Slim Randles' Home Country
The barber knows
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[May
25, 2013]
I heard the
rumor down at the feed store, later in the afternoon. We had a real
live Sherlock Holmes in our community, and he was our local barber,
Curtis Naismith. |
"What do you mean?" I asked Julie, the stout girl hired to carry
100-pound sacks of grain out to waiting trucks. "Curtis can tell,"
she said. "He can tell where you've been and what you've been doing,
and it's a kind of magic, like that ESP stuff."
This was big news here, of course, and I had to go see for
myself. I was getting a little shaggy, so it was time I went down
there for a trim and some lilac water anyway.
Curtis wrapped the paper hangman tight around my neck and started
the clippers.
"Curtis, I hear you're a detective," I said.
"Always wanted to be," he said. "Always wanted to be. Then I got
in here with my dad all those years ago, you know. Been here ever
since."
"But I understand you have ESP or something."
He laughed. "Of course not. It's just that I've been studying
detective methods for a long time. I can sometimes tell what people
have been doing."
"Well ... how about me? Can you tell me what I've been doing?"
"Let's see."
[to top of second
column] |
He stopped the clippers and stepped back and looked at my head.
"I can tell you went to Oakhurst about three weeks ago," he said.
"And you visited Charlie Taylor while you were there."
"You know," I said, "that's right. I did. But how did you know?"
He laughed. "Nobody does ears like Charlie. He's a good barber,
and he always leaves a clear path around the ears, sloping steeper
in front of the ear than behind. And ... since you have about three
weeks' growth of hair since Charlie saw you ..."
I still think there's some ESP in it somewhere.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
Brought to you by "The Backpocket Guide
to Hunting Elk." Read a sample of the download book in time for
Father's Day at
www.slimrandles.com. |