Kay Too

I have to mention that if you are reading this post, you should first have read the original, Kay. Of course, in some ways these stories stand alone, but I'd think that it helps to have some background...that I really don't want to add here.

So let's start from where I left off, shall we? Over some time, I was having haircuts from Kay, the wife of the Youth Pastor of the church that I was attending in college. A decade older than I, she was pretty, warm, loving, and extremely musically talented. I loved to hear her laugh.

Do you really want me to recount all of her qualities?

I suppose that there is one (or two) more haircutting episode(s) that I could recount for you, simply because I suspect that you might be far less blind than I was. Of course, you also will have the benefit of looking through my eyes with the benefit of twenty-plus more years of experience.

There is no special place in my memory as to exactly how this particular encounter arrived. Shoot, I can't even remember if this was before, or after that little...fiasco that I recounted last time. It was simply a haircut, I was sitting in Kay's dining room, on a straight-backed chair next to the table. The set was a dark wood, walnut, if I recall correctly. It had been a fairly normal session, Kay moving about, trimming my hair. I do remember that she was wearing a pink (or coral) blouse, slightly ribbed, for reasons that will become obvious shortly. As normal, she and I were chatting, simply talking about various and sundry topics as the time passed.

Then Kay stepped in front of me, and told me that she needed to trim the hair at the top of my head. Trusting her completely, I really didn't think anything about it. Kay told me that she was going to have to reach to do it, and stepped between my knees. Carefully she placed my hands on her hips, and firmly instructed me to hold her tightly in place, or else she might slip and take off too much hair in one place, or nip an ear.

Thus warned, arms outstretched, I held Kay as she leaned forward to cut my hair. She wasn't tall, and I was on a moderately high seat, so it wasn't exactly easy. Especially as she leaned closer and closer, stretching to snip at locks further and further towards the back of my head. And suddenly, her weight full on my arms, I found myself with a closer and closer vista of that pink blouse.

I knew that I didn't dare let her slip, because I really valued my ears, and I was concentrating on holding her steady. Yet much to my utter dismay, soon I found that pink fabric touching my nose. Moments later, my whole face was pressed into the valley between her small, high breasts. Honestly, my nose was smushed so firmly into Kay's cleavage that I couldn't exhale through it. I was alarmed that this had come about, that I hadn't held her better, and completely terrified that Kay would notice just where my nose now was. I remember how, finally, I had to release a breath through my mouth...and I was utterly mortified that Kay might feel the heat through the fabric of her blouse.

Eventually she finished, and I recall being relieved that Kay somehow hadn't noticed where my face had just been. Did I mention that I was dense, or what?

One other small episode to relate, and I'm not going to recall whether it came at the end of this haircut, or another. If it were this one, I suppose that it would make perfect sense, but at the time, in my naiveté, I simply noted it as an anomaly.

We had wrapped up that day's trim, and I followed Kay into the kitchen. I'm sure that I was chattering aimlessly, as I pulled out my wallet, and didn't notice how distracted she was. However, when I proffered my usual bill, that Kay was usually quite happy to accept, she didn't respond at all. She simply stood there distracted, obviously lost in some world of her own. Suddenly awkward, I kept yammering about nothing, and finally settled for placing my money on the counter beside her. Hiding my sudden hesitance, I prepared to take my leave, just as Kay finally stirred from her distant reverie, almost as if suddenly taking notice of me.

I swear, I will always remember what she asked me next, a simple question. "Would you like to come into the living room for a while?" And when I immediately declined, for whatever reason...Kay asked again. This time, with a trace of what I might (far) later call urgency. Or...desperation.

I guess that I'm stupid. I had somewhere "important" that I had to be, somewhere downtown. Doubtless something stupid, like a doctor's appointment, or some other silly, inconsequential thing in the greater scheme of life. And I declined yet again, and made my good-byes. For even then, I still didn't understand...though I filed the moment away in the back of my mind, and pondered it as I pedaled away.

I feel stupid, for to this very day, I wonder what Kay wanted with me in that living room. A mystery that may well never be solved.

Yet...quite some time later, I received one more, one final piece of the puzzle.