Summerween Chapter 4
My mum’s salon was just inland from the waterfront, up a winding little hill that built strong calves when you cycled up as regularly as we did. Although Cola had a harder time on her small BMX than me on my new racer. We left our bikes on the driveway outside the single story building. It looked like a detached cottage, but for the sign outside you would never know it was a salon. The front was lined with windows, each with a perfectly planted window box, which had cheerful flowers in. We entered through the side door with scalloped awning over it.
Inside, we passed the tanning room and waiting area – all decorated in my mum’s two favourite shades of pink – blush and bashful, or light pink and dark pink to the rest of us, to find her blow drying a teenagers hair. Opposite, a row of older ladies sat with their hair under dryers, while two hairdressers were busy cutting hair. Mandy looked up to smile at us. Gail was too busy talking loudly over the dryers to notice us. I whistled along with the music on the radio.
‘A whistling woman or a crowing hen, will come to no good end.’ Said Mandy as she added pins to rollers in a very little old lady’s hair.
‘That’s not how it goes.’ Said the little old lady, shaking her head and making a roller fall out onto the floor.
‘Stay still please Mrs Gardener.’ Mandy, gently pushed Mrs Gardeners head straight forward and held it there so she remained in place.
My mum spotted us lingering in the mirrored wall and turned off her dryer. ‘Cola, love, would you put the kettle on for us and check if anyone wants a tea?’ Cola nodded and filled the kettle and started taking orders. ‘Come here.’ She said to me, grabbing my body and facing me towards her client in the mirror. ‘Now, ignore how frizzy it is, I haven’t styled it since she finished school.’ I blushed in the mirror looking at my big mop of frizzy hair. I hadn’t even noticed it until she said that, the whole salon staring at me in the mirror. ‘Erin, tell Dianne how often we normally wash your hair.’
‘I don’t know.’ A clout round the head with a nearby hairbrush jogged my memory. ‘Every 4 days.’ Dianne’s jaw dropped at this revelation. ‘When Mum does it, it’s rock hard and not going anywhere. Even when I’ve been out on my bike.’
‘You see Dianne, you’ve got to use this gel spray.’ She held a small pump action bottle too close to Dianne’s face for her to focus and waved it round as she was talking. ‘You need to go to the chemist, the one round the corner here.’ She pointed to the window. ‘And ask for this one specifically and tell Robin that I sent you. You can’t get it anywhere else see, just here. Before they brought this out I had a hell of a time maintaining her perm, didn’t I?’
‘Yes and we had to get up at 5am.’ I confirmed.
‘5am! I’d get up and wash her hair over the kitchen sink every morning before school, wouldn’t I?’
‘Every morning.’
‘Perm maintenance really has come a long way in the past few months.’ Mum said, turning to inform everyone in the salon.
‘It’s all the rage now.’ Mandy offered in. She waved me over to the sink to wash my hair.
‘The principles are fundamentally the same – it’s all about the scrunch.’ Mum leaned in and scrunched the girls hair in her hand in exaggerated slow motion. ‘You really have to scrunch until it’s dry, then spray until it doesn’t move.’ A toxic cloud dispersed from the gel spray bottle as the girls hair was secured in place for the next 3-4 days depending on humidity and natural hair oils breaking the seal.
Once the girl had been sent on her way with strict instructions to go directly to the chemist, it was my turn in the chair while Cola served everyone light refreshments.
‘It was a literal ring of fire.’ I said, half sitting up from having the life scrubbed out of my scalp at the washing station.
‘Well last night she said it was lightning.’ Mum told the entire salon.
‘It was lighting then it caught fire.’ I explained. My mum rolled her eyes and a couple of the women giggled.
‘Funny how your brother didn’t see it, though isn’t it?’
‘I saw it too.’ Cola said, jumping to my defence.
‘And Trick doesn’t exactly have a track record of paying attention while he’s driving a car.’ I said, earning another whack with the hair brush.
‘Be nice to your brother.’
‘I’m just saying, there’s a reason he didn’t see it. Mrs Crinkle was nearly struck by the lightning.’
‘What’s this about Mrs Crinkle?’ An older lady at the drying station asked, pushing the dryer hood up so she could hear better.
‘You’re not done yet Jayne.’ Mum said, waving the brush at her now, like she was dealing with a petulant child.
‘I want to know what all this is about.’ Jayne said, leaning in to heat the gossip.
‘Mrs Crinkle has put all Halloween decorations out the front of her house.’ I said to Jayne in the mirror.
‘Has she now?’
‘Yes. And she told my brother it was to celebrate Summerween.’
‘Summerween?’ Jayne looked as if I’d asked her to resit her high school maths exam. ‘I’ve never heard of Summerween before, have you, Alice?’ She nudged the woman next to her at the dryer, who was intensely reading a Woman’s Weekly.
‘What’s that Jayne?’ Alice Asked, peeking out of the hairdryer that was covering her head.
‘Summerween. Have you heard of it?’
