In my youth, I walked in early one Saturday morning to a shopping mall “Men’s Salon” to find that half a dozen barbers were available, and among them was a beautiful young woman. I had my choice, so I chose her.
Although I hungered to be around young women, I didn’t really know what to do with them. The first thing to do was talk to them, but what can you talk about to a random woman? Within minutes I was in love with the girl in the mirror, yet I was nervous. It never occurred to me she might be nervous too.
I later found out I was this young woman’s first customer, the first person in her chair since her graduation from barber school. She was tentative. She was shaky. She snipped deeply into my left earlobe and fled to the manager.
I was pumping out so much blood onto my new shirt that it looked as if I’d been shot in the shoulder. The manager bandaged me up like a wounded soldier.
Nobody talked.
Nobody apologized.
Love hurts.
Bio:
ANTANAS SILEIKA is the author of six books of fiction and one of nonfiction. A former director of the Humber School for Writers, he has been shortlisted for both the Toronto and Leacock literary awards. His novel Provisionally Yours has been turned into both a feature film (2023) and a television serial (2024), and an eighth book, his memoir The Death of Tony, has just been published by Stonehewer Books.