The Mane of the Lion, Removed

My neighbor, friend and colleague, Javier, the Spanish teacher has a positive, outgoing personality that one warms to instantly. Coupled with his shoulder length shock of curly sandy hair, he makes quite an impression wherever he goes. 

Javier, however, did not count on the heat being as intense here and after a month, recruited me to commit a barbarian act of barberism.  I traveled here with my own set of electric barber’s shears to manage my own meager crop as I’ve done for the past 20 years. Armed with these, some scissors and a set of pruning shears the gardener left behind I soon had Javier’s flowing crown reduced to a close-cropped ‘Number 2’.  We paused half way through the procedure to snap pictures of a Mohawk meant to give his mother a surprise. Javier shed a tear in the loss of what he had lovingly nurtured for over 12 years but smiled at the final results.

The next day at school, there were many double takes on the part of teachers and students alike. The principal almost stopped and asked him to sign in the office as a ‘visitor’.    I anxiously awaited an angry phone call from his girl friend accusing me of conspiring to strip him of his manhood but it never came.  The mane, having done its job in luring a prospective mate, is now a thing of the past and Javier is more comfortable without it. Sometimes practicality wins over vanity!