Book 3: Chapter 57: Doctor's Orders
I sighed as the [Barber] combed a knot out of my hair. It matched the knots in my back – and heart. Aqua was right, I really did need time off. Well, no time like the present!
“You were saying, Pete?” Johnsson asked.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He was getting a beard oil massage while a gnome rubbed his feet. Beside him, Beauregard – the Dwarf Draconis – was getting his nails done.
Because of course the professional luchadwarf that ran around nearly naked all day needed to have perfect cuticles.
Bare feet were, to be fair, the ultimate flex for a dwarf.
I turned back to stare at the ceiling then closed my eyes. Very deliberately, I let my mind wander back to my old life.
“The worst part of having children, especially a daughter, was the hair,” I said, continuing my anecdote from earlier. “It was tangly, frizzy, and an absolute horror show to keep combed and washed. I could handle the poopy diapers, I could deal with the tantrums, and burping was a snap, but the battles over shampoo were the thing of nightmares. Going to the hair salon wasn’t much better. She got used to it eventually, but it took years.”
Beauregard laughed, a belly-bouncing guffaw. “Aye! Me nephew was a right mudworm when it came time to clip his moustache! He’d burrow into the nearest hole and then bite anyone what came near!”
My first therapist mandated rest period was fairly simple; spend the day being a third wheel to Johnsson and Beuregard. It turned out to be pretty chill – they just bro’d about the city, and I got to be another one of the bros.