Sam started to head out of the barbershop when his eyes briefly glanced over in the mirror. He looked good and maybe he could use that look to Sarge’s advantage. Sam reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and took a selfie of himself.
Sarge, for his part, merely watched his soon-to-be apprentice. He knew that kids Sam's age often took selfies, but he saw that his work had already taken some hold. Sam didn't slouch over like he did when he first came in; he was standing up straight from the mirror as he lined up the shot. He still was standing up straight as he began to text. Sarge knew he could force his thoughts and shape Sam to whatever he wanted him to be, but there was something to a more subtle approach. Only altering Sam just enough to push him and then letting Sam follow those suggestions and go the rest of the way--that was the more enjoyable path.
Sam, for his part, put his picture of his new haircut on both his Facebook and Instagram pages. The responses came back almost immediately. Firstly, shock that Sam had gone so far as to cut his hair, then Likes and compliments as it revealed the cute and handsome features people hadn't seen up until now. Eventually his two running buddies, Max Rogers and Jake Sherman, messaged him about his new haircut.
“Duuuude, you cut your hair??!!”, Max, who was much more like Sam than Jake, asked in the Messenger chat among the three.
“Yeah, only five dollars and the guy who cut it is really cool. A real-life ex-Marine.”
“WHAT!!! You got a military haircut??!!”, Jake chimed in.
“He modelled it after Jax from Sons of Anarchy, so not true military cut.”
Max: “Well, it looks good on you. You still at the barber shop?”
“Yeah”
Jake:“Can we see the Marine who did it?”
“Let me check”
Sam turned around to face Sarge. “Hey, Sarge… mind if I take a picture of you? My friends want to see the Marine who cut my hair.”
Sarge himself just wanted people to come to him without much fuss, but this was the digital age and plus he might have two more recruits that he could mold.
“Sure, go ahead. Should I smile?”
“Do whatever you feel comfortable with.”
Sarge simply put his hands on the barber chair and stood behind it. He adjusted his cap so it tilted up and showed more of his face. His expression was largely stoic as he usually was, but somehow the picture Sam took showed a pride in Sarge being in his shop. Sam showed the picture to Sarge, who was surprised to see the pride in the picture. Sarge ok’ed the picture and Sam shared it with his buddies.
Max: “Wow! He looks like he really cares about the place.”
Jake: “Definitely. Is the shop still open?”
Sam: “Yeah. He closes up at five. Why?”
Max: “U up to stop by there, Jake?”
Jake: “Sure. Let us know where the shop is.”
Sam gave the address of the shop; Max and Jake said they would head to the shop soon and see Sam there. With that, the Messenger chat came to an end.
Sam told Sarge that his friends were on their way. Sarge didn’t expect his first day of business to net a teenager recruit, let alone three; yet by the time he would close the shop he’d have three recruits to mold.
Sam relayed the details of his buddies to Sarge. Jake was the smartest of three; pulling A’s came easy to him. He had copper blonde hair he wore slicked back and hazel eyes; a couple of female admirers eyed him for those features. Max was a commuter skateboarder, using his board to get to and from places more so than to do the major tricks. He wore his black hair a bit long and combed back; he was the middle guy in the group pulling a solid B average in his classes. They all had the same laid-back personality just to varying degrees.
Sarge thought about training Sam with the goal of him enlisting upon his graduation, but with his two buddies coming and their collective promise, Sarge thought the college routes might be the way to go. All three could get into college and join ROTC; if they did, he couldn’t care about what they majored as long as they excelled at ROTC and graduated as commissioned officers. But an option that maybe Jake could pursue is the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Jake might be able to get in there and gain his commission. All he had to do was plant the seeds in their heads and let it grow by their own hard work. He would see how things go once they came into the shop.
Five minutes after Sam relayed the details, Sam and Sarge heard skateboard wheels approaching the shop. Then Max appeared stopping the board at the entrance of the shop. He entered through the doorway a bit hesitantly, not knowing what to make of the Marine sergeant in uniform staring at him. Sam waved Max over to the customer chairs where he sat. Once Max sat down, Sam did the introductions.
