Like A New Woman
Would Tanino notice Melina’s dramatic new hairdo?
MELINA loved going to her hairdresser. Carmen was always the first to know about weddings, funerals and new jobs, and Melina enjoyed being filled in with all the latest news.
She felt pampered when Carmen washed, combed and styled her hair, and she loved a little chat.
That day, Melina walked into the salon and found Carmen spreading hair dye on her friend Peppina’s head.
“I am sorry, Melina, you will have to wait. Peppina’s colour is taking longer than I had planned,” Carmen apologised.
Melina didn’t mind waiting, but she hated the feeling of being last in the pecking order.
That usually happened because she didn’t get big jobs done to her hair, like perms or colour.
“Peppina, it is always you,” Melina teased her friend, sitting on the empty chair next to her.
“I bet that you couldn’t make up your mind about what colour you wanted on your head.”
“Oh, Melina, please, don’t vex me. You have no idea how much I suffer.
“I wish I could leave my hair white like yours, but Rocco insists that I colour it.”
“Rocco? What does your husband care about it?” Melina asked her friend, incredulous.
“He cares a lot. And he didn’t like the colour I had last time, so Carmen and I have had to choose a new one just now.”
“Next time, I’ll give you the colour samples to take home and you can show them to your husband first,” Carmen suggested.
Melina couldn’t imagine getting Tanino interested in hair colour samples.
“Tanino doesn’t even notice when I have my hair cut.”
“Lucky you!” Peppina exclaimed.
“Of course he doesn’t, Melina. You never have anything more drastic than a couple of centimetres taken off your hair,” Carmen reminded her.
“I’m sure that he would notice if you went home with, say, a different colour,” she added, slathering cream on Peppina’s head.
“If he didn’t, he’d be either blind or he’d be going with another woman,” Peppina put in.
That thought made Melina shudder.
What if Tanino wasn’t interested in the way she looked because he had another woman?
There was only one way to find out.
Melina straightened on her chair.
“I want my hair coloured, Carmen,” she stated firmly. “Oh. When?”
“Now.”
“Now? Don’t you want to go home and discuss it with your husb –”
“No. I want my hair coloured as soon as you finish with Peppina.
“If you haven’t enough time for the haircut, too, I will do without the cut this time.”
“OK. If you are sure, then here is the sampler.
“Choose a colour,” Carmen told her, handing Melina a wheel with tufts of coloured plastic hair and numbers.
Melina’s eyes were immediately drawn to the brightest and boldest colours.
“This is the colour you were before you went white,” Peppina said, pointing to a dark brown. “I don’t like it.”
How was Tanino ever going to notice if she went for the same colour she had been before?
If he doesn’t notice, he’s either blind or he’s got another woman. Tanino must notice.
Melina pointed her finger straight to the flame red. “I want this one.”
“Wow, that’s a change,” Carmen replied. “Your husband will love it or hate it.
“You should show the sample to him and come back tomorrow.”
“No. I want this. I want it now.”
****
Tanino was worried: Melina should have been home by now.
But when she walked through the door, he
became even more worried. What had she done to her hair?
Until that morning, she’d had lovely white hair. Now she was as red as a ripe cherry!
Had he never told her that he loved her snowwhite hair? Perhaps not. Too late now.
If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all, his mother had taught him.
If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all
So, Tanino decided not to say a word about Melina’s new hair.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Usually he would have asked her where she had been. On this unfortunate occasion, it was terribly obvious.
“It’s OK, dear.”
“When I realised that I was going to be late for lunch, I bought some pizza from the baker.”
Melina opened the parcel and put the two pizza slices on their plates.
The tomato sauce looked much the same colour as her hair.
“Do you prefer –”
“Not at all!” he interrupted.
“– the pizza with the anchovies or the one without?” she continued with a frown.
“Ah. Anchovies, please.” They sat down and ate in silence.
What could they possibly talk about without mentioning the elephant in the room?
Every now and then, Tanino felt Melina’s gaze dart to him, but he carefully avoided it.
He had no idea what he should he say if she asked him how he liked her new hair.
If he lied, she would keep it. If he told her the truth, she could be hurt.
As soon as they’d finished eating, he scuttled out of the room and turned on the telly.
