The Housekeeper - Chapter 27

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 27

Janice poured herself another cup of coffee while both Carol and Roger were finishing their breakfasts – Carol was sitting at the table of course, while Roger was eating from his dog bowl on the floor of the corner… as usual.  She finally saw Roger lifting his head and starting to move away from his bowl.  She waited until he managed to get to his feet.  His face was still somewhat a mess from the way she forced him to eat… but that didn’t matter one bit to her.  “Mr. Brinkley,” she said to get his attention.  “I have to take another little trip today, and this time I’m going to be gone until sometime tomorrow.”

“Where’re you going, Momma?” Carol asked.

“It’s a business trip, I’m afraid,” was the only answer Janice gave her.  She turned her attention back to Roger.  “While I’m away, I’m putting Carol in charge of you again.  Of course, I needn’t have to mention that.”

Roger wasn’t overly surprised to hear it.  He was mostly surprised because she had bothered to mention it in the first place.  He nodded that he understood.

“Are you still planning on trying to find someone to help you with your cosmetics today?” Janice asked.

“I was thinking about it,” Roger admitted.

Janice nodded.  “I think that’s a very good idea.  While I’m away, Mr. Brinkley, I’d like you to take Carol with you – wherever you go.”  She turned to her daughter.  “Do you understand as well, dear?” she asked.  “I need you to stay with Mr. Brinkley the entire time I’m away.  Is that clear?”

“Yes Momma,” Carol replied.  “No problem!”  What she didn’t say was that it was no problem – especially if Roger was going to go somewhere to get a makeup lesson.  That was something she’d really like to see… and maybe take a few unnoticed pictures of with her phone.

“Excellent, dear,” Janice replied somewhat brightly.  “While I’m gone, I’m sure you two will have a perfectly good time together then.  And you Mr. Brinkley can get in plenty of good practice towards your endeavor to become a woman.”  She paused and looked a little more seriously at Roger.  “I’m afraid however, that since I’m not going to be here tonight, then you will have to sleep in your cage once again… like it or not!”  She could see the possibility of Roger protesting, but she spoke first.  “That is my will, Mr. Brinkley.  The cage tonight!  And Carol will lock you in herself!”

Roger’s face fell.  He didn’t like the cage at all.  Not… at… all!

“He what?” Jennifer asked incredulously.

“He blew me off!  Totally!” Stan replied.  “No matter what I said, or what I did, he wouldn’t talk to me at all!  He just climbed into his truck and sat there.  I couldn’t get through to him at all.  And it gets worse!”

“Worse?  In what way?”

“He was wearing some kind of breasts under his jacket.”

“Say what?  What do you mean?”

“Women’s tits!  He had women’s breasts under his shirt.  I could just barely tell under the jacket he was wearing.  I didn’t even notice it at first.”

“So how do you know?”

“I felt them!”

“You… felt him up?”

“Not like that!  And let me tell you he wasn’t too pleased about it either!”

“I’m not sure I would be either,” Jennifer replied.

“You know what I mean!  I just touched him to find out if what I thought I saw was real!  And trust me – it was!”

Jennifer shook her head trying to imagine it.  “So first it’s the boots… and now he’s wearing some kind of breast forms too?  Both?”

“Both!”

“He’s really going over the deep edge,” Jennifer noted.

“It’s worse than that.  He’s in trouble Jennifer.  Big trouble.  Major trouble!”

“I thought you said he wouldn’t talk to you.  How do you know?”

“It’s the way he said it.  He’d say either I can’t help him, or there was no way I could help him… then he followed it by saying he didn’t need any help.  Every time he tried to tell me not to help, all I could see was that he really needed help more than I thought!  He’s into something bad, Jennifer.  Something so bad he can’t handle it.  Something really major.  And whatever it is, it’s eating him up inside.”

“So what do we do?”

“I haven’t a clue.  He’s totally shutting me out!”

But after that little conversation, Jennifer had it stuck in her mind, that where the masculine brawn couldn’t help, maybe a little bit of feminine caring might.

Roger always felt perturbed at having to come home from school and put the bra on under his shirt and then stuff it full of socks.  He was even more perturbed by it today because Carol had stood there and “delightedly” watched him doing it.  And to make matters worse, she had insisted on checking to see which panties he had been wearing all day.  Dumb!  Not to mention demeaning.  And once he was dressed, just because he was going to be looking at makeup for his face, he quickly shaved one more time so his beard wouldn’t show or get in the way.

