The Housekeeper - Chapter 71 Part 1 of 2

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 71 Part 1 of 2

Candy marked the start of the new school year by going to work, getting another cooking lesson from Janice, doing more laundry, and cleaning most of the house all over again.  But his thoughts were never far from his old teaching job all day long.  He was very tempted to call both Jennifer and Stan to find out how their first day at school had gone, but he simply didn’t have the time.  Never mind going outside and getting up on the ladder and continue painting the house.  That little chore was going to have to wait until after Janice was gone for good!

Being the crew foreman now added a lot of responsibilities onto what he did.  He always made it a point to get to the job site early… whenever Mike didn’t need him to stop at the building supply store to pick up more materials first.  Most days though he started the day with a clipboard in his hand walking around the job site making notes about the things that needed to get done and sometimes who he wanted to put onto some of the jobs. 

He wasn’t too sure yet how well the guys were accepting him… or how much they really respected him, but thanks to Mike’s backing, he had no real problems with any of them.  He directed what needed to get done and they did it.  He did always try to pass on as much praise and encouragement to the guys as he could though, and he was quickly seeing a change in the attitudes of most of them.  That part he found very rewarding and it gave him hope that he could be fully accepted and respected in the future.

Since he was the only real finishing carpenter on the crew and his time was a lot more limited now, he decided to try to pass some of those skills along to other members of the crew.  When he asked for a volunteer to learn the detailed work, two men spoke up first – the two he had known the longest… Pete and Jerry.  He decided to work with both of them… but not before having a more private discussion with them.

“Look guys,” he said.  “I know you’re not exactly thrilled about what I’m doing with my life.  I don’t care whether you’re happy for me or not.  It doesn’t matter.  All I’m interested in right now is getting the job done here and doing it as well as we can.  But this kind of work is a little different than the grunt work you two have been doing for several years now, and I need to know if either of you are going to have any problem with me showing you things constantly and basically riding your case all the time.  More so than all the other guys!”

Jerry shrugged and spoke first.  “Hell, I don’t exactly understand what you’re doing to yourself with all this woman stuff, and to tell the truth, it bothers me more than a bit.  But I got a family to support and I need this job.  And if Mike says listen to you, then I guess I have no choice in the matter.  But I’ll say this for you though, I knew you before.  I seen before how good you were at all this.  I guess it’s why Mike liked you so much to begin with.  And since you’ve taken over as foreman, things seem to go a lot better than with Fitz… and I’m not even sure why that is.  So if you think you’re willing to show me some of what you do, then I’ll have no problem listening.  Besides, I’m hoping that if I get good enough, I’ll get a raise!”

Pete laughed.  “That’s half my angle too!  But mostly I’ve been doing this stuff for a few years now and I figure if I ever want to try to do anything on my own, then I need to start learning more stuff.  And like Jerry said, we know how good you were before and even with all this new junk in your life, we know you still got the touch with the wood.  So I got no problem with it either.”

Candy smiled.  “Guys, I think you’re doing this for all the right reasons.  And because of that, I’m going to seriously be all over you to learn to do it right!  But I’ll also promise you this, you learn to do this stuff well, and I’ll personally talk to Mike about a raise for each of you.  Deal?”

The deal was struck, and Candy realized that by him trying to teach them, word would get around to the entire crew that he was trying to help them all… and hopefully, things would get even better.  Maybe he couldn’t teach math in school anymore… but he could teach something else right here.

Janice watched Candy carefully.  Day in and day out she tried to show Candy the best way to do something… things that even as a man he should have known how to do better.  A house was a major responsibility.  Just being a woman was a major responsibility.  And she was taking a man… basically no more than a mindless lump of clay… and creating something wonderful with it.  No, never in her life would Candy ever be more than a man turned into a woman, but it would be the best she could do, and Janice wanted to someday be proud of this accomplishment. 

As such, she taught Candy how to do everything she could.  How to scrub floors, how to clean the bathrooms, the best way to deal with laundry issues, she even talked with her about how to decorate a home to make it welcoming and inviting for guests.  But she spent most of her time with Candy in the kitchen, trying to teach her the rudimentary skills for cooking. 

