Pike, an individual who fascinates both women in different ways and who is present in the beauty shop in the form of her son Billy Boy, himself fascinated by beauty shops and also challenge to the two women in different ways. Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant and already wary of having a child, though she begins to warm to the idea even though Billy is the example in front of her. Leota indulges the boy in some degree because of her regard for his mother, though her patience wears thin. For most of the conversation, these two women show their need to dominate men and each other, and the story thus depicts the usual battle of the sexes in a grotesque way, with the image of the petrified...

The women show their particular power over one man and then compete in showing how much power each has. The image of Mrs. Pike becomes a particular source of jealousy to Mrs. Fletcher because her power over men seems stronger. Mrs. Fletcher warms to Billy Boy when he does something wrong and she can think about punishing him, which in the long run bodes ill for her own son if she has the baby and it is a boy.
In each story, the grotesques stand out as embodying certain types and certain attitudes in stark fashion, making them bigger than life. However, they are drawn in a way that is realistic and that never make them so grotesque as not to be recognizable as real people.