Page 20 of Shar: A Woman Alone

“Okay, we’ll see who isselling it and we’ll give them a call and ask them to come open it up for us totake a look around.” I rub my hands together as this feels fated.

Arriving at the salon, I seeit has a good-sized parking lot at the back. That’s a good start. The spacesclosest to the rear of the building are marked as ‘Reserved for Staff’. That’sanother plus. Security for the employees. Scanning the back of the building, itlooks in good repair and I’m sure that Zip could soon have the area covered byCCTV cameras and add extra lighting for the winter months.

Stepping from the SUV, I waitfor Snore and Zara to join me. Taking my phone from my pocket, I call thenumber on the sale sign and ask for someone to bring the keys so we can viewthe interior. The woman I speak to seems excited to have someone show an interestand I make a mental note of the fact. She says that she’ll have somebody withus in the next few minutes.

Taking Zara’s arm, we walk tothe building and I ask her what she thinks. “No first-floor rear windows isgood for security but not so hot if there’s an emergency and we have toevacuate. The building itself looks solid enough and in good order.” Zara looksat me and I’m impressed with her observations so far.

As we turn to walk away, Isee a figure approaching our vehicle, but we get to it first. Realizing it’sClarice, I roll my eyes as I anticipate some form of drama.

“What the fuck do you thinkyou’re doing snooping around here?” She squeals at us in a voice that I thinkis supposed to be intimidating, but her attention is focused on Zara.

“I’m looking for somewhere tostart my business and we’re not the ones that are snooping. Clearly you arespying on us, as this isn’t your neighborhood. It’s way too upmarket for thelikes of you.”Good for you Zara, I think to myself and I see that shehas tensed ready for something physical to happen.

As I turn my attention backto Clarice, I notice Snore is also ready to step in if necessary. I’d like tosee Zara handle this by herself, but it goes against my nature to step aside,so when I see Clarice start her move I’m in before Zara or Snore can move.

Grabbing Clarice by the arm,I spin her round and her back slams so hard against the SUV that we all hearher breath whoosh from her body. Before she can fill her lungs, I have my handat her throat preventing the life-giving air getting back into her body.

“Not on my watch, bitch. Iwarned you before about Zara being a club princess. I won’t warn you again.Next time, I’ll finish you in a heartbeat. Stay away from the clubhouse, thebrothers and any of the club businesses. If you get near any of them, I’ll makesure it’s the last thing you ever do on God’s green earth. I’ll put you underthe earth, do I make myself clear?” Seeing that she is going blue, I releaseher throat and she starts gasping in a lungful of air to stop herselfasphyxiating.

Snore is giving me a lookthat says he’s more than impressed with me and Zara is just giggling, as thoughthis is an everyday occurrence. Zara grins and looks at Clarice, “Oh, I’m goingto speak to my daddy about you bullying me.”

Snore grabs Clarice’s arm andis nearly nose-to-nose with her. “Get gone and know I’ll be speaking to ourPres about you and what you have been doing. Zara is a club princess and assuch she is protected by everyone of us. Now, run along before I take you tothe clubhouse to answer to Sharp.”

After I’ve let go of herthroat, and Snore her arm, she squeaks, then takes off running. I’m sure shecould run far faster if she had better shoes on her feet. She almost gets runover as another SUV speeds into the parking lot, narrowly missing her. Honkingloudly, it comes to a stop next to us.

A young man hops out, andspeaking quickly, lets us know that he is from the realtor’s office and has thekeys to the building for us to go inside and have a look.

Opening the rear door, healmost shoves us inside and keeps up a running commentary as we walk around.The first floor is a hair salon, very easy to see that fact. There is a smallreception desk, also three wash and style stations. After being shepherdedupstairs, there is a bathroom, storeroom and a decent sized office at the frontwith a large window looking out over the main road.

As a startup businesspremise, I think it is ideal. Everything is dusty but in excellent condition.All it needs now is a new identity superimposed over the old, and it could beup and running in no time. Telling the young man that we’ll be in touch withthe office to discuss the finances, we leave him to lock up and talk as westand by the SUV. Once we’ve seen him drive away, we take a stroll to MainStreet and I take notes on what businesses look like they are prospering andwhat types of business are conspicuous by their absence.

There are plenty of availablestores of varying sizes which could be easily made to suit any purpose. I seetwo small diners along the road, one that looks rundown but busy and one thatlooks like it should be on the roadside in Paris but empty of any patrons.Obviously, that is going to fold as people around here are far too down toearth for that type of establishment.

“I think the salon is thebest place for me, Shar.”

Turning, I nod at Zara,“Yeah, I think you are right.”

“Let’s go back to theclubhouse and see if there is anyone around to speak to about that place.”

“Okay, come on then.” I linkmy arm with Zara’s, give Snore a wink and head back to the SUV.

CHAPTER 10

Shar

An hour later, Zara and I aresitting in Sharp’s office, discussing the option of opening a salon. Snore beatme to Sharp and told him about the incident with Clarice. Sharp took me to oneside and said that he understood why I had told Clarice to stay away. He did,however, make the point that it was okay as a one off but that he would makethose calls in the future. Accepting that I probably crossed a line here, Iapologize, giving him my sickliest girlie smile.

Shaking his head, we rejoinZara and I give him all the details of the salon on Main Street, and some roughfigures I’d worked out for any type of profit we could achieve. I did calculatethe salary of a manager who, of course, would be a stylist, and an extrastylist to cover all bookings.

“I think the club could standdoing that, Zara, but can you get your qualifications?” Sharp asks while givingZara a thoughtful look.

“Yes. I can and I willachieve this, Uncle Sharp.”

I look at Zara out of thecorner of my eye, then to Sharp who must know I’ve not heard her call him Unclebefore as he has an amused glint in his eye.

“I’ll speak to Gunner and seewhat his opinion is before I bring it to church and the brothers. But your dadwill have to put some money up if you are going to be a co-owner of the place.”Sharp looks at the door as someone knocks and cracks it open.

“Pres, the woman in thekitchen has given us a list of what is needed from the store. Is it okay to runwith that?”

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