As quickly as he could manage it, he got himself ready, then did his best to hurry Carol out to the truck so he could get to the makeup store as soon as possible.  What he didn’t mention was that he was hoping that by getting there as early as he could, then hopefully there would be fewer women in the place to witness his embarrassment. 

Carol was taken a bit by surprise at the way Roger rushed her out of the house.  She had seen him putting his bra on and while she was at it, she satisfied her curiosity by checking his panties as well.  But he had rushed her so much that she didn’t remember something she had thought of much earlier in the day.  Something she had wanted to do before they left… or rather, something she had wanted Roger to do.  “Oh darn!” she softly swore as soon as she did remember it.  “I meant to have you wear your pretty shoes tonight for this too!  Darn!”

Roger didn’t reply.  But he was glad that she couldn’t see the smile that crossed his lips.  This was going to be bad enough.  He didn’t need to be going into the store wearing super high heels as well!

It took a little while to get there, but it was a place that the back of Roger’s mind remembered seeing, so finding it wasn’t all that difficult.  Getting out of the truck and going into the store was difficult… at least for Roger.  Carol was somewhat delighted – with everything.

As they walked in, Roger was very glad to see that there was only one customer in the store, and two saleswomen... as far as he could see anyway.  So his plan to get here as early as possible seemed to be a good one. 

“Can I help you?” one of the saleswomen asked Carol as they approached the main counter of the store.

“Not me… him!” Carol replied

The woman looked a bit startled but turned her attention to Roger instead.  “Is there something I can help you find?”

Roger was still trying to figure out how to ask for what he needed.  “Yeah,” he replied.  “Everything!”

“Excuse me?” the woman asked.

Roger took a deep breath.  “I need to learn how to make myself look as much like a woman as possible.  I came in hoping someone could work with me a bit and show me how.”

The woman was more than a bit startled as she looked unbelievingly as Roger.  “Is this for some kind of a bet… or a dare or something?” she asked.

“No.  I just need to know,” Roger replied.  “And I’m serious about it.  I need help.”

“Trust me, Ma’am,” Carol added, “he really needs a lot of help!” 

The woman just continued to stare at Roger for a few moment more, before finally collecting herself.  “Of course,” she finally said.  “I guess I’ll be glad to help in whatever way I can.”

“Thank you,” Roger replied.  “I really appreciate it.”

The woman nodded.  “Right this way please,” she said as she led the way toward the back of the store. 

Before long, Roger found himself sitting on a stool while the woman was pulling products out from under the counter – while doing her best to study Roger’s face.  Seeing all the stuff she was pulling out, Roger started to grow even more nervous than he already was. 

“What kind of wig will you be wearing?” the woman asked.

“Wig?”

“Are you going to be wearing a wig?” she asked again.

Roger hadn’t even thought of that.  “Uh… I don’t have one. I hadn’t even thought of it.  But now that you’ve mentioned it, maybe it would be a good idea.  But I don’t have it yet, so I don’t know what kind it will be.

“We have a number of them on the back wall if you’d like to consider one of ours.”

Roger nodded.  “Thanks.  Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to at least look.”  He got up from the stool… glad to postpone the makeup session for at least a few minutes… but feeling just as embarrassed about searching for a wig.

The wall held a lot of different wigs, all of them sitting on plastic head forms the lined much of the entire back wall.  So many varieties.  How was he supposed to know which one to pick.  He got lucky as the saleswoman jumped right in.

“Now this one,” she said as she pulled one off the shelf, “is a very close match to your own hair color.  It would probably work very well for you.”

Roger, not wanting to prolong the agony, said, “Okay, sounds good enough.”

“I think you should try it on first,” Carol stated.  “You have to see how it’s going to look on you!”

“Uh… right!” Roger reluctantly agreed.  “Can I try it on?”  But the saleswoman was already pulling the wig off of the dummy head to hand to him.  Roger took it from her.  The thing looked and felt weird as he grabbed it… kind of like some kind of a dead animal or something.  He turned it around in his hands as he tried to figure out how to put the thing on.  Finally, he threw the longish hair over his head and tried his best to settle the thing in place. 

