"Excuse me," I heard, and turned to my right.
An elderly lady with tightly styled blue-gray hair wanted me to step back so she could have more room for her and her dog to pass. To me the dog resembled a miniature hippopotamus. It had loose skin in thick wrinkled folds, especially on its forehead. The dog looked just as arrogant and as impatient as its owner. All she had to do was tighten up a bit on the leash, and she would have plenty of room to go by.
"There's plenty of room for you to go by." I told her.
She pulled her head back and threw me a hard look. Her witchlike face screwed into a tiny wrinkled prune. I heard her "Humph" as she struggled to get the ugly dog closer. Finally she was able to walk around me. "Tourists," I heard her mutter disdainfully. The dog glanced back as if it understood and had the same disgust.
"You can get a ticket for that," I heard, and turned to see a handsome young man sitting
comfortably in the driver's seat of a Mercedes convertible similar to the one Roger's mother owned. The man had a unique shade of gold-brown hair cut perfectly with a wave in the front. In the afternoon sunlight his cerulean eyes actually gleamed. He wore a light blue sports jacket with an open shirt collar. I could see his gold necklace,
"I didn't do anything illegal." I told him.
You did here. You blocked the passage of a Chinese shar-pei. Grounds for arrest and
imprisonment.," he added with a small smile on his perfectly shaped lips.
"I thought it was a baby hippo," I said, and he laughed.
He turned away quickly as a woman came out of the beauty salon.
"What's so funny. Kirby?" she asked.
"Nothing. Muffy," he said. I thought she looked old enough to be his mother, but he looked at her flirtatiously. You look ravishing."
"Think so?" she said, turning to catch her reflection in the window, "I let him darken my color and snip just a little more than usual."
"It's perfect," he said, and glanced at me. Something in his face told me he didn't mean a word of it. It was as if he and I shared a secret. He smiled and got out of the car quickly to open the door for her. As he came back around he looked at me again. "Remember, be careful." he teased.
When he got back into the car he leaned over to kiss the woman on the lips. Then he started the engine and drove off.
I continued down the sidewalk, looking in the windows of all the shops. Most of the clothing and shoes I saw on display had no price tags, but I could just smell how expensive everything was. I saw many different famous designer names. The people, mostly women. I saw emerging from these stores all seemed comfortable in their luxurious outfits, shoes, and jewelry, each one looking as if she was frying to outglitter the next.
I did go into Saks and look at some clothing. After that I wandered around, looking at the ritzy hotels, garden restaurants, and designer shops, circling until I found my way back to the salon. Mommy wasn't finished yet, so I sat and thumbed through some magazines. Finally I heard her laugh and looked up. My breath caught, and for a moment I couldn't speak. She had permitted Rene to cut her hair shorter than I had ever seen it. I almost didn't recognize her.
Mommy's hair was always something Daddy loved. Because of that. I resisted cutting my own. He even enjoyed it when she tied it in a French knot or, for fun, wove two pigtails. He often told her that her hair was like woven silk. Many times I saw him run his fingers through it with such pleasure on his face.
"How do you like it?" she asked me, turning so I could see it from every angle. It was clipped to just above the nape of her neck, and the sides were drawn up sharply, curling. The style resembled some of the ones I had seen on other women in the shops and on the sidewalks of Worth Avenue.
I shook my head. "It's awful," I said.
Everyone around her stopped chaffing. Rene raised his eyebrows.
"It's the latest style, honey." she explained. "I'm too old now to wear my hair the way I was wearing it. It's all right for a teenager, but..."
"You told Daddy you would never cut your hair," I reminded her. "I heard you."
"Daddy's gone, honey," she said softly.
"Not to me." I fired back at her, and charged out of the salon. I didn't know where I was going. I just walked quickly up the sidewalk, my arms folded under my breasts, my head down. I nearly walked into two women busily chatting and not watching where they were going. They gasped. and I shifted on my right foot in time to avoid slamming into them.
"My God!" one of them shouted after me. "Can't you watch where you're walking? Young people today," she muttered.
I paused at a fountain and caught my breath to stare at the half-moon-shaped tiled trough with a silver spigot that provided fresh water. A moment later an elderly man brought his poodle to it. and I watched the dog drink. The man smiled at me.
"Nothing too good for my baby." he said.
Expensive dogs were obviously very important to people in Palm Beach. I thought.