Today was beauty shop day. It's amazing the way the beauty shop causes ladies to chatter. I suppose it's the way so many ladies are together at the same time.
This is also Mrs. Billingsley's beauty shop and I told the story of Mrs. Billingsley's ordeal with a broken back. The worst part was that at that time, and probably to this day, it's impossible to imagine what would have to happen to you for any doctor to prescribe pain medicine. She had been sent on her way from medical treatment with nothing whatsoever for pain.
The subject of local doctors was batted about. I asked my hairdresser if she knew Dr. Underwood. Not really. She knew of him. I said I had liked him although I thought he had had some mysterious axe to grind. Maybe it had to do with his daughter's death. "Oh, she died by suicide," Almeida said. My mind numbed for a moment. "Someone told me that she had died in a car accident." It seems I had been told the sanitized version. "What happened?" I asked. Almeida said she didn't know exactly. "Probably pills," I speculated. "Women tend to not choose guns." Well, statistically. I'm not an expert on this subject. "Dee was a friend of hers. I think she knows what happened," Almeida told me.
Soon Dee entered the shop. Almeida began asking her about Dr. Underwood's daughter. "Yes, I was in high school with her. I sometimes saw her, but she was a year behind me, so we weren't in the same classes." She made a remark quietly that I missed. "See? It wasn't pills," Almeida said to me. ?? "A gun..." "Whaaaat?? What kind of gun?" "A shotgun," Dee said. "A shotgun?" I couldn't believe my ears. I looked a little more carefully at Dee, as if the crime spree might not have ended yet. I tried to ask delicately about how she had shot herself. But there was no gentle way. "Did she shoot herself in the head?" I asked. "Yes. I guess it's hard to shoot yourself any other way than in the head with a shotgun. This was kind of a different sort of girl," Dee concluded. "Her name was Kathy," Almeida mentioned.
My appointment was over and I looked marvelous. I walked outside into the dazzling sunshine in a daze. After all this time I had finally gotten answers to my questions about Dr. Underwood's daughter. Was I happy now? I felt a little shaken up. No wonder this tale isn't often told.
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