skirt?”

“No, I couldn’t wear many of Margaret’s things; she was too big in the chest and the hips. Aunt Margret was a 38 DD and thirty-eight through the hips. I am a 34 C and thirty-six through the hips, with my enhancements. I bagged almost everything and sent it to goodwill.”

“Do you wear her underwear?”

“I wear her thongs; they fit me best and keep me held back. I can wear her bikinis, but they are loose enough to let me accidentally rearrange myself. Goodwill doesn’t sell panties. Also, she had tiny feet for someone five foot seven. She wore a seven” Carly said, raising her right foot to show her, her heel, “I wear a nine or nine and a half.”

“Well, we can share shoes then,” Anita said, without thinking. “Do you live here, Melanie?”

“No, I live with my Mom. We took Stacy out on a play date after work.”

“Oh, I need to go up to Auntie’s bedroom, Melanie check on Stacy,” Carly said, springing to her feet and rushing out of the kitchen.

Melanie didn’t know what was going on, but she did as she was told. Anita followed Carly. Melanie found her daughter was asleep. So she went to Carly’s room.

Carly was removing the magazine from the Colt 1911 A1; a Glock and its magazine were laying on the bed.

“Oh, do you shoot too?” Melanie asked.

“I have shot shotguns and rifles, Dad’s family owned an armory of weapons. I wanted to make sure these guns were safe from little fingers.”

“I know you didn’t buy those weapons. You have to be twenty one,” Anita said. “Did Margret own them?”

“Yes she did, Mom. She might have carried them to her business.”

Melanie then got on the bed and ran her hand between the headboard and the mattress and came out with a 9mm Glock 34 and held it up. “It’s where I hide mine,” Melanie said. “Don’t worry about Stacy and your guns, my ex had way too many guns, she knows not to touch them and I have a CHL (concealed handgun license).”

When everyone was looking at the petite girl holding a gun, she said, “What? I got it when Jimmy started coming home drunk, wanting sex and wanting to use me as his punching bag.”

“Maybe we can go shooting sometime?” Carly asked. “Put that one back.”

Melanie put the 9 mil back.

“I’ve come over to clean out Margret‘s makeup and to begin teaching Carly how to use her makeup.”

“Do you have jeans Mom and ear plugs?”

“No, why?”

“The jeans are to wear at the ball game; we are going to the Rangers game tomorrow.”

“And the ear plugs?”

“This little petite thing will burst your ear drums out.” Carly said, indicating, Melanie.

Melanie went all sweet and innocent saying, “Moi. I am just a sweet innocent little girl.”

“And you are, till you get in a baseball stadium. Then you become a fire-breathing dragon. She could give a Yankee fan lessons on how to be fanatical.”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you Carly?”

Melanie still did the sweet innocent routine, and Carly shook her head no and said, “She made the big screen last week, whistling, screaming and rooting for the Rangers.”

“Sit on the floor by the bed Carly and let me take a good look at your hair.”

Anita sat next to Melanie and Carly sat in front of her mom. Anita ran her hands through Carly’s hair, “It feels good, is it easy to take care of Carly?”

“I brush it out in the morning, before I do my makeup. Melanie touches up my hair and makeup at work, before we open. Kathy says I am a walking billboard. I need to look good.”

“She’s right; you’re working in an image business. The better your image, the better your business is. You dyed her hair blonde, with highlights, low lights and red?”

“That’s what she told me. I think it looks great.”

“Yes it does. How did you do the perm?”

Anita and Melanie began speaking in the arcane terms of the beauty shop, as Melanie explained how she did Carly’s hair.

“I would never have thought that you could get as good a result on such long hair,” Anita said, as she began to braid it.

“I see where Carly gets wanting her hair braided. You braided it for him didn’t you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just something I like to do when I see long hair.”

“Don’t stop, momma.”

“Braiding is alright, with this hairstyle, Anita. It reinforces the curl from the perm.”

“Why don’t you call your mom Melanie and sleep with Stacy, and tell her she is going to the Ranger game also.” Carly said.

Melanie called her mom and told her about Anita, invited her to the game, then said that they had a lot to talk about. She was going to spend the night here with Stacy. Anita went to Margret’s bedroom to get ready for bed, but Melanie and Carly got undressed in Margret’s bedroom also and put on one of Margret’s nighties. All three of them lay on the bed and talked for about an hour. Anita was the first to fall asleep. Melanie and Carly tucked her in and snuck out. Melanie kissed Carly and then headed to where Stacy was sleeping. Carly went downstairs and fell asleep in the lazy boy.

>>>>><<<<<

Anita awoke with a start at five, as Carly’s alarm went off. She turned off the alarm and went back to sleep, only to be awoken at five thirty. She really hated Carl for about ten seconds, “Who in God’s heaven sets two alarms for five and five thirty. Does Carl get up this early?” She saw no hope of going back to sleep, so she got up and did her thing. Carl, no make that Carly, still had several of Margaret’s robes around, so she took one and went in search of Carly, to wake her ass up. She looked in the bedroom she used and no Carly. She went to the room Melanie and Stacy used, and found only a sleeping Melanie. She went downstairs and stopped. Carly was asleep on the lazy-boy, with Stacy in her lap.

Anita went back to Melanie’s room and woke her up. She panicked for a second, not feeling Stacy in bed with her. Anita made a motion for Melanie to be quiet and to follow her. They went down the steps till the staircase turned and pointed to the lazy-boy recliner. Melanie giggled, as she saw her daughter.

“After Jimmy, Stacy hasn’t trusted many guys, but with Carly, she has been best buds. What time is it?”

“About five forty five. My Carly had one alarm set for five and another set for five thirty. I was going to wake her up for leaving the alarms on, but for the life of me, I can’t disturb that picture.”

Since they were awake, they went to the kitchen to make some coffee, “You said, Carly picks you up in the morning; what time does she get to your place?”

“If she opens at nine, she picks me up at eight and we drive to work. Stacy makes her come up and hug her before we leave.”

“What does Carly do for three hours? Let’s see, half an hour to get cleaned up, another half hour to get dressed and made up, and two hours to sit on her hands?”

“I have no idea what she does.”

Carly woke stark awake at the smell of coffee, she found Stacy on her lap and moved her to the couch and followed her nose to the kitchen. She saw Anita scrounging around for food. “You’re not going to find much to eat here, Mom. I have been eating my meals out every day. I just keep some snacks, since I leave early and come home late.”

“What do you do after six? I know you are dressed and out of the house around then.”

“I drive to either the coffee house, Denny’s, or the IHOP. I drink coffee, eat a meal, and read the newspaper. Since I have been running the Salon, I read the fashion pages every day. Most days there is something about hair or makeup, in the fashion pages. I need to know my business.”

“Do you get any Salon management or professional magazines,” Melanie asked.

“No, I’ll have to ask Regina about that and subscribe to some.”

“Well, I am going out to get us some food,” Melanie said. “Give Stacy half a banana, when she wakes up. I will be back in about thirty minutes.”

Melanie got dressed and went out to the local Walmart and bought a couple of sacks of groceries: eggs, milk, turkey bacon, biscuits, avocados, cereal, strawberries, orange juice, green onions, tomatoes and such. When she got back, Stacy was keeping the adults amused. She had Anita doing the itsy bitsy spider thing. Stacy sang and Anita did the hand motions, while she had Carly drawing things with her. Stacy was a multi-tasker, when it came to manipulating adults. She stopped and ran to Melanie to hug her, when she saw her come in.

After breakfast, they all headed out to Walmart. Anita got herself a pair of tight jeans and then went by the salon. Carly gave her mom a tour and explained what she had in mind for the salon remodel. Anita had been in the salon many times, just not in recent years. She remembered it looking better and newer and agreed with the plan to remodel the place. At eleven, the pack picked up Joyce and headed to the stadium. Stacy was in heaven, placed between Grandma and Carly’s mom, whom she began to refer as Aunty Nita.

The seats Carly got, were a little higher up in the Lexus club Box, on the first base side, but they had a better view of the action. They again arrived very early for the game. Carly got Stacy another baseball and they caught some of the Mariners players’ signatures this time. Her charm seemed to attract the players over. She had a crowd of about ten players passing her ball around and signing it. Carly even photographed her in a group photo with the players, on her cell phone. The players crowded around her and Stacy, holding her ball up, with a big smile on her face.

The game started out very badly for the Rangers, they dropped five runs in the first inning and it wasn’t till the fifth inning, when the Rangers picked up their first run. It was in the eighth inning, when the Rangers bats came alive. They scored four runs and tied the game, winning it in the eleventh inning. Melanie, who had been rooting hard for the Rangers, went nuts, when an eleventh inning home run won the game.

>>>>><<<<<

Jimmy, who had been watching the game from his usual seat at the sports bar, never saw that Bitch Melanie. Maybe she didn’t make this game, who knows? It is hard to spot one person in a crowd of thirty thousand.

>>>>><<<<<

Stacy slept on the ride home, Joyce and Anita got along famously, while Melanie drove talking with Carly. They stopped and picked up some Chinese take-out and headed to Carly’s home, because it was more comfortable. Stacy got to watch the Disney cartoons while they ate.

Melanie then talked Anita into staying late on Monday, so they could take Carly clothes shopping at the mall. Carly and Melanie had to go into work for some staff training. A girl from the sandwich shop was getting a free double process dye job, and an instructor from Melanie’s school, in Dallas, was going to be doing the girl’s hair. They would be free to go shopping at eleven or twelve. Plenty of time to make Carly and the stores, scream in terror.

Melanie took a sleeping Stacy and a tired but happy Mom, home with her. Anita made sure she went to bed in the bedroom she normally used, when visiting this place. She liked her sleep. Carly slept in what she took as her room, Margret’s bedroom and yes, she made sure her alarms were set.

>>>>><<<<<

Monday, Carly got up at her usual time and got dressed in Boss mode, in tan slacks, a cream-colored blouse, a brown blazer and brown ankle boots. Anita was still asleep when Carly left for the coffee shop. She got her newspaper and sat down to read, drinking her coffee and eating a slice of banana nut bread. She missed reading the Sunday paper yesterday, so she read it today. There was a nice article on fall hairstyles. She read it twice, before clipping it out and putting it in her purse.

Carly picked Melanie up, at fifteen after eight and drove to the salon. Fifteen till nine, the stylists started to arrive and at nine, Regina arrived with Bethany Carter, the lucky girl from the sandwich shop. Minutes later, Maurice Charmant arrived from Paul Mitchell.

When Maurice saw Carly, his hands were in her hair. He led her to a chair and fanned her hair out across the back of the chair; as he began to teach about double process hair color. They moved to another chair, beside Carly, and had Bethany sit in that chair. Maurice asked Bethany a few questions about what she wanted and then he started working on her. Carly was turned, so that she could watch, as Maurice started to work his magic for his client and the assembled stylists.

Maurice was a very good teacher, he worked with his client’s hair and demonstrated the technique; while answering the stylists questions. Coloring and perms, are two things that once you start using the chemistry; you can’t stop and talk about what you have done, or are doing. You are under the clock the second you begin. He took Bethany’s dirty blond hair and turned it into a rich medium brown, with two shades of highlights. He kept a few strands of her natural hair color and blended in some lighter, brighter blond in. He didn’t make her hair look striped, but a few strands here and there, gave her hair depth and texture. The brown glistened and shined, something the girl’s hair didn’t do before. On top of everything, Maurice gave Bethany, a great new style; that added to the girl’s mile wide smile.

A happy Bethany, put on her sandwich shop uniform and cap, before she headed off to work. Maurice pushed Paul Mitchell’s products for a bit, and an upcoming 3-day seminar, on doing perms, coming up in late August in Dallas. Kathy thanked him for coming and he spent an hour talking to her stylists again, using Carly as a model, of how to do certain things.

Anita met the girls at the salon. She looked Carly over; she hadn’t seen her son, come daughter, this morning. She was impressed with how she looked, and how she had accessorized her appearance. Carly wore a lot of jewelry, but it all worked together and sold her as the boss. Regina was still there; she had taken pictures, while Maurice was teaching the stylist. Regina was introduced to Anita. A few other stylists were just getting their stations extra spiffy for tomorrow. Anita knew Kathy, she had met her before, then she was introduced to Jeff, Olivia and Bridget.

Anita, Melanie, and Carly, went to Melanie’s home to pick up Stacy and they went shopping. Anita and Melanie went crazy, using Carly as a Barbie doll. At the same time, Carly was beginning to put some of the things she had read, into practice. Anita and Melanie concentrated on skirts, blouses and dresses. They knew Carly could do pants already. Melanie told Carly to see Lorna and get her legs waxed tomorrow. Her legs were a little scratchy today.

Carly, wore a lovely dress out of the store; Melanie had struck again. It was a summery candy pink bodice, with a pink azalea print skirt, that came just below mid-thigh and candy pink pumps, with a rounded toe box. Melanie told Carly, that she could wear that outfit to the salon. She didn’t mind losing her pants, the dress was much cooler and it was getting quite warm outside.

They went out to eat, before dropping Anita off, at her rental car. Anita got kisses and hugs from Carly, Melanie and Stacy, who said, “Bye, bye Anty Nita.” Anita, drove off to the airport.

>>>>><<<<<

Two things happened on Tuesday, at work. The first thing was, William Cargill and Donna Adams from Salon Consultants Inc. came in with a plan. They found that for four years, the salon had been renting space that they didn’t have, nearly two hundred square feet worth. The sidewalls were narrower, than the building plans showed and the stores rental agreement indicated. They talked to the landlord, who came out and measured the inside wall to wall. This was significant, since Margret had been paying a fee for the salon’s square feet, according to the original rental agreement. What was also significant; the space next door was vacant, and would be for the next ninety days. Starbuck’s was moving in next door to the salon, Starbucks only needed half of the space.

So the landlord was going to let the consultants actually come in and start building a wall, and set up the plumbing and the electrical service ahead of time. Then when the salon closes, they will take the current wall out, take the three waxing booths out, move the office next to the storage and washing machine room, which will be across from the chemical storage, and the break room. Add six inches between current stations; add two mani-pedi stations; two nail stations; and four stylist stations, without a feeling of being crowded. The plumbing would all tie in, in the storage room. Or the other plan would be, the store could stay the same, but add two more stylist stations; two mani-pedi stations; and a nail station; with just a little more crowding. On top of everything, they can use the space next door to stage from; they could quickly ascertain if they had everything they needed, before they started.

Carly and Kathy poured over the plans. They gave tentative approval of the first design of the plans; the consultants would do concept drawings now, and return in a week. The plans showed an efficiency of space and added comfort at the same time.

The second thing that happened, changed everything above.

Regina called Carly, shortly after William and Donna left, “Carly, a man from Lloyds is here.”

“Send him back, Regina.”

A short man, in a strange shade of green suit, came in Carly’s office. “I am Carly Simon, proprietor of Margaret’s Chalet Salon, what can I do for you.”

“I am Rory Cousins, from Lloyd’s Insurance. It’s not what you can do for me. It’s what I might do for you. I need to verify the Salon’s information, see any court orders and legal documents, giving you authority to operate the business.”

“For what purpose do you need to see my documents?”

“I am so sorry; I put the carriage in front of the horse again. Margret Jennings, proprietor of Margret’s Chalet, had taken out a key man insurance policy, so that her business and employees, would be looked after, and taken care of. I just need to verify that you are indeed the proprietor of Margret’s Chalet.”

Carly took out her papers and handed them to Rory. Rory took out his glasses and put them on. He read every line of every page. Still it didn’t have the same feel as she had with the banker. He honestly appeared to be the sort that was just thorough.

“May I see two forms of personal identification?”

Carly got her purse and pulled out her New Jersey driver’s license and her passport. She was listed as C.A. Simon on both and male on both.

“These say you are a male, is that correct?”

“It is correct. I am a male, but in this business looking like this has been an asset.”

“Yes, just so. I was verifying the particulars.”

“Now Carly, may I call you Carly?”

“That is fine. Rory.”

“Yes. Let’s get down to the point of this meeting. I have a check for Margret’s Chalet. The Key Man Policy was taken out six years ago, and Margret faithfully paid the policy. The policy is in the name of the business. The proprietor may, if they feel they aren’t able to continue the business, cash the policy in and sell the business. The funds of the policy, are to be split sixty percent amongst her employees and forty percent to whoever the proprietor, or executor, of the estate is. If the business continues, the monies may be used to further the business’s interests.”

“My mom is my Aunt’s Executrix and she has asked me to make this business, successful.”

“Good, I hate to see businesses fold, but the economy has been so dreadful. Then if you’ll sign this receipt,” Rory said, handing her a paper, which Carly signed, after reading the receipt. “This check is now yours.”

Rory stood and handed Carly a check. She thanked him and he departed, before she looked at the check. Carly then turned back to her desk and looked at the check, getting ready to make a deposit slip out. Instead of reading the amount written, she just saw a two and started counting zeroes. There were six of them. She recounted them, a two followed by six zeroes. That would make it two… “TWO MILLION DOLLARS!” she said out loud.

Kathy and a few others, heard the shout, but didn’t understand what was being said. Concerned, Kathy knocked on the door and stuck her head in the office.

Carly was white as a sheet. Carly said, “Come on in and shut the door.”

Kathy sat down and held Carly’s free hand, Carly handed her the piece of paper. She saw it was a check and read the amount. She read the check for two minutes.

“I am calling the consultants back here today and calling my mom. Tell everybody, there will be a staff meeting after we close. Tell them, that they won’t believe what is going to happen. Don’t tell them about the check, but smile when you tell them about the meeting, Kathy.”

Carly and Kathy, spoke about what they wanted to do. Kathy might end up doing more supervising and teaching, but a lot less hair styling. They fired ideas back and forth.

“You do know Kathy, that we are going to have a second salon, in a year or so. We could use this as a training salon and have a new elite salon.”

“I will put in a call to Paul Mitchell’s school, and Aveda’s school, looking for excellent new students.”

William and Donna returned and asked what was up.

“I gave you a budget of Three hundred thousand. Something has come up.”

“Did your financing fall through?” Donna asked.

“No, the three hundred thousand is cash on hand. I got news today that was earth shattering. My aunt had a key man Policy. What would it take to go first class, with the plans you drew up? Strip this place bare and rebuild it, first class. Instead of a week, you could have it done in three weeks? The sooner the better still, would another two hundred fifty thousand cover it?”

“Most assuredly, Carly,” Donna said.

I will have a preliminary payment for you Monday, on the order of a hundred thousand. I want to start planning a new salon, built from the ground up, in a nice location, also. We will own the property and build the building. The budget for the new salon is seven hundred fifty thousand dollars and I have the cash in hand. We would tentatively open in say, a year’s time?”

William and Donna were speechless, because the wheels were rolling to fast in their heads.

“It’s doable and I will put that in writing.” William said. “Let’s get this shop looking great and worry about the new salon later. Come by our office and begin selecting décor and fixtures; so we can begin ordering supplies. Donna, call the landlord here, and rent the space next door for two months, negotiate for ten feet, instead of four. Call Starbuck’s and see if we can build the store for them, at a discount. Salons aren’t that different from a coffee shop.”

The landlord showed back up and was quickly convinced, he would have papers for Carly to sign tomorrow, and he would visit Salon Consultants Inc. LLC later the same day.

William and Donna rushed out, to scrap and redraw the plans they had.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly stood in front of her stylists smiling, “How many of you have health insurance for you and your families?” About half were paying for it, out of their own pockets. “I will be in negotiation and within thirty days, I will institute a group health policy. I understand what the norm is. A single person will be free, or very low cost to the employee. Married, will be more and family, should be higher, but the cost will be lower than what any of you could buy on your own, don’t drop any policies, till we see it in writing. To pay for this, new employees will receive a dollar and a half an hour raise and the rest a suitable amount, based on tenure. Jeff and Carol, you can expect maybe three fifty, to four dollars an hour raise.”

“On Remodeling, we will be closing for slightly longer period of time, three weeks. You will each have two weeks paid vacation, with a bonus and one week paid training. Some of you will get your training at the beginning of our closing, some at the end, and hopefully not in the middle. We don’t know yet. This will be a first class salon. Think money in your pockets. We are going to have so much more room for new stylists; mani-pedi stations; new nail stations; a nicer break room and all new equipment. We may have new shampoo stations, so some of your work will be handled for you. I need ideas from you. I want all of you, in our family. The sky is the limit right now.”

“Regina, we need you even more now, we may need one full time, maybe two part time girls you could supervise. We are looking to go to six days a week operation.”

“Beverly, would be a great person to work with me.” An excited Regina said, giggling.

Carly recognized that person as Monica’s niece. Things could get interesting.

“Carol, get with Kathy, one of you will be Saturday and Sunday off and the other will be Sunday and Monday off. Let’s work that out together. Carol will be the assistant Manager, because of her instructor’s license.”

“If money has been a problem with you working on upgrading your licenses, we will subsidize your training, talk to me and Kathy. Also, we may be opening another salon in a year or so. We are that well off right now. I won’t keep you any longer, but we are now on the yellow brick road. Just keep an eye out for the Wicked Witch of the East.”

“We are not in Kansas anymore,” Regina said.

“You don’t know how right you are, Dorothy,” Carly said.

>>>>><<<<<

As soon as Carly and Melanie were well away from the shop, Melanie made Carly stop and tell her what brought the big changes on.

“Did you see that man that came in after lunch?” Carly asked.

“You mean that short man, with that horrible green suit?”

“That would be the one. He brought the Salon a windfall. My aunt had a key man policy on herself. The salon is rock solid for the next ten years, at least, and I mean rock solid. All the changes are totally funded.”

“You mean you have the money to do it all with no financing.”

Carly reached over and gave Melanie a big kiss, “Yes ma’am, that is exactly what I mean. Or I could shut down and give everyone a hundred thousand or so.”

“Building the business is better.”

“That is what my momma told me. If I gave everyone a hundred thousand, how many would be broke by the end of the year.”

“Most of them; Kathy, Carol, Jeff, Olivia, Regina and maybe I would be ok. The rest might spend, spend, spend and be looking for jobs in six months, its human nature. I am iffy because my work history would be hurt by the closing.”

“What am I? Chopped liver?”

“I don’t want to be a kept woman, not even by you. I want to be with you and I might even love you Carly, but we will take that one step at a time. Until then, I expect you to train hard on how to kiss me. First lesson,” Melanie said, planting a scorching kiss on Carly’s lips. “Place that in your second memory slot.”

“How long will these lessons last, Melanie?”

“See me later, we can discuss that. Unfortunately, the Rangers are on the road for two weeks.”

“So, how many autographed baseballs will Stacy need? I think she enjoys flirting with the players too much.”

“She loves them; we need to buy her some of those Lucite cubes, to put them in. She has those baseballs on the shelf, with her dolls. That is a place of honor for her, more so, because you bought them for her, than for the ball players who signed them. She would sleep in that rangers T-shirt, but I told her she would need to wear it for games.”

“Then she is going to need some more shelves, if that is acceptable.”

“That is acceptable,” Melanie said, kissing Carly.

>>>>><<<<<

Wednesday, Carly called one of her Mother’s sharks and asked them for a favor. She asked if they could meet her at her Salon. One of them was Riley West, she volunteered. Around eleven, she met with Carly, in her office.

“Is it Mrs., Miss or Ms?” Carly asked.

“Just call me Riley, now what can I do for you?”

“First, does it bother you that I am transgendered?”

“Only if it bothers you that I am a woman.”

“I have no problems with you, but I do have some problems with my banker. My aunt passed away and I had a court order and an unlimited power of attorney, to run the business, till it comes out of probate. I gave him a ton of paperwork and the court order, and they dawdled around for hours, just to get my name on my salon’s signature card. Now, I have a big check to deposit and I am wondering if I could do better.”

“How big?”

Carly handed Riley the check.

“That’s big. Which bank do you use?”

Carly opened her box of checks and showed Riley.

“That’s a good bank, some of the management are misogynistic old bastards, but as far as I know, they are honest misogynistic old bastards. I have dealt with them before. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket though. If the bank folds you’re only protected to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Who is your accountant?”

