BooksBarbecue
Back The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
Chapters (22)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. By Alexander McCall Smith
  4. COPYRIGHT
  5. Dedication
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen

Mma Soleti shook her head vigorously. ‘Oh no, Mma. I was not going to charge my first customer. The treatment would be entirely free. On the house. Nothing to pay.’

Mma Ramotswe was grateful, but still felt unable to accept. ‘That is very kind, Mma, but it is not a good way to run a business. If you did not charge for your treatments, then you would be out of business pretty quickly.’

Mma Soleti was having none of this. ‘But of course I’m going to charge for the treatments. All I’m saying is that I won’t charge you, Mma Ramotswe, as you will be the first customer in my new premises. That is all I’m saying.’

Mma Ramotswe looked at her watch. The supermarket would be quite busy, she thought, and she would need time to cook Mr J. L. B. Matekoni’s dinner. She also had to call on Mma Makutsi to deliver the present. ‘Time is the problem for me,’ she said. ‘There are so many things to do.’

‘It would not take long, Mma,’ said Mma Soleti, peering at Mma Ramotswe’s face. ‘I think the main thing would be doing something about those slightly enlarged pores at the side of your nose. And there’s a bit of dry skin near your ears, if I’m not mistaken. It’s this weather, Mma. The sun dries a lady’s skin very quickly and when we have as much sun as we’re getting on days like this, then moisturiser is the only solution.’

‘Fifteen minutes?’ asked Mma Ramotswe.

‘Twenty,’ countered Mma Soleti.

‘Then I accept. Thank you, Mma.’

Mma Ramotswe was impressed by the interior of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.

‘This is very luxurious, Mma,’ she said as she lay down on Mma Soleti’s treatment couch. ‘Your last place was… very nice, but it was a…’

‘Shack,’ said Mma Soleti. ‘You have to start somewhere, Mma, and that is where I started. Now we have this new salon complete with hot and cold running water and a fan to keep the customers cool. It is very different.’

‘It must have cost a lot,’ said Mma Ramotswe. Through her mind was going the question that always went through people’s minds but they never liked to ask: Where did the money come from?