Mr B's Barbershop

Brandon J King my father owned a barbershop that was on the corner of the street. It was frequently visited by people in the neighbourhood and a few people from other neighbourhoods. The barbershop was passed down by my grandfather who built it in the mid-nineteen hundreds. "This place is more than a barbershop son. This is a meeting place for our extended family," I never understood what my dad meant at that moment. I only understood it a bit later in my life. My father gave jobs to those struggling. Missy and Trisha were single mother's just trying to provide for their kids. Darnel and Randol were ex-convicts that were turned away by everyone except my father. My mom helped out as well. She worked the cash register and at times helped women do their nails. The barbershop was a place to get news on the latest gossip and a place to catch up with friends and family. My sister, Rain and I helped every day after school and on the weekends. We swept up the hair and ran around getting the adults what they needed. I knew everyone in the neighbourhood and they knew me. Everywhere I went they would greet me. "Hello, Milo." "Hey, Milo. How're your pops and the shop?" "Milo my man," I always felt like a celebrity and the best part about having a father who owned a barbershop. I got to have the coolest haircuts. I would walk into school every week with a whole new cut and all my friends would be impressed. Then they would beg their parents to go to my father's barbershop and get the same cut like mine. But then one day something horrible happened. My dad was diagnosed with Lung cancer and we had caught it too late. I don't even know how it happened. One moment my dad was standing the barbershop laughing with the guys as they discussed the football game and the next he just lay in bed breathing through a tube. I hated it. Seeing my happy father struggle and force a smile always. The day dad died my life changed. I stopped having the hottest cuts and barely cared what do with my hair. Because of the hospital bills we became swimming in debt.

I noticed my mother began talking on the phone more after my father's passing. She seemed to argue at times and cuss at the person on the phone. Other times she would cry and plead the with the person on the other side. Missy or Trisha would take care of us at night while my mother left. I knew that she had gotten a job at the diner a block away from our house. I found her uniform in the laundry once when she had fallen asleep while doing it. I never asked her why though. Mom started working more and she was always tired and at night when she thought we were asleep I could hear her crying. I know she missed dad. I missed him too.

I came from school to work at the barbershop and it was dead silent. Usually, there was music playing from the radio, the tv was on showing an old football game and everyone was talking. I found my mother in the back crying. "Mom, what's going on?" I asked her, she pulled me into her arms and cried on my shoulder "I'm sorry baby, but we might lose the shop." she sobbed and I felt the wind knocked out of me for the second time in my life. "No mom we can't. Dad loved this place. I love this place," my eyes were burning with unshed tears "THere's nothing we can do baby. Unless we can raise 50,000 dollars we will lose the shop," I couldn't do anything to save my dad, but I won't let the one thing that meant the world to him die with him. After the talk with my mother, I devised a plan to save the shop. We were given a period of six months to raise the money or lose the shop. I got to work. Using the knowledge I obtained from my father I started doing my classmates hair after school at a park nearby. The money I made I put into a shoebox and hid it under my bed close to the wall. My sister joined me and she began braiding girls and doing their nails. We put our earnings together and saved them. "Hey, Milo my grandpa needs a cut. But he can't leave the house mind coming over. I promise to pay extra." a classmate Shawn asked and I agreed all for the shop, right? Soon I began doing house calls. They paid me extra to ride my bike to their houses and give them hair cuts. Rain also began house calls. We weren't only servicing our classmates, but their parents and families. They also gave me other jobs like get their shopping done for them and deliver things at the post office. The people that helped me were the same people that had their lives changed by my father. Two weeks before the deadline I began selling anything valuable since I had only a thousand dollars left to cover. Two days before Rain and I counted the money in the box and we had enough. While our mother sat in the kitchen gazing off in the distance we took the little shoebox to her. "Mom, we have a surprise for you," "Thank you, baby," she took the box. Rain and I grinned as she opened the box. Her eyes widened and she looked shocked. "Where did you get this?" I explained all that we did and the people that helped us. She cried after that, but they were happy tears. My father's shop was saved and I planned on taking over when I grew up. That's when I understood my father's words. Mr B's Barbershop would continue to be a stop for an extended family.