****
“He hasn’t noticed, Anna. My hair is bright red, like a flaming fire, and he hasn’t said a word!” Melina whispered on the phone to her friend.
“Do you think that he doesn’t care about me any more?
“Do you think that Peppina is right and that he does have another woman?”
“Don’t listen to Peppina!” Anna replied. “Some men have selective blindness to their wives’ hair.
“Maybe they dread to think how much the hairdresser cost, so they just don’t want to know.
“But he’ll surely notice if you change the way you dress. Try that.”
“I never wear trousers. I could buy a pair of trousers.”
“Good idea! Let’s go shopping together.”
****
Melina was late again for supper.
Tanino filled a pot with water and put it on the hob. He didn’t fancy two takeaway meals in a row.
If she found a pot of bubbling water, she might take the hint and cook him some pasta.
But the water boiled and he had to turn the hob off twice before Melina got home.
As well as her hideous hair, now she had a pair of hideous jeans.
What had happened to his lovely wife?
A frightening thought bolted through his mind: was she trying to impress another man? Did she have a lover?
Tanino felt dizzy and had to sit down.
“Hello, dear.”
Melina stopped on the kitchen threshold as if expecting him to say something.
Or was she about to tell him about the other man?
Tanino shot to his feet and made himself busy at the stove, turning his back to her.
He didn’t want to have that conversation: not now, not ever.
He wanted everything to stay the same. He and his Melina, together eating pasta with tomato sauce, day after day.
He poured the pasta in the water and accidentally the packet, too.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“It’s OK.”
He was never going to ask where she had been, why she was wearing jeans and who had bought them for her.
She walked around the table and planted herself right next to him, one jeans-clad leg forward. He looked away.
“I bought a roast chicken from the shop when I realised that I was going to be late,” she said, putting a takeaway parcel on the counter, “but I see that you’re already cooking some pasta.”
“I don’t mind. Chicken is fine. Whatever you like, my dear.”
He picked up the pot and poured water, pasta and packet into the sink.
“Are you OK, dear?” she asked.
“Me? Yes, of course. Are you OK?”
“More than OK. I’m feeling like a new woman.” She looked at him suggestively.
That was it. At that moment Tanino had no doubt that his beloved wife of 50 years had a new man.
****
“He hasn’t noticed the jeans, either, Anna. I even stuck my leg out in front of him!
“Not a comment – nothing – as if I were invisible.
“He has another woman, hasn’t he?” Melina was in despair.
“I’m sorry, Melina,” Anna replied.
“Oh, Anna, what will I do?”
“Move to the sofa. If he’s guilty, he’ll think that you’ve found him out and will confess.
“If he’s not guilty, he’ll finally pay attention to you.”
Melina took her pillow, a spare blanket, her reading glasses and her book, and made herself cosy on the sofa.
On his way back from the bathroom to their bedroom, Tanino saw her from the corridor.
His eyes became coffee saucers and his face turned the same colour.
“What on earth? Are you sleeping here?”
“Yes. Why? Did you want to watch the telly here?” she asked.
“Heavens, no! Look, Melina, if there’s something that you need to tell me, tell me clearly.
“At lunchtime you came home with shocking red hair, at dinnertime you came home in jeans, and now you move out of our bedroom.
“What am I to think? I’m only a man, I can’t guess.
“If I try to guess, the things I imagine are so horrible that I want to believe that they’re not true.
“Please, tell me what’s going on!”
“You noticed my hair?” “Yes, and I didn’t like it a bit.”
“And you noticed my jeans?”
“Yes, and I liked them even less. I want my lovely wife back. I want my sweet Melina.” He was almost shaking.
Melina leapt off the sofa and wrapped her arms around him.
“You did notice! You do care about me! You don’t have a new woman!” she cried.
“Melina, keeping up with you is such hard work that I would never have the energy to run after anyone else.”
She kissed him.
“That’s great, because you don’t need to. You can have your old Melina back.
“I’m returning the jeans and I’m going back to my hairdresser tomorrow!”
And true to her word, the next day, Melina went straight back to Carmen’s salon – and this time she was given emergency status and top priority to have her hair dyed back to white!
The End.
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