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| What is Lipstick Wars? |
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The Next Visiting Teaching Adventure:
Lipstick Wars
Lindsay Duncan is a young mother with a new baby and a toddler who likes to escape. Despite her best efforts he's been caught running down the street naked one time too often and due to a mean-spirited neighbor she finds herself being investigated by the state.
Her new visiting teaching companion encourages her to join a walking group which is more than she can handle but she agrees in order to keep up appearances. Feeling overwhelmed and friendless, Lindsay doesn't know where to turn when one of Hayden's romps brings Lindsay face to face with a reclusive artist who is struggling with issues of her own.
Lindsay learns that keeping up appearances can lead to distances that isolate her. It's only when she is willing to break down the walls she has built up around herself that she can really be happy.
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Read an Excerpt:
Chapter One- On the Loose
Lindsay ran her hands through her wet, light brown hair and stared at the dark circles under her eyes. It’s going to take three different kinds of foundation to hide this face from the ladies at church.
Reaching under the sink, she laid the canvas makeup bag onto the counter and unrolled it. A collection of brushes, applicators, and small containers of every shape and color glistened in the cramped bathroom. I can see it all now, she tapped the light moisturizer out on a small sponge, walking in the front door at church and having them run up to me and say “you look so tired”.
Do they think it’s a compliment? She dusted a light powder over the moisturizer and grabbed another bottle of beige colored liquid. I mean, its equivalent to being asked if you’re pregnant when you’re not. At least I don’t have to worry about that happening.
Lindsay whacked the open bottle into the palm of her hand in small quick strokes, I don’t know what I’m so worried about. They probably won’t even notice I’m back now that I’m not in Primary anymore. It’s just so weird that no one has called.
She huffed and grabbed the eye primer and sponge- maybe they’re just waiting to make a big deal of the new baby when I get back to church. We do live on the edge of the ward boundaries.
Or maybe- her eyes drifted to the plaster flaking off the ceiling and the thick cracked paint which framed the large uncovered window to her right- they just don’t want to come here.
She tried not to think about all the things around her left undone and focused on the reflection of her face which had become a flawless blank canvas ready to be transformed into whatever she chose to make of it.
Adjusting the towel around her, Lindsay reached down to grab the mascara when she caught an unusual movement in her peripheral vision. The small hairs at the back of her neck stood in fear as she wiped the steam off the large paned window. She pressed her face against the cool glass in a panic and strained to see if her worst fears were confirmed.
Racing out of the bathroom, Lindsay shouted for her husband. He didn’t answer. She rushed toward the children’s rooms and called again. Adrenalin pumped through her bloodstream. She realized she had no other choice and shot through the open front door into the street half naked.
Her bare feet dashed across the pavement with sharp gravel bits digging into her tender flesh. The towel tried violently to escape, whipping open despite her best attempts to hug it around her. Lindsay sprinted faster than she ever had. It seemed like an eternity until she was finally closing in. How could Josh have let him escape, she thought angrily, increasing her speed. Just about there. She dove forward but missed him by inches, almost losing her towel.
Hayden’s blond hair danced in the wind as his little head bobbed up and down with each step, widening the distance between them. Lindsay shook her head and gave chase, still amazed that just two months ago he could barely walk. Now he was probably breaking some Olympic sprinting record. The fact that he was unimpeded by clothing may have helped.
For a minute Lindsay slowed to secure her towel. When she raised her head, she nearly screamed but caught the sound in her throat and plowed forward. Her little boy was so focused on not being caught that his young mind couldn’t conceive of the life-threatening danger ahead. Lindsay knew if she called for him, he would simply run toward it faster.
She could see the cars whizzing back and forth on the main road twenty feet away. The chance of getting to him in time was slim at best. Her stomach tightened as she raced on with all her might.
“Please, Father, please, help me,” she prayed under her breath.
The sound of a siren screamed through the air as the police car pulled around the corner, screeching to a stop a few feet in front of her stunned child. In that moment Lindsay swept her naked toddler into her arms with relief. Looking in her son’s face she shook her head, “Hayden, no, this is bad!”
Hayden laughed like it was a game, “No, no, no.”
Desperate to make him understand, Lindsay hardly noticed the older officer walking up to her. He took her by the arm. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, trying not to grin. “Perhaps, we can give you a ride home.”
Lindsay looked up, embarrassed and exhausted. The tears could no longer be held in. Hayden reached up gently and wiped his mother’s wet cheek as she climbed into the back of the squad car- already feeling in jail.
The younger officer in the passenger seat wrenched his neck around, his eyes resting on her bare shoulders. “So which house is yours, sweetie?”
Lindsay pulled her towel a little higher and adjusted Hayden so she could straighten the terry cloth around her thighs, “It’s the last house on the left- the old Victorian.”