Carly handed Riley a business card. Riley took it and made a call. Riley and the accountant talked for half an hour.

“Mr. Carter and I, will be here tomorrow, to help plan how best to protect that money. Let’s go make a deposit.”

>>>>><<<<<

Mr. Graham will see you now, the executive assistant to the bank’s president said. Riley followed Carly into the Office.

“What can I do for you ladies,” Mr. Graham asked.

“Carly Simon had some problems the last time she was here, she was getting her name on her salon’s signature card, I believe. She has some more business to conduct and she wants to make sure there are no problems before we conduct business. She had a court order, a power of attorney and your people called her Mom? Do you know how embarrassing and petty that was? Did you check Dun and Bradstreet for a C.A. Simon? Carly can sign a six million dollar check, under her own authority and your bank called her Mom.”

“We were just verifying that what the documents stated were true. Margret was an important client, and we were being careful that her assets weren’t being pillaged, by the wrong relatives.”

“I know you asked Mrs. Simon more, than if she signed that unlimited power of attorney. I have spoken to Mrs. Simon many times over the last two weeks. We just want to make sure that if Carly Simon commits a large portion of the money, we may deposit today, that there will be no problems. Carly Simon is preparing to significantly expand the business and she wants to find a decent bank. Changing banks for a business can affect their credit worthiness after all, but is not out of the question. I would have to make recommendations to Greg Simon’s Investments LLC, about the bank that gave C.A. Simon, Executive Assistant to the President, a hard time.”

Mr. Graham’s face was beginning to mottle. “There will be no problems. I will instruct my subordinates, C.A. Simon is a preferred customer.” He had indeed personally checked out C.A. Simon last time. He just couldn’t believe an effeminate son of a bitch, who was only nineteen, was placed in charge of a business valued at half a million dollars. Now C.A. Simon, the fruit, (yes he recognized her, she was even more of a fruit now, but money is money) and her lawyer, was swinging a big hammer.

“Well, on your word, we will deposit this check with you.” Riley said, handing him the check. “We want two hundred and fifty thousand in the operating account, by noon tomorrow and the balance in an interest bearing account. I am sure you can verify the authenticity of the check by then. No holding the deposit for seven business days, to collect interest. Also, we will be spreading the money between many different interest bearing instruments.”

“Mr. Carter, Carly’s accountant and I, will see you tomorrow.”

“You can verify the deposit at ten thirty Miss Simon and I can see you at one thirty Ms. West, if that is acceptable?” Mr. Graham said, handing Riley the receipt of deposit.

“That is acceptable,” Riley said.

“Oh, Salon Consultants Inc. will need a certified check, for a hundred thousand dollars, by the end of the week.” Carly said, just to get her two cents in.

“That will not be a problem. Miss Simon.”

>>>>><<<<<

“My philosophy is, when attacking problems, ‘Why use a tack hammer, when a sledge hammer works so much faster,’” Riley said, as they were entering the salon. “By the way, I was just noticing your hair and nails. Who does yours?”

“Melanie did my hair, and Kathy did my nails, but Liz is actually better with nails. She was off duty when mine were done. Would you like to have your hair and nails done?”

“Yes, I have been so busy, I have neglected them and that isn’t good for my image.”

“Regina, would you please see if Liz and Melanie are available.”

“Liz is available now and Melanie will be ready in ten minutes.”

“Have Liz attend to Ms. West at Melanie’s station and send me the bill.”

“You got it boss. Oh, Beverly Grant would like to speak with you this week, about a job.”

“Have her come in at ten on Friday.”

“Oh Riley, can you make a note of negotiating a group health care policy, for my employees and families.”

“That is easy,” Riley said, making a note on her smart phone. “I will have some bids and details, by Wednesday.”

>>>>><<<<<

Friday was a good day for the salon. They were as busy as they could be, without using a whip on the stylists. Carly got to meet Beverly Grant. Beverly was maybe five ten, in her stocking feet, but she wore five-inch heels. She also wore a mid-calf pencil skirt, which she filled quite adequately, and a silk/cotton blend blouse, that displayed only a little cleavage, but was taught across her ample bust. She wore sensible jewelry, nice daytime makeup job, long blood red talons and long fiery red hair.

Carly, could imagine her in black leather hip boots, corset, short skirt and holding a long leather riding crop.

“Our receptionists have to be salesladies, sell yourself to me,” Carly said.

Beverly started out slowly, but then seemed to build up steam. The woman talked nonstop for four minutes, talking about herself and what she hoped to accomplish. She seemed bright, cheerful, her wonderful voice had some nice melodious tones and her cadence wasn’t too fast or slow. She wasn’t anything like Carly pictured in her mind.

“I think I like you. We are in an image business. I need my receptionist to have a good image. If we hired you, we would like you to wear less severe clothing and lower heels. Would that present a problem?”

Beverly looked a little disappointed, she knew exactly what Carly meant, but she said, “No, that wouldn’t be a problem.”

Can you start Monday? Beverly smiled warmly and said that she could, and thanked Carly, as she left.

>>>>><<<<<

Sunday, Melanie and Carly went by themselves to a gun range, south of town. Melanie bought half a dozen targets, four boxes of .45 ACP and four boxes 9mm x 19 ammo. The Range master was a retired Gunnery Sergeant USMC. He told them to call him ‘Gunny’, he didn’t get in their faces and scream, but he made it clear whose range it was, what you could do, and when. When the line was clear, they went down range and stapled their targets to the target frames. The Range master then inspected the two .45’s and the two 9mm handguns and declared them fit, but said they could use a little cleaning. The range master gave them the short course on shooting a fire arm and range safety.

Melanie and Carly took their positions. Melanie was shooting a Ruger SR9c and Carly chose the Colt 1911. They both fired two magazines at their targets. Neither girl was going to give anyone any trouble at the Bianchi Cup competition, but both girls kept most of their rounds in the silhouette.

Carly’s shots, fell mostly in a pattern, six inches from left to right, but eighteen inches from top to bottom. Melanie’s shots, fell in a pattern about ten inches top to bottom and fourteen inches left to right. The range master, going up and down the line, stopped and looked at their targets.

Gunny said, “You’re doing great, Blondie, your problem is your breathing.”

“I kinda like breathing.”

“Yes, but not while you are shooting, put your gun down and hold your hands like you are shooting a pretend gun.”

Carly did as she was instructed.

“Now, take a deep breath, hold it and watch your hands as you inhale.”

Carly did as she was told, and she saw her hands rise.

“That is your high shots, keep steady and let out all your breath and watch.”

As she let out her breath, her hands fell.

“That accounts for your low shots. Now take a deep breath, let half of it out and hold it. Now you are steady enough, to get off a shot or two. Repeat that as you shoot. Those three shots into the arms, you jerked your trigger; squeeze it slowly, let the gun going off be a surprise.”

“Blue eyes, your problem is that you’re alive. Every shooter out here has the same problem, I hope. Not so sure about the guy on lane seven. As they hold the gun out in front of them, the tips of their barrels traces a horizontal figure eight. Even I do it. The trick to good shooting, is knowing when to squeeze the trigger, so that the gun goes off as it passes through the middle, keeping that figure eight as small as possible. Hold sight on your target, shoot a few rounds, relax a bit, hold sight and shoot a couple of more and so on. The longer you try to hold your gun on the sight out there, the bigger your eights will be.”

“Both of you, at ten yards, should be keeping all your shots in the eight or nine ring. At twenty-five yards, your shots would be killing birds, in the next county. Shoot a couple of more magazines.” Gunny said, as he moved on to other shooters.

Carly and Melanie shot four more magazines, trying to follow ‘Gunny’s’ instructions. They both saw some improvement. They took a few minutes break, as the range went safe and they had to step away from their handguns.

When the range went hot again, Melanie tried the Glock 21, in the .45 ACP and Carly shot her full sized Glock 34, in a 9mm. Melanie found the .45 ACP, a little harder to control, especially on the second round. Gunny came around and asked Carly, if Melanie could shoot her 1911.

“You are still going to see significant rise from the .45. Slow down and bring your barrel back down on target, before you shoot it again. Practice with your longer barrels more. Your smaller guns are for concealment. You practice with them out here, but concentrate on practicing with your long barrels.”

Carly was quite a bit better with the Glock 34. All her shots with the 9mm, were inside the eight, most were in the nine and ten rings. Gunny told her to shoot the 1911, and the Glock 34 every time she came out here. Melanie even shot the 34 and found she liked it better than her Ruger. When they had both shot off about two hundred and fifty rounds, and each had shot each gun, they called it a day. Gunny told them to go into the shop and buy two gun cleaning kits, two 9mm brush sets, two .45 brush sets and have Smithy teach them how to clean the guns.

Paul Smith, was the shops gunsmith. He took them aside, after they had bought the gun cleaning kits and a toolbox, to store their un-shot rounds and their cleaning kits in. He taught the girls how to break down the weapons and clean them. He would break one gun down and reassemble it and then he would have the girls do it. Each gun had its own quirks, but between the two of them, they got them clean enough, that Smithy passed them on their work.

>>>>><<<<<

They hit Carly’s home first. They took all the guns inside and put Carly’s up. Melanie’s went into her purse loaded, with one in the chamber.

Carly grabbed some clothes and headed to the shower. She was surprised minutes later, as a naked Melanie joined her in the shower. They cleaned themselves first and then they played a bit. Melanie was pleasantly surprised that Carly didn’t press her to have sex, even though they were both naked and aroused. She did make him come with her hands, as Carly had made her come. Melanie promised herself to take charge, the next time they got together.

Melanie found a clean pair of leggings, in Carly’s drawers and put them on with an oversized T-shirt. Carly dressed in relaxed fit jeans, flats and one of her pretty blouses. Melanie felt so good to her, in those spandex leggings; she wanted to bed the girl right here and now.

They got prettied up and headed to Melanie’s, to pick up Stacy. They took the little bundle of energy to a Mc D’s, let her eat, and then let her burn off a ton of energy, at the playground, inside the store. From there they went to the zoo. Stacy loved looking at all the animals, she wanted to go play with them, but Carly told Stacy that they might not like her coming near them, a good compromise was the petting zoo, they found later. There were potbellied pigs, llamas, sheep, goats and donkeys. From there they took a train ride around the park.

As the sun was going down, they took Stacy to a children’s movie. Stacy and Melanie didn’t make it all the way through the movie; they were both sleeping, with Carly’s arms around both of them protectively.

>>>>><<<<<

Monday, dressed for business, Carly picked up Melanie, after her coffee and Danish, then went to the salon. There were five stylists, Jeff, Tony, Carol, Bridget and Olivia there, along with Regina, who was teaching a much nicer dressed Beverly, how to use the stores computers, to make appointments, take payments and such. The stylists knew Carly was meeting with the consultants and wanted to go too. Riley arrived, just after Carly got her things she needed, as they were going to the cars.

The caravan drove over to the consultant’s office, where they were escorted to a conference room. There were drawings all around the conference room, and two models of the salon. One model on the table was the salon as it was now and the other was the proposed salon. They were like toy houses that you could move the furniture around in. They all could see that they would have more room and they loved the concept drawings. Carly and Kathy began picking out the colors, flooring, furniture, lighting and fixtures out of books, asking the others their opinions, as they progressed. Carly then would sign off on the details.

At the end, it was just Carly, Kathy, Melanie and Riley. The others had tired and gone home. Riley would stay and hammer out the contracts and Carly would sign them at her office.

They found out that Salon Consultants Inc. had indeed won the contract with Starbucks, who would open within days after the salon reopened. They were very happy the salon was remodeling and going upscale, as it would affect their business.

>>>>><<<<<

The last two weeks, before closing the shop for remodeling, they had a push, Carly’s ads and promotions were having a big effect and many new customers were coming in. Sales of products were up, because Regina and Beverly were able to trade duties and work their clients, while the other was able to make appointments and schedule stylists. Carly and Kathy, interviewed a slew of new stylists, including a pair of identical twin sisters.

They were an interesting pair, both of them were very good, both had kids and both were living together. In fact, they had an unusual request. Angelica and Felicia wanted to share the same station, one girl wanted to work from open till close, three days a week, and the other would work the other three days from open till close, three days a week. The other twin that was off would be home, taking care of their kids. Both would get to spend some quality time with the kids.

Carly liked them and Kathy said that they had good credentials and skills. Carly loaned them some money to tide them over, till the salon would reopened, while Kathy arranged for them to attend different training sessions.

>>>>><<<<<

Sunday, the Rangers were back in town. Carly scored a season ticket license and season tickets for the rest of the season, for four people, in a first base side reserve box, on the internet. A family had to move and wouldn’t be able to use the tickets. Stacy didn’t need a ticket for another two years, but they could bring a couple. The couple at this game was Regina and Beverly. The two receptionists weren’t as boisterous as Melanie, but only by a degree. Beverly even brought a baseball glove, to catch foul balls.

Stacy got her souvenir baseball, collected some more Ranger signatures, some of which were the same signatures that she already had. She just loved waving the ball and pen at the players warming up.

An Idea came to Carly, about letting her stylist have all four box seats at times, so their families could go to the games, Carly couldn’t, or didn’t want to go to. Some may not be up for it, but others might. She would talk to Melanie about it later.

All four of them made the big screen; Beverly caught a foul ball, which was a screaming line drive. It was amazing how fast she stood and stretched forward, to snag the ball. That shot was shown on ESPN and clearly showed all five girls. The commentator said, that some team should sign up that girl. Carly found out that Beverly pitched for a ladies fast pitch softball team. Beverly gave the ball to Stacy, with a kiss.

>>>>><<<<<

Jimmy was sitting in his living room watching ESPN, before he went to bed. Damn he thought, there is that bitch on TV again. How could she afford box seat tickets? The more he TIVO’ed (DVR system) the play, the madder he got. There was that blond bitch too, holding his daughter, again. Maybe Melanie had gone lesbo.

He had some time off coming, beginning in November. He could get his two bambi (deer hunter) and then F*** that bitch. She owed him.

He called a Private Investigator ‘PI’, in Dallas, the next day and got him onto finding her. That bitch and her Mom had moved, cut off their phone and no telling what else.

>>>>><<<<<

The Salon Consultant Inc. contractor, already had the Starbucks restaurant side, over half done, a week before the salon closed and they had the new salon wall, ninety five percent done. The electrical and plumbing work had already been done; the rest would be done when they tore the old wall out, next week. Ninety percent of the stuff going into the salon, was already present and sorted out. He just needed an empty space, to get busy. He wanted that bonus and had lined out a double crew, for the first week and a half of work. The workers knew, no bonus meant their jobs were on the line.

Carly put up a sign up sheet for tickets, to the baseball games. There were eight games, during the period the salon was closed. Her stylists would be allowed to sign up to four tickets, for their two favorite games and Carly would see that they would get one or the other, hopefully. Carly sat with her stylists and went through the names and the tickets. It took some negotiating, but all her employees that wanted tickets, got tickets for a game.

>>>>><<<<<

The last day before work on the salon was to begin, they closed at two pm. It was then all hands on deck, clearing their stations out, putting everything into a pod container. Regina and Beverly, had already moved the products out of the storeroom and the front shelves. Kathy and a couple of strong bodies they hired, were clearing the office; the computers were backed up online, to DVD and on Carly’s laptop. An expert sanitized the old computers. At nine pm. the clock started on the contractors, as Carly handed off her keys. The old wall was torn down and out of the salon by midnight.

>>>>><<<<<

Melanie was signed up for training, the first week off. Carly was on Stacy duty during this time. Joyce really appreciated being able to get out and do things, now that she and Melanie had money to relax with. She took a few days for herself and spent some time with Carly and Stacy.

Carly wasn’t paranoid, but after seeing a car that was sometimes outside her place, also outside Joyce and Melanie’s place, she had an itch. She didn’t tell Melanie, but she called Riley from the bathroom at Melanie’s place.

“Riley, I think someone is pulling surveillance on me, or an employee. I have seen the same car outside my house and outside Melanie’s place. Today, I saw a camera with a big lens.”

“Sounds like a PI; you wouldn’t notice government surveillance that easily.”

“I have a plate number, that I took with my cell phone,” Carly said, and she gave Riley the number.

“Any reason someone would be mad at either of you?”

“Me, I am not sure, people can always make enemies they don’t know about. With Melanie, that is an affirmative, an ex in a messy divorce. He took all the community property, so he wouldn’t sue for custody of her little girl. He is a slime bag.”

“Too bad, I didn’t know her then. I don’t usually do divorces, but I would love to rip a hole in that bastard. Let me get someone on that. You won’t see my PI, but she will see you and them. Do either of you have a home security system?”

“I do, she doesn’t.”

“Upgrade your home security system.”

“Melanie is training for two more days, I am on Stacy duty. We start vacation on Friday.”

“Where are you going?”

“Galveston for a week, for a festival.”

“Her mother?”

“She wants to visit friends in Colorado, for two weeks. I bought her plane tickets.”

“I’ll call you later tonight. Don’t worry Melanie yet. Someone will be watching over her, starting tonight.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly sat playing dolls with Stacy, having a tea party and Melanie was due home in an hour, when Carly got a call.

“Hello,” Carly said.

“Hi, I am Ginger, a friend of Riley’s. You and Melanie are being watched, her ex, Jimmy Nelson is still in Houston. Take Melanie bowling tonight, we want to get a close look at your tails.” Ginger said, giving Carly an address for a bowling alley, where they would be setting up.

Carly called Melanie and asked her to go straight to the bowling alley and she would meet Melanie there. Melanie thought it was strange, but she didn’t question Carly.

Carly and Stacy were waiting for Melanie, at the entrance to the bowling alley. Stacy got her hugs and they went in. They all rented shoes. Melanie was amazed they had shoes to fit Stacy. Stacy’s shoes just didn’t have a slick area to slide with. They found balls and went to their lane.

“So, what is this all about, Carly?”

“We will talk at McDonald’s. Stacy just loves their playground, don’t you?”

“Yeah, McDonalds,” Stacy said, anticipating a happy meal and a toy.

Melanie knew something was up and knew Carly wanted to talk, while Stacy was occupied. Stacy bowled one game, mostly Carly and her Mom would help her carry the ball to the line and they would help her push the ball. This was a surprisingly effective strategy, because she beat Carly the first game. Melanie stuffed Carly into a pipe and smoked her. Melanie bowled a respectable 175, Carly with one spare and no strikes, found the gutters very easily, bowled a dismal 82 and Stacy with help, rolled a 97. Melanie wanted to bowl a second game. Stacy sat this one out and watched her Mom and Carly bowl.

A lady and gent joined them on their adjoining lane. Carly’s eyes perked up when she saw the name Ginger, light up overhead.

They bowled a couple of more lines, and then Carly said to Stacy, who was sitting on her lap, “We are going to the McDonald’s on Westway and Trent.

Melanie knew Carly was losing it. Stacy didn’t know Westway from no way, but she noticed that the couple next to them seemed to stop bowling and leave ahead of them.

At McDonald’s, Melanie and Carly got Stacy her happy meal and went over near the playground to Eat. Carly was surprised to see Riley and another woman, playing with a child there. After they ate, Riley joined them.

“You were right Carly.” Riley said. “Both of you are under surveillance, by a Dallas PI.”

Carly then explained to Melanie, what was going on. Carly told Melanie that the lady, that was bowling in the next alley, works for Riley. She had asked her to get Melanie to the bowling Alley, so they could get a better look at the pair of PI’s.

“Melanie,” Riley said. “We think your ex hired these PI’s for some reason. Carly, I want to harden your home, while you are away on vacation. It won’t be visibly hard. We will replace your doors, with what we call five minute doors, your windows, with break resistant glass and improve your alarm system. Melanie, do you think you could live with Carly, when you two come back?”

“I don’t know? If Carly asks nicely, I might be able to do that. What about my mom?”

“We can harden her home, install an alarm system and give her a four footed companion, that has a buzz saw personality for intruders. We think, that Mr. Nelson would be after you and any love interest. We are not sure when, or if, he will do whatever he will do.”

“That is easy. He takes four weeks off for deer season. He is very selective about his kills. He won’t shoot a deer with less than ten points. He has two racks that are highly rated by Boon and Crocket. He has hopes of bagging the White Tail Deer record. He pays thousands of dollars a year for deer leases. When we were married, I hardly saw him from November to January. He’ll get his deer first. He isn’t a hide and wait hunter, he is a stalker. He is dangerous, are you sure you want to get involved with this Carly?”

“Damn straight girl.”

“Riley, can we get to the rifle range without our tails?”

“I’ll talk to Ginger and ask her to arrange it. If we can’t eliminate your tails, don’t go. What about Stacy?”

Melanie and Carly looked at each other and both said, “Regina.”

“You two need to go, one of your tails just came in the McDonald’s, you’ll be safe tonight.”

Carly corralled Stacy and Riley corralled her nephew. They departed in different directions.

>>>>><<<<<

“Melanie, would you and Stacy consider moving in with me. All I have to offer you is me and a few other things, but I think me is the most important.”

“What about Gramma?” Stacy asked.

“She could come to, but you will still see her bunches.”

“I think we can work things out squirt,” Melanie said. “We’ll move in after vacation and before the salon reopens. Grandma was asking me what was taking so long any way.”

>>>>><<<<<

Melanie got through her training Friday and came home to help her mother pack for her trip. Melanie told her about Jimmy putting a PI on them and her moving in with Carly. Joyce said she would love keeping Stacy, while they worked and this would give her more time to relax. She could keep Stacy 24/7, but she would love being able to kick back some too.

“I could put Stacy in half a day care so she can play with other kids.”

“Bring her to me in the morning and I can drop her off at daycare at noon, that is a wonderful idea,” Joyce said. “I love her, but she can be a handful to have all day every day.”

>>>>><<<<<

Regina and Beverly arrived bright and early at Carly’s place. An hour before Melanie, Joyce and Stacy arrived. Carly told them about Jimmy and the PI’s that were stalking them. She even pointed out the car to the girls. She told them that she and Melanie were going to drop off Joyce of at the airport and then switch cars and go to a shooting range.

“Don’t worry, Stacy will be safe with us,” Beverly said. “You’re taking Melanie’s car to the airport.”

“We are taking Stacy to our place and then the park. You can call us”

Melanie, Joyce and Stacy arrived. Stacy hugged Carly, Regina and Beverly. Regina moved Stacy’s car seat to her car. Stacy hugged Grandma and then was buckled into her seat.

The posse departed Carly’s place. Regina and Beverly went to their place with Stacy. Carly rode in the back of Melanie’s car, with Joyce in the front, and Melanie driving to the airport. Melanie had four tails as she drove. Two Riley’s PI’s and two Jimmy’s PI’s. Regina and Beverly just had Riley’s PI’s. They cleared her baffles and prepared for part two of today’s circus.

Melanie drove up to the drop off point, at the airport, a skycap helped unload Joyce’s luggage and after checking her ticket, sent it on to her destination. Melanie only got a quick hug, before they were telling her to move on. Carly got behind the wheel of Melanie’s car and drove out of the airport. Back at Margret’s home, Carly parked in the garage and drove out in her car.

As soon as they drove out, Melanie got a call on her cell phone, that they had their tails. Ginger gave them directions that led them sort of out of the way of the shooting range. Carly drove past a tractor trailer rig, who pulled out behind her and stalled, blocking the highway. They were then told to take a left and a car similar to hers, pulled out and headed in the same direction they had been going. A few minutes later, Ginger told them that they were clear to go to the range. The look alike had two tails and was headed to Waco.

Carly then headed to the range. Carly bought an ammo can of 1200 9mm rounds, a can of 800 .45 ACP rounds and 4 empty plastic boxes, that could hold 100 pistol rounds. Melanie bought six silhouette targets. When they got to the pistol range, they waited by their shooting station, they began loading the plastic boxes with rounds. When the range went safe, they went downrange and stapled their targets up. They returned and finished loading the plastic boxes. Melanie took the Glock 34 and the Glock 21 .45. Carly was left with the 1911 and Melanie’s SR9c. With the range hot, they began shooting. Carly was better with the 1911 this week and not as good with Melanie’s SR9c, but still killing the target. Melanie did better with the Glock 34, and was a bit wild with the Glock 21, the Glock’s recoil was a little stronger.

