Beauty

PEDICURES, FACIALS, MASSAGES

Maddy Stolk

Pedicures, facials, massages – every form of body care that is applied to my body by others: I love it. You don't have to do anything and yet you become cleaner / prettier / more flexible. If only life could always be this simple.
It's quite an expensive hobby and I work more than I would like, so if I go, I make sure to sit and/or lie down comfortably. Zen music on and off to la la land.

Not today, though. After two deadlines that had cost me my sleep and a bike ride where I got soaked to the bone both going and coming back (Rain radar: when will there be an update? So that it really works? Or is there a developer somewhere laughing very hard?), I plopped down at my favorite pedicure. In the front of the shop, you have a choice of 1001 nail polish colors, while in the back, shady business takes place, with all sorts of shady characters bustling in and out, chatting away (in a language I still can't quite decipher after years). Mai, the capo di tutti capi of the nail salon, has everything under control. The staff rushes for her, but the customers also tolerate a lot. ‘Ha, your feet are ten years older than your head! Hahaha!‘ She had a point, I saw, but that’s what you get when you live in the Netherlands and those poor feet are permanently stuffed into shoes or slippers or ski socks.

Anyway, being scolded a bit, shady business behind the curtain, waiting for a potential police raid: I completely relax. And because all the visitors are a bit afraid of Mai, everyone always keeps their mouth shut. Except today.

‘Tonight I'm really going to do it.’ The lady next to me sounded more convincing than she looked.
‘You've been saying that for a year. Just do it. He's such a jerk.’
‘Yeah. He is. I'm really going to do it.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
My curiosity won over my annoyance. What then, what then, what then? Break up? Smother the jerk in his sleep with his pillow?
‘But Friday is better. Then it's the weekend and...’
‘Jesus! If you don't do it, I will!’
‘You don't have to get so angry.’
‘You're just a coward. Cowardly. Ugh.’ The friend shook her head furiously and fished the color ‘Pineapples Have Peelings Too!’ from the nail polish bin.
‘That yellow doesn't suit you. It looks a bit sickly.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘So tonight?’
‘Yeah. Okay. Are you coming?’
‘No way. I might get blamed for it. No, you really have to do these things yourself.’
‘Oh.’
Mai rolled her eyes and loudly sniffed.
‘You know what? I'm just going to...’

‘You're not going to do anything, you're done.’ Mai angrily snatched the cotton pads from between the toes of the soon-to-be ex-girlfriend of the jerk. ‘Your nails are dry, you can go.’

Finally, it was quiet. Dead quiet. You could hear a cotton pad with acetone fall. And for a moment, I wished I were Mai. Just for a day, to wrap up some lingering issues here and there. Really.