by SoniS

Created on: November 10, 2008   Last Updated: November 11, 2008

Julia didn't have a chance. No, not in a million years. But she was determined to prove herself right. Walking down the street, she walked into the barbershop. She had found it after years of looking in worn down corners of little known towns. The battered door of the shop needed a fresh coat of paint as did the neon sign glowing overhead. She didn't dare to look at it again, worried the sign might change if she did. An old man sat at the counter looking mildly disinterested. The customers all looked like regulars having their hair cut on a normal weekend.

"Hi, I am Julia and am new to this part of town...um, I have a diploma in hair styling...do you think you might have anything for me here?

The old man looked at her spotlessly clean sneakers peeping out of her too-long blue jeans and the soft look on her face and smiled. "Why this tiny shop? You should try one of those fancy salons down South Street."

Julia smiled back. Looking around at the shop, she said "I have tried those places. They don't even have an opening for a hair sweeper."

"Hmmm, I see...well, we could do with some help around here. You could sweep hair and fold towels for $10 an hour".

Julia couldn't believe her luck. She showed her ID, accepted the offer and promised to come back on Monday for some more paper work and well, to start her new job. As she walked back, she thought of her mother and her step-father back home in Stamford. She knew they loved her and it was because of them she had a great childhood, a pretty normal one. But she had to do this. She needed to find out. Her Mom had finally told her how her Dad had left them when she was barely a year old. Apart from his name and the fact that he frequented a barbershop which went by the not so common name of Shoreline in a god-forsaken town south of Florida, there was not much she could gather from her Mom who had tried to remove his existence from her life as best as she could.

Not one in want of patience, Julia started working in that tiny barbershop. It was not long before she saw him. Dressed casually, he called out to the man at the counter and cheerily walked up to his seat. The old man at the counter returned the greeting calling him by his name and that's when she knew. She looked up and saw his crinkly blue eyes, reminding her of her own. She forgot what she had intended to do. She forgot that she wanted to take a sample of his hair and do a DNA test for further proof. She forgot that she wanted to question him about so many things.

She waited till he finished with his hair cut, settled his bill and walked out. She had waited for so long for this moment. She decided she could wait some more. Outside the shop, she extended her hand saying "Hi, I am Julia, the daughter you abandoned 20 years ago."

He looked at her, spellbound. Right there on the sidewalk, she told him who her mother was and after a round of exchanging facts and figures, both couldn't be surer.

"Julia, please forgive me...I was only 21 years old...I was foolish...I didn't know what I was doing."

She looked up straight into his eyes and said "Dad, please forgive me...I am only 21 years old...I am foolish...I don't know what I am doing."
And with that, she walked away.

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