Short Story - Haircut - Essay Example

Jim had a disastrous relationship with his wife because of his ill-treatment towards her and their two children. He barely provided enough for them when he worked as a salesperson and when he lost his job the situation became even worse. This drove Mrs Kendall to work hard at different jobs, even though they provided little income to ensure that she supported her children. There were times when she became so desperate that she went to Jim’s employers within the town so that they could give her his wages.

When Jim found this out, he preempted her by taking an advance of his wages so that whenever she went for them, she did not get a dime for her troubles. His attempt proved fruitless when Julie Gregg locked herself in another room and called Joe Barnes, the marshal and her father’s old friend. In order to avoid trouble, Jim made himself scarce but he must have had revenge in mind because he would later play a mean joke on her. Julie had eyes for only one man in the town Doctor Ralph Stair, a man who did not share the same interest.

Now Jim was very good at mimicking people’s voices and a time came when he chose to exact his revenge on Julie. He called her pretending to be the doctor and requested her to come to see him at his office at night. Julie, not doubting that it was not really the doctor rushed to the office to see him. On the other hand, Jim had assembled a gang of drunken men from the town hidden close to the doctor’s office and when Julie got there, called his name and knocked on the door, she received no reply.

That was when Jim and the gang started laughing and this drove the young woman to run back to her home in shame, realizing that she had just been tricked. Most people in the town came to hear of this incident and this made Julie not to show up for a long time. However, not long afterwards Jim met a premature death when he went hunting with a young man named Paul who was inexperienced with a gun.