Continued, Life A Love Story
Flo is sitting out on her porch in late morning with her eyes closed, inhaling the scent of the lilacs that grow along the foundation of her house.
All her life, whenever she smelled the lilacs of May, she would think, Lilacs are my favorite flower.
Then here would come the hussy peonies and she would think they were her favorites.
Then the bearded irises, with their ruffly purple petals and furry little tongues.
(“Hold on,” Ruthie had once said, out in Flo’s yard and inspecting her stand of irises.
“Do these guys drink water like a dog?”) Then the deep pink trellis roses came, and then they were Flo’s favorite.
Oh, they were all her favorites, nearly every flower she came across, whether in her yard or a neighbor’s.
She hears a footstep and opens her eyes to see Madeline, the mailperson, dropping some things in the tin bucket Flo keeps on the steps to prevent Madeline from having to come all the way up the steps and across the porch.
No need for that. Sometimes, on hot days, she leaves a bottle of cold water in the bucket for Madeline; on cold days she might leave an insulated cup of cocoa with many, many marshmallows.
“Good morning, Florence,” Madeline says.
“Morning, Madeline. How are you on this beautiful day?”
Madeline raises her chin. “I’ll tell you how I am. It’s good news, how I am!”
“What happened?” Flo asks, and then, “Wait. Do you want a drink of something?”
“No, I’ve got to make good time today. Because as soon as my workday is done, I’m being whooshed off to a surprise vacation.
It’s Bobby’s and my thirtieth anniversary, and he’s taking me away for two weeks.
He said I didn’t have to do a thing; he’d even pack my bag for me, to which I of course had to say, ‘That’s okay, I’ll take care of that. ’ He doesn’t need to see my personals.”
“Keep the mystery, huh?” Flo says, and Madeline gives Flo a sideways glance and nods.
“But a surprise!” Flo says. “What fun!”
“Well, it’s supposed to be a surprise. But Bobby doesn’t hear so well, and when he talks on the phone it’s like he’s using a bullhorn.
The other day he told me he was going down to his workbench in the basement to fix something, but I overheard him tell my sister that he and I are going to the Grand Canyon and could she take care of Boodles—he’s our cocker spaniel.
Oh, I’ll act all surprised, I guess I will be surprised, really, how can you see a thing like the Grand Canyon right there in front of you and not be all…
Well, I believe I’ll be amazed. Amazed! It’s something I’ve always wanted to see, and I’d just about given up ever being able to do it.
But I forgot something, which is that as long as you’re alive, you should never give up on those things you want to do in life. You ever seen the Grand Canyon, Flo?”
“Never have. Only in pictures.”
“You ever want to?”
“Oh, sure. But there were things I wanted to do more. I wanted to go to Africa. And also Japan. But I never did.” Also Paris, in a way. But also not Paris; she had her reasons.
Madeline stands with one hand on her hip, appraising Flo. She’s a beautiful woman, dreadlocks down to her butt; Flo has always admired how she looks. “You still got time for some things,” Madeline says. “What about New Orleans? You ever go to New Orleans?”
“Nope,” Flo says, and she’s starting to feel a little blue. But maybe there are some things she’s always wanted to do that she still could do.
“Have you ever had a pedicure?” Flo asks Madeline, and Madeline smiles broadly.
“Every other Saturday, ten a.m. Standing appointment. Wouldn’t miss it.
Once Bobby even got a pedicure with me, but he was sweating bullets the whole time; he couldn’t wait to get out of that salon in case someone should walk by and see him in there, a giant man sitting on that pink chair reading Star magazine.
But men do get pedicures now, it’s no big thing.
And Bobby did admit later that it felt real good, soaking his feet in that little Jacuzzi.
Don’t you love those little foot Jacuzzis? ”
“I’ve never had a pedicure,” Flo says.
“Never?”
“Nope. I guess I always thought they were a waste of money. I figured I could surely paint my own toenails.”
“Oh, Flo, you should get one. Put it on your bucket list.”
“I think I’m too old.”
“Ain’t no such thing! I seen women using walkers and looking half dead come in there, and they look a far sight better going out, too, ’cause their spirits been lifted.
One woman I saw last time I went, she was real old, and she got glittery gold toes and she was thrilled with how it looked; she made Diep take a picture and send it to her grandson.
