WEBVTT

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And let's see what we have here.

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Another short prose piece.

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"Reinhardt, 12-year-old barber
dropped my mother's sewing

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scissors onto the
floor and ran out

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the house leaving me in the
kitchen blinking the small eyes

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of a dull chicken.

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My hair lay in the dish towel
wrapped around my shoulders

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and on the floor
with a few renegade

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strands floating
through the air.

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I got up and looked
in the hallway mirror.

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My new haircut had all
kinds of weird angles.

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It parted on the right, the
left, and even down the center.

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My scalp was bluish.

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There was so much hair gone my
nose was huge as an evil root.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'm going to get that goddamn
Okie, I promised myself.

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I swept the floor and snapped
the towel on the back porch.

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I chased down some
floating hair strands

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and went outside
to look for him.

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The sun glared on the
asphalt. The street

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was empty of dogs and kids.

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Mrs. Prince was whacking a
dust mop on the holly bush.

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I walked down to
Romaine playground

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which except for the poor--

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except for around the
pool, look deserted.

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I borrowed Caveman's
swimming trunks."

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Caveman was a guy in our street.

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"He was through
swimming for the day

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so I decided to postpone
my hunt for Reinhardt

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and jumped into the public
pool of 50 Mexican kids

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beating blue water white.

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My school friend
Alfonso swam crocodile

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style, his mouth
and nose underwater

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but his eyes on the surface.

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He stood up and
asked about my head.

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I explained it was a new
haircut and he ran a finger

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through one of my parts.

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I pushed him away and he
returned to his crocodile swim.

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I stayed most of that
afternoon on the bottom

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of the pool avoiding my
brother and sister who

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had shown up with towels
over their shoulders.

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I liked the sound of kicking
legs and the dreamlike sight

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of other kids holding their
breath underwater with eyes

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open and seaweed
hair wavering about.

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I came up for air, looked
around at the racket,

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and sank once more to the bottom
of the deep end of the pool

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where the water was cleaner
from not being touched.

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Exhausted and red eyed
from the chlorine,

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I got out after
two hours, changed

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in the gray shadows
of the men's room

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and returned the swimming
trunks to Caveman

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who was playing ping
pong with a crushed ball.

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My brother Rick had already
dried from swimming,

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looked at my haircut
and asked what happened.

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I ignored him and played
Sorry and then Foursquare.

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Finally a night of hunger
in my stomach I returned

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home racing from a patch--

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from patch to patch of shade.

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Like a dummy I had
forgotten my shoes.

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I had also forgotten
about my haircut.

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Mom was at the stove
with steamed up glasses,

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refrying beans with
one hand on her hip.

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Over dinner the fog
cleared from her lenses

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and she asked, what
happened to your hair?

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[LAUGHTER]

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I touched the top of my
head, shocked mouth open

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to reveal bits of
half-chomped tortilla.

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I remembered Reinhardt
chuckling and the hair

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parachuting to the floor.

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I remembered the cold
scissors around my ears.

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Mom puckered her mouth
into a bud of angry lines.

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She ripped the tortilla and
said she would fix me later.

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After dinner she cut
the rest of my hair

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in the back yard lawn,
yanged roughly at each snip

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and left me as--

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left me as bald as a belly
of a boneless chicken.

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I looked in the mirror
and scared myself.

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Hate was in my
heart and I imagined

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Reinhardt sitting
in his own kitchen

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with a towel around his neck.

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I felt better only
after Mother said

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we were having Kool-Aid
ice cubes for dessert.

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I sucked on three cherry
flavored cubes in the backyard

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and I did cartwheels
with my sister.

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I tried to forget about my hair.

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My palms tangled when
I raked them across--

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raked them over the bristles.

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My brother didn't
tease me because he

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was feeling too sad about
his girlfriend moving away.

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My stepfather, home
late from work and red

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faced from drinking
at Uncle Tom's Cabin,

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grinned at me as he
held onto the wall.

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He said he liked my hair because
it made me look like a marine.

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He dug into his
pocket for some change

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and handed me a nickel,
three pennies, and then

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his nail clipper.

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His eyes floated in alcohol.

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He looked at the
nail clipper and said

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I've got one like that.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Before I got into bed, I curled
30 pound weights in the garage

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under the halo of a 20
watt bulb feeling strong

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because a ribbon of sweat
began to run from my armpits.

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I was sure that if my mother
were trapped under a car wheel,

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I could save her
with my leg strength.

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I stood in front of the mirror.

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My head didn't look that bad.

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I was as lean as Mrs. Prince's
dust mop but strong I thought.

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I made a shiny muscle
in my right arm

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and bared my teeth all
the way to my gums.

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I ran a hand
through my baldness.

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For three weeks smooth
was my favorite feeling."

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OK.

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[APPLAUSE]

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