Fast Cars and Slow Summer Days - Episode 5

Taking a seat, Mertis’s eyes roamed around the shop. She had been coming to the salon for years and nothing had changed. The phone rang and Josey’s skinny high heels tapped on the yellowed linoleum floor. She covered the phone with her hand, motioned to Mertis and whispered, “It’s Karen Foster, hold on a second.”

“Okay Karen, I’ll see you this afternoon,” she said, disdainfully wrinkling her nose. She hung up and clipped a towel around Mertis’s neck. “Last week at the prayer meeting, did you taste that peach cobbler Karen made? Tasted like toasted cardboard to me.”

Mertis watched as Josey continued to bustle around the shop. She was dressed as usual, stretch Capri pants, three-inch heels, bleached blond hair piled atop her head, red bra strap peeking out of a black, sleeveless v-neck top and her trademark-that incessant snapping of her peppermint gum.

“What we gonna do for you today?” Josey asked, as she twirled Mertis around in the chair. “You ready to try something new? I bet Bud would love to see you all dolled up for once. How about you let me fluff up those curls a bit?”

Mertis shook her head as she thought, If Josey only knew, quite frankly, if anyone really knew. Everyone always saw Bud and her, sitting next to each other in the third pew of Carington Height's church every Sunday morning, and people often commented on their marriage contentment and commitment. Little did they know, it was resentment and resignation that held the two of them together. Bud, excited to see her dolled up? Might as well try and raise the dead, she thought. Thinking of Bud’s infrequent visits to her bedroom and his lack of performance she thought, what a pun on words that was. At that, Mertis smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” asked Josey. “You and Bud got more going on then meets the eye? Who else around here has been married for 36 years, and him still coming home every night? What’s your secret? I swear Mertis, you are gonna have to start opening up more, especially at the prayer meetings. I remember hearing stories about you and Bud being the hottest little items in town. I can’t believe you used to be a cheerleader.” She poked at Mertis’s shoulder and laughed. “Think you can still do the splits?”

Mertis’s mind flowed back in time to the girl she used to remember. Suddenly her mind was filled with colors, laughter, fast cars and slow summer days. Her teenage dreams had lulled her into a fantasy world where every young woman met and fell in love with their prince, snuggled fat babies against their bosoms, and planted red roses along a white picket fence.

This is why she detested coming to Josey’s. Whenever she got around people, it stirred up emotions she had spent years suppressing. At the prayer meetings, she mouthed the prayers, shook her head with the Amen’s and dutifully wrote down prayer requests. But a long time ago, her heart had stopped believing that the Lord had anything for her.

“The splits?” laughed Mertis. “About the widest split I can do anymore, is to climb in and out of the bathtub. Did you say Karen Foster was coming in? How’s she doing lately? Since she rarely comes to the prayer meetings, I never have a chance to talk to her. Sunday mornings I have to high tail it out of church after Bud, so he can be the first in line at the diner for brunch. It’s the fastest I see him move all week.
Stay tuned for the next episode!