the lobby. "Will you excuse me? I should probably make my presence known in there."
"What were you thinking?" I raved at Jackie as I peered around the corner at the twins. "I can't take them back to Iowa like that! They'll be laughed out of town. Banished from political caucuses. Excommunicated from their church. Lutherans don't do orange hair!"
On the other hand, their hair had turned out nothing like mine, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all. I perked up. "What happened to the idea of having their hair cut exactly like mine?"
"Bad timing. Donatella's was closed, so we had to find another salon. But it was the coolest place, Emily. They had manicurists, pedicurists, body waxers, masseurs, stylists, color experts. When the twins saw the list of services, they decided to go the whole nine yards."
I slanted a final woeful look at them. "Do they realize their hair is the color of Raggedy Ann and Andy's?"
"Patrizio said that was the color this summer and it would look splendido with their blue eyes."
"Are you sure Patrizio wasn't trying to use up product to beat the expiration date?"
Jackie appeared shocked. "You can be so cynical. Patrizio would never do that. He was much too soulful." She fanned her hand in front of her face. "Not to mention he had abs you could have grated cheese on. Unh."
I paused. "How do you know what his abs look like?"
"That was the cool part. It was straight out of a Fellini movie. If you paid a little extra, you could have all your services performed by employees -- Are you ready for this? In the nude!"
A memory fluttered in my brain. "Excuse me?"
"I thought the ladies would be horrified, but they really got into it. They even took pictures! You know, Emily, they're really quite liberal for Lutherans."
I clapped my hands over my face.
"I'm gonna take the idea back to Tom, but you wait. There's probably some kind of blue law that forbids cutting hair in the buff in Binghamton. The guy who owns this salon is making a bundle though. The main salon is in Florence, but he has franchises in Milan, Paris, and Lucerne. Hey, maybe Etienne has had his locks chopped there."
Lucerne? Hair cutting in the nude? Oh, my God. This couldn't be the same guy who'd tried to hit on Nana in Switzerland, could it? I shot a look up at Jackie. "Did you happen to speak to the owner?"
"Nope. But Patrizio pointed him out to me. Funny-looking little guy actually."
I recalled a faint image. "Hair like a cactus? Face like a ferret? Knees like old potatoes?"
Jackie's mouth dropped. "Euw. Scary. How'd you know that?"
"By any chance, was the salon named...Nunzio?"
She sucked in her breath and inched backward as if I were an apparition. "Okay, Emily, cut it out. You're really starting to creep me out."
It was the same guy! Wow, there were apparently a lot more business opportunities for perverts here in Europe than back in the States.
I heard a muffled thud and a yelp from the stairwell and dashed around the corner to find Mom stumbling awkwardly down the stairs despite the new runner. She held up her hand to ward me off. "I'm all right, Emily. It's the risers. I think they're just too far apart. Must be hard to measure things right when you're using that durned metric system."
My panic subsiding, I helped her the rest of the way down the stairs and into the lobby area, where we were greeted by applause, whistles, and a feeling of general anxiety. Duncan reached out a hand to Mom, guiding her into the middle of the crowd where she could command center stage. "Mrs. Andrew is here to announce your contest winner."
Heads turned right and left in surprise. "But where are Marla and Gillian and Philip Blackmore?" someone called out. "Shouldn't they be the ones to announce the winner?"
"Mrs. Andrew is in charge," Duncan replied smoothly, "so please give her your full attention." A space opened up for him so he could sit on the floor. I stood on the outer fringe of the group, marking the agonized anticipation on the faces of Amanda, Brandy Ann, Keely, Fred, and all the other contest entrants. Jackie slid by me in her pink leather miniskirt and curled up uncomfortably on the floor beside the twins. Mom scooted her wire-rims higher up on her nose and smiled at the crowd.
"I want to tell you what an honor it's been for