Gunny came over and stood behind them watching. When Melanie set the Glock down, he came up.

“The baby Glock in a .45 is a bit much for a lady’s grip, Blue eyes.”

“My name is Melanie, Gunny. I have access to each of these guns at times and I want to be able to use any of them.”

“Troubles?”

“My ex is stalking me and he is good with guns. He doesn’t use a deer stand, he stalks his deer every year. I’m not looking for trouble, but if he thinks he can lay a hand on me or my daughter…”

“I understand,” Gunny said.

He then began working with her and the Glock 21. He helped her adjust her grip and the way she stood. He also got her to slow down and get used to the weapon.

Carly took the Glock 34 9mm and shot it. She was better with the full size gun. Melanie was starting to get the hang of the small Glock .45. She still had a lot of work to do.

After they had each shot two hundred rounds, they reloaded the plastic boxes and magazines. They cleaned the weapons as they had been shown, loaded the guns and carried everything to the car to put in the trunk.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly and Melanie packed her car for the trip to Galveston and then had to go rescue Regina and Beverly, Stacy had literally tied them up. They could have just slipped off the ropes, but that would have been cheating. Carly threatened to tie them up herself.

Carly again headed south, her tails gave up as she was really headed to Waco this time. They figured they were being taken for a ride twice in one day. Their job was over anyway at sundown. The customer paid for a week of surveillance on a child custody dispute and he got a week of surveillance.

Melanie got a call from Ginger that their tails had gone home. So Carly took a left at Hillsboro on the way to Galveston. It seemed like a long drive. Carly arrived in Galveston at almost six. She might have sped a bit between Mexia and Conroe, but she lost some time in Houston to traffic. Melanie and Stacy were sound asleep. They had stopped at a truck stop north of Huntsville for a bathroom break and food, but the girls were asleep again by the time they passed General Sam on I-45.

They checked into the hotel, across from the beach. Carly stood for a few seconds and just felt the warm breeze come in from the Gulf of Mexico, before she went to hang her clothes. Melanie was already sorting the hanging space: her clothes, Stacey’s clothes and Carly’ clothes. Carly saw a few sundresses, skirts and blouses, on her side, that were new and fewer pants, than she had packed. If she didn’t love Melanie, she would be mad at being had again.

They all went out for an early evening walk in pants, long sleeve shirts and bug repellant, on the seawall. They stopped for some crab cakes and fries, from a shop across from the gulf, before calling it a day.

Sleeping together had been wonderful for Carly and Melanie. They agreed that they wouldn’t do it, with Stacy sleeping on the bed next to them. They were both frustrated, but they were adamant in their intent. They did cuddle and kiss a bit, but mostly they slept in each other’s arms.

>>>>><<<<<

The three girls went to visit the tall ship Elissa and the museum. Stacy was a handful there; she thought all the rigging was a giant jungle gym, which she wanted to climb and if Melanie wasn’t careful, Stacy would be climbing the rigging. The Elissa wasn’t a pirate ship, but Carly had Stacy believing it. It would be easy to imagine the decks swarming with pirates. It was equally easy to imagine the ship ferrying the highborn from England to the New World.

Melanie told them about coming here in December, for “Dickens on the Strand” She loved all the Victorian costumes the people wore then. Carly said they might try to come down then.

After lunch, they headed to Moody garden, where Stacy could burn some energy running around chasing butterflies, looking at all the flamingoes, playing in the children’s exhibits. Melanie and Carly loved all the beautiful plants and flowers. They also both enjoyed watching Stacy have fun. She could have fun doing the strangest things and if Melanie or Carly weren’t paying her enough attention, she’d find ways to get them involved.

During their week, they went up to the space museum, watched an Imax of the Grand Canyon and the American Indians. They went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Melanie wasn’t worried about running into Jimmy there. They saw the San Jacinto Monument and the Battleship Texas. Stacy loved AstroWorld, although she could only go on the children’s rides. Carly won her some prizes at the arcades.

Melanie and Carly both felt better leaving Houston behind and coming north again. They picked up two bushels of peaches, from Fairfield and fifty pounds of unshelled pecans, from Corsicana.

Melanie called Regina, when they left Corsicana. Regina and Beverly were both at Carly’s place, when they got home Friday night, with their new house keys. Ginger had supervised a lot of changes to Carly’s home, while they were gone. They had replaced the front and back doors, with intrusion resistant doors built into a heavy steel frames, hidden by wood molding. All the windows had also been replaced, with energy efficient, bullet resistant windows, that were more secure. There were motion sensor lighting, all around the house and an upgraded security system. The house couldn’t prevent a determined adversary from entering, but it would give them several minutes minimum, to prepare.

Beverly took Stacy to her bedroom and helped her get ready for bed, while Regina showed Carly and Melanie the new security system. The keys were unique to the security company and replacements, or new keys, had to come through them. Bump keys and lock picks, wouldn’t work on them. The keys were a combination of mechanical and magnetic. A combination lock key safe, was hidden in an electrical panel, behind the garage, if they got locked out. Using or tampering with the box, automatically sent an alert to the security company. The alarm system had a master control panel, in the master bedroom, which was converted into a thirty minute home safe room. The laundry room, was now qualified as a steel plate and brick, twelve person storm shelter. The house alarm had zone alerts, so they could see where intruders were. Once the alarm was tripped, ultrasonic and infrared detectors come on, tracking the intruders. All key panels, had panic buttons that notifies Police and the security company. Carly and Melanie both called into the security companies separately and set their passwords.

Regina and Beverly also took it upon themselves to redecorate Stacy’s room and she was bouncing off the walls, checking her new room out. She moved things to where she wanted them, even if the move was only inches. Beverly picked her up, so she could reach the top shelves.

Carly wanted to drive by the salon to see what they had done, but Regina said the workers wouldn’t let anybody in and the glass windows were covered with black plastic. Beverly and Regina even tried dating a couple of the workers to get a peek. The foreman told them that the work would be finished almost a week early, on Tuesday and they would unveil their work on Wednesday, letting Carly and the stylists to begin to get it sorted out that afternoon.

“Salon Consultants Inc. are planning a big party Wednesday morning and we are all invited. Ads for the Grand Reopening Monday, are already in the paper. Starbuck’s is going to open on Monday too. The manager wants you to call her this Monday.”

“How many of our people are out of town?”

“Six, four of whom will be back by Tuesday and we have nine stylists in training, Monday through Friday. We need to stay open on Wednesday, long enough for those who are training, to get to see the new salon. Everybody will be at the salon on Saturday and Sunday, as needed. Call Kathy tomorrow.”

Regina and Beverly had been communication central for the employees, while they had been closed. Even the new stylists called them for updates. Donna and William were playing it close to the vest, but passed some information to the two of them.

“Okay, pass the word. Let’s get all the stylists and their families if they like, at the unveiling. Do you two know any big time competitive BBQ’ers?”

“Beverly’s brother is a member of the ‘Double Q Crew’. They compete all over the state. They would love to cook for us.”

“Call them and get a head count from our people and from Salon Consultants Inc. There will be no work on Wednesday, except to clean up from the party. Thursday, we will be getting our Stations set up.”

The four women finally got an exhausted Stacy, to go to bed, by threatening to paint her room puke green. The girl was asleep before the adults made it downstairs. Regina and Beverly, left shortly after that, with a dozen peaches and two pounds of pecans. Melanie invited them back for tomorrow afternoon, to help her bake a dozen peach pies and a dozen pecan pies.

Melanie hauled Carly up to their room and kept her very busy for two hours, till they both fell asleep from exhaustion.

>>>>><<<<<

Saturday morning, Melanie was in charge of getting breakfast sorted and Carly began taking care of a mountain of dirty clothes, as Stacy played in her new backyard and watched TV on the huge LED TV. She loved all the cartoon channels and anime channels. They all stopped to eat and Melanie made a shopping list of what she needed for all the pies.

While Melanie went to the store, Carly kept Stacy occupied by playing with her dolls, swinging on the new swing set, playing on the seesaw, or playing in the new sandbox. Stacy wanted to do it all at the same time.

Before Melanie got home, Kathy and her kids showed up. Her kids were older, but her daughter Renee, liked playing with Stacy, while Ricky watched his favorite anime’s on TV. Angelica and Felicia, with their four girls arrived and lastly, Regina and Beverly showed up.

Once Melanie got home, the girls began a pie production line. Carly took a poll on what everyone wanted for lunch and went to rob Colonel Sanders of his daily output of chicken, mashed potatoes, beans and corn on the cob. When she got back, she had to park on the street, because there were cars everywhere. She was relieved of all of her burdens and sent out for more food, as two-thirds of her employees had showed up. Carly returned with twenty pounds of barbecue, buns and fixings. Carly found her Mom in the kitchen, with the other girls, some of the husbands and male stylist were in the living room watching college football, in the living room, and ten kids were in the back yard playing. Melanie was smiling, working with her friends and Carly had fun just watching everyone enjoying themselves.

The half-life of the pies, as they began coming out of the oven, had been just under two minutes for the first four peach pies and the first six pecan pies. Carly thought someone was going to die from sugar shock, for sure. She got an eighth of both pies and couldn’t make up her mind which was better. The girls cleaned up the house, as they began to leave around six that evening. By ten that night, it was just Carly, Melanie, Anita and Stacy. Stacy was asleep in Anty Nita’s lap.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were having a picnic at your place today?” Anita asked.

“I didn’t know, till I came back with the barbecue. I can’t believe there is no food left, except two dozen pies. How many pies did you girls cook?”

“I don’t know, we lost count. I could count the empty pie tins, but they are already in the trash,” Melanie said. “We’ll have to go out for breakfast tomorrow. There are only pies in the fridge and maybe a dozen peaches.”

“Stacy was in heaven with all the kids playing with her, in her yard today,” Carly said. “Oh Mom, we’re living together now.”

“About time, I knew when I first saw you two together that you were made for each other. Carly, if you leave her, or treat her badly, Melanie and Stacy can come live with me and you can find another Mom.”

>>>>><<<<<

Sunday, Carly dressed in her tunic top with all the buttons, jeans and stilettoes. Melanie and Anita just loved the top. They all dressed up, Melanie made them all beautiful and hit the I-Hop. Melanie wouldn’t let Stacy order her Happy Face pancakes; today she had to eat eggs, bacon and hash browns. Stacy had two pieces of the peach pie the day before. She pouted, but she loved eggs and bacon too.

Anita stayed in town working out of the Dallas office on Monday and Tuesday, so she could be there for the unveiling and she would be here for the Grand Reopening. Carly talked to Kayla Denton, the manager of the Starbuck’s opening next door, they talked about coordinating their openings, plus a few other details. Carly invited her to the unveiling party Wednesday and offered her and her female employees, a one-time only offer, of free hair services, on the Saturday before they opened. She said, girls under 18 need their Moms here.

Monday afternoon, Carly got a call from Salon Consultants Inc. to come to the salon, with Kathy. They were having a professional inspector come through, doing a punch list inspection. Melanie was out with Stacy, so Carly called Kathy and drove on in.

Kathy was at the door waiting for Carly. William handed the two women a clipboard, paper, pens and rolls of blue tape, before they were escorted in.

“We have professional inspectors in, but we wanted you two to do your own inspection, before we unveil the store Wednesday,” William said, escorting the ladies in.

There were about a dozen people inside already, doing the same thing. Kathy got to work immediately, while Carly wandered around, taking in the big picture. She did give her empty office a very good look, there were only three pieces of blue tape in her office. The larger break room looked good, it had the fewest pieces of tape for its size. The whole place looked absolutely cavernous, without furniture, moveable fixtures, or products in the place. It looked to have possibilities, there was plenty of cleaning, that needed to be done, furniture and equipment, needed to be moved in, but this was her place.

After two hours, the inspectors left and the contractor’s trouble-shooters came in to knock out the punch list. Tonight, at around mid-night, they would finish. The foremen would double check their work and pull the blue tape.

Tuesday, the cleaners would come in, followed by the movers, who would move in the moveable equipment and furniture. A computer company came in and installed computers, printers, software and reinstalled the current business data. The phone system was installed and checked. Carly, Melanie and some of the girls, just stood out of the way and watched the workers work, but that got boring.

At six in the evening, on Tuesday, ‘Double Q Crew’ moved their big barbecue pit in, along with their motorhome and started getting things lined up.

Things would begin tomorrow at ten.

>>>>><<<<<

At nine forty five, Carly, Melanie, Stacy, most of her stylists and their families, that were in town and not in training, were waiting at their salon. At ten, William and Donna came up to the door.

“Carly, it has been a great pleasure working for you. We hope you love your new salon,” Donna said, handing over the keys.

Carly thanked them for their hard work. She took the keys and unlocked the doors. As the doors opened, the black plastic was pulled off the windows, letting in the sunlight. The place came alive. Carly walked in and saw Regina and Beverly at their post, taking appointments. Their station had a large Lucite desktop, a computer monitor floated on a pedestal, two printers and two file cabinets to their right. Display shelves for products were in front of the window to their left.

The reception area was beautiful and there were flowers everywhere. There were pictures of celebrity hairstyles on the wall, gorgeous couches lined three walls and a circular Lucite table with current publications. The crowd came in; they saw Kathy and Carol standing in the styling area. As the employees came in, the two began assigning employees to their stations. The whole place looked fantastic. The employees were wandering around, like kids in a candy store.

“Ok, listen up!” Carly said. “No work today, Stay as long as you like. Tomorrow and Friday, you may come in and get your station set up, like you like it. We will start bringing in our products and chemicals tomorrow. Your stations have to be setup by late Sunday, If you finish early, you can help the stylist that are in training, to set up their stations. Kathy will open Monday with her stylists and Carol will be here from Tuesday to Saturday. In a few minutes, the barbecue will be ready. I want all of you to give William and Donna a big round of applause.”

The employees gave the two, a hearty round of applause.

“I also want to thank all the people who worked on this salon, give them a hand too. They have done a really great job.”

Her employees gave the construction workers a hearty applause.

“Explore this place and have fun. We are truly a family here.”

There were long lines at the barbecue pit. Kayla Denton and a few of her girls came by. They loved the new salon; Kayla said, she and maybe three of her girls, would be there Saturday.

“Just tell Regina, so we can make plans.”

“Oh and I know I will be spending lots of money at your place, to get my caffeine fix.”

Anita was a dear and took Stacy home, when she got bored. People were in and out all day. The visitors were suitably impressed with the salons new look. Most of the stylists, in training, came by after five thirty, to look around. Kathy assigned them to stations and Carly told them that they had till late Sunday to get their stations set up.

Carly and Melanie were the last to leave. They locked up and headed home at almost seven thirty. It took a while to clean up the shop and parking lot after the feast and haul the garbage to the dumpster.

The two of them took a nice shower together, to clean the smoke and grease out of their hair and off their skin, maybe not as long as they took, but they had fun. Melanie and Carly got to kiss Stacy before she went to bed.

They went downstairs and sat with Anita, to talk.

“Now all you need is customers,” Anita said.

“This is like the field of dreams, Momma. If you build it, they will come. Once they are there and see how good my stylists are, and how great they look, they will come back. I have good people, from good schools. We will be in the black by the new year.”

“What about UConn?” Anita asked.

“I will go to UTA or TCU, I’m not worried about that. Being here with Melanie and Stacy, is more important to me now.”

“I think you may be right,” Anita said, smiling tenderly at Carly.

“I know she is right,” Melanie said, kissing Carly. “Anyway, we are going to work to send her to Paul Mitchell’s school.”

“I have to go to New York tomorrow and New Jersey on Friday. I will be back here on Monday, for half a day.”

>>>>><<<<<

Anita was gone when Carly, Melanie and Stacy headed to the salon. Carly unlocked the POD container and then unlocked the Salon. They propped the door open and Carly started wheeling a dolly, with storage containers for all her stylists, in. When Regina and Beverly arrived, Beverly manned the desk, Regina unloading her products and setting the boxes in front of the reception desk. Kathy had setup the product display at her station and asked the stylists, that came in, to copy her display.

Melanie left with Stacy, to find a good daycare.

A beauty supply company that sells mostly the “tools of the trade” called and said they would have a truck, which was loaded with stylists’ supplies, there on Saturday. They were like the Snap-On tool dealers, who bring a truck full of tools, to the mechanic. Regina made a note to call all the stylists to inform them of the truck. A few stylists came in after training, to begin to get their stations in order. Carly again closed up and headed home.

Melanie told Carly, that she needed her to come to the daycare and have her photo taken, so she could pick up Stacy when needed. They only allow pickups by people who have their picture in the child’s records. One of them would have to be there, when Joyce came in too.

“What does Stacy think of the daycare?”

“She loves it. She likes playing with kids her age. I think the teachers are pretty nice too. I checked the daycare online, I checked their references and I checked for complaints with the state.”

>>>>><<<<<

Everyone was present for a short staff meeting, then given a tour of the new Salon, on Saturday. Stacy was with Grandma, who had returned. All of the stylists were trained in the new system, for dealing with the chemicals used in perms and hair coloring. The stylists manually draw the chemistry, use their unique ID to log the chemicals they need, chemicals are linked to the procedures, to the client and to the billing.

Each station had a touch screen computer, connected to the salon’s main server, through the stores LAN. Stylist could call up their appointment schedule, input client’s procedures and even use the computers to help customers select styles and view a virtual picture of what the client would look like, with the selected hairstyle, color or perm. There are high-resolution cams at each station. Before and after pictures are taken and stored, on the salons computer. Clients who want the same hairstyle, of a certain celebrity, in the past, could be a problem. Celebs change hairstyles like they change their clothes. Now, if a client wanted Jessica Alba’s hairstyle, the stylist had internet access and, could pull up a series of pictures, of Jessica Alba, for the client to select from and they could see how they would look with that style. The computer system, had been a part of the training, that they had been receiving, the past week.

They got to try the system out on the manager and girls, who would be working at the new Starbuck’s. The girls really ran the stylists through the new system. Many wanted to see how they would look in this hairstyle, or that hairstyle. Kayla was easy to please. She liked her hairstyle and it looked good on her. She did try the look with various colors, but she opted just to have her hair trimmed, her makeup and nails done. A couple of her girls went for a perm and one girl, Shelly, went whole hog, double process color, perm style, nails, facial and makeup. The girl was ecstatic, when she saw how nice she looked.

Carly had a fright, as she was surrounded by all her employees, including Melanie. She was taken to a waxing booth and stripped. Her enhancements were temporarily taken off and she was receiving a complete body wax job. They just left a strip of hair above junior. She was allowed a knee length robe and received a mani-pedi, had fills done on her French nails and her toenails done in a matching pink color. She had her brows waxed, given a facial, and had semi-permanent eyelashes added. She had her roots touched up along her part and her hair was given a deep treatment, that made her hair much more vibrant. Melanie took her in the back and they had a shower, shampoo and conditioning. Her enhancements were reattached, semi-permanent makeup was used to hide the seams which match her skin tone. Her makeup was done; she was given a daytime, professional look. She was finally allowed to dress in new undies, including a below the bust corset, pantyhose, an Armani blouse, skirted Armani suit and Armani stiletto pumps.

She had to stand there and pose for her stylists, who took a slew of pictures, before she was made to redress in three more outfits, all business professional skirted suits, have her makeup readjusted appropriately and then more photos were taken.

All Carly asked during all of this was, “My Mom?” and Melanie answered, “Your Mom and your stylists wanted to do something for you.”

Carly looked quite professional in all her clothing. She would be perfectly at home with her Mom at a board meeting. Many of the blouses she owned, would fit in nicely with the suits, she apparently owned now. She was dressed in a power red suit and heels, with a white chiffon blouse.

“This is your uniform for the first week we will be open,” Kathy said. “Monday, we have the Chamber of Commerce and one of the Mayor’s staff, will be here. You and Melanie are assigned to be off tomorrow. That means, you don’t show up here tomorrow! Melanie, you are fired if you let her come in.”

“You don’t want me to be fired do you Carly?”

“No, I will go quietly, but I have a surprise for all of you. I was going to tell all of you earlier, till I was assaulted and my clothes stolen for the fifth or sixth time.” Carly said, counting on her fingers. “I can’t keep track. I seem to lose my clothes faster than a stripper, but I have a room reserved for tonight, at the Texas Blue Bonnet Steakhouse, at seven. That is, if any of my thieving employees and their families feel like eating Steak or Lobster?”

Not much was said, but there was a beehive of activity. People were calling their significant others, stylists were doing each other’s hair and makeup.

The Blue Bonnet, was a five star steakhouse, done Texas style. They are famous for being the home of the four inch thick, Cowboy Ribeye steak. A family of four, could easily spend four hundred dollars. Waiters wear jeans, heavily embroidered cowboy shirts, Lucchese boots and black 10x Stetsons. The Waitresses wear blue bonnet embroidered square dancing skirts, with petticoats, fancy western blouses, Lucchese boots and white 10x Stetsons. The wait staff has to contract for a year, or pay three thousand dollars for a week’s worth of clothes. The staff also has to train six weeks in line dancing, square dancing, song and dance, as they provide ten minutes of entertainment, every hour, on the hour.

A fifteen percent tip, won’t get you a table at this place, at a later date. A ten percent tip or less, will get you into the rogue’s gallery of low or no tippers, that can’t get a table without paying a bounty, and it shows the bounty, which is up to twice the check they had. One East Coast US Senator holds the record. There is a twelve thousand dollar bounty on him. Patrons can actually pay, to raise the bounties, by matching them. The Texas Governor heard the Senator had a six thousand dollar bounty, and matched that himself. The bounties go to the wait staff. The Senator and his staff came in, spent three thousand on food and drink in 4 hours and left a hundred dollar tip.

Physically handling the wait staff; will get your wanted poster into the rogue’s gallery. Patrons who paw the staff, have their wanted poster hung with a noose. The wait staff is for looking at and for serving you, not fondling. There are deputies, with tin stars and wearing replica colt single action army revolvers, (non-firing) making sure everyone is having a good time and behaves themselves.

Most restaurants couldn’t get away with posting a rogue’s gallery. The Texas Blue Bonnet Steakhouse has thrived because of it. People pay, for the privilege to have pictures taken by their favorite rogue, or buy copies of their wanted poster.

Melanie got her hair and makeup done; then she rushed out to get dressed and to get Stacy dressed.

Carly got home and Melanie and Stacy met her. She thought they both looked so cute. Melanie was dressed a blue chiffon evening dress, that came four inches above her knee and blue stilettos and Stacy wearing a pink princess dress and white Mary Janes.

They entered the Texas Blue Bonnet Steakhouse, through the rogue’s gallery. There were about forty wanted posters, printed to look like an old fashion wanted posters. The posters showed the offender’s photograph, in black and white, detailed their crime and listed a bounty. It was surprising to see who all was up there. There were a few well know celebs, besides the US Senator. There were eight posters that were framed by nooses and marked “Wanted Dead or Alive (mostly dead)”.

Carly got tickled when she walked up to the greeter’s podium and deadpanned, “Carly Simon, Party of fifty five,” she said, in proper high English. “Oh and Princess Stacy; will need her throne.”

The greeter, a woman in her early twenties, dead panned back, “Let me go push a few dozen tables together. I will be just a minute.” She was dressed in a silver square dancing outfit.

While she was gone a few others started arriving. They were led to the back room, They still had clear sight of the stage.

As they sat, a woman and three guys, came out on the stage. The girl dressed in tux shorts, tux coat, top hat stilettos and a cane, came out and Started her Shania Twain Routine. ‘Man, I feel like a woman’, ‘That don’t impress me much’, ‘You’re still the one’, ‘From this moment on’ and ‘Forever and for always’. She used digital instrumental tracks, but the voice was all her own and she sang a credible cover. The guys danced with her and were her props.

