Baby, I done got wise!
"When can ya start?" was her one question of him.
"Kinda feels like I already started!" he replied with a grin, playing the introduction to 'Trabling Back to Georgia' or some other up-tempo hit of the day. "But seriously, I can start anytime you want. When you've fixed it with your man Fortner, you can let me know at the Barber shop unless I happen you see you in here first, of course." he said practically enough.
"You know, this is a lucky break fer me, not sure how it's going to go with the barber shop: there hasn't been one for a while and I guess fellers have got used to shaving themselves and having their wives put a puddin' basin on their heads when they need a haircut." he reckoned.
He looked at her with a professional frown "If you don't mind me asking, do you do your own hair? Looks pretty nice."
"I will talk to him today yet. So lets plan on you starting tomorrow evening, huh, hon?" Caroline smiled that radiant smile of hers.
He wasn't sure how his new barbershop business would fare, a reasonable enough concern. Least he'd have some income to fall back on now that he was the piano player.
"Nah, the place always had a barber and it was a goin' business. Men will come back once they see it's open again. Big thing is make sure you give'em nice haircuts cuz if you don't you may not get repeat customers, you know what I mean?" she pointed out.
He looked at her with a professional frown "If you don't mind me asking, do you do your own hair Looks pretty nice."
Caroline blinked in confusion for a second then chuckled, "Course I do. Best as I recall I was born with it even! My ma sez I was a lighter blonde when I was little but it got this way eventually. Arabella used to wash it for me, now I do it myself. And our cook helps with putting it up sometimes, well mostly the back where I can't see. But thanks."
Baby, I done got wise!
Chubby asked Caroline who did her hair and she blinked in confusion for a second then chuckled, "Course I do. Best as I recall I was born with it even! My ma sez I was a lighter blonde when I was little but it got this way eventually..."
The plump pianist nodded is understanding.
"Yeah, mine used to be a much lighter grey, but it sort of darkened up as I got older." he replied in jocular vein.
"Arabella used to wash it for me, now I do it myself. And our cook helps with putting it up sometimes, well mostly the back where I can't see. But thanks."
A frown crossed Chubby's brow "What, Arabella Mudd?!... the actress?! Golly!" Well put someone's name on a theatre poster and, et voilà! Except for those who already knew her pretty intimately, and weren't fooled by the puff of the Theatre Company's advertisements, Arabella's public image had actually caught up with her own self inflated image of herself - which was some going!
Back to the subject in point - hair, ladies' hair specifically.
"See Caroline, I'm not just complimenting you cause you're pretty and you got me a job: I'm seriously looking for someone who can do ladies' hair: I wouldn't dare even try, I can tell you that for nothing! Course, a great star of the stage like Miss Mudd wouldn't never condescend to do such work, but it can't be any old Thomasina, Dotty or Harriet: I reckon a ladies' hairdresser needs to have the skills, o' course, but also a sort of 'bedside manner', you know, like a doctor: make the lady feel special and convince her the 'do's' gonna suit her, you get my drift?"
Ironically, Arabella was probably about one of the most experienced hairdresser in town: of course, most of the women whose hair she had arranged had been dead at the time, and those kinds of customers were pretty easy to please.
Ivanhoe began to noodle around on the keyboard.
"I reckon there's a lot of money in ladies' hairdressing: I could convert part of the barber's into a salon, just need to find the right woman to do the actual coiffuring." Chubby, it seemed, was something of an entrepreneur.
While the Stardust began churn out a busy hum, Franklin Fortner huddled with Hiram Priest and they mulled over business receipts and the arrangement they had with the brothel down the street.
At one point someone struck up a lively ditty on the piano. Fortner liked that. In fact, it wasn't unheard of for patrons to sit at the upright and delight the crowd .. or not. He looked over his shoulder and saw the large man Priest had recently beat at cards, playing the instrument.
"Better piano player than card player," Hiram managed to say through a mouth of chaw.