"Welcome.. hey, long time no see.." She greeted, and was surprised to see the man who stepped in.
"Yeah.. been awhile... how's business?" I sat on the chair she made up for me, realizing I've asked a question which I shouldn't have asked by looking at the emptiness of the salon.
And she did not reply my question. Saved the awkwardness, indeed.
She covered my body with a white cloth with the word 'Schwarzkopf', get the rest of her tool done, looked at me in the mirror,
"So," with a very pleasant smile, she continued,
"Race? or jungle?"
********************************
She's Wendy, my 1st hair stylist when I started working in KL, and unlike the rest of the salon I dropped by to get my hair cut, Wendy's salon made me come back for a few times, for a very interesting reason besides Wendy's being such a cute and pretty girl..
Wendy has been my royal audience to listen to my mountaineering, jungle adventures and of course, my races.
*******************************
I looked back to her in the mirror, "..this one," I put on a serious face expression,"... is for my intensive training.. "
"Wu~~~~~ intensive~~~" she copied my serious face expression and acted on with a pondering gesture, "..sounds tough.. .. how should I cut it? Let me see..... hmmm ..."
.. and not even 10 seconds, we both laughed out loud.
"So, short?" She checked for confirmation.
"Yup, go short, but you know what's wrong with my ear, right?"
"... I know, I always wanted to cut it off.." She started to work on my side-burn, the sound of the razor started to tickle my ear, "so no race for this month? only training?"
"I've just finished 2 races last week... the first one we climbed up KL-Tower..."
The sound of her razor suddenly paused, "... what??" she looked at me in the mirror, "KL Tower? THAT KL Tower?"
I nodded. She showed a 'OK' face expression, switch on her razor and continued her work, "..but you guys ran up to the top of the hill beneath the tower then took the lift up to the top of the tower, I supposed.. .. or you guys finished at the main entrance of the Tower? " she mumbled.
"No.. we ran up to the top of the tower, 2058 stair cases, no lift. "
The sound of razor paused again.
*********************************************************
**********************************
"So how was it?" Wendy the scissor-hand started to show off her skill on my head.
"..yet to receive the official timing.. but I felt better than last year... and I think timing was about the same..."
"What was your timing last year"
"About 20 minutes."
I felt she paused for half a second before she took a deep breath, ".. so big prize you won then, huh?"
"No," I peeked at her quickly, knowing she's going to get shocked again, "with that kind of timing, my position was like 120th."
Zass~~ she just chopped off that little piece of my hair that she clipped with her fingers, ".. so what's the timing for the 1st place?"
".. I don't know.." It is around 13 minutes, but I dare not to get her shacked again as the scissors are still in her hand.
************************************
"Short enough?" She hold my head and lifted a little bit, ensuring me to look straight into the mirror, "huh?"
"hmmm..." I looked at my new hairstyle -- it's my standard type of new haircut -- with my two pieces of astro plate or antenna or wings or wind handles or whatever you want to name it slightly popping out.
"You want shorter?" Wendy seemed to know how to read her customer's mind, ".. you sure? Crew cut might not suit you, you that that right?"
"..then no crew cut for me, just a little bit shorter.. go ahead, for April."
"April? What's with April's training? Like a centralized training type of thing or what? Coool~"
" Nah! Just need to buckle up -- I have to train harder now. I'm not improving.. "
"...hmm... how was your second race? A night race you said?"
"Yup, Energizer Night Race.."
************************************
******************************
"Your team won the 9th place? WOW!" Wendy was impressed by the achievement made by my team 'Run KOMA Run' in 4x10km relay.
"..This is a great team... sometime I think I hadn't given out the best for my team.."
"..but I can't cut any shorter lah bro..." Wendy smiled. I appreciated her sense of humor, something hanging inside me to think of me myself being in the running team with all my running buddies.
Wendy tapped on my shoulder when I fell in deep thought. I looked at her in the mirror, she showed a 'let's get your hair washed' hand sign.
************************************
I was starring at my new image in the mirror while she use a hair dryer to dry my hair. I saw my 2 pieces of astro plate finally popped out from both side of my cheek bone and I felt like looking at a kiddo me, it's just that this one is much more skinnier and pale.
"You should eat more... more handsome if fatter.." Wendy put a non-remarkable remark. I responded with a smile.
"I hope this is short enough to suit your training needs.." she said, "..and don't disappoint your team.." She smiled. I smiled back, thinking that that was another non-remarkable remark that she used to end a conversation with a customer..
..but I was wrong when she continued and said,
"... my senior in our styling team always say this to us, 'believe that you are in a great team and with you in it that make the team greater' ... I hope this also work to a running team.."
She smiled and bid farewell. I waved my hand and left, with a warmth-filled heart.
"Believe that you're in a great team, and with you in it that make the team greater.."