As always, her notebook wasn’t far away, and she was now making a list of things she wanted to instill into Candy’s head, that used to be male, but she could tell was quickly becoming more and more totally female.  Janice often wondered, that if she could see that Candy was thinking more like a woman, then why couldn’t Candy?  Why couldn’t Candy accept herself as a woman and think about herself as such?  The first item on her list of things to put into Candy’s head, was to do just that.  He would forever more know that he was a woman.  He would always think of himself as a woman.  He would simply be a woman who had once had a male body… that she was in the process of correcting. 

Another major item on her list for Candy was Candy’s diet.  She had seen how the minute she was gone, Candy had gone back to her old habits from her former life and gone after the fast food and TV dinners!  In the future, TV dinners were going to be a thing of the past and forevermore Candy would limit the fast food and at least try to make better decisions about what foods she would choose.  Learning to cook better was one of the major items on her list.  She could only teach Candy so much, she didn’t have time to teach her everything she should know.  Perhaps a cooking school would help matters.  Candy was going to enjoy cooking smart, delicious, nutritious meals… and she was going to enjoy those home cooked meals more than any fast food she could get!

Another item on Janice’s list for Candy was cleaning.  When she had been a man, Janice had noted that he had kept a nice house.  Actually quite clean – for a man!  But a woman should have higher standards and as such, Candy would too.  She was currently teaching Candy how to obtain those higher standards.  Making it all stick with her hypnosis would make sure Candy would maintain those standards for the rest of her life!

There were other items she was considering too, but she had just started her list.  She would continue to watch and observe until it was time to mess with Candy’s head again.  The list would make sure that when she left Candy, she would be the best woman she could possibly make out of… him!

As the days passed, Candy watched the number of quilts Janice and Carol were making pile up higher and higher.  In the past, he had made quite a number of quilts for them… quilts that contained no money.  He was fairly sure she was putting them at the top of all those boxes so that if anyone should go in and check, all they would find was normal, everyday quilts.  No money.  But he didn’t have time to make quilts anymore.  He was too busy cooking and cleaning – for them.  And despite how busy she always seemed to be, Janice still managed to find the time to criticize the way he cooked, and the way he cleaned, and basically, the way he did everything!  He was going to be so glad when those two were gone!  But… he did have to admit, everything she was doing was only so that he could learn to do it better.  But did she have to demand that everything be so perfect all the time?  It was wearing him out!

With the amount of hair on his entire body so greatly diminished now, he was only scheduling his laser treatments as he thought he needed them.  That made things easier for him to handle the early morning needs of his job.  He still had to leave Friday’s during the mid-afternoon so he could go and meet with Jessica.  Fortunately, Janice thought that was important enough that on Fridays, she and Carol went out for dinner.  He was fairly certain that they were going out for lunch more than a few times a week as well.  But between Janice and his job, he had very little time for anything else.

The only bit of down time he seemed to have now was on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturdays he still managed to go out fishing with Stan… after which he took the opportunity to go out and cut the grass in his large yard.  But Janice preferred that he not work so much on Sundays, so after church, and after they ate dinner out somewhere, he had most of the day to himself… at least until it was time to make dinner.  So much for his little break from all the work.  But he did at least have those few precious hours on Sunday to do nothing.

It was on the second Sunday after school started.  With nothing better to do, and wanting to get away from Janice and Carol for a few hours, Candy decided to call Jennifer.  “Hi Jenn,” he said into his phone.  “What are you up to?”

“Hi Candy,” Jennifer replied.  “Not all that much.  Why?”

“I think I need to get out of the house for a bit.  Want to do some shopping or something.  I don’t have to be back to make dinner for a little while.”

“How much longer is Janice going to be there?” Jennifer asked.  “I would think that with all that money she got from the FBI she’d have found a better place to live by now.”

“She’s trying to figure out where she wants to live,” Candy replied.  “You should see the living room, it’s positively decorated with pictures of different places she wants to go.  And most of the pictures have beaches!”

Jennifer giggled.  “Okay, I guess I can’t blame her too much for that.  Tell you what, why don’t you come here for a little while.  I’ll put some coffee on.”

