Dasani’s mother sometimes wonders what would happen if Brooklyn’s newcomers spent some time with the borough’s older self. On Myrtle, opposite the wine shop, they would find a barber named China whose chairs are always full. A din of chatter fills the barbershop, where a tank of swimming turtles sits at the window. Dasani loves to watch them glide through the water. Her favorite turtle is missing its toes. China’s clippers fly over the skulls of men who were boys back when Myrtle was known as “Murder Avenue.” Some of them came of age when Chanel’s favorite Marvin Gaye song, “Inner City Blues
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