And that woman also had dyed red hair, red like a crayon. You ever dye your hair, Flo?”
“Never did. My, I’m beginning to feel boring.”
“Well, you could go and get your hair dyed and get a pedicure, too.”
Flo considers this. “I spect I could.”
“What color would you dye your hair?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’d just get one of those colored streaks, you ever seen those on old ladies, just the one streak?”
“Yes, I have. And I have seen tattoos on old ladies, too. One got a full-sleeve parrot!”
“Hmmm,” Flo says. “I’ll pass on the tattoo.”
“I’m sure with you there. You know, in a magazine, I saw a picture of a bride pretty as could be, except her neck and chest were all tattooed!
I have to think, what if she comes to regret that?
You can’t just erase tattoos. You have to go in and get tortured all over again to get them off.
” She looks at her watch. “I’d best get going.
” She starts down the steps, but turns to say, “Next time I see you, I want to see your polished toes and your dyed hair.”
“Uh-huh,” Flo says. She wishes she would do that, she does. She rocks back and forth, back and forth, thinking.
Well, hell. Flo gets up and goes inside and calls Lotus Salon, two blocks away.
Inside her is a jangly happiness that feels almost like she’s nervous.
But she’s not nervous. Lo and behold there has been a cancellation for 11:00 today, and Flo can get both things done.
It just goes to show you. It just goes to show you all kinds of things.
When Flo walks into Lotus, the receptionist, a young Vietnamese woman, looks up. “May I help you?”
Flo says she called earlier, she is the 11:00.
“Oh, yes,” the woman says. “I’m Binh. You want a pedicure and hair color?”
Now Flo isn’t so sure. But she nods, and Binh says, “Okey-dokey, we’ll do the pedicure first. You want to pick out a color?”
“Say what?” Flo cups a hand around one ear.
Binh gestures to a wall of polish. Why, there must be over one hundred to choose from!
Flo goes over to look and finds a lilac color; now, there’s an idea. She holds it up and turns around to show Binh. “What do you think?” she asks, and Binh says, “Oh, that’s a good one, very popular this time of year.”
Flo looks at some of the other colors and sees a bright yellow. Well, isn’t that cheerful! “What about this one?” she asks Binh.
“That’s good, too,” Binh says.
“Now, Binh. Tell me true. Do you just say they’re all good?” Flo asks.
“No. Tangerine Dream, I hate that one. But some people like it so much! I say do what your heart tells you.”
Flo gets an idea. “What if I asked you to do one foot lilac and one yellow?”
“I can do that. Also I can alternate toes.”
“Alternate toes, you say.”
“Yes.”
Flo nods. “Let’s do that. And what about if we add even another color?”
“Whatever you want!” Binh says, and Flo says never mind, just the lilac and the yellow alternating. There will be spring right on her feet. Why, she had no idea this would be so much fun! She starts to walk to the chair where Binh is filling up a tub with water, then pauses.
“You want to add more colors, right?” Binh says, and Flo nods.
“Go for it,” Binh says.
Flo chooses three more colors: sky blue, royal purple, and a deep rose pink. There.
She walks over to the chair and Binh helps her up a step so she can sit down in it. It’s a big chair! Chairman of the board!
“Okay, we have to take off your shoes and socks,” Binh says. She pats her lap and Flo puts her Keds up there and Binh very gently takes off Flo’s shoes and socks and then slides her ugly old bumpy feet into the bubbly suds.
“Temperature okay?” Binh asks.
“Oh, yes, very comfortable. I feel like the Queen of Sheba.”
“Who is that?” Binh asks.
Flo stares at her. “You know what? I don’t really know. I’ve been saying that all my life and I don’t have any idea who the Queen of Sheba was.”
The woman in the middle chair in the row reads off her phone: “She was first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. She gave King Solomon a whole bunch of gifts. Says here a caravan of gifts.”
“Huh!” Flo says.
“Massage?” Binh asks Flo, holding up a remote control.
Flo doesn’t quite know what she means.
“The chair massages you,” Binh says.
Flo turns around to look at the back of the chair. “It does?”
“If you want.”
“Well, how much is it?”
