Black Beauty

Scene 4: The Good Stuff

Ashely sat on the chair in the small dining room and tapped her French manicured fingernails on the wooden table. Cup rings and heat stains were permanently stamped on the table. The dining room seemed to be an afterthought to the builders and the table and four chairs barely fit into the small space. She looked at her the gold-plated watch and exhaled deeply. Although it felt like it had been an eternity, only one minute had passed. At the salon, she had Chantel and the other hairstylists. Here she didn't even have Crazy Jade since she'd run off to do God knows what? Why had the kids come to Jade anyway? Was she some type of medicine woman on top of everything else?

She bought her hands to scratch the inevitable burning and tingling that followed every relaxer, but stopped midway. Her hair and scalp might be able to take the toxic substance, but she wasn't sure about her unprotected hands. To occupy herself, she started tapping the table again and ignoring the burn. Beauty is pain her mother had told her once.

Two minutes later, Ashley stood and walked the tan cheap fiberboard bookshelf that separated the kitchen from the living room. She trailed an index finger along the children's books on the top and second shelf. Their frayed edges and discolored covers made the books look as if they were well read.

She pulled Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein from the second shelf. It had been her favorite book as a kid. It was filled with goofy pictures and every other poem was sarcastic, dark and humorous. Just like life.  

I guess I should start reading to Ebony, Ashley thought as she flipped through the yellowed pages. Maybe if she paid her daughter more attention she'd stopped clinging to Cora so tight.

Five minutes.

Ashley replaced the poetry book, bent down to the bottom shelf, and grabbed the only book without a title on the outside. Crazy Jade had used an old, brown paper bag as a cover. It smelled older than the other books on the shelf.  She coughed as the old, musty smell attacked her senses. She knew the paper was expensive because of the way it bent as she turned every page. And the edges were not straight but uneven. It was as if the paper was handmade. Unpronounceable hand written words filled the book and she couldn't tell if it was written in another language or if it was code. I wonder which one of these is the skin whitening cream Cora had bragged about.  Maybe one of these had the recipe for the relaxer. If she could get someone to translate it, maybe she could make her own relaxer and save herself a few hundred dollars a month.

She looked outside. A plastic Wal-mart bag blew past the door and she didn't hear anything except distant laughter from the playground. There was nothing to indicate anyone was near the apartment. With her heart beating out of her chest, she put the book in her purse and with shaking, clumsy fingers she zipped it close after she made sure she put the money she owed Jade in her back pocket.

Eight minutes.

She sat back at the table and willed her hands to stop shaking. Stealing from a woman named Crazy Jade was stupid. But if she didn't want someone to take it, the woman shouldn't have left it on her bookshelf with a stranger in her house and the door wide open. As the time ticked away as she tapped her nails on the table, Ashley thought of all the reasons why Jade didn't need the book anymore and she relaxed.

Ten minutes. Ashley almost thought to wash it out, but Chantel had always left the relaxer in for twenty minutes. Naw, Ashley's hair was too nappy for only ten minutes, she decided. She needed at least fifteen minutes to get her hair to stay straight. Where the hell was Crazy Jade though? For $350 she shouldn't have to wash her own hair.

At fifteen minutes and giving up on Jade coming back, Ashley stepped into the kitchen. She had been in dozens of apartments growing up, but this was the smallest kitchen she'd ever seen. The sink stood directly across from the electric stove. She could barely stand in the kitchen without both hips touching the other side of the kitchen.

She washed her hair using the gloves, shampoo and conditioner Jade had left on the kitchen counter next to the blue dishwashing liquid and dirty Mickey Mouse cups. As the lukewarm water and shampoo cleansed her scalp, she ran her hands through her hair expecting to run across tangles and naps. But her fingers maneuvered seamlessly through her hair. Zero pain. "Wow this is better than what she had before," Ashley said out loud, wishing there were someone in the room she could share her excitement with.

After shampooing and conditioning three times, taking every step to remove all the relaxer, she put the towel on her head and stood. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked down.  Straight wet black strands of hair filled the sink. She was hardly able to see the dull metal basin underneath.

"Damn, I guess I shouldn't have left it in for so long."