Regina and Beverly were wearing contrasting, really fancy square dancing outfits, cowgirl boots and the full getup. They each had enough organza in the petticoats, that they were sitting on the rumba panties, when they sat. Their modesty was protected by their petticoats.

As the last of her people were coming in, Carly noticed two teens.

“Do they belong to us, Kathy?”

“I don’t know Carly. Could be one of the new stylists’ kids. No, they are too old,” Kathy said.

Carly got up and snuck behind the boy and girl, “Hi, I am Carly Simon.” She said, startling the pair. “Which stylist are your parents?”

The girl turned toward the boy and said, “I told you it wouldn’t work.”

The boy looked sheepishly at his feet. “Damn… Sorry, I meant dang it. Sarah here is my girlfriend, I am John. We tried to get a table. I didn’t know this was a reservation only place. We kinda tagged along with two people and were going to hide in a corner and get something to eat.”

Carly looked around and had an evil idea, “Come with me,” Carly said, as she led them over to a table where Regina, Beverly and Olivia sat. “Regina, this is Sarah and John. They are not to leave this table till they have had some fun and eaten. Have fun with them” Carly said, leaving the two with them.

Regina shoehorned the couple between herself and Olivia.

When everyone was seated the servers descended on them, passing out menus and taking drink orders. Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off of Olivia’s black and purple spiked hair and razor cut sides, and Olivia started talking hairstyles with Sarah. Regina asked Olivia, if she thought, if both of them would look good with identical hair like hers? Both teens shuddered and Regina apologized for teasing. She then introduced the others at the table, “Don’t worry about the cost. This is on the boss lady, who sat you down here, it’s on her dime.”

“That young lady is your boss?” Sarah asked, in amazement.

“Yes ma’am. She just spent half a mil, spiffing up the joint. Olivia and the rest are some of the best stylists in the county.”

“Who did her hair, it’s wonderful?” Sarah asked.

“The lady sitting next to her in blue did it.”

Many of the people there wound up splitting their steak, with a friend or spouse and getting extra sides. The steaks were just that big. One table got the cowboy steak for husband, wife and three kids and they couldn’t finish it all.

Six guys and six girls took the stage for some precision line dancing. It was fascinating, watching the highly choreographed dance. After they finished the dance, a guy with a fiddle and an older gentleman with a mike, came out and started calling for a square dance. The square dance started out slowly, but after five minutes, the calls were coming out rapidly and the dancers were doing a great job following the caller. Everyone was clapping to the rhythm of the caller.

Carly could hardly understand what was being said and she had no doubt that she would never be able to dance like that. When the calling got too fast, two couples both turned in the wrong direction and ran into each other. Two girls fell into the missionary position. The guys helped the embarrassed girls up off the floor, while the patrons were clapping and laughing.

As much fun as Stacy was having, she was starting to nod off. Melanie was taking blackmail pictures with her phone, you know, those cute pictures parents take, to and threaten to show their sons’ or daughters’ dates. Carly called a deputy over for her check.

“Now deputy,” Carly said, signing the charge slip for her group. “I love this place, and I don’t want to wind up in your rogue’s gallery. Do you reckon, this will keep my picture off a wanted poster.”

The bill for all her people and the two lovebirds, was just over forty two hundred. Carly added a fifteen hundred dollar tip.

“Ma’am that will not only keep you out of the Rogue’s gallery, that will get ya a front row seat, the next time you come. Ya’ll do come back. Ya hear.”

Carly turned to her crew and said, “The tab is paid. Ya’ll can stay, but anything else you buy is on your dime. The little one is sleeping in her pie.”

Melanie and Carly received hugs and thanks as they got up to leave.

>>>>><<<<<

Melanie tucked Stacy in bed with her snuggle bunny, after undressing her. In their bedroom, Carly took off her suit and Melanie took off her dress. Melanie then attached garters to Carly’s corset, took off her pantyhose and rolled up stocking up her legs. Carly nearly passed out from the sensation.

They shagged for hours, touching, kissing, making love and playing with each other. Carly snuck a hand into her nightstand and pulled out one of Margret’s toys and stuck it in Melanie, turned on the beads and vibration, while the two were kissing deeply. Melanie let out a holler that was mostly muffled by Carly’s mouth, as the vibrating rabbit hit her clit. That literally blew Carly’s mind. Melanie then rode Carly to a wonderful orgasm, for both of them. Exhausted, Melanie went to sleep on Carly’s chest, with Carly still inside her.

>>>>><<<<<

Little hands woke Carly in the morning, “I’m hungry, Carly,” Stacy said.

Carly looked at her clock and it was just after eight thirty.

“Can you play for a bit, and let Mommy and me get cleaned up, a bit.”

“I go play, but I am hungry,” Stacy said, as she turned and left the room.

Carly shook Melanie awake and told a groggy Melanie, “Wake up honey. Hungry mouths are awake.”

“I know, my mouth is hungry for you,” Melanie said, giving Carly a scorching morning kiss.

They both crawled out of bed. Melanie released Carly from the corset and began to get herself sorted out. They took a quick shower together, only playing a little. Later, in panties and a robe, they headed to the kitchen. Melanie started the coffee pot; Carly cut a banana in half and gave it to Stacy, who scarfed it down. Melanie then gave her a bowl of cereal, with milk. Stacy sat in Carly’s lap and contentedly ate her cereal. Carly would have to wash her robe, Stacy had dripped milk on it, but she didn’t mind at all.

Melanie and Carly shared an English muffin, with cream cheese and strawberry preserves, plus a sliced peach each.

Melanie and Carly went to get cleaned up and dressed, after dressing Stacy. Melanie laced Carly into an over the bust corset, that had cups, “You need a girly figure, since you are going to wear those suits to work, next week.”

“I don’t mind, well maybe I do a little, but does it have to be so tight?”

“The longer you wear one each day and the more days you wear one, the easier it will get. Your body will get used to it and will actually arrange itself to its shape. You may get to like wearing one.”

They dressed in sundresses and flats. They then took Stacy out to the duck pond, so she could run around, feed the ducks and get some sun. She loved feeding the ducks, but got a little scared as they crowded around her, vying for the mealworms she was feeding them. Carly was surprised that Stacy didn’t find the mealworms a little yucky.

They went to I-HoP for lunch. Carly picked up a Sunday paper to read. She had to read all the comics, as Stacy looked at the pictures and laughed at the jokes, even when, as Carly suspected, that Stacy didn’t know what the joke actually was. She loved the colorful drawings.

Carly then hit the fashion section, she stopped when she came to the salon ad for their ‘Grand Opening’.

“When were you girls going to tell me about this?” Carl said, holding up the ad for the salon.

“Oh, you weren’t supposed to see that ad.” Melanie said. “Kathy got all your employees together and they all agreed, the salon needed a new name. Blame Regina, it was her idea, the name that is.”

“Am I something they can all play with?... Scratch that question. I know I’m not. The only choice I seem to have had, was the ah…” Carly started to say ‘Tits’ “Curves and even they are bigger than I wanted.”

“Unless we elect for surgery, Carly, none of us get very much say in that department. I think you look wonderful. Promise me, that you’ll try to act surprised tomorrow.”

“I’ll try to act surprised. Nice ad by the way.”

“Beverly and Regina worked it out between themselves.”

“Let me guess, they are installing new signs today and painting the front window.”

“Yes and no, yes they are installing the new sign and no they aren’t painting the windows, except for the door. They are installing an awning banner.”

“So, what time am I supposed to be at the salon?”

“No earlier than nine thirty. The representative from the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor’s Office, will arrive at nine forty five. Then the ribbon cutting will be at 10:00. So, what do you think of the name.”

“Should have thought of it myself. I would have left Carly out of the name. Adventures in Hair Design is a good name, but I don’t design anything.”

“You enable and inspire others to create.”

>>>>><<<<<

Melanie dropped Stacy off with Joyce; she would bring Stacy to the ribbon cutting. Back home, Melanie began to fuss on Carly, getting her look just right for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Carly was dressed in a corset, stockings, white cowl neck blouse, and her skirted, burgundy, Armani suit and pumps. Melanie worked on her hair, makeup and accessories, to get her just the right look.

Carly found it hard to wait for the clock to tick down, so they could head to the salon. Her stomach was filled to the brim with butterflies. Her mom called from Dallas and said she was on her way and would be at the salon by nine thirty.

“Would you stop fidgeting Carly? You are going to have eye liner from the edge of your eye all the way to your ear.”

“I just don’t want to sit here. I should be at the salon, doing something.”

“Everything is done, that needs to be done.”

Melanie added a few more touches to Carly’s face and pronounced her ready, “Get your purse and keys. We need to take both of our cars. One of us needs to pick Stacy up at five. If you are ready, let’s get going.”

When they pulled into their parking lot, they had to park in the back row, of the lot, as there was a crowd of people, mostly women, milling around in front of Starbuck’s and the Salon. Kayla was making coffee and several of her workers were passing it out to the people. Both of their signs, by the road, were covered, but both of their awesome new awnings, proudly sported their businesses names. The salon had a rather plain awning before, but she loved the new colors and the great ads on the awning and its skirt.

Beverly was at the door and let Melanie in, but she made Carly wait outside. Carly could see that the front of her Salon looked like a flower store and that Regina was extremely busy on her phone and computer. Her eyes arched as she could make out a large cake, much like the grooms cake, at a wedding, before Beverly stood in front of her and asked her to please move away from the window. She was kind to her boss, but made her point emphatic. Carly found her Mom; they hugged and talked a bit.

Two women, one from the Mayor’s office and one from the Chamber of Commerce, arrived with three gold ribbons. A news reporter, videographer and photographer appeared and began shooting this circus. Aides held up gold ribbons in front of both shops. The representative of the Chamber and Kayla, stood side by side. She and the Mayor’s representative spoke a few words and all three held the scissors as they cut Starbuck’s ribbon. Then it was Carly’s turn. After words, she and the other two women cut the Salon’s ribbon. Then Kayla and Carly stood, flanked by the two representatives’, to cut a ribbon with two scissors. After that, they got to uncover their street signs. The two businesses were officially open. Kayla led customers into her shop and Carly led customers into her shop.

The salon was set up for a party. They were serving cake and drinks in the salon. That meant they couldn’t offer salon services, till they cleared the food away. There were caterers there, serving. All of her stylists were by their stations, were wearing pink smocks, with Carly’s salon’s name embroidered on them, greeting customers and talking with them. Olivia looked cute, with her spiked black n purple hair, studded black leather pants, black stilettos, with their metallic silver heels and her pink smock. Carly was in a meet and greet mode. The new salon was spacious, yet comfortable and had more to offer than before.

At Regina’s desk, the products section offered hair care products at half off, with salon services, limit one per customer. First time customers also received a discount, just by registering their email addresses, so they could receive promotions online.

Familiar arms hugged her legs and Carly picked up Stacy, as Carly walked about her store. Melanie relieved Carly of her burden and set Stacy in her chair, covering her with a pink cape and gave her a small piece of cake and a cup of punch.

They were in party mode for an hour and a half. Customers were politely shooed out and what was left of the cake and drinks, was moved to the coffee table, in reception. Joyce took Stacy to her daycare. The stylists sprang into action, quickly cleaning up. At noon, the salon began to offer services. All of her service employees had customers escorted to them and they all sprang into action.

Carly smiled, as the salon began to smell and sound like a salon.

By three, Regina was already restocking the shelves with their top selling products. By Four thirty, the Salon was still very busy. Felicia left about the same time as Carly, to pick up Angelica’s and her children, while Carly headed out to pick up Stacy. Melanie told Carly to take Stacy out to eat; she would be busy till about seven.

>>>>><<<<<

Stacy and Carly went to Chuck E Cheese’s. Carly made Stacy eat a small salad, before she got a piece or two of pizza. Stacy told Carly all about her day, in astonishing detail. Once she started, she covered every minute detail she could remember. Carly dutifully listened and commented at appropriate times. Stacy even asked Carly questions, to make sure she was really listening. She was excited, that she had two people who actually listened to what she had to say, even if she didn’t know how to express her feelings with words.

Carly picked up a salad and a small peperoni/mushroom pizza, for Melanie. Melanie got home at six thirty, gave Stacy a hug, and Carly a toe curling kiss, then sat and ate. Stacy dominated the time talking to her mom, telling her about her day, before she had to go to bed.

Melanie and Carly did some housework and laundry, and then talked about how the salon did. Regina had sent Carly a report on the day’s receipts and broke it down by departments. The salon had its single biggest day in history. A note from Kathy said, the stylists were superb and their clients were ecstatic.

>>>>><<<<<

The next few days were almost as busy as that first day. New customers were coming in and taking advantage of the promotions, Regina was selling shampoos, conditioners, and all sorts of hair care products. Makeup sales were high. Most women came in for a shampoo, cuts and blow dries, but perms and color were up, nails were sky high and the whole salon was doing Land Office business. The stylists weren’t being drive to churn people out, but most got a few minutes between clients, to clean up their station and to rest a bit.

Carly did the books, paid bills and did the laundry a couple of times a day, so the stylists always had dry clean towels and capes for their clients. She also received shipments at the backdoor, while Regina and Beverly received smaller shipments at their desk.

State inspectors came in on Friday and left about an hour later. Even though they were busy, everybody was cleaning as they worked and proper procedures were being followed. Still the inspectors rarely give a score of 100, Kathy was given a 98.

Carly and Melanie were off. Saturday, Joyce watched Stacy for two and a half hours, as Carly and Melanie went to the shooting range. Strangely, the pair enjoyed their time there. They shot the 9mm Glock 34 and the Colt 1911 and traded guns a couple of times. Both girls were actually getting pretty good. Melanie actually used this time to take out the frustrations of the week, on the paper targets, although thoughts of Jimmy were never far from their minds.

Stacy went with them to the duck pond, when they picked her up. She wasn’t as afraid of the ducks, when they began to crowd her while she was feeding them this time.

Sunday, the rangers were out of town, so they went bowling again. Carly and Melanie bought their own shoes, bags and balls. Stacy sat at the scorer’s table, content in just watching, rooting and laughing, as the two adults bowled a couple of lines. Melanie rolled a 173 and a 182, while Carly broke a hundred, rolling a 105 and a 118.

At home, Melanie began teaching Carly to cook simple meals, which were good for Stacy and them. Carly could cook a little, boiling water and dropping in a bag meal, or using the microwave, to heat up hot pockets and such, had been all the cooking she was use too. Even Stacy, who wasn’t allowed to touch the stove or microwave, was giving Carly instructions. She loved Mac and Cheese after all. Carly though, she added steamed cauliflower and broccoli to the mac and cheese, to satisfy Melanie. Stacy ate the cauliflower and broccoli, because they were covered in cheese.

October was a busy month, there was Halloween and a couple of formal and semi-formal functions in the DFW area. Women going to the functions, wanted to look their best. The salon got a lot of business from these functions. There were also several weddings on the weekends, where Melanie and others would come in, to get the brides, mother of the brides and bridesmaids ready.

The week of Halloween, the stylists had more fun with Carly. For three days before Halloween, she was stuffed into three different bunny costumes. Not the cute bunnies for children, type bunny. She was, yes, the other kind of bunny. She had spent most of the month in a corset, even when she got back into her slacks and blouses. These bunny costumes weren’t the cheap fetish versions either. Her costumes appeared to be the well-made satin, bare shoulder, high cut leg and very tight outfits. She also wore the ears, collar, cuffs, powder puff tail, tights and stilettos. She would be dressed at work and made up. If she needed to go potty, Melanie, or one of the girls, had to help her get unzipped and zipped up again. The costumes were that tight. She would undress, and get into her regular clothes before she went home, or to pick up Stacey.

Melanie wore a Vampira dress, Beverly wore a Betty Boop costume. Regina played a busty cop. Kathy played Gaia. Jeff surprised everybody. He did a half Robert Mitchum/half Marilyn Monroe costume. He used a lot of face putty to achieve the Mitchum half. He wore a boot on one foot and a stiletto on the other. Angelica and Felicia played wood dryads, that were just decent enough for public. You can guess what Olivia wore and it was black leather from the chin down. Bridget was an all adult, not ready for prime time, although she was as decent as Angelica or Felicia, Bo Peep. Terry was the Joker. Carol was Poison Ivy. Toni was Xena. Lorna was the Phantom of the Opera. Alesha was, I am not kidding, Alice Cooper. Shauna, a new stylist, was a Linda Carter, Wonder Woman. Ricardo, a new male stylist, was the Scarlet Pimpernel, complete with rapier and Sheryl, another nail tech, wore a Guy Fawkes costume. Lastly, Danielle wore a Yellow Uma Thurman “Kill Bill” costume, complete with a katana.

>>>>><<<<<

The day after Halloween, a boy came in and presented them a challenge. His girlfriend had permed his collar length, blond hair. Something very wrong had happened and he now had long, tight pencil sized curls, wound like springs. He was sent to Melanie’s station.

“Hi my name is Madison Baker and I have a problem. My girlfriend gave me a perm and it turned out like this. When Mom saw it wasn’t a wig, she told me that I would either have to get it fixed, or get a bur cut. My hair was about two and a half inches longer. I don’t really want it cut, but it looks like I have dreadlocks.”

Melanie ran her hands through his hair. It was damaged, but not really that bad. The curls were just so tight. She took a web cam picture of Madison. Carly and a couple of stylists, came over to look.

“She kept me under her drying bonnet too long, I think. I fell asleep.”

Melanie got to work; she wet his hair and began to deep condition it. “What exactly did she do?”

“Well, she washed my hair and sectioned it off. She took perm rods and perm paper and rolled my hair really tight,” he then gave a point by point description of a perm, missing nary a point.

“Do you take cosmetology at high school? You seem to know a lot about how to do a perm.”

“Yes. Dad just shook his head and mom nearly freaked out, but we talked about it and they said if I really wanted to do it. It was ok with them. I am in my second year. I love working with girls’ hair.”

“And you wanted to see what a perm was like. You do know that you could have shampooed most of the curl out. I think I can leave you with softer curls,” Melanie stated. “Or I could take most of the curl out. Your choice.”

“Let me have the soft curls.”

“How is school? Do they give you a hard time?”

“Some, but not too bad. They know I am strange, but I like it.”

“You can play this two ways at school. You can fake it, and play the damaged hair card, doing something for your girlfriend, or you can own it, go androgynous. Wear slim fit, low rise pants, colorful shirts, clean your brows a bit, not too much though and take great care of your skin, use cleanser, astringent and moisturizer. I know a transgender person who did that. She owned the look.”

“Could you do my brows?”

“That is something you need to do yourself and not your girlfriend either. You can ask her advice, but just pluck the few stray brow hairs. Prove to yourself that this is what you want. I’ll be here to fix your work if necessary.”

Melanie dried his hair and got the curls to stretch out a bit. She then styled his hair, giving him a Meg’s Mop hairdo. He looked surprisingly good with his hair done. Even he admitted that he liked it. She then took an after picture.

She taught him how to take care of it in the morning and then told him, “Don’t shampoo it for a couple of days. Your hair isn’t too damaged, but you really need to condition it real good, every time you shampoo. We sell some excellent shampoos and conditioners. I’d love to give you some low lights and some reds someday.”

“I’d love to let you; I’ve got the camel’s nose into the tent, so to speak.”

>>>>><<<<<

Just over four hundred miles away from Melanie, Jimmy was unsaddling and making his deer camp, on his deer lease, north and east of Kingsville, Texas. Out here, horses beat those four wheeled metal monsters, people ride. He would camp here and hunt for the next two weeks, seeking out a B&C 200 + white tail deer rack. He had his Remington 700 .308, a Winchester model 94 in a 30-30, a Desert Eagle in a .50 and his Action 7, compound bow. He would stalk the deer, till he was inside forty yards, then that deer would be dead and would be hanging on his wall. The guns were for coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions. Too bad wolves are protected; he never shoots protected species.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly Simons drove to Dallas on Tuesday. Admission at Paul Mitchell informed her that she was accepted as a student at their school. Funny thing though, she didn’t remember ever applying. It had to be Melanie, Kathy or Anita. Yes her mom had to be in on this too. How else could they get her birth certificate and high school records?

She had thought about it a lot since she had started working at the salon. To obtain a cosmetologist operator license, requires 1500 hours of classroom and practical work, then undergo a rigorous testing procedure. She would go to school for fifteen months, going to school for five hours a day, then go to the salon, to do the books, putting in three hours a day, Monday through Friday. She would have no end of people who’d volunteer to tutor her. She was afraid she knew one, who could be a harsh taskmistress. Carly smiled thinking of her, but then again, it could be interesting.

Her first day at school, they got their ten pounds of flesh, as she wrote a check to pay for the course in full, had her mug shot taken, for her student permit (a lot better than her driver’s license shot), bought her books and her students beauty kit. She got the deluxe, Pro styling kit, that included more than the school required, makeup kit and the large rolling aluminum stylist case. She also got a half a dozen, Paul Mitchell smocks, on which she had her name embroidered in pink, on the black smocks and three coloring aprons. Carly met her teachers and was given a class schedules, syllabuses and reading assignments.

Carly went directly from school, to the salon. She got a couple of hours of work in the office, then met with her stylists and Customers. Kathy, Melanie and Jeff told her to keep up with her studies. The teachers weren’t known for being forgiving to students, who weren’t prepared.

Carly worked around the salon, while Melanie went to pick up Stacy. She sat with Regina, as she ran the days totals. The salon was averaging thirty to forty percent better, than the same period last year. Regina made her next day’s starting money and made her deposit. Carly was surprised when the girl pulled out a Beretta and checked it before she left.

“Do you have a CHL?”

“You bet your booty, I do. A girl can’t be too careful.”

>>>>><<<<<

Jimmy’s first kill of the season wasn’t a deer. He was stalking a heard of deer and there was a really nice buck about five hundred yards and a bit. He was looking for a path to the heard, when he saw something else. He saw a large mountain lion stalking the same heard, about three hundres seventy five yards out. He didn’t want to stumble across that thing by accident and he didn’t want that thing to get his buck first. He moved around until he had a shot on the profile and made his shot. The big cat fell in its tracks and the deer sprinted off in a hundred different directions.

He had a hell of a time getting that big cat on the packhorse. The cat was a young male, about seven foot long and about two hundred pounds. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was the horse could smell the cat and didn’t want anything to do with it. The horses were pretty skittish. He put blinders on the horses and used Mentholatum on the horse’s noses, to cover up the smell of the cougar.

He called his Taxidermist friend and had him come pick up the dead animal. He wanted a full rampant mount. Jimmy would also talk to the King ranch; they might have an unofficial bounty on the big cat, mountain lions do prey on the calves of cattle.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly spent time with Stacy and Melanie, till it was time for the little one to go to bed, then Carly began to do her reading. Carly didn’t have an eidetic memory, but she had the ability to read and understand the material, with the right training, she could apply the knowledge that she had gained. She sailed through high school advanced placement courses, with minimal effort, as long as she did her reading and did some of the practical work, to reinforce what she read. That was why she could look at the salon books and assess the condition of the salon. She had done that with her Mom enough times, that it was now a rote ability. Working with her mother, she also had the ability to spot books that had been cooked.

Carly looked at her syllabuses, she quickly scanned the chapters she had to read, making notes about the high points and then read her assignments. She then talked to Melanie about the material she had read, forming the necessary mental connections, to assess what she read and file it in her long term memory. Melanie was frustrated and amazed, by how easily Carly learned things.

Melanie and Carly sat for a while, talking about what Carly should expect, in the first few weeks at school. They then talked about the practical aspects, of what she would have to learn. Melanie promised Carly, that she and their friends would help, when it came time for her to learn her tasks. They had a certain reputation, which they expected Carly to maintain, after all.

Melanie knew just what to do to keep Carly’s attention, when they got to bed. They had more than a little fun, getting to a peaceful dreamlike state of mind.

