Page 35 of Flesh and Fury
Ari shrugged. He knew Eoghan would never do anything to hurt him in any way. “Okay, babe. If you say so. I trust you.”
“Good.” Eoghan nodded and smiled sweetly.
When they got to the very back of the shop, Ijumaa stopped and slid the screen back, making an opening only wide enough for him to get through. As they stepped inside, another black man sat in one of the barber chairs. He was reading a hair styling magazine and looked up as soon as they walked into the enclosed area. He gave Eoghan a smile and glanced at Ari, simply acknowledging him with a nod.
“Hausa, you know Eoghan Sapphire from the I.S.R. This is his new partner, Ari,” Ijumaa said. “Ari, this is Hausa Abdel. He’s an excellent barber.” He turned back to Hausa and said something in a tongue Ari had never heard before. He guessed that these guys must be African judging by their names, and they looked African to him. He’d spent some time in Somalia in the Horn of Africa, and also the Congo in Western Africa for separate missions. He knew a bit of the language spoken in both regions as well as being fluent in Arabic and even some Russian. He’d learned languages as part of his training in the Army Rangers and could pick out the generalfeeling…the cadenceof the region a language came from. But this language—whatever it was—was odd with an almost melodic sound with some musical notes in there.
Hausa smiled at Ari and got up from his chair, reaching out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Ari.” He patted the chair back. “Please have a seat and tell me what it is you’d like me to do. You have nice hair. Do you want corn rows? I can do very nice designs.”
“Oh, no,” Ari said. “Just a trim.” He reached up and ruffled his hair, then tugged on his beard. “And you can shorten this a bit, clean up around it.”
“But don’t cut it too low,” Eoghan piped up. When Ari turned to him, he was smiling. “I like it longer.”
The two stylists said something to each other in that weird language and then laughed. Ari wished he knew where they were from.
“It’s too bushy on the sides,” Hausa said, pulling on the sides of his beard. “I’ll trim this and keep most of the length. How does that sound?”
Ari smiled up at him from where he sat in the chair. “Okay, that sounds good.” He glanced over at Eoghan. “Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, very okay. I know Hausa does a nice job.”
“Good. Now that it’s decided, please take off your shirt,” Hausa said to Ari.
“Excuse me?” Ari looked up at him and frowned. “Why?”
Hausa frowned right back. “Didn’t you say you wanted Eoghan’s usual?”
Ari looked over at Eoghan who was pulling his shirt over his head. When he’d finished, he returned his glance and shrugged. “Just do it, Ari. You’re going to like this.”
“What the hell—”
“I promise, I’ll be gentle,” Hausa said, picking up a bottle of what looked like massage oil. “Lavender okay with you? Or, I have sandalwood. That’s a nice one for males.”
Males?“Sandalwood please,” Ari replied almost robotically. “What the hell is going on?”
“Your shirt, please,” Hausa said.
Ari shrugged and pulled his shirt over his head. He’d never been to a barber like this before. Whatever this was, it was strange.
“Good,” Hausa said holding out a hand for Ari’s shirt. When he handed it to him, he folded it and placed it in a neat pile with Eoghan’s on a table between the two chairs. He watched in amazement as Hausa turned his back and also pulled his shirt off. When he turned back around, Ari almostscreamed. The man had two normal arms and two more arms with comically huge hands coming out of the middle of his abdomen. One held a bottle of sandalwood scented oil and the other was unscrewing the cap. Meanwhile, Hausa’s normal hands held a pair of scissors and a comb. “Are you ready?”
“For what?” Ari practically shrieked, leaning as far back in the chair and away from this strange alien creature as he could. He automatically reached for his Glock which wasn’t there, knowing it was probably useless against this thing in front of him anyway.
“Ari, relax,” Eoghan said. “I always get a massage while I have my hair cut. The Frenlans are so good with both. I’ve been coming here ever since Gladys told me about the place.”
“A massage?” Ari dragged his gaze away from Eoghan and looked at the massive hands on the end of surprisingly long arms which this Frenlan creature had.
“I told you,” Hausa said. “I’ll be gentle, or I can go a little harder if you’d like. Your moans will tell me how hard you like it.”
Ari snorted and looked over at Eoghan who was laughing. “How hard do I like it, Eoghan?”
Eoghan pulled his hand away from his mouth and looked at Hausa. “Give it to him really hard, Hausa. Make him moan.”
Hausa nodded and smiled. When he smiled, Ari noticed he was missing the same two teeth Ijumaa was.Oh, man. What the hell.He let out a long sigh and looked up at his stylist.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this to my barber but go ahead and give it to me hard.”
Eoghan burst out laughing as Hausa nodded vigorously. “You’ve got it, Ari. Lay back and I’ll make you moan.”