‘No,’ I spat. ‘Just give us a second.’
How did she bear all this hurt? I felt like my mother. Weakkneed and soggy. Bubbles in my gut.
The lizard-eyed woman wielded a medical tray.
‘This is female business.’ She glared at me. ‘This is your girlfriend taking back her power.’
Barbra finally looked me in the eyes. ‘Not really. Sort of. Bruh, I’m okay.’
Then the woman put a headlight and reading glasses on. I stepped backwards. I walked backwards. But I could not leave.
‘I’m just gonna look at what we got here, okay?’
Barbra nodded at the woman. She inched off her underwear. I thought, babies feel unconscionable pain.
‘We’re just going to take it nice and easy, okay?’
The woman used both her hands to gently part Barbra’s legs.
‘Slide toward me a little, hon.’
This woman approached Barbra’s crotch, her plastic fingers in a V.
I smelled a gust of Windex. I stepped backwards a third time.
‘I’m going to part your vulva now.’
I heard the front door of the shop open. The woman suddenly took off her glasses, upset.
‘I can only do a small part on what’s left of your hood,’ she said. ‘It might hurt a lot more because of your condition. I suggest labial, not clitoral today.’
The woman took off one plastic glove and caressed Barbra’s feet.
‘Let’s go,’ I hissed. ‘C’mon, just put on your pants!’
‘This is your decision, hon.’
The lizard-eyed woman showed Barbra her tray lined with rods. Cotton balls, needle parts, a glimmering flint. Everything made me sick. This was permanent.
Barbra slid further downward in the chair and looked at me behind her.
‘Go,’ she said. ‘Go.’
Barbra picked a tiny ring from the row of little tools. The whole room vibrated. Someone was out there in the store poking through laminated pages. Labial and clitoral. The lizard-eyed woman dunked Barbra’s ring into some aqua barbershop liquid. She was treating this like she was just shaving a head.
‘You,’ the woman said, ‘are one very tough chick.’
I felt scissor-slice cramps. She was going to staple her vagina. I wanted to call my father. I was going to vomit or shit. Was piercing a part of her vagina seriously going to get her power back? Was that what my mother would have said?
I turned. I lurched past some man with white dreads. I see-sawed down the flight of stairs. I puked right in front of the jewellery store. People stepped away from me onto the street. Pinched clit. Foamy lizards. Clouds smothered the sun. I waited for Barbra at the jewellery store window where diamonds were lodged in filthy blue velvet hubs.
Barbra finally emerged from the doorway holding on to the woman. Her harem pants had a small patch of blood on one side.
‘Hold on to her like I am,’ the woman barked.
I caught Barbra right before she buckled on the sidewalk.
‘She’s got my numbers and a prescription. She says she wants wine.’