>>>>><<<<<

It had taken Jimmy two days of serious tracking, to narrow down where the deer had finally wandered off to. He began his hunter’s stalk. The damn buck that he wanted was near the middle of the herd, watching over all of his does. He could drop it from where he was hiding, he was only 650 yards or so away, but where was the sport in that. He would allow himself a week, to get close to that big buck.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly went to school dressed in jeans, blouse and a pair of her block heels. She wheeled her kit to the car and carried her books in her Paul Mitchell leather tote. The first real day of class, the future stylists learned necessary things. They were drilled in the importance of sanitation, cleaning your station and your equipment, when you come in, in the morning, after you finish a client, before you begin to work on your next client, and at the end of the day. They also learned personal sanitation, hand washing, checking yourself over for stray hair, using gloves, for certain procedures. Carly put what she was being taught, together with what she had seen all her own stylists do. She mentally created a file cabinet in her mind marked “Cosmetology” and inserted a folder for sanitation. By the end of her time at Paul Mitchell, there would be a whole slew of stuffed folders in that drawer.

At her salon, she did her bookkeeping and took time to read her next assignments. Melanie was busy, so she left at four thirty and picked Stacy up. Stacy was so happy to see Carly, she ran right up to her, jumping into her arms. Instead of going home, Carly took them back to the Salon. Regina came over and got her hugs. Kathy came up front and got her hugs. Stacy had a big smile on her face. Carly took her to see her Mom, who was just finishing up. Melanie smiled, she put her booster seat in place, then picked up Stacy, putting her in the booster seat. Melanie then began to work on her hair, talking to Carly while she worked. She sprayed Stacy’s hair with water, so she could do a quick trim and style, before rolling it on curlers. It dried quickly under the dryer hood. Back at her station, she taught Carly how to do a comb out.

>>>>><<<<<

Jimmy moved his camp to the backside of a ridge. The deer were holed up on the other side of the ridge;; tomorrow he would climb the ridge and claim his prize. He tethered his horses to a tree, where they could reach water and fodder.

That night he dreamed about what he was going to do to that bitch and to anybody she is involved with. Like that blond she was with; she was a nice piece of ass. He would do her if he could.

>>>>><<<<<

Saturday, Stacy spent some time with her Grandma, while Melanie and Carly went out to the range again. They were both enjoyed going shooting. Carly invited Regina and Beverly and they both came out.

Gunny smiled as he saw the four beautiful women come out of the gun shop, headed for his range. He was beginning to get a better class of shooters, at least looks wise.

The range was hot, so the girls set their stuff down, and put their guns and ammo, on the counter. Carly put their Glocks and 1911, up on the deck. Regina set a custom compensated Colt Gold Cup pistol and Springfield XDM 9mm Competition, with her 9mm Berretta on the counter. Beverly set her S&W model 686 .357 magnum revolver, her custom compensated 1911 Gold Cup, and her Colt Commander on the counter.

Gunny checked out all the weapons and pronounced them fit. He then moved on, shaking his head.

When the range was safe, they moved down and stapled their targets to the frames.

Melanie and Carly started when the range went hot. Before they had shot three times, Regina and Beverly had both shot six rounds, did a tactical reload and shot six more rounds before they fired seven. Gunny was hovering behind Regina and Beverly, till they set their guns down. He saw the results of their shooting. Regina had shot twelve, in the ten ring, with five x’s. Beverly had an X ring blow out. You could count maybe five shots with the rest passing through the gap at ten yards.

“Girls you need to shoot at a more leisurely pace. I will give you a chance to rapid fire on the twenty five yard line. You two might also help your friends, they have need of practice.”

Regina turned to Carly, “What did he mean by you need practice?”

“Ah… we just don’t shoot as good as you?”

“Carly, I think they are our friends now. What Carly didn’t say was. My ex hired a PI a few weeks past, back when the salon was closed for renovations. My ex and I didn’t have a good break up. He is a hard drinking roughneck and he may be as good as you and Beverly at shooting. He also liked knocking me around, even when I was pregnant with Stacy. I left him when she was one, took back my maiden name and moved here with Mom. He isn’t going touch me again.”

Regina then began working with Carly and Beverly with Melanie. The two were already shooting better; Regina and Beverly began to teach them to shoot faster double taps. After they had each shot about a another hundred rounds Melanie was still shooting a little side to side and Carly was still a little up and down, but both were shooting tighter groups.

Gunny was as good as his word. He took Regina and Beverly down to the twenty five yard range. They put up two targets each at twenty five yards. Someone with sensors, then stood behind both girls.

“Hold your loaded weapons at 45 degrees until you hear the beep and then begin shooting. This will be a speed shooting course, of eighteen rounds, followed by another course of eighteen rounds, after you reload, shooters ready,” Gunny said.

A crowd had formed behind the two girls, on the shooting line. Gunny pushed a button and an unspecified time later, there was a beep. The two girls aimed and began shooting, in under twenty seconds it was all over. The girls quickly reloaded their three magazines. A minute later, and they were ready for their second round. It too was over in under twenty seconds.

Regina and Beverly retrieved their two targets. Regina stuck her tongue out at Beverly. As usual, Beverly had out shot her.

Carly looked at the girls targets, even at twenty five yards, both girls were better, than she or Melanie. Then she looked up at both the girls.

“By the way, who is working the desk today?”

“Nellie Parker is a retired stylist. She is a very sweet older lady. She is the one who worked the desk when I went on vacation. She called in and asked if there was anyway she could work the desk regularly for a while. She isn’t sickly but her medical bills still add up. Kathy told her she could work Saturdays. With me and Beverly both working, our product sales have been way up.”

“I noticed that, you two are more than making up, for the two of you to work together. Which of you sell the most?”

“Beverly is good at selling, but she prefers to work the phones. I love mixing with our clients, so I wind up talking to them about hair care products. I couldn’t do that as much, when I worked the desk alone.”

“Let’s go pick up the little one, and go get lunch.” Carly said, heading to her car to put her guns in the trunk.

>>>>><<<<<

In the twilight of the morning, Jimmy slowly and quietly worked his way up the ridge. There was a pond at the bottom of the ridge on the other side. The deer slept around that pond and there were enough scrub oaks, with acorns and wild oats for them to eat there. He knew just where he wanted to be, as the deer moved through the area. He left his Remington there, but kept the bolt in a pocket. With his Winchester on his back and his Desert Eagle on his hip, wearing his gillie suit, he let out.

He came down the other side of the ridge as the sun just broke the horizon. The deer used both sides of the pond. If he was lucky, the big buck would be on this side. It was just about forty five yards to this side of the pond. He hid in a crevice of rock, he had seen a couple of days ago. There was nowhere closer he could get to.

He pulled a broadhead arrow from his bows quiver and waited. He saw the rack first, just above the brush. His pulse quickened, but he calmed himself down, as the buck was headed to Jimmy’s side of the pond. The buck was skittish, he would slowly walk, stop and sniff the air, before continuing. Jimmy was lucky enough to be downwind from the buck.

When the buck was fifty or sixty yards away. Jimmy slowly drew the bow, and held it at full draw. The buck stopped, unsure if he had seen some movement. After a few seconds, he continued up to the water. Jimmy smiled; he almost had a perfect profile shot. He hadn’t accounted for the fact that he was twenty feet higher than the deer from his perch on the ridge, as he released the arrow. He was going to miss the deer by six inches, at least he would have. The deer’s sharp ears had picked up the twang of the bow and ‘jumped the string’, deer hunters would say. So instead of missing, the arrow, lodged in his chest and collapsed his left lung. Jimmy let out a loud whoop, but didn’t move. He knew better than to approach a wounded deer. A deer can kill an unwary hunter with its rack and most often his hooves. He move back into the crevice’s shadow and drew a second arrow. He would wait half an hour for the deer to die.

He was surprised to hear voices cussing in English and Spanish. He slowly looked around. Jimmy had been so target focused, that he didn’t see the forest for all the Cannabis plants all around him, with lots of buds. He had stumbled upon an illegal marijuana farm. He pulled himself deep into the crevice. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t be seen and could move away from where he was, in twelve hours, after the sun set. He saw more than a few men armed with AK’s and a machine pistol.

He took out his cell phone and plugged his auxiliary battery into it, making sure all the volumes were down on it. He had three bars on the phone. He texted his father.

“Dad N deep shit. In MJ farm 6-8 armd bad guys NE part of lease S of Kingsville. SND Help.”

He made himself as small as possible. Stupid Druggies, they should have known this place would be covered with deer hunters this time of the year. This far south, their plants got some extra grow time. He made himself as small as possible in his crevice.

One dark skinned man found the deer that Jimmy had killed and looked around. Jimmy dialed 9-1-1 on his cell phone, set his Winchester to his side, and drew his bow back. When the guy started working back to where Jimmy was. Jimmy released the arrow. One shot and a quick kill. The guy didn’t make a sound and helpfully he spun as he went down. He got another arrow ready.

He heard shouting and cussing in Spanish and English. He would kill one more with an arrow, then use his Winchester 30-30, and lastly his Desert Eagle. He heard careful footsteps and just saw two men approaching their friend. A man with a machine pistol, maybe an H&K MP5 was scanning the area, covering his buddy, who carried an AK 47 one handedly. The AK man checked their friend. The guy with the MP was next to die. The AK man heard the bowstring, but didn’t see where the arrow came from. The MP5 man reflexively pulled the trigger on his weapon, sending a dozen bullets flying nowhere. The AK man began shooting blindly. Jimmy was wounded, by exploding bullet fragments and small bits of stone broken off the rocks, by the bullet that hit it. AK joined his two friends, as Jimmy shot him.

The remaining five men now warned, carefully approached. They had a million dollars of marijuana in this area and no gringo was going to take that away from them. From cover, they began to shoot, without being sure where to shoot. They all had plenty of ammo. Jimmy got hit by a ricocheting bullet, in his back. He took careful shots and reloaded every few shots he took. They now had a pretty good fix on him. He had killed another one and wounded two more, but they could still shoot. He loaded his last two 30-30 rounds into his rifle, leaving him with six shots. He stayed quiet a few seconds, when a barrage of fire, from four guns, kept him pinned down. One gomer raised his head and Jimmy blew it off. Jimmy took another ricocheting bullet, to his left arm. Jimmy fired one more round from the Winchester, hitting the man he had previously wounded.

Unable to cock the Winchester, he drew his fifty cal Desert Eagle. There were just two guys left. He thought. One guy, with a fresh clip, began shooting the rocks, just over Jimmy, the other began a rush from the other side. Jimmy saw him coming, but just kept down. He would need to get closer to guarantee a kill. The man doing the bull rush, started shooting from about thirty yards. Jimmy took two more hits, but he raised the Desert eagle and dropped him in his tracks.

The other man beat feet. He had a shoulder wound and there was no way he was going to rush that dude.

The GPS fix the 911 operator received, was an incomplete fix. The unit never completed a triangulation, with three or more satellites. They narrowed down the search grid by polling cell towers, and looked at a record of the reported signal strength. They were able to determine which ranch the deer lease was on and with help from the rancher, they narrowed it down to ten thousand acres of rough territory, with Mesquite, Scrub Oak and tumbleweeds.

A search party, of mounted DPS Troopers and Sheriff’s Deputies, moved out on their horses, while helicopters, full of DEA officers, FBI, and ATF, flew in a search grid. The FBI were the first to find the carnage, and reported it to the other groups. FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) wasn’t showing any live people in the area. There was nowhere to land, so the agents repelled from the helicopter, a mile from the site and slowly worked their way to the site from the north. DEA and the ATF, came in from the west, while the Sheriff Deputies and DPS, came in from the south east. The helicopters flew high cover. The parties had to check for booby traps as they moved in.

It was sunset as the parties met. They found five bodies pretty quickly, a search of the area around the pond, found two more and an analysis of the firing of the bad guys, narrowed the search for Jimmy Nelson. They found him tucked in a narrow crevice, his busted cell phone, and all his weapons. A mounted deputy found his camp hours later, on the opposite side of the ridge. A ninth body was found the next afternoon, by following the vultures in the air.

The investigation wasn’t taking anything for granted. Everything appeared as though Jimmy Nelson, a hunter, had stumbled onto a marijuana farm, tracking a deer. The deer was found with an arrow in its side. The marijuana farmers took his presence badly and began to attack. Jimmy Nelson returned fire, first with his bow, then with his Winchester rifle, and lastly his pistol.

Late Sunday, Harris County Sheriff’s office sent deputies and a forensic team to Jimmy’s home. There they found some disturbing details, pictures with scope reticles drawn over one woman, addresses of two homes and a place of business, that corresponded to some of the ID’ed photos and surveillance reports. Harris County contacted Dallas and Tarrant Counties, asking for their assistance.

>>>>><<<<<

Monday morning, Dallas County Deputies were sent to the offices of a Private Investigator, while Tarrant County sent Deputies to two home addresses and one Business address. They found Joyce Holder, with Stacy Holder, at one home address and escorted them to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The second home address, appeared to be vacant and the Deputies that went to the business, found the female, pictured in the photos with the reticle drawn on them, before the salon opened. They escorted her to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.

Melanie called her Mom, who was about to call her. She also called Carly, at Paul Mitchell’s school in Dallas. The Tarrant County Deputies asked Carly to drive to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, as they needed to talk to her.

Units remained in place at the three addresses, until they were sure they knew what was going on.

While Carly was driving back to Fort Worth, she called Riley and asked if she could meet them at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. She said, she was on her way.

Carly arrived at the Sheriff’s Office, followed shortly by Riley. They were led by a Deputy to a conference room, where Joyce, Stacy and Melanie sat. Stacy ran to Carly, to get her hugs. They were invited to sit down and the deputies would explain shortly.

A few minutes later, the Tarrant County Sheriff entered with a deputy from Harris County.

“Morning ladies, sorry for disrupting your day, we don’t have all the pieces yet and we had concern for your safety.”

“Can a deputy take Stacy outside, to play for a bit?”

A female deputy asked Stacy, “Would you like to play with me?”

Stacy was always ready to play and she knew her mommy needed to talk.

“It’s about Jimmy Nelson right?” Melanie asked.

“Yes ma’am. We found evidence that he had hired an Investigator in Dallas to do surveillance on you.”

“Yes, he is my ex.”

“I am Carly Simon’s Attorney, Riley West. Carly spotted the surveillance and asked me to investigate. My investigators followed Mr. Nelson’s investigators. We determined that Jimmy Nelson was having Melanie followed and also Carly Simon. Is Mr. Nelson to be seen as a threat to my client and her girlfriend?”

“Not at this time,” The Deputy from Harris County fudged. “Mr. Nelson is dead we believe. He was involved with a massive shootout near Kingsville Texas.”

“Jimmy had a deer lease down there,” Melanie said. “Along with a lease near Lufkin, a lease near Huntsville and a lease near Waco, he may have had more I don’t know. What happened?”

“We think he tracked a deer into the middle of an illegal marijuana farm and got into a fire fight with the marijuana farmers.”

“How many of the drug farmers survived?”

“We are not sure. We found eight dead, near where we found Mr. Nelson. Was your divorce a nasty one?”

“Very nasty, he was a heavy drinker after work. He never drank on the job, but afterwards, he drank like a fish, at a sports bar, near Minute Maid Park, in Houston.”

“Do you know the name of that bar?” the Sheriff asked.

“Not off hand. I never went there, he didn’t want me to call and I certainly didn’t want to get on his bad side.”

“There are only four bars in that neighborhood. We will find it.” The Harris county deputy said.

“We first wanted to make sure, that you people are safe. Would Jimmy confide with anyone else, or would he be inclined to have someone do his dirty work?”

“No, if Jimmy wanted to hurt me, he would do it himself. He took pleasure in hurting me. I divorced him and had to sign away my share of the community property, to keep him from contesting, for custody of Stacy.”

“Did you file a restraining order on him?”

“No, I didn’t want him to know where I was. To get a restraining order you have to tell him where to stay away from.”

“Restraining orders only impose a penalty, if he violates the order. They don’t keep someone from violating it.” Riley supplied. “Are my clients suspects?”

“No, right now we are looking to make sure they are safe. With what we found at his home in Kingwood Texas, we had concerns. We only have a few more questions and then you may go. Did your ex have any drug connections.”

“No, the only drug Jimmy did was alcohol. He hated drug dealers. He hated addicts; he thought they were weak. His only other vice was deer hunting. He fantasized about getting a Boone and Crocket record holder.”

“He may posthumously get his wish. He killed a monster buck, by using his bow, I am told, right in the middle of a marijuana patch. It may have cost him his life and saved your own.”

The Dallas County Sheriff was happily grilling the three investigators involved with the Tarrant County Surveillance, they had undertaken. They found nothing illegal, just bad ethics. They didn’t check out Jimmy’s claims, that Melanie Nelson had taken the child, Stacy Nelson, in violation of a custody order.

>>>>><<<<<

The Kleberg County Sheriff was amazed by the firepower Jimmy had shown. He had taken a deer tag out of Jimmy’s wallet and tagged the buck and delivered it to his Dad in San Antonio. They took it to a taxidermist, the meat had already gone bad, but they had a full mount made. Boone and Crocket paid the taxidermist a visit, read an affidavit that stated it was a legal kill and measured it for the record. The rack scored two hundred and fifteen points, for a typical buck. In the June issue of Boone and Crocket. The new record holder for a typical White Tail Deer was listed as Jimmy Nelson. A picture of the deer standing was included.

>>>>><<<<<

When Carly got to the salon, after leaving the Paul Mitchell school, on the 18 th of November, she was handed a certified letter from the probate court in Tarrant County. She received a court document officially granting her the ownership of the salon, formerly titled Margaret’s Chalet, now Titled Carly’s Adventure in Hair Design.

On December 5 th, she celebrated her twentieth birthday at the salon. Melanie got Carly alone in her office, while Regina was cutting the cake.

“Carly, will you marry me this month.”

“Of course I will, what’s the rush?”

“Well, sometime in June, you are going to be a Papa.”

“You’re pregnant! When how?”

“I won’t go into how a mommy and daddy get together and summon the stork bit. I think you know very well how, to summon the stork. I had my period in September on the thirteenth, but missed October and November. I went to the doctor last week, while you were at school and it’s official. We are pregnant. I think it was that first time we made love, dear. That was the fifteenth day, or so, after my last period. I tend to get horny on the day I ovulate. When we screwed after that party at The Texas Blue Bonnet Steakhouse, you got me pregnant. I sat down and figured it out on paper.”

“Do you want me to go back to being Carl?”

“You better not. If you think, I spent all this time and effort in training you to be a decent person, just to have you go back, after you got me pregnant, you had better think twice. I own to many pair of scissors to let that happen. I love you just the way you are.” Melanie said, sealing Carly’s mouth with a kiss.

They cleaned up their faces and Carly opened the door, but she couldn’t go out. Kathy, Carol, Regina, Beverly, and Olivia all had their ears pressed to the door.

Carly just shook her head and smiled, “Ok, who wants to be Maids of Honor.”

Everyone held up a hand, “You get first pick, Melanie.”

“I choose Kathy, without her and you Carly, this might never have happened.” Everybody clapped.

“Alright, I choose the conniving Regina.”

“You bet your booty, you had better choose me.”

“Bridesmaids, I choose Olivia.”

“Carly chooses Beverly,” Regina said, sticking her tongue out at Carly.

“Why not.”

The two went back and forth till all the girls were chosen, like kids choosing a baseball team.

“It will be here on the twenty third,” Carly said, looking at Regina, who was looking at her iPad.

“The twenty third is good for the salon, but the honeymoon will be kind of difficult. We need Melanie here the week before New Year’s Eve, and Carly has to be back in class on the fourth.

“I should be able to work till the middle of May, Regina, I need three or four weeks off, sometime beginning in June, for the baby.”

There was silence for a few seconds, till the bomb Melanie dropped went off with congratulations and hugs.

“We’ll need a rather accepting preacher or judge, do you know of one Regina, or Beverly?” Carly said, while Regina just smiled.

“The wedding will be just a semi-formal, here at the salon. Just my mom, our employees, Carly’s Mom and whatever accepting friends we might have.”

“I am going to hire a bookkeeper, so I can go to school eight hours a day, beginning in January, so I’ll still have time for Stacy and Melanie. I think I am going to like being a stylist, with you guys.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly had bought two matching sets of rings, for twenty thousand dollars, after school on the sixth of December. Melanie loved her ring, and she loved putting its mate on Carly’s finger. Carly called her mom at work, in the middle of the day and said, “Hello Grandma,” instead of hello Anita. She almost fainted, before she said a word.

“Hey Grandma, can you get down here on December twenty-third, for the wedding?”

Anita was in the middle of a boardroom meeting with her executives. “I take it that this is a necessity?”

“You got that right, Grandma. Somewhere around the middle of June, Stacy is going to have a brother or sister.”

“I may be able to make room in my schedule in December and June. I will call you later. Take care.”

Anita resigned from being the president, but being the majority stockholder, she retained the title of Chairman of the Board. She just wouldn’t be involved with the day, to day operations. She felt being a Grandmother was more important at this time, but she threatened to hold the new Presidents feet to the fire, if he screwed up.

The county clerk chastised Carl, for not moving his driver’s license to Texas, since he had been a resident for six months or more. Riley handled the name change from Carl Anthony Simon, to Carly A. Simon. The clerk issued a marriage license; Seeing Carly was a male. After seeing a judge for a name change, Carly did in fact, get a Texas Driver’s License.

The wedding was set to take place after work, on the twenty third. Regina had indeed found an accepting Minister, to perform the wedding. She and Beverly handled all the details, because Melanie and Carly were both tied up doing what they needed to do. They did ask the two lovebird’s, what their opinions were regularly.

Carly got a new perm and her coloring was redone. Everyone loved her honey blond hair, with highlights and lowlights. A full body wax was in the works, and she had her nails redone after school one day.

Saturday, Regina and Beverly took the pair out to their range. They had a full Hogan’s alley layout, with pop up targets. They also introduced them to pin shooting, where people shoot bowling pins, by shooting to knock the pins off a table. It took Carly three magazines, to clear five pins off a table, and Melanie didn’t, the first time she tried. They kept on trying, and Regina and Beverly kept coaching them. It was getting easier to learn, now that they didn’t have to worry about Jimmy.

After shooting, they all cleaned up at Carly’s place. Regina and Beverly used the guest bathroom, while Melanie and Carly used their bathroom. Both couples showered together to save water.

They picked up Joyce and Stacy then went wedding dress shopping. Carly got a white evening dress and Melanie chose a similar dress in black. Regina and Beverly took pictures of dresses, sending them to the girls, with texts on where to find them.

At the Paul Mitchell school, Carly was already becoming the star of her class. She learned quickly and her stylists helped reinforce what the instructors were teaching. She and Melanie played with their hair and makeup, even Stacy got to play along with them. Stacy started insisting, that Carly do her hair. She wanted her Carly to do good in school. She also loved being close to Carly, but she didn’t need to say that. Carly knew. Stacy even had fun doing Carly’s makeup, although the results were dreadful, Carly loved it and left it that way, till Melanie got home and had a good laugh, then a tickle fest with Stacy.

Anita moved to Dallas, close enough to be a good grandma, but far enough away, so it wouldn’t seem like she was hovering. She didn’t notice how good life could be, without all the day to day pressure off of her shoulders. She did have to pay off Carly’s car, since she was no longer President, she no longer needed an Executive Assistant, but that was just a drop in the bucket.

Carly was off from School, from the 20th of December till the 4th of January, for Christmas. Carly hired, Bobby Combs, a boy going to UTA taking accounting, to be the bookkeeper, three hours a day. She still got daily receipt reports from Regina, Kathy or Carol, had to sign all checks and Carly could still log in from home and check Bobby Combs work on the books. He also had to report quarterly to Carly’s accountant, so he could check the work, and pay quarterly taxes.

Bobby was cute for a boy, he had chin length hair; the girls were trying to get him to let them do his hair. He would laugh with them, then head to the office to work.

December 23rd was a regular workday till two in the afternoon, when they closed early. They did a thorough clean up, then worked to get themselves ready, for the seven o’clock wedding.

