Her name was Deb (Miss Debbie to the staff), but everyone at SALON LA BELLE called her Clockwork, a covert nickname one of the children had coined one long, interminable afternoon while waiting in the backroom for the salon to close.
As nicknames went, it was a clever one. Every four weeks, on every Thursday of that fourth week, in walked the formidable and foreboding Miss Debbie.
3:45 p.m. Sharp.
Like clockwork. Just like Clockwork.
It was a good time, as time went: after the school rush, but before rush hour, which she, Miss Debbie, in her words, abhorred.
