Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 28

3167 Words

This is a beta version of Enar's Vacation. Changes can - and probably will - be made as a result of reader feedback. I hope you'll enjoy it and I hope you'll take the time to give me some feedback. It will help me make this story the best it can be.

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"So..." Enar swallowed. Hopefully this wouldn't be too personal. "If you don't mind me asking - what's with the hair?" There. That wasn't offensive, right?

"What about my hair?" Amanda took off the cap and shook her hair around; a short, red, mess.

"Well... At the risk of sounding a bit old-fashioned, you look... I couldn't picture..."

"You mean I look like a reject from a failed punk band and not a business manager."

"Err... yes, sorry. I don't mean to, but..." Cheeks burning he grasped for the right words. "Well, yes, you do."

"Good. That's the point."Amanda smiled and crossed her arms, very pointedly.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I used to be pretty wild as a kid. I used to look like this all the time. Mom would beg me to try and look at least a little bit normal when going out here. She said she didn't want me to alienate the locals or upset my grandparents - which was exactly what I wanted. That age you know."

"Mmm... I know what you mean." He'd heard and read about it, but he'd never really done anything himself - nothing big at least. He'd been a good boy, doing what was expected of him.

"Well, eventually I grew up - as you do - and doing the hair and everything became more hassle than I could be bothered with so I cut down on it and eventually stopped completely."

Enar nodded. Women spent way too much time fixing with their hair and stuff as it was already. He should know - his mom had made a good life off of it. It probably wasn't the right thing to say at the moment though.

"Yep." Amanda sighed. "Dull and normal and respectable you know. One summer I didn't do anything and I came out here wearing my hair all plain in a ponytail. Like a proper respectable young business woman." She struck a dainty little pose to show just how proper and respectable she'd been. Then she shook her head.

"I guess your mom was relieved then?"

"Well, yeah, mom was delighted. I'm finally growing up and whatnot. All fine and dandy there. That wasn't the issue."

"Uhu...?"

"Yep. I showed up like I usually do, all happy and cheerful, looking forward to vacation, thinking they'd be happy to see me.

"They weren't?"

Amanda sat forward, leaning her elbows on her knees. "Grandpa was real short with me and grandma started to cry. I had to get help from Lilac - that's one of the monks staying at the shrine - to figure out what was going on and sort it out."

"Okay, so what was the issue?"

"Basically, they saw me coming there looking like a successful business professional instead of my usual punked out self. They thought I'd lost my individuality and succumbed to the curse of the city - whatever that is."

"Oh, I see." Enar laughed. "They thought you'd been assimilated or something."

"Yeah, I had to make up some excuse about how I'd had to attend a business meeting in Hemsfil on the way here and hadn't had time to fix myself up afterwards."

"Ah, fair enough, and then you didn't make the same mistake the next year?"

"Well, yeah, except I didn't get away quite that easily..." She heaved another big sigh. "I had to get Lilac to help me do my hair. She shaved it into a mohawk and enchanted it to glow green."