‘What are you on about now?’ Alice said loudly, head still in the dryer.
Shaking her roller-covered head, Jayne lifted up Alice’s dryer and said down her ear hole, ‘Halloween in summer.’
‘That’s news to me.’ Alice didn’t look up from her magazine.
‘Sounds foreign.’ Mandy offered her opinion. ‘You know I think her husband was foreign.’
‘Whose husband?’ Alice asked.
‘Mrs Crinkle.’ I said. ‘She’s put all these Halloween decorations out on her front garden.’ They stared at me, faces blank. ‘In summer.’ I tried to explain the conundrum.
‘What, like pumpkins?’ Jayne asked.
‘No, they’re out of season aren’t they.’ Mum chimed in. ‘I don’t know, it’s just some spooky things.’ She was making quick work of snipping away at my dead ends as we talked.
‘It’s all devil stuff and what looks like dead bodies.’ I clarified. No one cared.
‘You know what,’ offered Alice, ‘I think I have heard of that. It’s European.’ She said it so confidently, she almost convinced herself.
‘She’s doing no harm. Nice to see her out and about, she been cooped up indoors ever since her husband died.’ Mum said, scrunching her face to direct some pity at old Crinkle.
‘Isn’t that a shame now?’ Said Alice. All the Ladies nodded in agreement.
‘Don’t you think it’s weird though?’ Cola asked. ‘She never celebrated it before.’ She collected a tip from the saucer of a tea cup put there by Jayne.
‘I bet she celebrated in doors with him, and now he’s not there she’s doing it outdoors.’ Jayne nodded, convinced she’d solved the predicament.
‘You know what? She’d probably love if we all decorated our gardens and celebrated with her.’ Mandy mused.
‘In solidarity.’ Said Alice. The ladies all nodded again.
‘In solidarity with what exactly?’ Asked Cola.
‘Summerween, of course.’ Mum said to her like she was stupid.
‘There’s no such thing.’ I said, getting daggers from the room.
‘I’ve got a broomstick I could put out on my doorstep with some witchy-looking boots.’ Jayne said.
‘I’m going to crochet a pumpkin.’ Alice nodded at my mum. ‘As it’s out of season.’
‘Have you all gone mad?’ I asked, standing up peeved that Cola and I were the only ones who cared Mrs Crinkle was trying to incite Halloween in June.
‘Less of that young Lady.’ Another whack, but this one hurt. She pushed me back down into the seat. ‘The same one begs me every year to go trick or treating.’
‘And you never let me.’ The room went quiet. Trick or treat was a sore point in Port Eventide and generally considered begging.
‘Loves Halloween she does. October’s her favourite month, isn’t it?’ She held her hairbrush up in a fist at me in the mirror, one eye bulging.
‘And who doesn’t love Halloween?’ Chimed Mandy. ‘Erin, I bet Mrs Crinkle would love if you decorated your garden too.’
‘You’re right.’ Mum said. ‘Nice old lady like that, dealing with a recent bereavement. Poor soul. Yes, I think we will be decorating our garden and celebrating Summerween. You two can put the decorations up.’ She pointed the brush at me.
‘But… ’ I started. She rose the fist again and I knew I was defeated.
‘Get up you’re done.’ She said to me.
‘But I still need scrunching and styling.’
‘You’re a big girl, do it yourself.’ Her tone was that get out of my sight one she saved just for me.
‘But I don’t know how to do it.’
‘Cola love, take a seat. As you’ve been so good helping me out in the salon today you deserve a haircut.’ Cola hesitated. ‘It’s the least I can do, you’ve practically worked here today.’ Mandy nodded to her it was alright, so she took a seat and let my mum cut her hair.
‘Jayne, you need to get back under that dryer.’ Mum warned. ‘You’ll have thrown my timer off.’ Jayne receded back under, but with one ear out so she didn’t miss any of the gossip. ‘Toffee apples, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll make a big tray of them.’
‘Oh I love toffee apples.’ Alice said.
‘I think Summerween could really take off, I mean who wouldn’t want to celebrate Halloween at the start of the summer instead?’ Said Mandy.
‘But it wouldn’t be as spooky.’ I argued, bent over sideways scrunching my wet hair in the mirror with little success.
‘Says the girl who claims to have seen a flaming lightning bolt.’ Said mum. The women laughed at me.
‘Hey, all the best stories start on a dark and stormy night.’ Said Jayne, winking at me.
‘I might even do a party.’ Said Mum.
‘That would be lovely.’ Alice beamed. ‘With bobbing for apples?’
‘Oh yes, all of that kind of thing. We’ll have to think up some party games.’
‘Will we need to come in fancy dress?’ Mandy asked.
‘Of course. It’s tradition.’
Cola and I took the higher ground and kept our mouths shut while the salon continued to descend into the madness of Summerween. These Ladies might have thought Mrs Crinkle was just a lonely old lady, but we knew something was rotten in the state of Denmark, starting with their odd tradition of Summerween. Which turned out to be much more sinister than we could have imagined.