The Housekeeper - Chapter 42 Part 1 of 4

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 42 Part 1 of 4

It’s not that Roger minded eating at Burger King, he liked easy fast food as much as anyone else – as long as it wasn’t every single meal.  And since Janice had moved into the house, fast food meals were far fewer than at any time since he had been much younger and had lived at home with his parents.  So he really didn’t mind eating there at all.  What he did mind, was that Carol had insisted that he go there dressed completely as Candy… and that she also insisted that they go inside to eat!  The fact that Carol was enjoying his discomfort way too much was not exactly lost on him.

As he ate, his eyes continually searched around the restaurant… hoping and praying that he wouldn’t see anyone that he knew.  At Burger King, it was all too likely that some of the kids from school could be there.  There were definitely kids eating inside, but none that he recognized as being from the High School.  He wasn’t too fond of the looks he was getting from many of the adults in the restaurant.  He had no doubt that he was much more noticeable because of the stupid wig on his head.  Of course his makeup and ‘C’ cup breasts under his jacket didn’t help much either… nor did his boots or the purse he was carrying.  At least the jacket hid what his top looked like… other than his beasts of course that were still too noticeable.  They were simply too big for the jacket to completely hide.  At least he was wearing his jeans and not a damn dress!  But in truth, he wasn’t sure how much that helped.

He ate fast and nervously, barely tasting his food.  Carol on the other hand, seemed to be eating all too slowly – one French fry at a time, while he shoved several into his mouth at once.  He just wanted to get out of there… and Carol wasn’t hurrying in the least!  When they were finally done, he was back into his truck long before she got halfway across the parking lot.  He wasn’t looking forward to repeating that little bit of humiliation any time soon.  Dressed the way he was, he headed his truck directly back toward home.

“I thought you were going shopping for new boots tonight,” Carol mentioned when she realized that Roger was heading home and not to the stores.

“Um… I figured that maybe tonight isn’t the best time to go shopping after all,” he replied.

“Why, because you’re dressed as Candy?” she asked laughingly.

“Uh… something like that,” he admitted.

She outright laughed!  Which irked Roger to no end.  “Let’s go shopping!” she declared.  “Momma said you had to get some new boots, so let’s go find some.”

Roger felt like dying.  “Can I get rid of this wig and the overly big breasts first?” he pleaded.

“Nope!  I want you dressed just like you are!  Better get used to it.”

Yeah right!  Nervously, Roger turned his truck around and headed for the stores – driving down towards Gainesville instead of stopping at any place closer.  Fortunately, Carol didn’t say anything about where he was going.  He wasn’t sure where he was going to find a shoe store that he dared to go into, but on the outskirts of the city, he noticed the sign for a shoe store in one of the small strip malls along the road.  Making his mind up quickly, he pulled into the parking lot.  Now he just had to manage to get out of his truck and go inside and shop – dressed the way he was.

He wasn’t surprised to find that he wasn’t the only customer in the store… not surprised, but he was disappointed.  As far as he was concerned, the store seemed to be somewhat crowded!  And most of the customers appeared to be women… and he wasn’t too sure how much he himself appeared to be a woman.  Not much at all he was guessing by some of the looks he was getting.  As quickly as he could, he searched out what boots they had for sale, but since the weather was starting to warm up, they had very few… and none at all in his size.  Carol was disappointed, but he was very glad to get out of there and back into his truck.

“Maybe we should just go home and I’ll call around tomorrow to see what’s available,” he suggested.

“Are you crazy?” Carol replied.  “We’ve just started.  There’s a lot of places that sell shoes.  Let’s find another one.”

The ugly remark Roger wanted to utter was purposely kept silent.

Ten minutes later they found another shoe store and Roger pulled into the parking lot.  This one appeared to be a lot bigger than the last place, and it too seemed to have a good collection of customers.  Roger was beginning to realize that he wasn’t going to get away with hunting for new boots without being seen by lots of people. 

He hurriedly looked for boots in the store while Carol took her sweet time looking at shoes for herself.  Like the last place, this store too had a very small selection of boots.  There were some in his size, but they all had either no heels at all, or heels that were not much more than his men’s shoes would have – and Janice had told him that they had to have a slightly higher heel than the boots he was already wearing.  Roger would have much rather gotten some without any high heel at all, but he knew without asking that such a thing was out of the question.  Again he was glad to get out of there… if even to move on to find someplace else to look.

“It’s not looking too good,” he mentioned to Carol as he drove into Gainesville.  “Maybe it would be best if I looked around on the internet instead.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find something,” Carol replied, sounding all too confident.  Roger was hoping that she would be wrong.

It was only a few minutes until they found another place.  There were customer’s there again, but not nearly so many.  And again Roger threw caution aside and summoned up the courage to go into the store – totally dressed as Candy.  And like before, everybody who saw him, looked not once, not twice, but many times at him.  What fun!  He had no choice but to do his best to ignore everyone else and take care of the business he was there for.  Now… hopefully this place wouldn’t have any boots either and they could leave… and maybe he could convince Carol to just give up for tonight.

Unfortunately, the store did have some boots in his size.  Not many, but a few.  And unfortunately there was only one pair that had more than a very small heel… and of course, it was far more heel than what Roger was hoping for.  And the heel was only part of the problem.  The boots were black – which was perfectly fine with Roger – but they had decorative straps at both the top and across the ankle… and each of the straps had a large silver buckle attached.  Not exactly what Roger would consider stealth boots!  They would be far too noticeable – especially since Janice insisted he wear them over top of his pants so they could always be seen!  Who’s idea was it for him to wear boots like this as a trade mark for his new business.  Oh yeah, Janice.  Ugh!