The saleswoman helped adjust it for him and brushed the hair around with her hand to arrange it better.  “There!” she exclaimed softly.  “There’s a mirror right over there where you can see how it looks.”

The wig felt weird.  The hair tickled his forehead and simply seemed strange over top of his ears.  He walked over to the mirror the woman had pointed out and dared to take a good look.  Stupid!  Definitely stupid!  Like a man wearing a wig – what is exactly what he was.  But not being an expert, he figured that the thing was good enough.  Anything at all would probably be better than just his own hair.  Anything at all would probably make him look at least a little more like a real woman so – hopefully – he wouldn’t get noticed quite so much.  “Looks good,” he finally said.  “I’ll take it.”

“I think you should try on a few of them,” Carol suggested.  “You might find one that looks better on you.”

Roger looked to the saleswoman who replied, “It’s a good idea.”

Before long, Roger’s agony was prolonged as he tried on five different wigs – ones that either the saleswoman suggested, or Carol suggested.  And he was forced to look at his image – a man’s face with a woman’s hairdo – over and over again.  He felt totally stupid.  But at the same time, he had to admit, the different wigs did make him look… different.  He himself narrowed the suggestion down to two different wigs before asking both the saleswoman and Carol for their opinion.  They both agreed on the one with the longer, more softly curled hairstyle.  “I guess I’ll take it then,” Roger agreed as he looked at his image with the thing on one more time.  He left the wig on as he made his way back to the stool where the saleswoman was going to work on his makeup.  The saleswoman brought the plastic head form with her and set it on the counter before taking the wig off of Roger’s head. 

“You don’t want me to wear it now?” he asked.

“No, the hair will only get in the way.”

“Then why did you ask about it?”

“So I could get an idea of how you were going to wear your hair.  It makes a difference!”

Roger only blinked in bewilderment.  “If you say so.”

The woman brought out a white headband.

“What’s that for?” he asked as she slipped it over his head.

“To hold your hair out of the way,” she explained. 

Roger made no more comments about it. 

“Okay,” the woman said as she studied his face closely and carefully.  She picked up a jar and some white pads.  “The first thing we need to do is to clean your skin thoroughly.”

Before Roger knew it, she was attacking his skin and cleaning. 

“I guess I should write all this stuff down so I can remember what you’re doing,” Roger said as she wiped his face off.

“Don’t worry,” Carol said as she held up her camera.  I’m taking pictures of all of it.  Maybe you can use those to refer to.

“That’s a very good idea!” the woman said.  Roger didn’t think so at all!

Carol was having fun!  She had already managed to get a bunch of pictures of him trying on the wigs.  But now she didn’t even have to try to hide what she was doing.  In fact, she moved around so she could see his face even better as the woman worked with him.  And she took picture after picture… and more than a few short videos as well.  She knew her mother probably wouldn’t approve, but she was going to show some of her friends some before and after pictures of her dumb math teacher getting a makeover like a woman!

As much as Roger hated it, he forced himself to pay close attention and to ask as many questions as he could think of… which surprisingly wasn’t all that many – only because he didn’t know enough yet to know what to ask.  Skin cleaner and astringent.  Some kind of industrial strength concealer to cover up his beard that the woman insisted was still visible – despite the fact that he had shaved before coming.  Different types of makeup brushes.  And makeup in more types and color’s than he could ever fathom… many of them just a slightly different color or shade than some of the other things he already had on his face – which the woman insisted that he needed.  All of it piled… or rather layered on top of each other. 

Through most of it, Roger had very big doubts as to how feminine he could possibly look.  He constantly checked his image in the mirror that was propped up right next to him and continually thought that as the woman was adding product after product, blending this and that, that it wasn’t helping much at all.  He did look a lot different though.  He had to admit that. 

The entire ordeal took almost an hour!  Through it all, Roger was vaguely aware of many other women coming into the store and getting waited on… but he was so preoccupied with what was happening to him that he couldn’t pay that situation more than a passing thought.  And all through the ordeal, he was very aware of Carol constantly taking picture after picture.  He didn’t know if that was a good thing… or bad!

