The Housekeeper - Chapter 28 Part 2 of 2

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 28 Part 2 of 2

After school, Roger had to walk into the building supply store – with his women’s boots on full display.  He considered himself fortunate that his jacket mostly hid the breasts sticking out from his chest. But he considered the boots to be hard to miss.  He had been in this store many times in the past.  He was somewhat acquainted with everyone who worked there.  And his embarrassment over his situation bordered on extreme!

He was embarrassed as he ordered the supplies he needed to get right away.  He was embarrassed as he walked back through the store to get back into his truck and drive it around to the back of the store.  He was embarrassed to get out of his truck again to direct the loading of the cement and other supplies he had just purchased.  And he was very relieved to finally drive away from the place.  Very, very relieved! 

He was a man… and the store was basically a man’s world… and he had dared to trespass across that world wearing women’s boots.  It was practically a slap in the face of the whole masculine image of the store.  But he figured that it was nothing compared to the feelings he had to face as he had done it… and would continue to do it in the future… most likely many times.  He didn’t want to think about the fact that his situation there was only going to get worse as time went on.

As he finished digging his final hole, his thoughts ran back to his day at school.  Everybody knew about his makeover… but they all thought he had done it on a dare.  The dare angle was actually okay as far as he was concerned.  Everyone seemed to accept it.  But it was that other tiny little thought that he now remembered… Carol hadn’t wanted her mother to find out that she had shown everyone the pictures!

Would it be dangerous to Jennifer and Stan if he mentioned it to Janice?  He wasn’t sure.  If he did it right, he didn’t think there could be any trouble for them at all.  If… he did it right. 

And if Carol was so concerned about it, then he decided that he was going to make it a point to let Janice know.  What would Janice do when she found out?  He was hoping that telling Janice about it would be a little way for him to get back at Carol a bit.  And… he was hoping that whatever he did – wouldn’t bounce back and hurt him!

Roger waited, but he didn’t wait long.  While Carol and Janice were sitting at the table eating dinner – a rather very good stew – he had his face stuck in his dog bowl eating the very same thing – without the aid of any utensils or even his hands.  Consequently, his face was far messier than usual.  He didn’t care.  The stew was very good, no matter how he had to eat it.  But the entire time he was eating, his mind was trying to figure out how to let Janice know that Carol had shown all those pictures around… and… would she even care?

As usual, since he never took part in any kind of conversation, and because he simply did his best to eat as fast as he could to get the humiliating and demeaning exercise over with, he finished long before Janice and Carol were done eating.  He got to his feet, and did his best to ignore the mess all over his face that his arm was just aching to wipe off.  He needed to wash his face – soon.  Should he tell Janice now?  But he didn’t have the courage. 

Doing his best to ignore the way his messy face felt, he walked over to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee to take with him back to his room… as he usually did. 

“Are you going to practice with your makeup again?” Janice asked before he got out of the kitchen.

Roger stopped.  “Yes, that was my plan.”

Janice nodded.  “Very good, Mr. Brinkley.  I’m looking forward to seeing the results later.”

Roger nodded and started walking out again.  But he stopped at the doorway to the kitchen and turned around.  “You know,” he said, “I know I probably shouldn’t bring this up, but I didn’t appreciate Carol showing all those pictures of my makeover to all the kids at school.”  Roger’s reward for that little statement was the look of shock on Janice’s face… and the look of fear on Carol’s.

“She did what?” Janice exclaimed.

“From what I learned from the kids in my classes, she told them I did it on a dare.”  He paused before adding, “I only found out because some of my students decided to tell me how good I looked afterwards.”

Janice was still surprised… and angry.  Carefully controlling her anger, she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Brinkley, I hadn’t intended for those pictures to get out… or even for your little makeover to be made known like that.  However, it’s done now and I don’t see how it can cause any real harm or damage to either you or what Carol and I are trying to do here, so while it’s regrettable, in the end, I see no harm done.”

Roger nodded.  “Yeah, that’s kind of the way I saw it, but I still didn’t appreciate it.”

“Understood, Mr. Brinkley.  Understood and noted.”

Dismissed, Roger turned to leave, but before he had taken his second step, he heard Janice say angrily to Carol, “Go to your room young lady.  Right… now!”

Carol ran past him before he had taken another two steps.  Mission – accomplished!

The pictures were carefully numbered with the order he needed to apply each product.  And the name of each product itself was neatly written on the page below each number.  The bottom of some pages contained a few brief notes as well… such as which makeup brush was best to use with it or how it was best applied.  He had no doubt that his notes would continue to grow as he figured things out, but for now, he needed all the help he could get!

He had noticed that Carol’s bedroom door was closed when he went into the bathroom to freshly shave his face.  It was still closed when he came out again.  Good!

He started with picture number one… and product number one – the stuff that was supposed to clean his face thoroughly and tighten up his pores.  It felt cold and weird against his skin as he rubbed the pads over his skin.  Step one down… then on to picture number two… and product number two. 

A full half hour later, he examined his face closely in the mirror… and compared it with the picture of how he was supposed to look when it was all finished.  Not… even… close!  Ugh!  He went back to the bathroom to wash his face instead of using just the makeup remover he had bought.  He would use that after he washed his face.  Then he would start all over again.  How had that woman done it?  How had she managed to turn his masculine face into something that looked… all too feminine?