The older officer gave her a fatherly smile through the rearview mirror and then noticed his partner leering and jabbed him in the ribs. The younger man flipped around and sat forward on his best behavior. Hayden just snuggled up next to his mom, happy to be in her arms again.
As the cruiser slowly proceeded up the street, Lindsay turned her head out the window, trying not to think about what had just happened. Normally her street was like a ghost town. You could see evidences of life- huge luxury cars parked in driveways, flowers on doorsteps and sprinklers going on the unnaturally green front lawns- but rarely had she seen actual people out en masse. This Sunday morning was different.
Wow, look at them all. She counted at least six of her neighbors gawking from their spacious front yards or peeking out of their large bay windows.
One lady stood by her shiny black Mercedes staring. The woman’s coral outfit was impeccable with perfectly matching lipstick. Her thin lips bore an expression of amusement coupled with derision at the slow moving squad car. Lindsay blinked hard and hugged her little boy closer to try to comfort herself.
The younger officer muffled a giggle.
Turning back away, she caught sight of her closest neighbor, Mrs. Murdock. Her floppy straw gardening hat shaded her piercing eyes, but the disdain was clear enough. She stood in her open doorway with hands on her hips, nodding her head in approval. The last few times Murdock had called the police it had seemed cruel and humiliating but today Lindsay was almost grateful- almost. She vowed to try and think nicer thoughts about the retired Math teacher in the future.
Driving through the upscale neighborhood, the officers had attempted to be extremely respectful, but when her home came into view, their expressions seemed to change. The small house looked more dilapidated than Lindsay remembered next to the huge new homes up and down the street- McMansions, her mother called them after the popular fast food chain.
Her house had been the original homestead of the surrounding development and was probably beautiful at the turn of the century- the last century. But time and a coat of faded deep blue paint the color of tacky eye shadow had hidden its traditional charm. The front porch was sagging and covered with plastic Little Tykes toys from garage sales.
Lindsay planned on having Hayden play on them as soon as the waist high lawn got under control but last week Josh had broken his third lawn mower blade after only one pass. The lawn mower sat trapped in the middle of the untamed front yard, advertising its ineptness. Looking at the scene made her think of a few Jeff Foxworthy jokes and she could hardly believe that she actually lived there herself.
As they pulled into the cracked driveway, Josh was loading the baby buckled in her car seat into the car. Slung over his shoulder was a diaper bag stuffed so full that it looked like a pair of too tight jeans on a Weight Watchers flunkie- she realized he had packed it himself as a surprise and she wanted to feel grateful but under the circumstances Lindsay couldn’t stir up any of those emotions. Every other feeling was drowned out by the fact that he was supposed to have been watching Hayden when all of this happened.
She waited for one of the officers to open her door and stepped out to face her husband. The shock on his face at seeing them both undressed was blatant, “Wow, I bet you guys gave the entire neighborhood an eyeful. No wonder they called the police.”
“Very funny and yes, I think about half the neighborhood did see me,” Lindsay stopped herself from lashing out at him with blame, shoved Hayden in his already filled arms and turned to the older officer who had just emerged from his door. “Am I permitted to go inside and dress, sir?”
“That would be fine,” he nodded and Lindsay rushed toward the house. Behind her she could hear her husband say, “You have to admit he is becoming quite the escape artist. He even escaped from his clothes this time.”
She cringed and slammed the door behind her. Didn’t Josh understand that those men weren’t friends? They were here to investigate them, to judge if they were good parents. This was serious.
In the front room she saw the small pile of clothes that Hayden had wiggled out of before his run. She snatched them up swiftly so the front room would be presentable and hurried to her bedroom where her clothes lay waiting on her bed where she had set them out just before her shower that morning. It seemed like ages ago despite the clock on the wall telling her it had been less than thirty minutes.
Lindsay took a deep breath and tried to calm herself but could hear the sound of laughing in the front room and knew she better get in there before Josh said something he shouldn’t, while trying to be funny. He was a loving and goodhearted man- that’s why she had married him- but he wasn’t very careful with how he presented himself or their family.
She threw on her underthings, yanked the soft floral dress over her head and turned to rush out the door, but caught her reflection in the mirror. Her pale skin looked taut and haggard. Her hair had dried frizzy and uncontrolled. Although she knew she should hurry back to the officers, something in her couldn’t do it.
Turning, she walked back to the bathroom, lifted the brush to her hair, plugged in the straightener and reached for the makeup bag. Twelve minutes later Lindsay put on a layer of berry nut lipstick, lifted her chin and relaxed her shoulders. Her reflection looked like a young woman who was controlled and professional. Lindsay swallowed hoping that was all the officers would see. Then taking a deep breath she walked out of the room with as bright a smile as she could muster.
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