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The Barber of Red Valley, Oklahoma
Description
In the summer of 1998, the town of Red Valley, Oklahoma had a barber named Emmett Cross who had been cutting hair in the same shop on Main Street for forty-seven years. Everyone trusted Emmett. He knew the shape of every head in town, the cowlicks, the old wounds, the way a man held his shoulders when he was trying not to cry. Then, one Tuesday in late July, a stranger walked in off the highway. He was thin and pale, with hair so white it looked almost blue under the fluorescents. He asked for a shave. Emmett never told anyone what he saw when the lather came off that face. He just closed the shop at noon, went home, and started digging in his backyard. By the time the police arrived, the hole was five feet deep and still going. This is what I know about Emmett Cross, and the name he kept scratching into the dirt before they pulled him away.