“Sounds good,” Candy replied.  “And you can tell me all about how school is going.  I can’t tell you how often I think about that.”

“I know you have to miss it,” Jennifer replied.  “And I’ll be glad to fill you in on all of this year’s headaches!”

Candy laughed.  “I’ll be right there!” 

Twenty minutes later, he discovered that Jennifer had indeed put the coffee on, but she had no intention of drinking any.  They didn’t talk about school either.  But Candy did get a chance to practice more of his growing list of skills again.  This time, his skills in bed with Jennifer.

When they eventually finished, they stayed in bed and held each other closely.  Each of their soft bodies still enjoying the feel of another soft body pressed close.  The intimate loving embrace of someone else was precious to each of them. 

But there was something that had been on Jennifer’s mind for a while now, and she chose that time to ask, “Candy… what do you think about Stan?”

“Stan?  He’s my friend.  He used to be my best friend, but I think that now you might qualify a whole lot more in that category.  Besides, things between us are still a little… tense.”

“Still?” she asked.

“It isn’t anything I can really put my finger on,” Candy replied.  “But I can still feel it.  We aren’t as close as we used to be.  I get the impression he’s kind of tip-toeing around me a little.”

Jennifer thought about that.  “He probably is.  Before, you were two guys together.  Now you’re a woman and he’s a guy.  I would think that would make a heck of a difference.”

“Yeah.  It does.  But I miss how close we used to be.  We could talk about anything and we both could rely on each other like you wouldn’t believe.”

“And do you think that Stan would be interested in talking about ways to handle frizzy hair?”

Candy laughed.  “No, I definitely can’t see him interested in something like that!”

Jennifer laughed a little too.  “But that’s not really what I meant,” Jennifer said.

“What do you mean?”

“I meant, how do you feel about him… like a woman would feel about a man?”

“Like a…  Jennifer you know what I really am.  Still!  I can’t think about a man that way!  Maybe in a few years.  Maybe after I have my operation.  Maybe then.  But until then, I can’t.  Besides, right now I’ve got all the wrong equipment for it to do either of us any good.”

“I know,” Jennifer replied.  “But still….  Look you didn’t think you would ever be interested in doing something like this with me either… woman to woman… and yet, we’ve done this a number of times now.”

“But doing it with a guy… Stan in particular… that’s totally different.  Besides, until I get my operation, there’s no way I can have sex with him anyway.”

“But that’s just it,” Jennifer said.  “What if we could have sex with him?”

“You already are!”

“No.  I mean both of us!”

“I told you…”

“I mean at the same time!”

Candy was silent for a moment.  “You mentioned that to me a long time ago,” he said softly.

“I still think about it once in a while,” she replied.  “You know I love making love to a guy… not just Stan, you were pretty darn great in that category yourself.”

“Not anymore,” Candy replied disappointedly.

“But you’re coming along rather splendidly in this kind of lovemaking,” Jennifer replied.  “If I do say so myself.”

Candy hugged her tighter for a moment.  “I can think of a few things that I’m not sure any of us would particularly like about it.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that you try so hard not to let him know about us… or about any of the other times you go out for more feminine companionship.”

“There is that,” Jennifer replied.

“And how about what it might do to your relationship with him… and my relationship with him for that matter.  What about that?  I doubt very much that Stan will like knowing that both of us are interested in that kind of a love life… as opposed to having sex with him.”

Jennifer sighed disappointedly.  Candy was right of course.  And she did need to keep this part of her life a secret.  “As much as I like Stan,” she said softly, “I still think about trying that someday.  I like doing it with both men and women.   What would it be like to do it sometime with both?”

“How would you do it?” Candy asked.  “How could you do it?  I mean… physically.  How do you make love to two people at the same time?”

Jennifer smiled.  “I’m sure we’d find a way.”

“Well, I can’t anyway,” Candy replied.  “Like I said, I’m not exactly built for sex with a man yet.”

Jennifer giggled.  “I’m afraid I’d have to handle that part myself.”

“Then what would I do?  What would you need me for?”

“All the things you do to me now!”

Candy shook his head.  “I’m too afraid of what it might do to our friendship.  All of our friendships!”