The Barber's Chair

By Nana Boateng

The Barber's Chair the place all men go to begin their interview process to start their weekend off to begin a road trip to get ready for that wedding to begin a new life on campus. The barber does not just give one a cut, he is forever the beginning of any event in a gentleman's life. This has been a barber's place in society since time immemorial, however few people know of the barber's other role a purveyor of tales. Some might label him a psychologist, a soothsayer or a psychiatrist, but that most of the time is not the case. You see, a barber is probably privy to more tales than any of the aforementioned professionals because he does not have to ask to receive. Anyone who sits in a barber's chair has a story to tell and these stories are a byproduct of not only forgetting that someone is indeed listening, but a willingness to share with someone who is detached from the situation and will not be judgmental. These stories are also as diverse as the people telling them: bankers, servicemen, janitors, CEOs, lawyers, doctors, Hispanics, Caucasians, African Americans, Indians, Africans, you name it- they all have a story to tell. These are their stories

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781503512757

Book preview

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Listen, I can’t just sit here and not say anything. She comes over every weekend, I look at her in her face and smile. We have lunch, go out, then dinner. My wife suspects nothing, and it has been over 6 months of this. I know this will be devastating, but is it really ok to sit back and play pretend rather than speak up? I know it’s her sister and I do not want to be that guy who started the controversy, but how do you not tell your wife that her sister has had two abortions and you only found out about it by accident through an overheard conversation? They are the closest things to each other, but she refuses to tell her out of disappointment and am I really going to come between that? Will she be mad at me forever for withholding it from her for 6 months? Will her sister quit coming around and ruin this perfect sanctimonious relationship we have going on? I don’t know if I’m even the right person to tell her this because it’s not my issue, nor my place. But then again, can a man keep all these secrets from his wife?

We’ve never had secrets between us before and it’s starting to take a toll on our relationship. She has recently begun to take notice of how I react when the sister comes around, and I always tell her it’s her imagination, but at what point does the imagination become reality and I can’t cop out anymore? At what point does she stop being suspicious and sit me down and ask me to explain my behavior? At what point do I say, Your sister got pregnant years ago while she was out of the country but had an abortion, but is just too scared to tell you because of how strongly you feel about that. (Momentary silence…) Sorry man, I know u called me but that just tells you how I get on this topic. Anyway, I’ll hit u later, I don’t know what I’ll do but I’ll keep you posted.

Shine-Eyed Girl

They love me now. They always want to come visit, they always want us to come visit them…it’s kinda crazy. Mrs. Wright is the nicest woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around aside from my mother. Well she’s the nicest now, wasn’t like that before I became the me you see now. Yo, I swear if she had her way, I would’ve been shipped off to a war and away from her daughter or something. All she kept telling her was how I had no ambition, how I had no money, how I was going to amount to nothing, and besides who wants to see you with a black guy anyway. Yea, she said that, I kid you not. Now that I bought her the house, she has no complaints. I’m her favorite son in-law all of a sudden and she loves hanging out with us because I pay for it all. We do the brunches, the weekenders to the Hamptons, the family shopping sprees…all of that. I honestly don’t think if I didn’t love my wife, I would have put up with them. I know they’re not racist, but to give their daughter the best, they’d pretend to be and she realized that as well. Mr. Wright was never vocal about wanting me out of her life, but Mrs. Wright never held back. They sacrificed so much for her and her future deserved to be brighter than what I was looking to give her back in the day. If that meant telling her she, and no one else wanted to see her with a black guy then so be it, but she also did condemn all the other guys that came into the picture that she felt was not good enough, so I can’t take that much offense, right? (Barber giggles…)

I’ll tell you what though, money can’t buy you a happy home, but it sure does make things easier. It has kept the in-laws off my back. I’ve been able to give my wife all she ever asked for, we live in a nice home and the ability to be a provider has never made me feel more of a man than I do now. It makes outsiders even more accepting of our interracial relationship. I’ll tell you what, when you don’t live comfortably, everything is harder to accept for some people. They start to look at everything you do through a foggy lens. You can’t be a happy interracial couple when you’re poor. You cannot have certain illnesses when you’re poor. You cannot have a certain amount of children when you’re poor. It’s more about the realities of the world than anything, but money really does make life easier. You get to live on your own terms, and as Mrs. Wright will tell you, you’re more accepting of people and their shortcomings, whatever you deem them to be.

The Odd Man Out

I don’t think I’ll finish high school. It’s not for a lack of trying, but motherfuckers keep trying me man. Like every day it’s something new. As soon as I enter the school, someone has something to say. If it’s not how different I dress from everyone else, it is how I don’t like school events or how I keep to myself and don’t really participate in class. Shit, if I don’t have anything to say, I just shut up, what’s wrong with that? But anyway, that’s not even the main problem. I’m a junior now and in the three years of being at that damn school, I’ve never been on a single date. I know some of the girls like me, but they look at me as if I’m crazy ’cause all the cool guys make smart comments about me, and they follow. So what if I have tattoos and I dress in nonconventional clothing? So what if my parents are looked at around town like model citizens and I don’t measure up? What is a freaking model citizen anyway, do I have to start walking around like Pee Wee just to get some respect? Rock a freaking suit and bow-tie? Shit no one in school even does that and they get attention from the girls.

I’m 17 and I never got laid, that’s not normal. I know dudes who got with chicks at like 13. What am I doing wrong? I think I’ll just drop out before my senior year comes around ’cause it’s not worth it, I can’t graduate high school a virgin. It’s the dumbest thing to go to college and you never been with a girl. No girl will definitely talk to me then and I have enough girl problems as it is. The only girl I started talking to was this one girl back in freshman year, until her brother threatened to beat her up if she was caught with that weirdo that dresses like a freak so she stopped. She never told me the reason why though. I found out through a mutual friend, but what was I gonna do about it, you know. Being white isn’t as easy as people think it is. Just ’cause of my skin color everybody thinks you automatically supposed to have it easy. That’s not true. Look at me. I’m good looking, I have good grades, my parents are rich, I get everything I want, but I can’t get no girls. Why? I mean why? It doesn’t make any sense. My breath stinks? What is it, ’cause I know I shower every day and all these YSL and Carolina Herrera colognes don’t come cheap and they smell awesome, ok. I’m no weirdo, if anything they’re weird for them all dressing the same and looking like stupid robots. What’s the point of looking the same anyway, I’m over this. I’ll just drop out and work for my dad, he got some cute girls at his job. I’m the boss’s son, they’ll have to pay attention to me. My childhood is over anyway, I’m ready to be a grown up, so I’m sure the older women have more sense.

Caste Away

I came here to the US when I was like 7 I think. In India, my family had a lot of land and money. Everybody was nice to us and they treated us better than most people. But I never knew why, until I came to