By: Ethan Rideaux and Fernando Benavides
Songs:
Chopin- Fantsie Impromptu
Artie Shaw- Nightmare
Babushka- Paul Cantellon
INTRODUCTION
IT WAS SATURDAY morning. The days were short and there was chill in the air. I was getting a haircut. I was in the chair and three men were sitting along the wall across from me, waiting. Two of the men I’d never seen before, but one of them I recognized though couldn’t place. I kept looking at him as the barber worked on my hair. He was moving a toothpick around in his mouth. He was heavyset, about fifty years old, and had short, wavy hair. I tried to place him, and then I saw him in a cap and uniform, wearing a gun, little eyes watchful behind the glasses as he stood in the bank lobby. He was a guard. Of the other two men, one was considerably the older, but with a full head of curly grey hair. He was smoking. The other, though not so old, was nearly bald on top, and the hair at the sides of his head hung in dark lanks over his ears. He had on logging boots and his pants were shiny with machine oil.
The barber put a hand on top of my head to turn me for a better look. Then he said to the guard, “Did you get your deer, Charles?”
I liked this barber. We weren’t acquainted well enough to call each other by name, but when I came in for a haircut he knew me and knew I used to fish, so we’d talk fishing. I don’t think he hunted, but he could talk on any subject and was a good listener. I this regard he was like some bartenders I’ve known.
“Bill, it’s a funny story. The damnedest thing,” the guard said. He removed his toothpick and laid it in the ashtray. He shook his head. “I did and yet I didn’t. So yes and no to your question. “
I didn’t like his voice. For a big man the voice didn’t fit. I thought of the word “wimpy “my son used to use. It was somehow feminine, the voice, and it was smug. Whatever it was it wasn’t the kind of voice you’d expect, or want to listen to all day. The two other men looked at him. The older man was turning the pages of a magazine, smoking, and the other fellow was holding a newspaper. They put down what they were looking at and turned to listen...
See full short story here: http://spartans.sstx.org/~ethan.rideaux/ilk.mp3
