The Salon Gossip

The Wisdom of Abner Day Series - VII

Enrique Hernando Figueroa Samen' … first came to Paradise Valley … in the 60's. He had broken up with his previous business partners in the South … and figured he had to get away. It was a grand addition to the town's experience … as people would look up in surprise … at someone coming to stay … after years of seeing people leave. It was a new color … in many ways … especially after stories that he tried to cut off somebody's balls … for commenting disparagingly about his gay lifestyle.

 

People in town persuaded him to apply for citizenship … and soon he was a full pledged member of the community. He thereafter set up the first unisex hair salon in town … and brought the layered look to the community. It certainly appeared more comely than the … Gothic mop style … of the years before. However … the controversy that he generated in town … as gay … was insignificant … compared to the gossip … they say ... started in his salon about an icon of the town from years before … the Marshall Ebenezer Day.

 

Abner sat at the verandah … with his feet … stretched out onto the banister. He was enjoying his tobacco. Behind him … the Inuit doll … stood motionless … in the warm air of the cabin … like a witness to his thoughts. His father at 65 years … had gone to see Enrique … after first hearing of the stories. But thereafter … made no mention of it … either to Abner or his mother. Abner … faced some bullying from the other boys … and would get into fights … but he never managed to confirm the story … one way or another.

 

It was simply the story … of Ebenezer keeping a mistress … in a cabin in the hills. He had bought cloth for dress … and sewing instruments in the general store. The clerk had thought it was for the wife … but that was brought to a discreet end thereafter. But the half-breed young man … Enrique had taken as hair stylist … in the salon … had told a strange tale of heroism and love … on the day Ebenezer Day … had rescued a Piute girl … from some trappers … who claimed they had bought her fair … from her brother.

 

Abner seemed to recall … the newspaper accounts of Ebenezer … as a mild mannered man … who preferred to prevent a fight … instead of ending it. But at a point in his career … he was lawman extraordinaire … and the reports turned into glowing accounts … of his prowess with the gun … and the way he'll take on 5 or 6 men … alone by himself. His reputation in those parts … shot up from there … but it didn't make its way into national attention. The editorial comments however … gave the impression why Paradise Valley … never completely lost … its favor with the townspeople.

 

The issue had a muddled … contortion in his emotions … and he had never brought himself … to view it clearly. On reflection … that accounted for the way … he had lost contact with himself … and would reach out into a social relation of obligations … so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. It occurred to him now … that it was the raison d'etre(*1) for his life's experiences … in the way he accepted or dismissed anything on its worth … and the way it gave him meaning with issues he dealt with.

 

His thoughts went to the holiday … he took in Hawaii … and in the encounter with the beauty of native girls. There was something entirely earthy in the experience … but he couldn't bring himself to feel any affection for them. Had he allowed himself to … the sexual impulse that rose … threatened to erase all manner of mind … and drag him into the mud of his passions. He couldn't figure if it was the color … the Christian ethos … or simply … the orderly dictate of mind.

 

He realized that it was never an issue with his grandparents or parents. But as 4^th generation American … the issue had broken down the fences of his carefully manicured civil natures and spilled into issues of fidelity … same sex attitudes … red neck perceptions … and the inquiries into the sanctity of the American way. He couldn't understand why … his … was the chosen generation. But he was clear about one thing … it was his generation … that came to feel a pride about its place in the post-war world … as American.

 

Perhaps he was coming to understand the world … and his place in the grand scheme of creation … he figured. And perhaps he was learning to do it right. He rose from his chair … and went into the cabin. He had been keeping a wooden box of stuff he had been picking up … in the forests. He dug into it … and took out the eagle feather (*2)… he had covered in paper. He placed it next to the Inuit doll … as if in a gesture of willingness … that he was prepared to continue with the inquiries. He needed to know. Then he closed the cabin door and went for a walk to the stream in the woods.

 

At the stream … he sat at his favorite rock … amidst the gurgling … bubbling sound of the stream. His thoughts went to ancient Rome … and the transformation from Pagan to Christian practices … that paved the way … for thought … the inspirations of the ideas about humanity … and the subsequent founding of science. The Christian ethic borrowed from the origins of Kings … and in the republicanism of the American experience … that created a block against the church … and raised the need to found a new basis. It was a point the founding fathers had grappled with …  but the people had chosen the church … against the ideology of the free man.

 

Ebenezer's iconic image of the lawman … in relation to his grandfather and father … overwhelmed any diminutive representation … of the truths of life's purpose. It exploded into gun ownership and will … in the expression of the American psyche. What his father had represented … as the simple expression of the truths of our lives … held a greater strength of conviction than iconic will … and he had to bring himself to see that. ' Its not like its Desi Arnaz(*3) ' … Sri had joked.

 

Sri had told him … that his father was a school teacher … in India … but had thereafter migrated and worked as a civilian driver … for the British military stationed in Malacca.  It was a common bond they had shared besides the same year of birth. He thought of the natural enthusiasm … with which he always responded to Sri's wife … and the way Sri related to Maggie. It raised the most curious response from within him … before waning into a meaningless bundle … of stifled impulses.

 

 

' There's more to thought … than the pleasure of dreams ' … he said … in adaptation of Shakespeare's line in Hamlet. He heard a sound … and perked up to see the grizzly … across the water … a little upstream. He got up to run … but paused to look back at the bear. He appeared not to have noticed Abner … then turned back … to walk slowly into the forest. ' Why isn't he chasing me?' Abner asked. His passions didn't respond … but continued with their heavy breathing … and in relation to the gurgle of the stream … felt like it was laughing.

 

 

 

 

Abner's Collection of Useful Words :

 

(*1)   raison d'etre (Fr.) The reason that forms the basis for living. Myth … (Indic) … In the Indic epic Mahabarata, the King on a hunt meets with a native girl he takes for wife … at the start of the story. She bears him one son who is viewed as the progeny of the human race.

 

(*2)  eagle feather … Symbol of introspection and mind in many cultures. Myth (Native American) … Symbol of the warrior (Indic) … Jaiminian source of the puranas. (Christian) … Angels.(Egyptian /Mayan) The snake on the headress … later depicted as plumed by the Mayans. Science … The unexplained mystery of the sharp vision of eagles over long distances …  Religious significance … Omnipresence. Abner's version … Cocky.

 

(*3)  desi (arnaz ) … Indigenous … hick … aboriginal … rustic … bumpkin. Lexicon … The tendency to identify objects as originating where they are first seen.

Reviews

[Briana O'Connor]

REally enjoyed this read. Very intellectual direction. There was a lot to think about as your words flew down the page. Very though provoking and inspiring in a way. Thanks for sharing.