It wasn’t until about the last five minutes that he suddenly got a better look at himself in the mirror… and his breath caught.  All of a sudden, his face not only looked much different, it seemed to look more feminine than masculine.  It was no longer easy for him to look away from that mirror as the woman continued to do things to his face. 

A few minor adjustments later, and the woman stood back one more time to look at him carefully.  “I think that’s about all I can do,” she said.  “Surprisingly though, personally, I don’t think you look half bad.”

Roger was still staring at his face – that wasn’t his face in the mirror.  He was finding it very difficult to believe that he was looking at – himself.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t speak, it was just that he hadn’t thought about saying anything. 

“So what stuff does he need to buy?” Carol asked the woman… which helped pull Roger away from the mirror and back to reality. 

The woman sorted through the things on the counter and pulled most of the things there into one large group.  “This is what I used.  Of course, you don’t have to buy all of it.”

Roger shook his head.  “No, I’ll take everything.  In fact, maybe I better take two of everything.  I think I’m going to need a lot of practice with this stuff.”

The woman nodded and smiled broadly.  It was going to be a very big sale! 

“And do you have a good mirror I can use too?” Roger asked, remembering that he didn’t have a mirror in his room.  He’d rather not have to do this in the bathroom if he could help it. 

“Of course,” the woman replied.  She went to one of the shelves and brought back two different ones for Roger to choose from.  He chose the largest – with lights on it.  Then she asked.  “Do you need some makeup remover as well?”

“Remover?”

Before they left, Carol insisted on taking one more picture of Roger’s face – this time with the wig on.  Roger found the difference to be very startling.  And… he almost thought he looked somewhat – pretty.  Well, maybe not.  But he didn’t think he looked nearly as bad as he thought he would.  But the big question now was, could he apply the makeup to himself… and look this good?  He seriously doubted that!

Carol scanned through picture after picture as they rode home in the truck.  Yeah, Shelly was going to go nuts seeing some of these.  And long before they got home, Carol emailed a few of the pictures to her mother so she could see as well.  She was pretty sure that her mother was going to be very pleased!

Janice was up before dawn.  It was raining again… but the weatherman had said it would rain so she was prepared for it.  She had also spent a while at the local Walmart the night before buying some of the things she would need as well – rubber boots, large backpack, a camp shovel, and a rain suit that had pants as well as a hooded top.  The mud was going to make the last item a necessity.  She wore the rain suit over top of her clothes when she left the hotel.

She was in Tennessee this time, in a small town not too far from the Appalachian Trail.  And once again she had her photo album with her that held precious memories of some of the hikes she and Carol had taken in the past. 

From the dirt-cheap hotel room she had rented, it was another thirty minute drive to get where she needed to go.  The small dirt parking area was completely deserted – as she expected it to be – especially in the rain.  Once again guided by the pictures and memories of her previous hikes with her daughter, Janice followed the trails and made the appropriate turnoffs to get her where she needed to go. 

It was a forty-five minute hike to get there.  It took her another ten minutes to dig up the large plastic container she had buried in the ground.  It took her a few more minutes to unseal the container so she could get at what was inside.  Once she opened the container, no money at all greeted her.  Instead, only hardware filled the plastic box.  Item by item, she transferred everything to her backpack, then she once again sealed the plastic container and buried it right where it had been.  She might need it again sometime.

The walk back to the car went far faster than the hike to find the box.  She stripped off her rubber boots and the rain suit and put them into the plastic bag from Walmart that she had gotten the night before.  The camp shovel went in there as well.  Damp from the light falling rain, she finally got into the car and started for home.  The Walmart bag got left in the trash can outside of a McDonalds restaurant along the way. 

Roger tossed and turned within the small confines of the cage he was locked into.  Over and over again he pushed at the bars… but getting out of the darn thing was impossible.  He hated the cage.  He hated it even more than having to eat like a dog from a bowl on the floor.  And he hated that an awful lot too.  Everything about it was simply demeaning. 

From his cage, he could see all of the… junk… he had purchased last night, all laid out on his dresser top.  The new lighted mirror was propped up against the wall.  The plastic head form was off to the side with his new wig on it.  Carol had made him drive home last night wearing the wig along with the makeup that the saleswoman had put on him.  But once he had gotten home, he had removed the makeup she had done, and started trying to figure out how she had done it.  Every once in a while, Carol had come into the room with a few pictures that she had printed out from her phone so he could see and remember what had been done to his face.  The pictures helped a lot!  There was now a large pile of them on the dresser as well.