As he headed to the bathroom again, he noted that Carol’s door was still closed.

It had been over an hour since Janice had sent her daughter to her room – without finishing her dinner.  In the time since, she had cleaned the kitchen and put everything away.  Then she had purposely sat in the living room and mindlessly watched TV for a little while. 

She was undecided as to if she needed to do something to punish Roger or not.  It was her daughter that had perturbed him, and to be honest, she didn’t care one way or another if Roger didn’t like what had happened or not – especially since Carol had been the cause of it.  Roger was a man… and she didn’t care one little bit if he was upset by something her daughter had done.  No, the problem wasn’t that at all.  The problem was that Carol had inadvertently done something that could possible put what they were doing in danger.  Even as remote a possibility of it as that was… it was still something to worry about.  And Carol should have known better!

She had a pretty good idea as to why Carol had done it… she simply couldn’t help herself.  It was only natural for her to want to “show off” to all her friends.  But Carol showing off at this stage was simply too dangerous. 

Fortunately, Janice knew just how to deal with the situation.  A little bit of motherly love was all she was sure that Carol needed. 

Getting up from her seat, she went to Carol’s bedroom.  She paused in the hallway to look in on Roger.  He was standing bent over his dresser to look closely into the mirror he had propped up against the wall there.  She saw him look up at her.  His face was a mass of white makeup shades that still needed to be blended together… or at least better than they were so far.  She left him and continued to Carol’s door.  She didn’t bother knocking, she opened it and walked in.

She saw her daughter sitting up on her bed reading… a textbook.  Most likely homework.  It couldn’t get better than that.  Putting a smile on her face, she went in and sat down on the bed with her daughter.  “I’m sorry I yelled,” she said as kindly as she could.  “But you know you shouldn’t have shown those pictures around like you did.”

Carol let her book flop down onto her lap.  “Yeah, Momma.  I’m sorry.  I just … I don’t know.”

“You just had to show off a bit for your friends, didn’t you?”

Carol nodded slightly.  “Yeah, Momma.  Sorry.”

“You know why doing something like that could be dangerous, don’t you?”

“But I told everyone that he did it on a dare!  I didn’t mention any of the reasons he really had to do it!”

“I know honey.  But even little things can sometimes cause us trouble.  And we don’t need any more trouble right now.”

“I know, Momma.  I’m sorry.  I won’t do it again.”

“Good!” Janice said, then she held out he arms.  “Come give me a hug.”  As her daughter moved into her arms, she kissed the top of her head.  Her daughter was the most precious thing in the world to her.  Nothing at all came above her love for her daughter. 

Their hug finally broke.  “Do you want me to apologize to Mr. Brinkley?” Carol asked.

“Not on your life!” Janice exclaimed.  “He’s a man.  He doesn’t need apologizing too!”

Carol giggled as she saw her mother smile again.  She moved in and gave her mother another hug.

“Hey,” Janice said.  “Are you done with your homework yet?”

“Yeah, Momma.  I finished it a little while ago.  I was just doing some extra reading, that’s all.”

“Good,” Janice declared.  “Why don’t you come out and watch some TV with me for a while.  Okay?”

“Thanks!” Carol exclaimed as she pulled her legs over the side of the bed.  She was more than ready to get out of her room for a while – and she was more than ready to put the school books away for the day!

“Here,” Janice said as they got to the living room together, why don’t you lie down on the couch… rest your head in my lap like you used to.”

Carol smiled.  “Sure, Momma.”  She waited until her mother had sat down at the end of the couch, then she laid down with her head in her mother’s lap.  The TV was showing another of those stupid travel shows that her mother had been so interested in lately.  She didn’t say anything about that.  She just laid there and enjoyed her mother lightly running her fingers though her hair.  She loved her mother so much!  Her mother meant everything to her!

Janice watched as her daughter relaxed more and more in her lap.  Carol had always liked her playing with her hair like she did… and Janice enjoyed it too.  She felt very close to her daughter just then.  After a little while, she stopped paying attention to the TV and began humming very softly.  Just the same short little melody… over and over again.  And a few minutes later, her humming became very soft singing.  “Momma love’s her baby… baby… baby.  Momma loves her baby… baby girl.”  Over and over again she sang that one soft sweet melody. 

Carol never knew what was happening… other than the fact that she was feeling very relaxed and very happy, and very, very good.  Her mother’s soft singing always made her feel that way… especially that little song.  She had been singing it to her for as long as she could remember, and right then, she hoped she could continue to hear it for as long as she lived.

Janice watched her daughter carefully as she sang.  It didn’t take long at all for her daughter to enter her trance.  And the longer she kept singing, the deeper her daughter’s trance became.  She kept singing softly… lovingly taking her daughter into a deeper and deeper trance.  Finally, she knew Carol was more than deep enough.  Only then did she lean over to whisper into her ear. 

“Momma loves you more than anything in the world,” she whispered to her daughter.  “And you love your Momma more than anything in the world.  Everything will be just fine.  Everything will be perfect, if you just trust your Momma and do everything that Momma wants.  You love your Momma and want to stay with her.  You want to do everything you can to be with Momma and to help Momma.  Your Momma loves you so much, and you love Momma so much.  Just listen to Momma, and do everything that Momma wants.  Everything Momma wants.  Everything exactly as Momma wants.”