Anita and Joyce spent the day playing with Stacy, then getting her ready for the wedding. After the wedding, the three of them would go to Anita’s place in Dallas, for a couple of days.

They had met with the minister once, he knew Carly was a male and it wasn’t a problem with him. He just wanted to talk to them about the importance of marriage, love, living together and caring for each other.

Carly expected about thirty people at her wedding, there were sixty five, the salon was crowded. The minister came out and then Carly and her bridesmaids came out. Stacy came out throwing flowers right and left, followed by Melanie and her bridesmaids. The minister gave his sermon, Carly and Melanie exchanged vows, that they had written and exchanged rings. Kathy and Regina, signed the Marriage License as witnesses, then mailed it back to the county clerk, to be registered.

They had a short reception, after the vows, then everyone headed home. Melanie had four must do appointments for the next day. Melanie and Carly had some fun, before they had to go to sleep.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly and Melanie went into the salon early, after today they would have four days off. They stopped off at Starbucks, had a latte and a muffin each. Carly liked going to school, but she missed being around her stylists too. She helped the stylist keep the common areas clean and running the washer and dryer. In her office, Carly wrote each employee a bonus check, from the salon’s account, for a base amount of one thousand dollars, plus five hundred for each year the stylist had worked at this salon.

As the last client left, and the stylists finished their cleaning around five thirty, Carly passed out the bonus checks. The twins, Angelica and Felicia almost cried, as they saw theirs. They both had bills, left over from their divorces. Their salon jobs more than met their needs, living together had made them comfortable, but this had still been an austere Christmas for them. The two women hugged Carly, kissed her cheeks and hurried out to do some late Christmas Eve shopping.

Carly and Melanie locked up, drove to Dallas, where Stacy and their Moms were. Stacy was ecstatic when she saw Mommy and Carly. She gave them both big kisses, when they arrived. It had been a week since she was last here to spend time with her Mom, because of all the things she had to do, but the changes to the place were overwhelming. Her Mom’s home went from being a nice slice of suburbia, to a suburb of the North Pole. There wasn’t a square foot of space, that didn’t have something Christmassy in it.

Carly and Melany had their first crisis, since they got married that night. Carly and her Mom waited till Christmas morning to open their presents, Melanie and her Mom, opened their presents on Christmas Eve. They settled by having each person open two presents, of their choice, on Christmas Eve and the bulk of their presents on Christmas morning. Stacy was a little disappointed, but she gave her approval, as she had more presents than she ever remembered. Anita and Joyce steered Stacy to her presents, letting her select two presents. Then she took it upon herself, to select two presents for everybody else to open, with Grandma Joyce’s help.

The adults sat and watched Stacy open her presents. She selected one from Grandma Joyce and one from Grandma Anita. Grandma Joyce bought her a Leap Frog Leap Pad, which was full of games she could play. Grandma Anita bought her several Legos sets that leaned towards girls her age.

One at a time, the adults then opened their gifts, and thanked the gift giver. When Joyce opened one box, there were keys to a BMW in the box.

“That gift is from me, your daughter and my Mom, Momma Joyce,” Carly said. “Follow us please, Momma Joyce.”

They went through the kitchen led by Carly and Stacy, out the kitchen door. Carly had to use her keys to unlock the side door to the garage and then turned on the lights in the garage. There sat an Imperial Blue Metallic, BMW X5i. Joyce was in tears. Her car was about to be on the fritz again.

“You shouldn’t have,” Joyce said. “That is too much.”

“We can afford it Momma Joyce, we wanted you to have a better car for Stacy and our Baby, when he or she comes,” Carly said.

“When she comes,” Stacy corrected Carly. “Mommy is gonna have anutter girl.”

Melanie picked up her daughter, put her finger on Stacy’s nose and said, “We are going to have whatever we have, and we will love that child, Stacy.”

“I know, but I know it’s gonna be a girl.”

“Are you going to be upset if it’s a boy?”

“No, but it’s going to be a girl,” Stacy said, emphatically.

“Let’s go for a drive,” Joyce said.

Carly sat up front with Joyce, while Anita and Melanie sat in the back with Stacy in her booster seat. Carly gave Joyce a ten minute lesson on her new BMW, showing her how to start and drive it, all the gizmo’s and the navigation system. All of their addresses were already pre-programmed into the cars navigation system. The car also had a built in garage door opener, Carly hit a button to open the garage door and Joyce backed out.

Joyce loved her new car and was surprised as much by the power, as she was by the purported gas mileage. Joyce drove a couple of miles, till Stacy began nodding off. Back home, Carly got Stacy, carried her to her room, and dressed her for bed.

“Be prepared to be awakened at six in the morning, since Stacy has to wait till then to open the rest of her presents.” Melanie warned. “She’ll be waking us all up in the morning.”

>>>>><<<<<

Melanie’s words were prophetic, as a wide-awake, rambunctious, five year old, came bouncing into their bedroom. Stacy jumped up on the bed with Carly and Melanie. Carly was already half awake, but Melanie was shocked out of a deep sleep. Carly grabbed Stacy and began tickling the girl.

“OMG, what time is it,” Melanie grunted.

Carly looked at her Rolex and said, “Oh, it’s a little after five forty five.”

“Dang it, I told you so Carly.”

“Oh come on, it’s just in a once a year occurrence, Melanie,”

“Remember that, when the two o’clock feedings come around, Carly.”

“I will help if we use bottles, no need for you to get up every day, at two in the morning.”

“We’ll see, what happens.”

Stacy was disappointed that she wasn’t allowed to immediately ravage her pile of gifts, or by the fact that her Mom and Carly didn’t let her wake up her Grandma’s yet, but now that she wasn’t the only person awake, she was a little happier. While Melanie fixed breakfast and coffee, Carly played with Stacy, while she played Scooby Doo Adventures on her Leap Frog Leap Pad.

After they had eaten, they sat around playing with Stacy, Anita and Joyce finally made an appearance around seven. Melanie told Stacy, to give the Grandmas time to drink a little coffee and eat a bit, then she could open her presents.

When Stacy was finally allowed near the presents, she passed out everybody’s presents, although she had to have help with some that were a little heavy. She then began opening her presents. She didn’t tear through her pile, but she was as careful as any five year old child can be. She wound up tearing the paper where her little fingers couldn’t peel the tape off.

She got really excited, to open a box with a new Princess style dress. She had to stop right there and put it on, before she continued opening her other gifts. Her grandmas helped with the costume. Stacy got a three foot tall jewelry box, on legs, filled with little girl jewelry. She got a dollhouse and half a dozen dolls. She got three children’s board games, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and a picture matching game.

The adults just watched Stacy having fun. This was the best Christmas she had ever had. They eventually opened their presents. Melanie was almost in tears, as received some nicer things than she had ever received, she had to kiss Carly and Anita several times. Joyce was surprised too, by her new son in law and his mother.

>>>>><<<<<<

Life started back at the salon, they were very busy, as women and teens, came in to update their styles and nails, getting ready for New Year’s Eve parties, and to pamper themselves after a hectic Christmas. Carly came in to work, after taking Stacy to Joyce’s place. She worked with Bobby Combs, getting the year end paperwork done, and doing prep work, to begin getting tax forms ready, for the January tax crunch. They couldn’t begin to work on the taxes till January 2nd, but there was a lot they could do to get ready.

December 30 th a lady came in to see Melanie and to get her hair done. She was an attorney from the Clear Lake area, it had taken a bit of work for her to find Melanie. It wasn’t till Harris County Sheriff’s Department had released the paper work, that they had confiscated, that she had been able to find Melanie.

Only, when Melanie began working to color and style the ladies hair, did she say what her purpose was.

“I am Samantha Beckley, of Beckley, Colson, and Malone. I was your ex-husband’s attorney. There was a mix-up, because your ex-husband went with some other divorce attorney. I refused to do what Mr. Nelson wanted done to you. It wasn’t right. Anyway, he went with a high powered divorce attorney, that didn’t know that Jimmy had executed a will and had filed it with the courts. After Jimmy died, the family did a search for a will. They found a copy of the original will, which I had written and contacted me, to see if he had drawn up another will.

When they notified me of his death, I filed for probate, with the court. The family was really pissed with what I did, but as an officer of the court, and because I thought that Jimmy was a really big jerk, I wanted to protect the will. The court allowed the family forty-five days to do a complete search for a newer will. That time passed, a week ago. That is when I began to search for you.”

“So, what did the will say?” Melanie asked.

“This is the fun part of my job, Jimmy was such an ass. The will, left everything to you. No mention was made of any progeny, which I understand you have.”

“Yes, we had a daughter together, after the divorce, I took back my maiden name and Jimmy didn’t object to Stacy’s name change to Stacy Holder.”

“Yes, well you are the executrix of the will and the sole benefactor of the will. I have a document that outlines the assets the will covers. I will share it with you, after we finish. I also expect the family to challenge the will, but that won’t fly. They don’t have a legal leg to stand on. The will was filed with the courts, before the divorce and no will was proffered that challenges the original will. You need to thank Jimmy for being such an ass; stupidity isn’t legal grounds to challenge a will. I will be proud to serve as your lawyer on this issue, if you will let me.”

Melanie worked with Samantha, and gave her a really outstanding hairstyle, double process hair color, and Liz gave her some outstanding blood red, gel, squoval talons. She and Melanie headed to the office after they were finished. Melanie introduced Samantha Beckley to Carly… her husband.

“Oh my, Frank Nelson would just bust his carotid artery if he meets you, Carly. I want to be there, when he does.”

Frank Nelson was a preacher and a misogynist bastard. He believes women are lesser creatures, who were put on the earth to serve their men; his sons are the same way.

Melanie and Samantha explained to Carly why she was there. Then Samantha opened her briefcase and pulled out a document.

“This is an accounting of Jimmy’s estate. He is survived by his father, two brothers and a sister. His home is valued at one point three million, but Jimmy’s brothers have already basically, looted Jimmy’s home and his gun vault. The Sheriff, down in Kingsville, is still holding on to the guns and the bow, he had with him when he was hunting, waiting on someone, with legal standing, to claim them. This is a list of accounts and investments, that have been frozen, till the probate courts rule.”

“That son of a bitch. He was worth four and a half million, he just didn’t want me to get a penny. He didn’t even want to pay the two thousand a month for child support. The State of Texas figured twenty three percent of his earnings, as a roughneck. When we were married, I had to scrimp and save. I knew he had money, just not how much. All I want is a million for me, and a million for Stacy. Let Rebecca Nelson have the house, and the rest of the money. Jimmy, Frank, David and Gordon treated her like dirt too.”

“I will love to do this for you. I just need to be your attorney. Also, didn’t you ever wonder how the court decided to pay two thousand a month, for child support? Jimmy was earning nearly nine thousand a month. He wasn’t a roughneck, he was a driller, for Shell Oil. He supervised three crews.”

Melanie gladly signed an agreement and a Limited Power of Attorney, for Samantha Beckley to act for Melanie, within the confines of her wishes, as she specified and listed in the Limited Power of Attorney. She used the salon’s computer and printer, to draw out the documents and printed them on the salon’s laser printer. Melanie had no need to appear in court and Samantha would be paid a percentage of the estate.

“See what you can recover from the brothers too,” Melanie said. “It was supposed to be mine.”

Samantha was licking her chops; this was going to be fun, paid for by the Nelson’s. She would faithfully execute Melanie’s wishes.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly and Melanie shared New Year’s Eve in Dallas with the Grandma’s, Stacy tried to stay up to watch the fireworks at midnight, but fell asleep before ten. Carly set up her HD video camera, to record the fireworks for her step-daughter, no Carly wanted Stacy to know she loved her as much, as if she were her own daughter.

New Year’s Day, they all dressed up and went to the Texas Blue Bonnet Steakhouse. Carly and Melanie had chosen dresses, which would look good on any current female country and western singer. They were loaded with fringe, boots and cowgirl hats. Stacy wore her new princess dresses, while her grandma’s just dressed nicely.

Anita was tickled pink to see her New Jersey Senator’s face on a wanted poster. She bought a dozen copies of the wanted poster, to send some of them to her friends, back in New Jersey.

The special for the day was Cowboy Ribeye steak and black eye peas, with caramel pecan cheesecake. Anita had to be taught how to say pecan. A Pee-can was a male urinal used in a hospital; the waitress emphasized and has no place on a caramel Pe-can (pronounced Puh-con) cheesecake.

“We keep a Pee-can in the back for northerners, who insist on a piece of pee can pie, with the owner’s approval.”

“And how do the northerners take getting a male urinal pie?” Anita asked jokingly.

“Most take it in good spirits, but the owner says, we are a Texas Steakhouse, not a New York five star restaurant.”

Anita loved the food and the entertainment was outstanding. She and Joyce shared a cowboy Ribeye steak, not the four inch steak and had more than they could eat, as did Melanie and Carly. Stacy had chosen a steak mac n cheese casserole, which had small, tender sirloin chunks, baked with macaroni and cheese and a scoop of vanilla ice cream with caramel pecan topping. The steak mac n cheese proportions were more for a ten or eleven year old, so Carly and Melanie got a taste and loved the combination.

While they ate, Carly explained how the Senator from New Jersey had wound up on the wanted poster.

“This place expects you to tip the wait staff well. After all, they serve the food and provide the entertainment. When someone comes in and either doesn’t tip, or tips small, on a large check, the waiters and waitresses can put a bounty out on the person dinning here. The wait staff then gets to sell wanted posters. The good senator spent four hours wining and dining, spending over three thousand dollars and left a hundred dollar tip. As long as he was here and the tab on the meal, he should have left at least a five hundred dollar tip. He won’t be served here again, till he pays that bounty.”

“A twelve thousand dollar bounty?”

“Yeah, the Texas Governor met and raised the bounty.”

>>>>><<<<<

The salon reopened, and Carly got back into her classes, working eight to ten hours a day, to get her hours in for her license. She loved the work and was beginning to get very good at it. Stacy loved staying with Grandma and going to daycare, to play with kids her age. Anita worked out of her Dallas office, flew twice a month to have board meetings, to keep her hand in the pie back in New Jersey, but loved not having the daily pressure on her. Melanie started wearing Maternity clothes, to work in. She looked positively radiant being pregnant.

Toward the end of January, they heard from Samantha. She had the Harris County Sheriff’s office serve Jimmy’s brothers and father, with papers to return the items they had looted from Jimmy’s home, on threat of being charged with theft. Jimmy had kept a good inventory of guns, furniture and assets. She had located Rebecca Nelson, now Rebecca Dawson and told her of Melanie’s plans. They had a good laugh after that. Rebecca sent her warm wishes.

>>>>><<<<<

Carly was asleep in bed, with Stacy sleeping in her room, one night February. Carly was half asleep, with an eye cracked open, looking out the bedroom window, at the night sky. Suddenly, the back yard lights came on. She was awake in seconds, wondering why the motion sensor lights came on. When she heard something slam into the house, she was up and hollered at Melanie to get the guns as she ran to get Stacy. When she returned, holding Stacy in her arms, she slammed the bedroom door and hit a button that would turn her bedroom into a safe room. Eight bolts, two on each of the doors four sides, slammed into the reinforced solid core bedroom, locking it in place as a thirty minute door. Melanie hit the panic button, on the security control.

Melanie called the police, while Carly was on the phone to the security company.

Carly, Melanie and Stacy could hear the kitchen door burst open, after minutes of pounding. It was a couple of minutes, as the intruder searched for his goal, before he was outside the bedroom door. There was pounding on the bedroom door, cursing and gunfire from the other side, accompanied by more cursing, yet the door never budged a centimeter.

Carly was informed, that the security company and police were on the scene. She told them the back door was open, the intruder was at their bedroom door, that shots had been fired at the door.

The security man stated that if the door still held, they would get a police tactical unit, before they entered, Carly was to inform them if the door began to fail.

The tactical unit took eight minutes to arrive; they too entered through the back door. Flash bangs were thrown into the house and upstairs. There was a brief shootout, with the police, the cops weren’t hit, but one intruder was hit.

Carly told the security company to give the safe words when it was safe. A minute later, she heard a laughing man holler; Olly, Olly oxen free, come out, come out where ever you are. Carly passed Stacy over to Melanie and took her 1911 to the door with her. She hit the button to unlock the door and opened it. She saw a policeman and a security man on the other side. She set her gun down and opened the door.

Melanie was called on, to see if she could identify the two intruders. One was David Nelson and the other was Gordon Nelson, her ex’s two brothers. They had been pissed, that they were losing their brothers millions. Dave had been injured, not by the police, but by the ricochet of a bullet on their bedroom door. The brothers were arrested for conspiracy and attempted first degree murder. They had used metal wedges and two sledge hammers on the back door.

“What about Joyce, my mother,” Melanie hollered, as she ran to her phone. She got no answer.

Police were dispatched to her residence, to inquire. The brothers had indeed been there and had forced their way in. They had tied and gagged her, looking for Melanie. They had no dispute with the old lady.

Melanie and Carly gave their statements and drove over to Joyce’s place. The security company had called a team over to fix the back door, and would watch over their belongings. They recommended a company to do a clean-up. Carly asked that they send a team to Joyce’s home too.

The three of them got dressed, Carly packed the Glock 9mm in her purse. They went to Joyce’s place and picked her up, after she gave her statement to police and dressed. They waited till a security car came to her home. Then they took two cars and drove to Dallas, to spend the night at Anita’s place. Anita had tears of joy, as the four of them came inside. They put Stacy to bed. The adults were too keyed up to sleep, so they sat in the kitchen drinking tea and talking about what happened that night.

“I had my house hardened, the security people came in and replace the outer doors and door frames, my windows were replaced, with steel frame windows with poly carbonate windows and my bedroom is a safe room now. I would hate to have had to shoot them, but Melanie and I were ready to do just that.”

“David and Gordon Nelson, Jimmy’s brothers, were armed too. One of them had a shotgun and the other had a colt 1911. David got hurt, when Gordon shot the bedroom door with a shotgun. He caught two double ought buck shot pellets, into his leg. I didn’t know just how tough that bedroom door was.”

Joyce asked, “Do you reckon that, Frank was involved with the attacks?”

“I don’t know, but if he was, he could go to jail too, for conspiracy,” Melanie said. “He could do almost as much time as David and Gordon are facing, from what I understand.”

“Are you two going back to that house?” Anita asked.

“As soon as the doors are replaced and the house is cleaned up. I love that house now,” Carly stated.

“Mom, we are going to fix your home up too, if you want it,” Melanie said.

“I too am going back to my home. I love keeping Stacy for half a day. I’ll fix my house up too.”

“I am going to school tomorrow, or rather today. Joyce, can you take Melanie to her doctor and get her checked out.”

“I am alright,” Melanie said.

“You are still going to see the doctor,” Joyce said. “I agree with Carly.”

“Guess I am out voted.”

>>>>><<<<<

Carly went back to school and Melanie rode with her Mom and Stacy to Fort Worth. The security company already had Joyce’s front door fixed, when they got there, Melanie called Kathy and informed her of what had happened, and that she’d be in tomorrow. Kathy told her to take care of herself first.

A detective came by later that day and detailed the charges that the Nelson’s were facing. Harris County was talking to Frank Nelson about what his sons did, and also about possible charges he faced, if they found out he knew about what his sons had planned to do. Both he and his sons denied that their father had anything to do with this.

In February, the probate courts found for Melanie. She met with, signing over the home and a share of the money, to Rebecca Dawson, who had heard about her brothers doing. She apologized for their stupidity.

During the Easter break, Carly went under the Knife, and got her own breasts. She just had to convince a psychologist, that that is what she wanted and all she wanted. Carly came out of surgery a 36C.

Melanie worked until the twelfth of May, the swelling of her feet and ankles got to be too much. Her doctor said the baby was in a heads down position and could come at any time.

Memorial Day, she felt lousy, she was in the middle of her thirty eighth week. She wasn’t having her baby that day, but she knew she wouldn’t make the third week of June. Anita moved in to Carly’s home, and Joyce was always over in the mornings. Carly programmed her Mom’s navigation system, with the route to the three nearest hospitals and a dozen more.

May thirtieth, Melanie couldn’t get comfortable, but didn’t feel like she was in labor. She and Anita walked a block, while Joyce and Stacy followed in her car. It was slow going, but she felt better, when she got back.

It was just after ten that evening, when the contractions began. Carly was nervous, but focused. She got her Mom, who had just gone to bed, reading reports on her laptop. Anita called the doctor, Joyce and Kathy. She would stay at home with Stacy and then come by in the morning.

Carly drove a practiced route, while her nav system kept her on track. She got to the hospital in twenty minutes, following all the rules of the road. A nurse in ER checked the mother and sent her right up to labor room. She was already very dilated. Joyce and Kathy made it to the hospital, followed by Regina, Beverly, Angelica and Jeff. The doctor moved Melanie to delivery, with Carly by her side. Two hours and forty minutes later, Melanie at three forty five in the morning, delivered a baby girl, they named her Candace Annette Simon. Carly came out and greeted the crowd.

“Candace Annette was born at three forty five. She is seven pounds, twelve ounces and twenty inches long. She has a rather healthy set of lungs, twenty fingers and toes. Total that is, not twenty fingers and twenty toes. Melanie and baby are healthy. Melanie is exhausted and went to sleep shortly after they took her to her room and she breast fed the baby. She can have visitors after noon tomorr… make that noon today,” Carly said, checking her watch. She called up a short video on her phone, of Melanie nursing Candace, for their friends there, “Mother and child are expected to go home, the day after tomorrow, after nine. Joyce, you can come with me. See you guys, later.” Carly said, getting hugs from the others.

Joyce came back to Melanie’s room. Melanie was sound asleep, so she just kissed her daughter’s cheek and sat with Carly for a bit.

“I called my Mom as I was coming to talk to you and our friends. She went to bed to get some sleep.”

“Regina said she would be going over there to watch Stacy, so your mom can get some sleep. We called her an hour ago. I gave her my key and security code. You get some rest, I am going home to get some too.” Joyce said, kissing Carly’s cheek.

Saturday was a busy day, after eleven. Melanie fed Candace again, while eating herself. She was sore but happy. After she was awake, nurses began moving flowers that had been delivered into the room. Melanie’s room looked like a flower shop. Regina came in with Stacy and Anita. Stacy was tickled pink when Candace grabbed one of Stacy’s fingers.

Anita stayed for a while and Regina took Stacy home via the salon. A pink sign was posted on the door, “It’s a girl.” Stacy had a crowd around her, as she told the stylists and patrons about her new sister. Some of the stylist traded places, to let the others go visit Melanie. Regina and Stacy worked the desk and let Beverly go visit mother and child. Regina actually paid Stacy a dollar, for all of her help.

At the hospital, Carly and Melanie went for short walk around, while Anita and Joyce stayed with the baby. There were others at the room, when the two got back from their walk. Melanie sat to talk for a bit, but then got back in bed. She fed the baby again and then took a nap.

>>>>><<<<<

Monday, Carly took mother and child home. She sent the flowers to the shop, with thank you cards for everyone. Melanie was still a bit sore, but she was in good spirits. Stacy was glad to see her Mom and Carly. Melanie had all kinds of support, that she didn’t have, when she had Stacy. Stacy had an incredible time entertaining the visitors. She was so proud to show off her baby sister.

Carly threw a big barbecue for her fellow students and employees, at a nearby lake, where there would be fireworks for the fourth. There were a little over a hundred people there. Melanie was treated like a queen there; Stacy, who was now six, had loads of fun playing with all the kids. The cars were packed up, except for the drinks, as the sun set and the sky darkened. A marvelous fireworks display ensued, which had everyone oohing and ahhing.

Melanie came back to work at about six weeks, she and Carly had hired a live in Nanny, while Melanie began pumping her breast milk. Candace was a greedy eater, she didn’t care if food came by breast or bottle, she just wanted her food, when she wanted it.

Carly began working with Kathy after school, on a promotion, celebrating the anniversary of the salon’s reopening. Business was very good, and at the beginning of September, they began promoting a two week long hair and body special.