He finally heard Carol getting up and going into the bathroom.  He prayed she would come release him – soon!  But it was a very long time until he heard her open the bathroom door again.  And still she didn’t come in to release him.  By the time she did open his bedroom door, he was no longer surprised to see that she was fully dressed.  She came in and unlocked his cage.  As he was crawling out, she said, “You’re going to have to hurry this morning.  It’s getting late.”

It was so late in fact that Roger didn’t get time for breakfast before having to leave for school.  But then, since he would have had to eat it like a dog, he really didn’t mind that one little bit.

Roger was already in the teacher’s lounge eating his lunch by the time that Jennifer walked in with her lunch.  As she approached him, she carefully looked at his chest, but with that sport jacket on that he was wearing, she couldn’t see any sign of any feminine breasts… but then she couldn’t tell if he was even wearing just a bra.  But did she dare bring that subject up now?  She figured maybe she better not… not while there were so many other teachers around.  If Roger had a problem, then he was doing his best to not let anyone else know about it.

“Hi!” she said brightly as she sat down across from him again.  She was irritated to see him wince at seeing her.  She was more irritated to see him looking more uncomfortable with her being there the longer she sat across from him.  Did he hate her that much?  She had left him… not because of anything at all wrong with him.  It had all been… her!

She watched him eating… never once looking in her direction or saying anything to her.  She was getting totally ignored.  And that irritated her too.  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she finally asked.  “You can’t even say hello?”

Roger looked up at her briefly.  “Hello,” he said dully before looking back down at his lunch tray.  She had no idea how beautiful she was.  And she had no idea what that did to him… because of Janice’s curse.

“Well howdy to you too,” she said sarcastically… for which she got ignored again.

She ate part of her lunch, all the while noticing that not once did he look up at her.  She finally couldn’t take it anymore.  She hadn’t wanted to bring any of this up where anyone else could hear her.  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she finally blurted out.  “Can’t you at least be civil toward me?”

Roger looked up briefly, said nothing, then looked back down again.  But Jennifer noted the distress on his face.  “Damn you,” she whispered now.  “What’s wrong Roger?  What the hell is going on?”  Again no answer.  “Stan told me about what happened this weekend.  He told me everything!”

Roger looked up, even more distressed.  “Stay out of it!” he said, before looking back down at his lunch.

“No!  I won’t stay out of it,” she hissed as quietly as she could.  “Roger… whatever is happening, I want to help.  So does Stan!”

“Stay out of it!” Roger said without looking up from his lunch. 
“I’m not going to do that, Roger.  Like it or not, I’m going to find some way to help you.”

This time she did see Roger look up.  Yes there was definite distress on his face, but there was also something else… something she couldn’t read because she had never seen a look like it before.  It almost looked like – fear! 

“Stay out of it!” he said again.  “You can’t help me!  Nobody can!” and then he looked back down at his lunch again… closing her out.

Jennifer knew without a doubt that Stan was right.  Something major wrong was going on with Roger.  He just wasn’t letting anyone close enough to him to find out what it was. 

“I’m not going to give up on you,” she said quietly.  “I won’t!”

Roger looked up at her again.  “Don’t!” was all he said before shaking his head and getting up from the table. 

Jennifer watched him walking out.  He had said, “Don’t.”  But did that mean don’t try to help him… or don’t give up on him?  No matter what, she was now more concerned about him than ever before!

Carol knew her mother wouldn’t approve, but this was just too good to hold back.  She wouldn’t tell the real truth, but what she would tell her friends… and show them… would be more than good enough.  So while she and her girlfriends were all sitting around at the lunch table, she brought out her cell phone.  “You’ve all just got to see this!” she said excitedly. 

The excited shrieking and laughing from all the girls at the table a few moments later drew the attention of almost everyone else in the cafeteria.  And therefore, everyone wanted to know what was so funny!  And by the time school was over that day, everyone had heard that Carol had pictures of a makeover that Mr. Brinkley had gotten on a dare… that turned him into a woman! 

Everyone had heard about the pictures, including Jennifer White and Stan Franklin.  Everyone had heard that is… except Roger.