Sheralene had just had her hair cut, curled, and dyed and was strutting down the sidewalk like she was queen of the world. “Would you look at that?” said Maybelle as she sipped her pink lemonade.
“She dyes it a different color every month,” added Susan disdainfully.
The two sat at a table at the downtown drugstore and watched Sheralene sashaying by through the plate glass window. “That color don’t even look real. It’s got too much purple in it,” stated Maybelle as she chewed up an ice cube.
“And she’s cut it too short. You can see that skinny chicken neck of hers now.” Susan snorted as she speared the cherry off her banana split.
Sheralene fluffed up her her hairdo before she strolled into the post office to check her mail. Her every move was closely observed and commented on by the two women in the drugstore. “My Lord, Maybelle. She thinks it looks cute! Did you see her flipping it up like that?” said Susan.
“It would look good on somebody who didn’t have car doors for ears!” giggled Maybelle.
“They do stick out, don’t they?” Susan agreed. She scooped up a huge spoonful of ice cream and sucked it off the spoon a little at a time.
Sheralene came out of the post office, then turned around so she could see herself in the glass doors before descending the steps. Again, she fluffed her neon locks and looked around to see if anyone had noticed her. But, there was no one about, except an elderly gentleman who could barely make it up the steps to the post office. ”Why hello, Mr. Johnson,” she greeted.
The man stopped, looked at her, then removed his glasses and spit carefully on each lens before rubbing them on his shirt sleeve. “Sheralene,” he remarked, “what happened to your hair?”
“I just got it done in the newest style from Paris,” Sheralene proudly announced.
The gentleman shook his head, muttering “Paris, Alabama?” under his breath as he made his way into the post office.
“Oh my gosh - she’s coming back this way!” hooted Maybelle as Sheralene strutted back up the sidewalk.
“I can’t believe anyone would pay money to ruin perfectly good hair.” Susan grinned as she began shoveling ice cream into her mouth in great earnest.
“You’re slopping chocolate syrup all over the table. Would you just calm down and eat a little slower?” commented Maybelle as she raised one thinly plucked eyebrow. Sheralene watched herself in the storefront windows as she made her way towards the drugstore, fluffing that hair up along the way.
“Ooo! She’s heading this way. We’ll get a closer look at that disaster on her head,” smirked Maybelle.
Susan scaped the last of the gooey stuff off the bottom of her bowl and licked it from the spoon. And, as Sheralene approached the door to the drugstore, Susan winked at Maybelle and stifled her giggling.
“Hi girls!” said Sheralene as she headed for their table.
“Oh Sheralene,” the two women started in unison, “we just LOVE your new hair-do!”
