By JANET HART LEONARD
From the Hart
Audrey Grace peeks out the window of her beauty shop before she pulls down the Venetian blinds. They’ve seen better days and so has Audrey Grace. It’s been a long week.
She sits down in the shampoo chair, which is still warm from her last client. She looks in the mirror and notices the deep wrinkles on her forehead. She’s not worried about the wrinkles but the reasons for them. Why does life have to be so complicated? Why does she have to know what she knows?
For twenty years, Audrey Grace has heard the rumors, the gossip and the speculations. She may not be a preacher or a lawyer, but she holds a lot of secrets … she is a hairdresser. Hairdressers have a code of silence when it comes to telling secrets.
Welcome to Grace’s Beauty Shop tucked into a small town in Sunny Gap, Kentucky. It’s 1989.
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I’ve been going to a beauty shop since I was a little girl, and my mother took me first to Opal’s beauty shop in the back of her house on Logan Street. Mom would get a perm a couple of times a year to add curls to her hair. She never colored her hair. I would hear the chatter of ladies in the tiny beauty shop. I knew well the smell of the chemicals in the perm solution. The smell alone would curl my nose hairs. I saw the frustration of a lady caught under the hairdryer when a bit of gossip was being offered and she could not hear it. She poked her head out from under the dryer, “Say that again.”
On the way home, my mother would emphasize … what you hear at the beauty shop stays at the beauty shop.
Over the years, I found my thrill in being in a beauty shop as I would visit Nob City, Beauty By Boots, Trends, and now Deb Alvey’s Salons. They prettied up many of my friends as well as those of my mother.
Those hair salons held a lot of secrets. A good beautician not only knows how to cut and color hair, but they know how to keep a secret. In their time as hairdressers, Opal Grissom, Janet Boser, Boots Howard, Sandy Baker and Deb Alvey might know more about the people of Noblesville than their families do.
It was after I published my book in late May that I decided to venture into a second book, only this one would be fiction. One of my favorite fiction writers is Fannie Flagg. I love how she adds laughter amidst the adventure and mystery. Fannie knew how to bring the best as well as the worst in her characters. She brought them to life, and I felt like they were a part of my life. I was always so eager to finish one of her books, like Fried Green Tomatoes, but I was also sad when I had to let go of the characters.
I’m a Fannie Flagg wannabe.
And so, while sitting on the porch of Debbie’s Daughter’s Bakery on Conner Street this week, I began to write and write and write. I told the owners, Rocky and Jess, that I might need to pay rent for time on the porch. I think I’ve become their greeter. “Welcome, you’re going to love whatever you order.”
I’ve written 14 chapters. I love the characters, except for a few of them. A couple of them are just full of the devil. I’m working diligently on the details and personalities of the people who live in my book. Most of what I write in the book is not true, but there might be a bit of truth. However, my hairdressers have taught me well. Only I will know what truth is added to the made-up stories. Did that really happen? Hmmm … maybe? I will never tell.
There will be humor and laughter as well as moments where tears may fall. Yes, there will be hope and faith. Oh, and the mystery – the sweetness of a good mystery I hope will be found by my readers.
What happens when the preacher comes up missing?
Stay tuned!
Janet Hart Leonard can be contacted at janethartleonard@gmail.com or followed on Facebook or Instagram (@janethartleonard). Visit janethartleonard.com.