of fifteen minutes Jane had just one item on her to-do list.
“What does one wear on daytime television?” she asked Lucy.
“Nothing white,” Lucy answered instantly.
“White?” said Jane. “Why not white?”
“In case you get your period,” Lucy explained. When Jane looked at her with a confused expression, Lucy added, “I’m just saying. You don’t want to be up there onstage and get a note from Sally.”
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Jane asked. “Aunt Flo? A note from Sally? You’re like a gynecological thesaurus.”
“Blame my mother,” said Lucy. “She never called things by their real names. Until I was seventeen I called my vagina my weet-woo.”
“I suppose that’s better than calling it your lady garden,” Jane mused. “Anyway apart from not wearing white, we haven’t narrowed down my fashion options.”
“I’ll come over tonight,” said Lucy. “We’ll go through your closet and see what you have. I’m sure something will work. And if not, we can always go to the mall.”
Jane shuddered. “The mall,” she said, pronouncing the word as if it were an incurable disease.
“Yeah, well, you might just have to suck it up,” Lucy told her. “I’m not letting you meet Comfort and Joy looking like you usually do.”
“Like I usually do?” Jane said. “What does that mean?”
Lucy indicated Jane with a wave of her hand. “Like this,” she said.
“It’s not that bad!” Jane exclaimed.
“Sorry,” said Lucy. “It kind of is.”
“Byron didn’t seem to think so,” Jane said, her dignity bruised. “Walter doesn’t think so.”
“Byron would make it with anything on two legs,” Lucy reminded her. “And Walter is … Walter. Trust me on this. You need a makeover.”
Jane looked at herself in the small mirror that hung on the wall. She did look tired, and her hair
“We’ll start right after work,” said Lucy. “It’ll be fun.”
The bell over the front door jingled, and Lucy went out to help the customer. Jane remained in the office, looking at her reflection in the mirror.
“It’ll be fun.” She repeated Lucy’s promise, trying to sound as if she believed it.
Chapter 21
Charles touched her cheek. “You’re like the thrush,” he said. “It is not the loudest. It does not have the brightest plumage. But its song is the most beautiful. Beautiful enough to break your heart.”
“What are we going to do with this?”
Jane looked at herself in the mirror. Behind her, Lucy stood with a stunning Japanese woman dressed in a black turtleneck and stylish black pants. The woman was looking down at Jane’s hair with a bemused expression, as if it were an accident she had just come across and she was deciding whether or not the victim could be saved.
“Don’t worry,” Lucy said to Jane, patting her on the shoulder. “Aiko can do miracles.”
Jane smiled wanly. She was already regretting letting Lucy talk her into visiting her hairdresser. But according to Lucy, Aiko had graciously agreed to see Jane on short notice. Now Jane was ensconced in the woman’s chair, awaiting her verdict.
Aiko poked at Jane’s hair with a comb. “Limp,” she said.
“Sorry,” Jane apologized.
Aiko shook her head. “Horrific color,” she said.
“I did it myself,” Jane explained.
“I know,” said Aiko. She sighed deeply.
“Can you help her?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know,” Aiko answered. “It’s bad.”
“But you’ll try?” Lucy said hopefully.
Aiko picked up a pair of scissors and snapped them open and closed several times while staring at Jane in the mirror. “I’ll try,” she confirmed.
She spun the chair around so that Jane was no longer looking at herself in the mirror.
“Aiko doesn’t like you to see what she’s doing,” Lucy explained to Jane. “It disturbs her process.”
“As long as it’s nothing too drastic,” said Jane.
Lucy put a finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything,” she whispered in Jane’s ear. “She’s a little temperamental. Just trust her. She’s a genius.”
Jane watched as Aiko pulled a pair of black latex gloves over her slim hands. “Color first,” she announced.
Jane decided that the best course of action was to close her eyes and think of England. She didn’t want to know what Aiko was doing to her head.
She pretended she was having a dream in which she was moved from one chair to another. Things were applied to her head, then rinsed off. Scissors snapped around her ears. Hot air blew in her face.
Then Aiko said, “Done.”
The chair was spun around, and Jane saw her new self in the mirror. She gasped. “I’m beautiful,” she said breathlessly.
“Yes,” Aiko said. For the first time since Jane had entered her salon, the woman smiled. “Beautiful.”
Jane didn’t know if she was referring to her haircut or to Jane herself, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t believe how she looked. Her hair was now a rich golden brown. Aiko had removed a great deal of it, so that it now framed Jane’s face rather than circling it like a tired holiday wreath. It was modern, natural-looking, and perfect, Jane thought.
“It’s a miracle.” Lucy was standing beside Jane, staring at her head.
“I know,” Aiko said.
Jane reached up and touched the hair where it brushed against her cheek. It felt like she was touching someone else’s face. “It’s really me,” she said.
“Now for your makeup,” said Lucy.
“No makeup,” Aiko said. “Just hair.”
“No, no,” said Lucy. “We’re doing makeup at home.”
“Good luck,” Aiko said, and walked away.
“Thank you,” Jane called after her. She looked at Lucy. “Am I done?” she asked.
Lucy nodded, then helped Jane out of the chair. Jane paid for her haircut at the front desk, where a thin young man dressed all in black said nothing as he handed Jane the credit card slip for her to sign.
“They’re very quiet, aren’t they?” Jane asked as she and Lucy left the salon.
“Aiko is all about minimalism,” said Lucy. “I think she likes you,” she added as they got into Jane’s car. “She doesn’t normally talk so much.”
Jane drove back to her house, making a stop at a drugstore so that Lucy could pick up some cosmetics she declared they needed for the second part of Jane’s transformation. Lucy made Jane wait in the car as she shopped. Jane spent the time looking at herself in the rearview mirror. She still couldn’t believe she was looking at her own reflection, and had to resist the urge to turn around and search the backseat to see if some other woman was sitting there.