“Oh, nothing! It’s free. Some people like it, but some people they don’t. Why don’t you try?”
So Flo says she’ll try it and Binh turns the chair on and Flo says, “Nope, nope, turn it off.” When Binh does, Flo says, “That chair would loosen my teeth if I sat there long enough!”
Binh laughs, a soft, bell-like laugh. “We can make it more gentle,” she says, and Flo says no, she’ll just have her pedicure plain.
“How about a cup of coffee?” Binh says. “Or herbal tea? Or lemon water?”
“For free?” Flo asks, and Binh says yes. And she can have a cookie.
“Lord!” Flo says, leaning back in the chair. “Well, then I’ll have a coffee and a cookie, too. I’d be a fool not to.”
Flo is given her coffee and cookie and the coffee is too strong but the cookie is right good, kind of like a pecan sandy, and she gobbles it up.
Binh goes to the reception desk to take a payment and Flo sits still in her chair and looks around at everything: the TV on the wall showing a bunch of overly made-up women who look like they’re having a catfight, the great number of colorful orchid plants stationed here and there throughout the salon, the rhinestone barrette one of the manicurists is wearing, the woman at the far end of the row of chairs who is engaged in a giggly conversation with the woman painting her toes.
“Magazine?” Binh asks when she returns, and Flo says, “Oh my, no. There is too much to see!”
Binh begins using a pumice stone on Flo’s feet and Lord does it tickle!
Flo can’t keep from laughing out loud. But then comes a gentle foot massage and fragrant lotion and it is just wonderful.
Flo closes her eyes and leans back in her chair and she hears Binh talking in Vietnamese to the manicurist next to her.
Flo listens for a while, and then she opens her eyes and says, “Say, you’re not talking about me, are you? ”
“No, no,” Binh says. She jabs a thumb toward the woman next to her. “We are talking about her kids.”
“Oh,” Flo says. “I was afraid you were talking about me.”
“No, we’re not doing that,” Binh says, and picks up one of Flo’s feet to gently dry it off.
“How do you say ‘feels good’ in your language?” Flo asks.
Binh says something and Flo says it back loudly and then all the women in the place have a laugh, including Flo. Well, she only wishes she’d known before how nice this place was.
After Flo’s pedicure is done, Binh puts some flip-flops on her and walks her over to the hair-washing station, where a young woman named Debby with a very loud voice washes her hair. Then she is escorted to the chair for hair coloring by Renee.
“What color are we doing today?” Renee asks.
“Well, I don’t want to go too radical,” Flo says.
“Okay.”
“Maybe just a little streak of blue?”
“Sure. Over the temples?”
“Maybe just over one?”
“Of course. Let me show you the shades we have.” She brings over a little card with what looks like tassels of hair. Flo points to a turquoise color and Renee says, “Perfect. Now, should we give you a little trim, too?” She runs her fingers through Flo’s hair like it needs a cut.
“I guess so,” Flo says. “Not too much.”
“Not too much,” Renee says. She takes out her scissors and snip, snip, snip, all of a sudden Flo looks a little better.
Then Renee goes to mix the color, and now Flo is excited.
She really is. She bets when she goes home she’ll go straight to her mirror even though she’s already looking into a big, big mirror.
Before she leaves the salon, Flo tips everyone, including the hair washer, who is sitting in back eating her lunch and talking very loudly on the phone.
“I KNOW,” she’s saying. “RIGHT???” When she looks up and sees Flo standing there holding out a ten-dollar bill, she screams. She does, she screams a happy little scream, and Flo thinks, Well that was worth twenty dollars!
When Flo pays her bill, Binh says, “You live near?”
“Yes,” Flo says. “Two blocks away.”
“I’ll give you a ride,” Binh says. “I have to go to the bank. Come with me to the parking lot, out back.”
“Oh, I can walk home,” Flo says, and Binh says, “No, I think maybe you should ride with me,” and so Flo does.
When she gets home, she realizes she’s awfully tired.
But she takes the time to look at herself in her bathroom mirror, the nice haircut and the sweet little streak of blue, a little piece of sky, a little piece of heaven right there.
She lies down for a nap but first slips off her shoes and socks to look at her wondrous pedicure.
There it is. It’s hard to see, but it’s there. So much of life is like that.