She was also talking with Salon Consultants Inc. about the new salon on her own property and her new building. They were doing a demographic study to determine the best location for an upscale salon. An upscale salon had to be near where higher income women routinely traveled. They had a map with the different subdivisions of the city, highlighted by income, and the major high end stores, like Nordstrom’s and Neiman Marcus.

“I like the area between I-30, Hwy 183 and University Blvd.,” Carly said.

“The Property in that area may well cost you a million, add in another million for the building and contents, but that would be an excellent area for an upscale salon,” Donna said. “Neiman Marcus may be moving here,” she indicated on the map. “There is an upscale grocery here, banks here, here and here, TCU is here, Colonial Country Club is here, it’s on a major route of access to the city, from many well-heeled areas, and this area is all upscale housing. Let us check for a suitable location.”

>>>>><<<<<

When Carly had just over fourteen hundred hours, Kathy and Carol had Carly practice her State Examines, several times while under the clock. They were very anal about procedure, but so had Carly become, from her time at the Paul Mitchell School. She went through three test mannequins, doing everything she was supposed to do.

One of the last classroom lessons was to watch a sample state exam, which covered every procedure beginning to end. They had an instructor play the student, and an instructor who administered the procedure. The administrator and student covered every single step and action, the student was to perform in the time they were allowed, for each step. The class was taught how not to lose any points on any step, what each requirement was and how to meet each requirement.

Two days later, they had a mock exam, where they did the test. Afterwards, they did all the paperwork to apply for and schedule their examinations in Dallas.

Carly knew she was going to pass, but just passing wasn’t enough. She was expected to excel at the test. Melanie promised to spank her, if she didn’t score at least ninety five percent. The spanking might be interesting, but not in context of doing poorly.

She leased her test kit from Paul Mitchell School, bought her mannequin, for the hair work and had asked Regina to be her face and nail model.

Carly choose to do the written and practical exams on two different days, so she took her written test for the State on Monday. It took an hour and a half for her to answer all the questions on a computer. She got an immediate grade of a hundred percent. She had learned her lessons well.

She came back on Tuesday with Regina and took the practical exam. State Cosmetology examines is about ninety percent procedure, ten percent results. The fifteen hundred hours is where the student learned to achieve results. They focused on whether the student knew what to do, and if they followed proper sanitation.

Carly set up and followed the tester’s instructions for the next three hours and a half. Despite being a little nervous, Carly began to relax as she began to work. She had this in the bag. The person administering the test never gave a perfect score, she always nit-picked a few deductions from every student and Carly was no different. Still she had an aggregate score of ninety eight percent.

A much relieved Carly cleaned up, repacked her test kit, before taking it back to school and returning it. She visited with her Mom, till it was time for her to go back to pick up her new Texas Cosmetology Operators License.

Carly had intentionally not called the salon or Melanie with the results of her test. They knew she would pass, they had made sure of that. She picked up her license, signed it and headed to her salon.

Carly had to smile when she got to the salon; they had posted a sign over the door that said, “Congratulations Carly”. The salon was closed down, because they had cleaned up and there was food in the salon. Carly held up her license, as she came in and was showered by confetti from her friends.

Carly was led to one of the central salon stations. Above the station was a banner that read “Carly’s station”. Carly sat in her salon chair and smiled broadly. The station was fully equipped, all the scissors, curlers, combs, curling irons, blow dryers, etc, were hers and her responsibility to take care of.

Melanie took her license and put it in a nice frame, placed it where it could be easily seen as required by law. They ate their fingers sandwiches, cut the cake and talked.

“Thank you for this Party. I plan to start slowly. I don’t want to take any clients from you guys. I will assist where I can, catch any overflow and walk-ins, but your clients are your money. I also want to learn from all of you. I know I can do the job, I want to learn how to do it better with your assistance.”

“Well let’s cleanup, we have a lady coming in for our monthly training session. Carly is going to supply the labor. We got a call from a woman whose marine husband is coming home from Afghanistan tomorrow. She agreed to let our newest stylist do the work.”

“Ok then, she gets the works for only a dollar, ya’ll help with the nails and anything else she wants.”

Carly turned to her station and began her sanitization. She went to the back, got a clean cape, coloring apron and towels. When Kathy was satisfied with Carly’s station, she smiled.

The lady came in at six and was escorted back to Carly’s station. The woman was a pretty twenty-two year old girl. She had mousy brown hair, that came between her shoulder blades. It was easy to see that she was in a bad way, she needed a lot of work.

“Hi, I am Carly, I will be your main stylist today. We hear that your husband is coming back from Afghanistan tomorrow and we all want to give you your fantasy make over. So today, anything you want done, will be done and it will all cost you but one whole dollar, which we can loan you, if you need it. So what is your fantasy make over?”

“Hello, I am Cindy Delong. Anything?”

“Anything and everything, your wish is our command. We will stay open for however long it takes, as long as you have the time.”

“So, if I want a style, perm, color, nails and a facial?”

“Just tell us what style, what color of double process hair you would, like and what type and color of nails. Then sit back and relax.”

They played twenty questions, looked at a stylebook and got to work. Carly did the shampoo and perm roll up, under Kathy’s watchful eyes. Melanie brought the perm solution, and helped Carly do the cotton wrap and dispense the solution. The stylists did what they could do in a production line, style. Carly checked the perm; she rinsed the perm solution out of the hair, added neutralizer and rinsed.

Kathy and Melanie assisted Carly, in doing the double process color, to save time and to see how well Carly did her work. Carly did the rinse, after the required time, partially dried it and began to style the hair. She impressed her stylists with her work. Olivia did her brows, her facial and her makeup.

Cindy was so happy with her makeover, she began to cry. She had appeared, in her own mind, to be rather dowdy. It had been a long time since she had looked this good. Marines don’t get rich, she scrimped and saved while her husband Gene was overseas. She got hugs from the stylists, who happily redid her makeup, when she was all cried out. She happily paid Carly one dollar.

“Would you autograph it? It is my first dollar earned as a stylist.” Carly asked.

Cindy signed the dollar bill. Carly said she was going to frame it and put it next to her license. Kathy took pictures of Cindy with Carly and the team.

Melanie and Carly were tired when they got home, but Stacy was already in bed asleep. Anita had come over from Dallas to pick up Stacy and stay with her and Candace.

The next morning, everybody was up early, Anita said, she was going to spend the morning with Joyce and Stacy. Carly dressed in her pearl button tunic top, slacks and heels. Melanie took time to use her breast pump after feeding Candace. Megan, the nanny, took the bottles from Melanie, capping them and refrigerating them. She took Candace and gave her a bath, as Melanie was ready to go to work.

At the salon, Regina and Beverly were already at the phones. They applauded, as Carly came in.

“Regina, keep my appointments down to a minimum, I will take walk ins, when everyone else is tied up. I’m not taking clients from my stylists.”

“You got it boss.”

Carly first went to her station, after dropping off her purse. She was surprised to see her dollar bill, and the before and after shots of Cindy, already framed above her license. Carly made sure it was clean, had supplies, and was ready for use. She went to the back and checked their towels, capes and other supplies. The break room and mixing room looked good; they had plenty of perm and coloring supplies. The whole salon looked good.

She then went to her office to work on the books. Her solitude over the salons numbers only lasted till nine thirty. Regina called her and told her she had an appointment. She was a little irritated when she came up front. When she found her mother there waiting for her, she smiled.

“What can I do for you mom?”

“I came to get my hair done by my favorite child.”

Carly called up a sophisticated picture of Michelle Pfeiffer, “I think you would look good like that,” Carly said. “It looks like a little younger style, after all, you are much like me, get rid of the brown, go honey blond like I did, and now that you are no longer a corporate president, your makeup could use a bit of updating.”

“Just so I don’t have tiger stripes in my hair. I like the way your hair looks.”

Carly shampooed her mom; then with Melanie’s assistance, they did a double process color on her hair, to give her honey blond with added highlights and lowlights. She rinsed the color out and partially dried her hair. She then began to style her Mom’s hair. First she lightened, then thinned her mane of hair a bit. Her Mom had a large mass of shoulder length hair. Carly had removed a lot of excess weight, without shorting the overall length, she then began to shape it, like the image of Michelle Pfeiffer, she had up on her monitor. Carly was only a beginner and she knew it, there was a lot she still needed to learn, but she also knew that she was good. Carly worked her magic on her mom.
She had many watchful eyes on her as she did her work. Anita was very pleased with the results she saw. Carly was right,, when she finished.
When Carly finished, she turned her Mom over to Alesha for a facial, nails and a new makeup look. Alesha was very good at what she did. You could almost hear Anita purring as Alesha first massaged; then did a facial on Anita, then makeup, while Liz did her nails.

Anita gave everyone hugs, when they finished with her. She looked spectacular. She was so thrilled that she was headed to Neiman Marcus, to buy some new clothes, to go with the new look.

At three, William and Sarah came in and wanted Carly to look at a piece of property. They were excited about a find, but Carly had to act immediately. She and Kathy went with them, to see the property. Carly had expected an empty lot, but what they saw was a fully developed property, that was larger than what she was planning. The builders and the future occupants had both gone under and the lot was in tax foreclosure, which was to be auctioned at noon tomorrow, on the courthouse steps.

William was showing them the outside and said, “We can’t get a look inside unless we buy it, but with less than a hundred thousand, we can get the outside of the building and your parking lot gleaming. You can see the inside somewhat, from that hole in the paper, at the door. From what I could see, the inside was pretty fair. The building had never been occupied. It was supposed to have been an upscale boutique. I flew a camera droid over the building; the roof and AC appear to be in good condition. The building is a risk, but at a tax auction, it could be a real gem.”

Carly saw the potential in the building, “What would the tax evaluation on the building and the lot be?”

“The property would be evaluated at a million five. The property has sat here empty for forty months. Taxes are eighty five thousand in arrears. The minimum bid has to cover those taxes. You might get the property for three to four hundred thousand.”

“Hmmm … I think I’ll go to the auction tomorrow,” Carly stated, they all decided it was time they all went home.

The next day, Carly decided she would dress up in her Armani red suit, to look professional at the auction.

When she got to the salon, Regina was the only one there and said, “Wow, what are ya’ll dressed up for?”

“Keep this under your hat Regina, but if everything works out today, we may have our second salon, in a ritzy neighborhood. If things go well, we can move in, in about 6 weeks, hopefully.”

“So soon? No way! That would be like totally awesome. So why are you so dressed up?”

“There will be an auction for this property, at twelve noon. I want to come off as being a professional ritzy business woman, rather than a slovenly 20 year old girl, who couldn’t pay for a McDonalds meal. Besides, I could distract some of the bidders there, and maybe they will let me have it, to try to impress me or something, you never know.”

“Oh my, I think we have created a monster, your really are learning our tricks, girl. Besides, you could never pass yourself off as a slovenly 20 year old girl, a ritzy 20 year old girl, maybe. That’s just a long shot though.” Giggling at me.

“I had good teachers.” Giggling at her comment.

I spent time in my office looking over the books, then looked into our bank balance to see what was accessible in the way of funds, making sure I had at least five hundred grand available to me; and there was. Feeling good about the funds, I decided to go out into the salon to see how things where going and was complemented by everyone there on my attire. Some of the stylist started to complain I was playing hooky, not working at my station, I just looked at them and said, “It’s good to be the boss!” I giggled, as I walked away. I helped Regina and Beverly, till it was time to go to the auction.

Regina said, “Good luck boss.” Waving at me.

“Thanks Regina, here’s hoping. Keep your fingers crossed” I saw Beverly turn to Regina asking, “what was all that about?”

The Auction started at noon; there weren’t a lot of people here; that seems to be a good sign. I wonder if it was because of not being able to see inside the building, and knowing the building might not be complete yet. Well, they started the bid at eighty five thousand, no surprise there. I held up my hand. I heard the bid go to ninety thousand; someone raised a hand. It kept going up to two hundred thousand; when it seemed to stall. When I heard the Auctioneer saying going once, twice, I raised my hand. He went up again to two hundred ten thousand, going once, twice, three times, sold! The bid goes to the pretty young lady in red. I wanted to jump with joy. This turned out better than I hoped. I finished the transaction, paid the auctioneer, got the deed to the property and the keys to the building. WHOO-HOO! I smiled all the way to the car. Once in the car I called Kathy. I told her to meet me at our new salon. She screamed and whooped, saying, “I’ll head there right now.”

I also called Salon Inc, and asked that William and Sarah meet me at the new salon. They too were exited, and said, “Where on our way.”

I was on such a high, I don’t even remember how I got to the NEW salon; I was sooo ecstatic. I waited for the others to get there before going inside.

When everyone arrived, I unlocked the door and we all entered the building. The insides were a mess from the construction, but it seemed like everything was done or near to being done for the previous owner. I let William and Sarah know they have got the floor, to start designing the salon, and drawing up concept plans, checking out if everything that needed to be done has been done, plus what needed to be done for our salon. Kathy and I were really impressed with what was all there. I let William and Sarah go to it, and told them I would get duplicates made from the keys, so they could have a set, to work on the shop. I left them to it.

Kathy and I returned back to the other salon, both of us on a high.

When we arrived, everyone wanted to know what was going on. I held up my hands and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be opening another salon, with in the next few months. We just purchased the property and the building. We are expanding!”

Everyone cheered and they started peppering us with questions; like where is it located and such.

We told them to be patient and we would type up all the details so everyone would have them. I asked Kathy and Carol to come into my office.

“Ok ladies, I guess you probably know why I asked you in here. First, I want all of us to be able to input what we would like in the new salon, I want this to be a collective involvement, meaning all of our present employees will have input into this project. Also, if you didn’t realize it already, we will need more staff, stylists, manicurists, estheticians, body waxers, masseuses, schedulers, receptionists, trainers, mangers and accounting people. We pretty much have our work cut out for us. The bad part is; I think we need these people soon; I would say in at least six weeks. I also want to make sure all the people here are rotated through the new salon. My original goal was to make this a training salon and the other the most elite salon in the state. You think we can do this?”

Kathy and Carol both said, “It was aggressive, but they thought all this would be possible, at least we could give it our best shot.”

I also asked them, “Do you know of another one or two of our employees that would make a good manager?”

They both looked at each other, then looked at me with a ‘Duh’, kind of look, like it should’ve been intuitively obvious, and said together, “Melanie!”

I just went “Oh sh.., I mean oh crap, she is so going to kill me.”

“Why would she do that?” Kathy asked

“Like she doesn’t have enough responsibility raising our two daughters, taking care of the house, dealing with me, working her station, and running a shop? She is soooo going to kill me if I suggest it.”

“What's wrong with you taking care of the house, taking care of your daughters and Melanie, huh? After all, you’re a woman like the rest of us, and we all have to do those things already?” Kathy said.

I realized I put my proverbial red high heel into my mouth this time. I sighed, “Your right of course, sorry I just got caught up with the realization of what I need to do with the new salon, and it just started to hit me, and it overwhelmed me for a bit.”

“Don’t worry so much Carly, we all are here to help, it isn’t just you. We are all excited, that we get to start a new salon, and yes, it can be a bit overwhelming. Let us do our jobs, and we will get the staff for you. We both feel Melanie is ready for this, I think she will be as excited as the rest of us, and she will be proud to be one of it’s managers; she will do a good job.” Kathy stated, and Carol agreed.

“Ok ladies, let’s get to work.” I stated.

I called Melanie and told her the good news; she had screamed with excitement and managed to wake the baby. I waited while she went and got Candace, when she got back on the phone, she was nursing Candace. I decided I might as well tell her the rest of the news. “Honey, Kathy believes you are ready to become a manger and wants you to be one.”

There was dead silence on the phone. “Melanie, are you still there?” Thinking the line went dead.

Melanie replied with, “Your joking right?”

“No, I am not. She wants you to be one of the mangers at the salon. I told her you didn’t want to do that, with all the other responsibilities you have.”

“What are you talking about? YES! I accept, I want to be a manager; I can do this. Yes, yes! I love it,”

“You do?”

“I always wanted to run my own salon, since I was a little girl. Now I will.” Giving one of those little squeals girls do when they are excited, not to loudly to disrupt Candace, but loud enough for me to know she wants this. I guess I’m out voted.

“Ok honey, I will let Kathy know she has another manager.”

“Thank you dear, thank you, thank you, thank you.” I could tell she was a bit excited.

The next morning I told Kathy that Melanie accepts. Kathy went, “I knew she would.”

After about a week, Salon Inc. came through with their proposal, everyone got a chance to see it and the inside of the new salon. Everyone was excited and couldn’t wait until everything was done.

William told me that everything was just about done on the inside of the building that the former owner wanted, they just ran out of money to finish the small stuff, as did the contractor. William told me that there was little to do to finish the shop for them and it would be completed in a couple of days so we could start on our modification. He told us, it would be at least six weeks; just to put in the plumbing and electrical circuits that we require; plus the walls and rooms we wanted. I gave them the same incentive we did the last time, that if he finished early he would get a bonus, if he finished after the six weeks he would be charged a penalty. William went for it and we signed the contracts and off they went.

As before, the windows where all taped up and no one was allowed in, so we just waited for the six weeks to be done. We noticed a large work crew going in every morning and leaving very late in the evening.

During this time, we contacted schools and advertised for certified stylists and stylists with teacher licenses, as well as support staff for all the things we do. We had at least five to ten people to interview almost daily. This isn’t as easy as it was before, because we needed to see what everyone could do, so they needed to be tested. We had special salon heads where the interviewees could show what they knew, before we would let them work on a real person. We offered free hair care styling to the girls that worked the shops close by, stating we wanted to use them as guinea pigs, and we let them know that. They were more than happy oblige.

We found some good people and we found a lot of bad people, whom we thanked for applying, but wouldn’t be calling back.

By the time five weeks rolled around, Salon Inc was ready for us to come and check everything out for the punch inspection. I had all of our mangers come for this, so they can see the new salon and make sure they will have everything they would need, utility wise, and working for when we move in. We got our clipboards and our blue tape; then started our own inspection. We all were totally flabbergasted with what Salon Inc. had accomplished, it was totally fabulous, and presently cavernous. It looked like it was three times the size of our original salon; we really will have a lot of room here, and we have lots of storage space; for which we are extremely thankful. We can have more stylists here than at the other salon, probably three times as many. We have more private rooms for massages, waxing rooms, skin care rooms, tanning booths, a separate nail room, where we could fit like six to eight nail techs into without feeling crowded, we can have a separate changing room, if we wanted, we could have a mud bath room, if we wanted to go that route and still have room for more. This place looked phenomenal. Everyone was walking around like they were in a trance, going “Oh Wow!”

I turned to William and Sarah and said, “You truly outdone yourselves this time. I simply love it! You earned your bonus for sure.” William was smiling from ear to ear, and Sarah was too. They told me the awning would be arriving soon, and they would install it before the week was up. I realized then, I never told them what I wanted to name the place. So I turned to them and asked, “Will the name of this place be on the awning?”

They said, “It sure will.”

I said, “How can you do that, I never told you how I was going to name this place?”

“We were told what to call it.”

“Who told you that?”

“Why Kathy of course.”

I turned to Kathy and said, “What name did you use and how did you get it?”

She just turned red, and said, “Your just going to have to wait and see. We all voted on it at the shop, and we all agreed it was perfect.”

“And you never consulted me?”

“Nope!”

“I’m upset. This is my shop, and no one ever asked me what I wanted to call it?”

“Your shop? I thought it was our shop, the salon collective?”

“Ah…Ok you got me, IT IS OUR SHOP. You are absolutely right. But don’t I get a say in it?”

“Nope, you are but one person, and you are over ruled. You are just going to have to wait until we reveal the name.”

I sighed, and pouted a little, “Gee I feel left out. You girls always steal my stuff, you steal my clothes when we go shopping, you don’t listen to me, you force me to go to school, and you work me to death. I would think you all just want me for my money, to buy you things.”

“Oh you poor baby. Do you want us to get you a binky? So you don’t feel so bad, or would you want us to change your diaper first? We really feel sorry for you. I’m sure I could get Regina, and Beverly to help with the changing of your diaper, I’m am sure we could get some cute party dresses for you too, if you want?”

“Don’t you dare pull that card on me dear Kathy, I’m sure I can get my revenge, when you least expect it.”

Melanie came around the corner of a room and said, “What did I hear? That Carly needed her diaper changed and put into a cute party dress? I would love to see her in a nice party dress; maybe I can arrange that. Where was that shop that Beverly’s aunt owns? I’m sure we could get something there, don’t you think so Kathy?”

“Oh, I’m sure we can get a cute party dress, for baby Carly, there. I think she would look fantastic in that type of a dress. Maybe we should get it for her for Halloween and make her wear it into the new salon, whatever the new salon will be called, what do you say Melanie?”

“Hmmm, I love that Idea, I’ve got a lot of baby stuff right now, we can do that.” They both started laughing and I decided if I wanted to keep any respect, I better take control now, Or I may be in trouble come Halloween.

“OK, ok, you had your fun. Let’s get back to inspecting the new building.”

“My, if I didn’t know any better, I would say Carly changed that subject rather quickly? Don’t you think so Kathy?” Both of them laughed even louder; I just blushed. The original subject of what the salon was going to be called, sidelined for the moment.

When we got back to the original salon, we called the furniture and equipment places and told them we would be ready for delivery on Thursday. The Salon Supply truck was going to be there on Friday. So I told all of the employees and the new employees that it would be there on Friday, and to plan accordingly. I also told all of the old and new Employees, that I wanted them all there, sometime on Thursday, to get their assigned area from Kathy, Carol, or Melanie, then set up their stations for the following Monday, when we will have the open house, at ten in the morning till noon; when we will start taking clients and be open for business.

Since the salon was so big, we were able to set a room aside for a party room, as well as our break room. I thought this might be useful for having salon parties for pre-arranged guests, like those coming in for a wedding; we could put everyone up in the party room, to have little food and to celebrate, then take the girls out to get there hair and whatever else done, when it was time for them. Hopefully it won’t get too rowdy, and I think it could be a good draw, without disrupting other clients.

I was thinking of hiring photographers for glamour makeovers; setting a room aside to allow us to doll up a client, so they are absolutely gorgeous, let them get dressed, in whatever outfit they brought with them, then having a photographer take professional beauty shots of them. I think that would be an interesting draw; maybe inviting the people in a TG support group, for beauty makeovers and pictures? I wonder if I could get local business to help support these functions?

To bad we do not have a Starbucks attached to this building. It was nice to just go next door and get my caffeine fix.

The week rolled on, and everything was getting into place. The awning was put up, but the name was covered over, so I still could not see it. I couldn’t even get my hands on the brochures; that Regina made arrangements for; she wouldn’t let me near them. She made all the arrangements for business cards and advertisements and she would not tell me a thing, she just looked at me, smiled, turned and walked away from me. Since my managers, new and old, had everything under control, there was little to do but set up my area at the new salon, and make sure everything was in place, cleaned, sanitized, and ready for work on Monday. We had the same computer system put in as in the original salon. The company that installed them, linked them up with the server in the other salon. So now we all shared the same databases; so the client could go to either salon and we would have all of their data, which was necessary for proper colors and other treatments. This will also help if a nasty client would show up at one salon, and tried to pull a stunt to make us look bad, to get a free hair treatment, then later go to the other salon and try the same thing, they would be flagged by our computers, then told that we do not have time for them, that we are all booked up. This should keep what happened to Danielle to a minimum; it will also tell clients, we will not put up with unscrupulous behavior.

Sunday, I woke up early. I found everything was set for tomorrow, I tried to sneak out of the house so that I could get my morning coffee, a paper and peruse the fashion section to see if there was anything in there about our new salon, especially what the name of the salon would be.

FAT CHANCE!

Melanie totally stopped me; handing Candace to me, then told me, “Give her a bath, put on a fresh diaper and dress her, then take her downstairs and feed her. While you are handling her, I’ll handle Stacy.”

