Lucky's

  Kam split up from the group after they finished breakfast. He had gotten directions to a good barbershop from Deacon. It was a place called Lucky's Barbershop and it was on the lower west side of the city. Kam was currently on the opposite side of the city so walking was a bit too far away for him.

  This wasn't much of a problem as he could just take the train or he could call a driving service and get there just as quickly. He chose the driving service, in both of his lives he hadn't had much experience with trains and he didn't want right now to be his first time. In all, it took about forty minutes to get to the barbershop, ten of which were spent waiting for his driver.

  Getting out of the car after thanking the driver, Kam got a good look at Luck's Barbershop. It was in the Lower Eastside of town so he wasn't expecting it to be a luxurious place, considering this is where the lower-income people of the city are. But it just looked like any old small barbershop. At the moment it was pretty empty with six people in it, but from what Kam could tell they were all barbers. He could tell because there are only six stations in the shop and each of those people are sitting at one of the stations.

  They were arguing about something intensely, looking like a fight was going to go down. With unhesitant steps Kam walked in, he was here for a haircut, not an argument.

  "Jackson does not have anything on George, he beats him in every statistical category! Don't matter what you look at, points, assist, steals, blocks…literally everything!" A young man shouted as counted out on his figures.

  "But he ain't got no rings, got all dem point, assist and whatnots, but still ain't got no rings. Jackson got 4 of dem thangs George can't compete. You youn-" A relaxed older man paused as the door chime went off as Kam entered the shop.

  Kam looked around at everyone, and everyone looked at him. There was a moment of silence before Kam spoke up. "How yall doing? I'm here to get a cut from Lucky"

  Once everyone heard that they went back to their arguments with only a middle-aged man with a salt and pepper beard at the very back waving his hands towards them. Kam walked to the last seat on the right of the shop. Lucky shook out the barber gown as Kam walked up he then waited for Kam to sit down.

  "Lucky. Was ya name son?" Lucky asked in a deep voice as he strapped the gown around Kam's neck.

  "Kam," he replied he kept his response simple cause he didn't really want to have any conversation at the moment. He wanted to get his cut and then head to the mall to do a little bit of shopping.

  "Alright Kam, what type of cut do you want?" Lucky said as he started prepping his clippers.

  "I just want you to cut the hair about wavelength and line it up. And if you can, touch up my beard." Kam played with the little hair on his chin as he explained what he wanted.

  "I gotcha, that gone run you about twenty. That good with you?" Lucky asked as he picked the clippers that he needed for the job and added the hair length attachment fitting for Kam's hair.

  "Yea, no problem" Kam closed his eyes as he heard Lucky turn on the clippers and start on his hair.

  The haircut took an hour to get done and by the time it was finished Kam was drowsy, if not for the constant talking and laughing in the background he would've fallen asleep. Deacon had already warned him about this but he didn't stress it enough. Lucky cared about his work, so he was detailed and slow. Deacon described it to Kamara as "the best cut that you'll ever get but it's gonna cost you some time".

  Kam had to agree with that statement by the end of his session. It was certainly the best haircut he had ever received. Honestly, he had a hard time recognizing himself in the mirror. The man staring back at him was so much more handsome than the person he saw in the mirror this morning. It was miraculous just how much a haircut could change the way a person looked.

  When Kam got out of the seat he stretched to get the sleepiness out of himself.

  "Ahh man, you hooked me up," Kam said after stretching

  "Look like a brand new man" Lucky said with a slight smile as he shook the hair off the gown.

  "Yea you're right...you said it was twenty right? You take anything other than cash?" Kam asked as he pulled out his phone. He had forgotten to get cash and only had his debit card.

  "Yea just goes over to James over there, he handles all the online stuff for the store."

  Lucky pointed to a young man a couple of years younger than Kam that was sitting in the front left seat on his phone. While putting away his tools, lucky opened a drawer and fished out a small white card before turning around and giving it to Kam.

  "My business card. Usually, we only do appointments, but since it's dead and you're new, I let you off this time. Next time Ima have to turn you 'round or make you wait to the end of the day. Call or text the number on the card and someone will help you schedule. You have a good one son, look forward to seeing you again." he finished then turned back around to arrange and clean his tools.

  "Yes sir, you too," Kam said as he put the card in his pocket and headed towards James.

  "You James?" Kam asked standing in front of the young man.

  James jumped and looked up at Kam from his phone with a weird look "Man don't sneak up on me like that! Had me thinking it was over for a second."

  "Umm sorry, I guess. Anyways, Lucky told me to come to you with the money." Kam backed away as he apologized.

  "Yea, yea, I gotcha" he mumbled as he turned his chair around and got up. He sat his phone face up on the countertop while he went through his counter drawers looking for something.

  While James was looking, Kam caught a peek at his phone screen from the mirror on the wall. He noticed it was the live stream he had watched last night of GoldSea. Kam raised his eyebrows at that but, that was all. A nice coincidence.

  After a couple of seconds, James turned back around with a black swipe attachment and plugged it into his phone. He then typed on his phone for a bit before turning it to Kam.

  "Ight, so for everything, it will be twenty credits and if you want to add a tip just click the blue button and it'll give you a percentage to choose from. Once your satisfied clip accepts then it'll tell you to swipe your card and sign." He recited and held them out so Kam could do what he needed to do.

  Kam went through the process as James told him and even tipped thirty percent of his cut before signing his name.

  "Alright, you have a good day Mr…." James looked at the signature before continuing "Faye."

  "Yea you too" Kam nodded before checking his phone to see if his ride was here or not. He had already scheduled it towards the end of his cut since the others were keeping him up.

  The app said the woman was a few feet down the street waiting for him, she had even sent a few texts telling him she was ready that he had missed. Kam quickly walked out of the building towards the car. After getting confirmation it was the person he hopped inside and they were on their way to the closest shopping area nearby.