“Max, this is Sarge; Sarge, my friend Max.”
Sarge walked over to Max from behind the barber chair. “William Keegan, but I go by Sarge.”
Max shook Sarge’s hand; Sarge could feel Max’s nervousness in the handshake.
“Are you a drill sergeant?”, Max asked while staring up into Sarge’s face.
Sarge let go of Max’s hand and began to laugh. He walked back to the barber’s chair and sat down. “Wrong branch of the military. Army has drill sergeants; Marines have drill instructors. It’s okay, though; you’re not the first person to make that mistake. I left as a gunnery sergeant, so wouldn’t be screaming in a recruit’s ear unless they crossed my path and did something wrong.”
Max relaxed after learning Sarge wasn’t a drill sergeant. “So why open a barber shop?”
“It’s my way of giving back to the community.”
Max continued to ask questions of Sarge, who responded back with ease. With each answer he gave, Sarge pushed a bit more of a relaxed feeling on Max, so that when Max had finished asking questions and Jake appeared at the entrance, Max was totally at ease with Sarge.
Jake came into the barber shop and saw his two buddies chatting with the Marine in the photo. Everyone seemed relaxed when they all looked up at him.
“Hey, Jake.”, Sam welcomed his buddy in. “Let me introduce you; that’s Gunnery Sergeant William Keegan, but he goes by Sarge. Sarge, that’s my other buddy Jake.”
Jake walked over and shook Sarge’s hand; Sarge returned the handshake and offered Jake a seat by his buddies. Max went over the questions he asked Sarge and brought Jake up to speed on the conversation thus far.
“So, Jake, I hear you’re the brains of this operation.”, Sarge posed.
“I’m just the one with the high grades, not trying to plan anything, sir.”, Jake deflected the accusation. “But it seems you’ve taken a liking to Sam and Max is rather cool with you.”
“Hoping to get repeat business out of you and make you long term customers… at least until you graduate.” Sarge pushed the impulse of Max and Jake coming to the shop on a regular basis with the back half of his statement.
“Yeah, Sarge,” Max and Jake replied blankly, “We can come by on a regular basis.”
Sarge released the two from his push and they continued with the conversation as if nothing had happened.
“But is that ok with you, Sarge?”, Jake asked. “Us stopping by?”
“It’s no problem. I’m fine with you two stopping by just like I’m fine with Sam working with me on Saturdays.”
The two looked at Sam. “Sarge is going to help me get some focus and take me through some Marine training.”, Sam explained.
“Are you sure he’ll be able to go through it, Sarge?”, Max asked.
“I’ll start him slow, but I’m looking forward to seeing the improvements working with me brings him. You two are free to stop by and talk about whatever is on your mind.”
“Talk about whatever’s on our mind.”, Max and Jake repeated. Sarge also pushed the impulse to talk about military training on their next visit into the shop.
Sarge had gotten all the impulses into Sam’s friends for now. He needed some time to plan where he wanted to go with all three. It could be easy to have them all enlisting by the time they graduated, but helping Sam focus and pull his grades meant that all three could go to college and go through ROTC. Sarge needed some time to explore all the possibilities in this option. This route would mean they would end up higher ranked than him, but Sarge never really cared about promotion to Lieutenant and beyond. A third option was to have Sam and Max go through college ROTC and Jake might try for the Naval Academy at Annapolis. But this plan too needed some researching. For now, Sarge was content that he had three young men he could shape into Marines however he saw fit.
Sarge began to wind the conversation with his potential recruits down. “So guys, if there’s somewhere you need to be, feel free to head out.”
Sam looked at his two buddies. “You guys up for letting Sarge give you a haircut?”
Choose what happens next:
Max or Jake get a haircut from Sarge
Sam, Max and Jake head out from the barbershop