Hmmm, I think I am being set up again. I washed Candace diapered and dressed her, took her downstairs, got her breakfast food made and started to feed her. I decided I would turn on the TV for the morning news, while I fed Candace; but Melanie turned it off. I turned on the radio, but she turned that off too.

Anita showed up and I was happy, thinking I could now get away, from the house for a few, but nooooo, neither one would let me leave. They would find some excuse to keep me from leaving the house. Fix this or do that, I felt like I was their slave.

Joyce showed up a bit later; I thought, good this will let me escape, NOPE! She had some things she wanted me to fix, that she brought with her. I could definitely see where this was going.

This was a beautiful day and Melanie said, “Why don’t we take the kids to the zoo?”

Anita and Joyce both agreed before I could say anything.

Melanie turned to Stacy and said, “You want to go to the zoo Stacy, Carly will take all of us there and we will have a great day.”

Stacy couldn’t say, “YAY!” quick enough. I guess I know what I will be doing for the rest of the day.

“OK Ladies, lets get ready and head for the Zoo.” Melanie stated; I put some comfortable walking shoes on, for I figure we will be doing a lot of walking today. We spent the rest of the day at the zoo. Candace was fussy a few times, but Melanie would take her to an inside restaurant or shop and breastfeed her, which would satisfy Candace. I had to take her a few times to the women's room to change her, but that wasn’t that big of a problem. I must say, the ladies were definitely making sure I stayed away from any TV; Radio; or other news media; today.

We got home late that evening. Candace was asleep, as was Stacy. I was starting to feel the day also. I’m sure Melanie, Anita, and Joyce felt the same way. We all crashed at our house that evening.

I awoke without an alarm clock at four thirty in the morning. Everyone was still asleep. I think I heard Melanie get up in the middle of the night because of Candace. She was sleeping soundly now. I went to the bathroom took a shower and quietly got dressed as not to wake Melanie. I Dressed in my silver Armani skirted suits, white camisole, white silk blouse with white Victoria Secret satin bra and panty set, one of my sexier sets; I know Melanie loves it. I put on Sheer nylons, and my Silver 3 inch heels, get my silver clutch bag, Do my makeup, and stuff my purse with the things I will need today and do my hair. I try to leave the room quietly, and headed for the kitchen to get the coffee going for the others, but I wanted to go to the Coffee shop and get a newspaper to see what is happening in fashion section and see what is happening with my salon today, since our grand opening is at ten o’clock today. I wonder if anything was said about it.

I was just about to head out the door, when Anita was standing there, in her nighty, with a smirk on her face saying, “And where do you think your going my lovely daughter?”

“Mom! You scared me half to death. What are you doing up at this hour in the morning?”

“Take a guess Carly? I know you’re a smart girl.”

“Your keeping me from finding out what is actually happening at the new shop today and making sure I do not find out what the name of the new shop is, I would gather.”

“Bingo, I knew you where a smart girl. You take after me, to be truthful.”

“How did you manage to get up so early, this is after all, the middle of the night for you?” Trying for some levity with my mom.

“I know when you usually get up remember, you usually have the alarm set for five and five thirty. Don’t worry dear, I WILL get my revenge one of these days, for me having to get up this early. Now, let’s get into the kitchen, make us some breakfast, and forget about what is going to happen today, until it is time.” Busted, I guess I might as well capitulate.

“Ok mom, you win, I’ll make breakfast. What would you like? The coffee should be ready soon.”

“Why don’t you cook mommy an omelet, a ham and cheese omelet to be exact.”

“Fine, I’ll start making it.” Boy, they aren’t giving me a chance to find out what the new name for the salon is, they are really determined to make sure I do not find out until it’s time.

Joyce woke up shortly after I started cooking and the coffee was done. She was also in her nighty, I realized the nighties hardly hid anything, they might as well come down without anything on, yet they were comfortable with me seeing them, so I guess it is official, they see me as one of them, a complete woman. I cooked an omelet for her too.

Joyce said, “Good morning darling. You look lovely today. Why are you up so early and dressed? It wasn’t because you wanted to get out early to look up a newspaper was it?” Gees, busted again.

Gees, these women can read me like a book. There is no getting anything past them. I said, “Maybe?”

Joyce and Anita both chuckled, “We figured you try to get out early, Anita and I had it all arranged to stop you if you would try.”

“Gees mom, give me a break. I want to know what my shop will be called is all.”

“Your shop?” Anita stated.

“Well ok, OUR SHOP!”

“Well, to bad my darling Daughter, you’ll just have to wait for the open house. Keep your voice down; you don’t want to wake your wife and children. Melanie was up at two o’clock, feeding a fussy Candace; I’m sure the poor dear is exhausted. Be lucky you’re not lactating, for I’m sure she would have made you get up to feed her.”

“In a way I wish I could, I know this is rough on Melanie.”

“You know dear, that could be arranged. I could take you to my OBGYN and I am sure she could prescribe some pills that would make you lactate. That would be so awesome to see my daughter nurse her baby.” Anita stated.

“I would consider it, but I should talk this out with Melanie first, before I make any decisions.” Hmm, me nursing my own daughter, I would love to feed her and have her be a bit depended on me. That would be really awesome, her father breastfeeding her. I could see that it would help Melanie get some much needed sleep too.

About that time I heard Candace making some noise. I went upstairs to her room and saw she was awake and crying. I picked her up and she quieted to a whimper. “What’s up my baby girl? Are you wet and hungry, Huh? Let’s check your diaper, shall we? Yes you are very wet, and it smells like you left a surprise for me too. Let’s go change your diaper; then get you dressed, darling,” giving her a hug. I changed her diaper and got her dressed for the day. She had a cute smile on her face, when I kissed her forehead, and she cooed at me. “Let’s go downstairs and see your grandma’s; then get you something to eat, shall we?”

I checked on Melanie before I went downstairs, and found her in the bathroom. She saw me and said, “Don’t take her downstairs just yet, I want to breastfeed her first. My breasts are full and I need the pressure released. Just sit on the bed and wait for me please.”

“No Problem dear. I’ll sit here and play with her for a bit until your ready. You know my mother came up with a crazy idea, and I wondered if it was possible?”

“What’s that Carly?”

“She said, that she could take me to her OBGYN and get some pills, that would let me … ah … lactate, that I too could breastfeed Candace. Isn’t that a weird thought?”

“Hmmm that would be interesting, I wonder if that would, or could work. That way you too could feed her in the middle of the night and give me a chance to catch up on some sleep. That is not such a bad Idea; after all, you are as much of a woman as me anyway, except where it is important. We should look into that. We should have started you sooner; so we could’ve share in that responsibility.”

“Are you serious?”

“Definitely, I like the idea.”

“Don’t you think it is a little weird? Your husband, a man, breast feeding our daughter?”

“What man? I see my wife sitting here holding our child. I’m your wife, as you’re my wife. We share in our duties as two mothers. Ask anyone out in the street and ask them what they see when they look at you; it certainly will not be a man, that’s for sure. You are a lovely woman, my wife and mother of our two daughters, as am I, and I like it that way.” As she gave me a hug, and a kiss, to make me feel better.

Well I guess she told me. I’m not her husband, but her wife, as she is my wife. That makes me a woman, which means it would not look weird to be able to breastfeed my daughter. I looked down at my daughter, as Melanie took her from me and was breastfeeding her while she sat on the bed, in her nighty and nursing bra. Noticing how Candace was looking so lovingly at my wife. Would she look at me that way if I was breastfeeding her? Melanie looked so lovely and relaxed doing it. I wonder what it will be like if I was able to breastfeed my daughter, would I be that relaxed? Am I getting jealous of Melanie? Oh boy, these thoughts are starting to get me aroused. I left my wife to it. These thoughts were starting to eat away at my resolve, could I do this? Do I want to do this? When I got downstairs, I saw Anita cleaning up the used dishes and setting a place for Melanie.

“Mom,” I asked, “Were you serious when you said it would be possible for me to take pills that would make me lactate and be able to feed our baby girl through my own breasts? Is it really possible?”

“Yes it is dear. I was not kidding. I was definitely serious. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I just got done talking to Melanie about your crazy idea. About me being able to breastfeed. I had asked her if she wouldn’t find it strange, that a man breastfed his children. She told me, what man? I only see my wife and the mother of our children, sitting in front of me, as I’m your wife. I don’t see a man, I see a beautiful woman, and that is what I want to see. She sees me as a woman and her wife, mom, not a husband.”

“I agree with her dear. You are a very beautiful woman, and you’re my beautiful daughter. I see nothing left of my son, but in one little area, and that is not that important, other than to make me more grand children. If you take these pills, you would be like any other mother, being able to give sustenance to your daughter. You should feel proud to be a mother; that could breastfeed her daughter.”

“When can we go to see your OBGYN mom, I want to be able to breastfeed my daughter, so I can help Melanie.”

“Wise choice dear, I’ll call her later today to see about getting you an appointment.”

Well that pretty much took my mind off of the new salon. I was adrift with thoughts of being able to breastfeed my daughter, was I making a mistake, or am I making the right decision? How long would it take before I started lactating? Would my daughter find it strange that I start breastfeeding her so late into her life? Would she remember when she gets older?

I was off into my own little dream world about breastfeeding. I didn’t even realize the things that where happening around me; when Melanie finally walked over to me, tapped me on my shoulder and said, “It’s time to go dear, go check your makeup and hair, get your purse and coat and let’s go.”

I checked the clock and saw it was ten twenty. Were had the time gone? I rushed to check my face and hair, got my purse, made sure everything I would need today was in it, grabbed my coat and followed the ladies from the house to the car. Melanie decided to use Joyce’s car since it had the children’s seats in it, so I got into the passenger seat. Stacy was in her child seat and Candace was secured into her child’s seat too. Anita and Joyce would drive our car, and when the children got fussy, they could drive Joyce’s car back with the children.

When we arrived at the new salon, it appeared to be a news media circus already. There where a lot of women there already that I recognized as customers of ours, all talking excitedly. There were several news media trucks and television cameras about. Wow, you would think we were opening a new government building or something, instead of just a salon. I was overwhelmed.

Some of the ladies saw me arrive and they screamed my name. The news media started towards us, as we got out of the cars and started bombarding me with questions. Some of the questions I couldn’t answer yet, because I was just shocked at the turn out, and Melanie took over. She stated to the press, that we would be opening today at noon for business, and that now was the open house from ten to noon.

Anita and Joyce got the children from the car. Stacy ran to my side, kind of frightened by the news media people.

I noticed the windows were still covered so I could not see inside as of yet.

It was nine forty five, and a representative from the Mayors office and another from the Council chambers where there to help with the ribbon cutting. I looked at all the smiling faces and it was just exhilarating to see so many well wishers and clients.

The name was still covered up on the awning, so I still had no idea what the salon was called and I was getting nervous, for I would look like a fool if I didn’t know the name of my own salon. Melanie came to the rescue and gave the speech I thought I was suppose to say, but she just jumped right in and we all got to cut the ribbon, as Melanie stated, “Welcome to the grand opening of ‘Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling Part Deux’.” We cut the ribbon and Melanie pulled on the string that removed the cover off of the awning, stating the name of the salon ‘Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling Part Deux’. All the covers over the windows dropped.

My jaw just dropped, I thought it would have been drastically different than the other salon, but I was happy with the name. I hugged Melanie and kissed her and I saw some photos being taken. I’m sure we will make some news splash saying ‘Lesbian Couple, Opens New Salon’. I was so happy; I could care less what they said. We opened the door and we all entered. Everyone was there with smiles on their faces. There were flowers everywhere you looked; we definitely looked more like a flower shop than a Hair salon at the moment. There was a huge cake in the center of the reception area; which was immaculate and the cake looked delicious. Stacy want to run right over to it and steal some icing from the cake. The employees all screamed “SURPRISE CARLY!” I was just so overwhelmed I started crying. I loved my employees and it was apparent they loved me. The salon was just beautiful.

I was interviewed and told the news media about this being an Elite salon. I told them about some of the salon services that we will be providing. That the original salon would be just as good as this one; but it would be more geared to training new stylists to feed both salons. My wish is, that I hope, both salons will become the best salons in the State.

At eleven forty five, we wound down the open house and asked everyone to please exit the shop for at least fifteen minutes; so we could clean up to open the salon for business, at noon. Everyone politely obliged and waited outside in the parking lot, for the official opening, for business.

When noon arrived, everyone came back in and the clients were taken to their stylist’s stations. I too had a customer waiting for me, so I changed out of my suit, got into my working clothes and my pink smock, with ‘Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling Part Deux’ with my name Carly printed above my left breast. A lot of the people came to socialize that stayed around the reception area and the party room to chat and wish us well. Regina and Beverly were going to town with the two new receptionists making sure they were doing everything right. The other salon was closed today, so that we could all celebrate this grand opening.

All the new stylists were quite busy and I looked over what was being done, to make sure everything was going smoothly. The manicurists were all hard at work, the masseuses where busy working, the cosmetologists were busy, the people doing facials were all busy, even the new tanning booths were in use. Everywhere I looked everyone was busy and everyone appeared to be happy. There seemed to be no glitches, and people where calmly awaiting their turn to have whatever they wished done, done. We were getting compliments from everyone.

This was turning into a truly banner day for everyone. I hoped that we could keep it this way always.

The day was a very long and hectic day. We were all tired but happy, we didn’t get home until after nine PM. I could see we’re going to have to hire even more stylists to keep both salons open and busy. Yes we were all working today, but we were all here at the new salon. We couldn’t always do this; we needed some of the stylists at the other salon too. I would love to see everyone rotated through both of the salons, so everyone gets equal time at both places and then let the stylists choose a permanent spot, once we fill all our open spots, with new stylists and making sure that they are properly trained in how things work in our salons, and being able to work without a lot of supervision.

A few months have passed. We have the full complement of stylists to man all of the stations at both salons, 6 days a week, from ten Am to Nine Pm Monday through Saturday, except for holidays or special occasion, where we might be open on a Sunday for a wedding party. Both salons are completely booked 6 days a week, and the business is good. We still expect walk-ins and are able to fit them in. We have an agreement with a lot of cosmetology schools, to help train their interns in a true environment of being out in the real world, and we find that some are really talented. We may end up keeping a few, or find other salons for the interns, when the time comes, when they graduate. We get free training for our stylists when it is time for recertification, or new techniques, when they come out. It is a win, win scenario for both the school and us.

I keep busy with styling and helping the other stylists, when they need help, but I will not infringe on my stylists clients, unless they ask me too when they are to busy to get to them. I still spend time in the office, to make sure the books are properly kept, and my accountants are doing their jobs properly. Things are hectic too, for I have to travel between both salons daily. But I love it. I don’t think there are any of the clients that remember me as being a man. They talk to me like they would talk to any other woman. About men in their lives, fashions, makeup, periods and the messes they have had to deal with, break-ups, husbands, abuse, kids, pregnancies, diseases, alopecia, hair products, and much, much more.

I finally got to see that doctor my mom wanted me to see, about being able to lactate. I explained the situation, “I would love to help my partner, who gave birth to our daughter, to help breastfeed her.”

The doctor said, “That would not be a problem. I’ll prescribe the medicine that would allow you to let down milk. It will probably take a month before you start lactating. You shouldn’t have a problem once it starts. You continue breastfeeding until you two decide to wean your darling, from being breastfed. When the time comes to stop breastfeeding, just stop taking the medicine, and your breasts should dry up and return to their normal state.”

I never told her I was a genetic male, and she never asked or questioned it. I wonder if she knew?

She went, “I know a lot of lesbian couples that both want to share in the responsibility of breastfeeding their children. So don’t feel this as being weird or anything, it is perfectly normal and I have no trouble helping you two ladies share in the responsibility of breastfeeding. Please schedule with me in two weeks, to see how you are doing and I want you to see me two weeks after that, until you start lactating, then we can do it every other month, to make sure you do not have any other problems. When was your last mammogram? We might want to get that done before you begin lactating, to have a base line to compare things to.”

I told her, “I haven’t had a mammogram. I’m only twenty two years old.” I didn’t like where this was going, I may be found out and she may decide not to help me if she knew I was a genetic male.

“Well, you’re never to young to start getting mammograms. I recommend you do one at least every other year, Breast cancer knows no age. Oh, when was the last time you had a pelvic exam? I see you are a new client for me, and I don’t have any records for you on file. Can you tell me who your previous obgyn doctor was, so I could ask them for your files?”

Oh boy, now I’m in it deep. What can I say?

My mother chimed in with, “Her last doctor passed away last year, and the practice was closed, all the records were lost. When Margret died, Carly moved out here to her house and had her stuffed shipped here, we lost all of her records too. We haven’t been able to find them.”

“Well, we should get her in for a pelvic exam soon, so we have her records here. I can schedule a time if you would like?”

Mom said, “For the moment, things are very hectic for her with opening the new salon. She came out here to keep the one salon going, but opened a second one a few months ago and things haven’t settled down yet.”

“Oh, what salons are they?”

“Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling and Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling Part Deux”

“Oh, I’ve heard about them. I hear they are fantastic. I have wanted to go there to check them out. God, it seems like ages since I have been able to go to a salon to get my hair worked on and be pampered.”

“Well, I will tell you what, you let me know when you want to go. I will personally do your hair and whatever else you want done. It will be my treat; we will treat you like a princess. Here is my business card, just give me a call.”

“Carly Simon, owner of Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling and Carly’s Adventure in Hairstyling Part Deux. You’re the owner of these salons? You’re just twenty two years old, and you own these two feminine palaces of beauty? This can’t be possible; your kidding me aren’t you? You’re just a young girl. You couldn’t possibly.”

I smiled at her. “I’m also a stylist, make-up artist, nail tech, accountant and a boss, plus I’m a mother of two darling girls. One is six years old, and the other is about 5 months old.”

Anita stated, “She is a very good stylist, she did my hair, if you want a reference.”

“I love your hair, the color and the style.”

“Well, that was all Carly.” Pointing at me.

About four weeks later, my mother’s and now my OBGYN doctor, showed up for getting her hair styled and the works. She just about had everything we had to offer. She was ecstatic with her look, after we finished with her, she looked twenty years younger and she couldn’t stop gushing about how she looked.

While I was working on her, she discretely asked, “How are the pills doing? Are you lactating yet?”
I told her “It’s going great, it’s working beautifully. I have been breastfeeding my darling for the past week, and I loved doing it, it was so exhilarating, actually it was so sensual too, I never knew it could be so great. I just loved being able to breastfeed. My nipples are really getting sore though, they seemed to get irritated easily.”

“Did I give you a prescription for a breast cream? To sooth your aching breasts?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Stop by my office tomorrow, I will write a prescription for you to get some breast cream that will help keep your nipples in good shape.”

“Ok, thank you I will.”

Well it has been an awesome few years. I got the breast cream and it did help relieve the ache in my nipples, breastfeeding my baby, has truly been the highlight of my life. I truly understand what it is to be a mother and to give of yourself to your children.

The salons are doing fabulous. My OBGYN doctor has truly referred a lot of her pregnant clients our way, to get them to feel better about themselves. We also now have a TG support group that schedules our salon for some beauty and makeover parties, with fashion photography, which seemed to thrill them. I was amazed, several of the TG girls, I thought would have a tough time passing, but with our makeup girls, they are miracle workers, it was simply amazing. Every time a TG party is scheduled we see more and more TG girls showing up. Some have become regular customers, and it is to their credit, none of my other clients have sussed them out as not being true girls; or if they have, they haven’t said anything derogatory; they just accepted them. Business has been so good, and Melanie has really come into her own as a stylist and a manager, that she simply blossomed, and she is extremely happy that her wife can breastfeed our daughter, so we share that duty, which is simply wonderful.

Melanie took me out to dinner, bought me flowers, and treated me like such a princess; that I started thinking something was up. Sure enough, something was up, she just told, “Carly, the rabbit died, and Aunt Flow hasn’t been around for the past three months.”

Me being the intelligent one said, “Huh?” I didn’t get it, with a blank look on my face.

She laughed and said, “Not quite the complete woman yet are you?”

“What are you talking about? We don’t know anybody called Aunt Flow. And what is this about rabbits dying?”

She couldn’t hold it back, she just started laughing, and laughing, she was laughing so hard, she was crying.

I was starting to get worried and a little upset, because I didn’t get the joke. Kathy our manager at the salon came over to our table. I didn’t see her sitting in the far corner of the restaurant with Regina and Beverly. She asked, “Wow, what’s the occasion you two? Here you are all by your lonesome, no kids, or your parents; and Melanie gave you a bouquet of roses. This must be some occasion.

Melanie was still laughing saying, “Oh, hi Kathy, where did you come from?”

“Regina, Beverly and I thought we would go out for some dinner, just to do something different, and we find you laughing up a storm and wondered what the joke was?”

“Well, I was telling my darling wife something cryptic, and she didn’t get it. It is something all of us girls should know, but unfortunately Carly missed out. Mainly because she doesn’t have to worry about it, the lucky girl. We have to deal with it every month, where as she doesn’t.”

“Let me guess, I bet your talking about Aunt Flow aren’t you?”

“We don’t know any one called Aunt Flow, that I recall, so I don’t know who she is talking about.” I said.

At this point, both girls crack up laughing loudly. I was getting ticked. I wasn’t getting the joke.

After a bit, Melanie started to settle down, whimpering and crying at the same time, Kathy was doing the same. Everyone in the restaurant was looking at us and smiling too. I was feeling really embarrassed, for I just didn’t get it.

“Darling, what does a woman have to worry about, every twenty eight days without fail? At least you hope it doesn’t fail, unless you want it too.”

“You have a period. So?”

“What happens when I get my period?”

“You have blood Flow…ing, oh… Ah… right, I get it now Aunt Flow. I feel so stupid.” Then the penny dropped. I looked at her, than at Kathy, then back to her and a smile grew across my face, then I said “REALLY! When?”

I got up from my seat went around the table and I hugged her. “This is fabulous news.” Both of us were smiling from ear to ear.

Kathy was looking at us, and she wasn’t getting the joke. Then she got the connection, looked at Melanie, let out a little scream and said “Really? When is it due?”

About this time Regina and Beverly, came over to see what was going on and why we were both hugging Melanie. Kathy turned to the two and said Mel is expecting again. The two girls let out a scream and hugged and congratulated both of us. The waiter came over to see what was going on, and the girls told the waiter that Mel was expecting another baby, that she just found out today. The waiter went and told the manager, who happened to be one of our clients at the salon.

The manager came over and congratulated both of us and said, “The meal is on the house.” She brought over the most expensive desert they have, and hugged us both.

We thanked her, and said we would see her later at the salon. I just realized I would be taking the pills for a lot longer than I thought I would. But this time, I get to start nursing as soon as the baby is born, not five or six months later. I can’t wait. My breast are substantially larger then when this all started, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

One year later, we had a baby boy; we called him Carl. Stacy loves him as much as she loves her baby sister, who is now going on three and getting into all kinds of trouble. Stacy is seven now and she is growing up to be a beautiful young lady, just like her mom. I have officially adopted her and she has taken my last name. She is now Stacy Simon, my oldest daughter, Candace Simon, is my middle daughter, and Carl Simon, my youngest son. If Carl turns out to be like me, I will gladly help him/her to become the best lady she could be, if she so wants.

After a couple of months after the birth of my son, Anita showed up. “Carly, are you happy that I had you take over your Aunt’s hair salon?”

“I thought you were a little crazy at first, but I wanted to prove myself to you. I had wanted to follow you into your business. Now though, I wouldn’t trade where I am, for anything in the world. I have a wife I love and she loves me, a family that loves me, a business I can thrive in, and become exceptional at. No Mom, I wouldn’t trade my life for a life in the board room or for anything in the world.”

“Good. I was sort of worried when I saw all the changes happening a couple of years ago. I was afraid of losing my son, but I gained a beautiful Daughter; who is a professional business woman; Stylist; Wife, to very understanding and beautiful wife; and mother to three wonderful children. I just want all of ya’ll to be happy.”

"We are Momma, we are."

The End