“Cindy,” Darlene said, in front of the whole shop, “I heard you pushed Leon Lowery off Gene’s dock and his hearing aids sank. Is that true?”
The shop went dead quiet.
Cindy started to say it was a joke.
“Leon Lowery restored power to my mama’s house in the ice storm of ’07,” Darlene said. “She was on oxygen. He climbed that pole at two in the morning, in sleet, so her machine would keep running. I’ve never forgotten it.” She picked up her scissors again. “Those kids didn’t steal anything from you, Cindy. They paid for what you broke.”
According to Peggy, Cindy didn’t say another word for the rest of the appointment. She paid, left a smaller tip than usual, and walked out with her hair half done.
I’ll admit I felt a little sorry for her when I heard that. Just a little.
Peggy also told us something else.
“She came to my house after,” Peggy said. Peggy is Cindy’s older sister. “She sat at my kitchen table and cried for an hour. And I told her the same thing Darlene did. I said, Cindy, you’ve been careless with people your whole life, and everybody’s always cleaned up after you. This time your boy made you look at it.”
