Addie and the King of Hearts by Gail Rock Read Free Book Online

handsome.
    â€œLike having a man teacher for a change?”
    â€œYeah,” I said again. I suddenly wondered if Dad had said something about me to her, or if he knew about my feelings for Mr. Davenport. Then I thought it was unlikely. I had never mentioned it to him, and even though Grandma had caught on, I doubted that she told Dad.
    â€œIs he a good teacher?” Irene asked.
    â€œOh, sure, he’s great!” I said enthusiastically. Then I realized again she was finding out more and more about me, and I hadn’t been getting anywhere with my investigation of her.
    â€œHow long have you been in business?” I blurted out.
    â€œMe?” she said, surprised. “Oh, about six or seven years now. Let’s see—seven years in April! Golly, it doesn’t seem that long to me.”
    She rinsed my hair and sat me upright again.
    â€œYou don’t want a manicure, do you?” she asked.
    I looked at my hands and quickly hid them under the apron she had draped over me. I would need to do something about my nails before seeing Mr. Davenport at the dance, but I would do it myself. I didn’t want Irene to see what my hands looked like from playing basketball in gym class and messing around in my paints.
    Anyway, I thought all that stuff about make-up and manicures was a little confusing, and I didn’t want Irene to know how ignorant I was. The other girls’ mothers helped them with such things, but Grandma wasn’t up on the latest styles, and I had to be more observant than most girls to learn how to put myself together.
    I watched as Irene put lotion and curlers on my hair and wound each one tightly to my scalp. She was very intense about it and seemed to be concentrating very hard.
    â€œHow can you stand to do this over and over all day long?” I asked. “Don’t you get bored?”
    She gave me a surprised look in the mirror. “Gosh, no!” she said. “I think it’s real creative, trying to help all different kinds of people look their best.”
    â€œI never thought of it that way,” I said.
    â€œWell, it’s just like any other job,” she went on. “You get out of it just what you put into it. If you’re enthusiastic, then people like you and like what you do, and you have a good time, and it’s just that simple.”
    Her enthusiasm numbed me, and I couldn’t think of a thing to say.
    â€œYou remember to tell your grandma hello from me,” Irene said. “I always thought she was such a fine person. She’s sure done a wonderful job of raising you since your momma died.”
    I was going to reply, but Irene rattled on.
    â€œCourse a girl your age would like to have a younger woman around once in a while I suppose, to help with clothes and make-up and hair and all that …”
    She was watching me in the mirror as she said that, and I wondered how she knew what I had been thinking a few moments before. She couldn’t have guessed; she was just making a brazen hint. I wondered if she had tried to use that line on my dad.
    â€œNo,” I said, very cool. “Grandma’s done very well by me. I don’t think it matters what age she is.”
    â€œWell, that’s a wonderful thing to say,” Irene said, but she didn’t sound particularly convinced.
    I tried once more to launch my investigation.
    â€œWhat do you do in your spare time?” I asked. “You have any hobbies or anything?”
    She looked a bit surprised at the question. “Me?” she said. “Oh, gosh … nothing special. I bowl once a week, and I love to dance,” she laughed. “Like to kick up my heels.”
    I gave her a disgusted look which she couldn’t see.
    Then she did what I was dreading. She moved me over by the electric permanent machine.
    â€œSo you do the permanent on this?” I asked apprehensively.
    â€œYep, this is the monster,” she said, laughing.