“They’re not going to work,” he declared after Carol had decided they looked perfect. 

“Why not?” Carol asked.  “I like them!”

“They’re not going to work,” Roger insisted.  “Not only is the heel a lot higher than the ones I’m wearing, but instead of the heel being real wide all the way down, these heels taper a little.”

“Not that much,” Carol noted.  “Not much at all in fact.”

“But more than they should for the construction work I do.”

“Candy… I’m pretty sure that any heel is not going to be what you’d like for doing that kind of stuff.”

“Exactly!  Which is why these won’t work!”

“Which is also why I think you should buy them!” Carol insisted.

“But the heel is too high… and they’re not wide enough!”

The sly smile on Carol’s face told him all too much… even before she said, “Buy them!  Either that, or we’ll go somewhere else and I’ll make sure you buy some with an even higher heel!”

Ugh!  “Maybe I’d better try them on first,” Roger suggested.

Carol’s face fell a bit.  “Okay.  Maybe you better.”

Hoping against hope that the boots wouldn’t fit at all, Roger bent down and unzipped his left boot.  As he did, he was all too aware of people at both ends of the aisle watching him.  Shit!  But there wasn’t much he could do about it.  Feeling totally foolish, he pulled his foot out of the brown boot he was wearing and stood balancing himself on just his one still booted foot while he unzipped the new boot and removed the stuffing from inside it.  He pulled it onto his knee-hi clad foot, and hated the fact that his foot slid inside so easily.  He could already feel how much higher the heel was on this new boot.  And unfortunately, the darn thing zipped all the way up over his tight jeans way too easily.  If anything, the new boot was easier to get on than his old boots.

His hope fading, he pulled the stuffing out of the other boot and tried that one on as well.  Darn, even with the higher heels, they fit!  And not too badly at all!  He was guessing that the heels on these things were about three inches high – a full inch higher than his brown boots.  And the slightly narrower base of the heel was going to make working in the stupid things all that much more difficult.  He also wasn’t happy about the silver buckles on them that couldn’t be ignored.  No, he wasn’t exactly happy with them, and he wasn’t looking forward to having to wear them on the job.  Not happy at all!

“I love them on you!” Carol declared happily.

There were a lot of things Roger could have said to her, but fortunately, none of them came out of his mouth.

Janice woke Sunday morning to the sound of Ben-ben barking.  “Now what!” she exclaimed as she hurriedly pried herself out of bed.  She had left him chained by his back leg to the staircase while she slept.  Of course, she had kept him as Ben-ben and not yet returned him back to his human self again.  “What are you barking at?” she called agitatedly as she hurried out from the bedroom.  The stupid human-turned-dog was pulling at the chain attached to his ankle, trying to get closer to the large glass French doors across the back of the room.  “What the heck?” Janice exclaimed as the “dog” excitedly kept barking.  She walked past him and closer to the windows to get a better view.  There were two squirrels playing out on the back balcony where Ben-ben could see them.  The stupid animal was barking at – squirrels!

“Ben-ben!  Stop that this instant!”  She was glad to see him stop barking, but the two squirrels on the deck still held all too much of his interest.  With a shake of her head, she left him there and headed to the kitchen to start making some coffee.  She would have liked to go back to bed for another hour or two, but she had no doubt at all that sleep was now out of the question.  As she started the coffee brewing, she wondered if Carol and Roger were up yet and getting ready for church.  If they weren’t, then they should be soon.  She was tempted to phone her daughter, just to say hello, but if they were trying to get dressed to go out, then she’d leave them alone… for now. 

With a heavy sigh and a small curse at the stupid “dog,” she turned and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. 

Roger looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.  It was the best mirror he had to see himself… and it didn’t show him very much.  Did he look like a woman?  Could he fool anyone yet?  His face, all he could really see, didn’t seem to look too bad to him today.  He guessed he was actually getting a bit better with all the makeup.  But how about the rest of him?  No doubt, the rest of him still looked like a man in a dress – which was exactly what he was.  With a small sigh, he turned and left the bathroom.  Carol was waiting for him in the living room.  It was time to go to church.

The drive down the highway was long.  For nothing better to talk about, he asked Carol if she felt like she needed any extra help with the math material before the final exams. 

Carol considered that for a moment.  “No,” she finally said.  “I think I’m starting to get it pretty good.  I’d just rather not take the thing at all!”

Roger smiled, “I know.  Nobody likes it.  But it’s a school policy.”

“Why can’t you just give me a good grade and not make me take the stupid thing?”

It was a slightly troubling question and moment before Roger replied.  “Because your mother seems fairly adamant that you learn this stuff, and she’s also adamant about you taking all the tests – fairly!”

“Shit!” Carol exclaimed softly.  “I know.  I just hate taking tests!”

“Nobody likes them,” Roger said again.

“But you like giving them!” Carol accused.

Roger thought about that for a moment.  “Not exactly,” he replied.  “But they do help me to figure out if I’m doing anything wrong in the way I teach.  Like… if a lot of people suddenly start failing, then I know I have to go back and fix it so that they all understand everything better.  Do you understand that?”

“Shit!” Carol exclaimed softly as she turned to look away from him.  But all she really thought about was that he really did like giving tests!  She was reminded of something that had crossed her mind a while back – if she had to be so uncomfortable taking the darn tests, then she saw no reason why he shouldn’t feel just as uncomfortable when he gave them.  With that interesting thought on her mind, she stared silently out the window and searched for some way to make him miserable… whenever he gave students tests to take.

Roger didn’t tell her, but he had scheduled a surprise quiz on some of the material for Monday – just so he could see how everyone was coming along with remembering the material.  Since Carol said she didn’t need any extra help, he decided to let her be just as surprised as everyone else by the quiz.