“Do you like it?” Jonah asked behind me, meeting my eyes in the mirror.
“It reminds me of something from an old movie I once saw,” I commented.
“Yeah, like I said, it’s vintage.” He tilted his head. “With your full beard you kind of look like an old-school hipster, but it won’t work here. The beard has to go, or I could cut it in an elegant pattern if you’d like. How about waves, or little hearts?”
I looked at his hideous beard again and made a quick decision. “I’ll shave it off.
“Good. But turn around first.”
I did and Jonah, who was almost a head shorter than me, lifted his hands.
“Bend your knees, giant, I need to do your eyebrows and I can’t reach.”
“Don’t mess with my eyebrows,” I said again.
“Come on, big boy, trust me, will you?” Hoping that he would do something boring and old-fashioned like he had with my hair I bent down so he could reach.
It took him only a minute and then he signaled that he was done. “I just made them less bushy.”
He hadn’t made them into fine lines like David’s, and I almost sighed with relief when I saw that they looked fine.
“Good. So, project number one, you’ll shave while I go and take a look at project number two.”
“My name is Boulder,” I told him. “And my friend is called Magni.”
“Nice to meet you, Boulder,” he said. “I’m Jonah, as in Jonah and the whale,” he pointed to his hair. “You get the reference from my design.”
“No,” I said honestly. “I don’t.”
He opened his mouth and bared his teeth dramatically. “You know, like a big white whale.”
“Ahh, you mean a whiteshark?”
“No, a whale,” he insisted.
I crossed my arms. “You do know that whales didn’t have teeth, right?”
“Of course they did. How else would it eat Jonah?”
I shook my head. “Jonah wasn’t eaten, he was swallowed.”
“Says who?”
“The Bible,” I answered calmly. “Don’t you learn anything in school here?”
“Oh, I’ve heard of the Bible.” He nodded. “My class focused on Greek mythology but I had a friend who learned about Christian mythology, and he was the one who told me about Jonah and the whale. They were terrifying creatures that could eat a man whole.”
“They didn’teatpeople.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “You would understand if you saw a picture.”
“I’ve seen pictures and I’m telling you that whales didn’t eat people; you’re thinking of sharks.
“How would you know?” Jonah said, slightly offended. “Have you ever seen either of them in real life?”
“That’s a stupid question since they’re extinct,” I pointed out dryly.
“They werealmostextinct, but I’ve heard there are still some left and not to brag or anything, but we’ve brought back lots of extinct animals so I bet the oceans will be full of them again soon.”
