White Wax Protectant

Part one

Growing up poor had taught Nanna many lessons. Not being a wasteful person was the most valuable one. Nanna could make any item scream for mercy before it was tossed in the trash. What seemed like chump change to most people was down right golden to her.

Nanna had an addiction. Like everyone else, she was obsessed with something. Lucky for her it wasn’t someone. She was addicted to lip balm.

Her lips stayed dried out. Chapped, cracked, dry, painful. She could feel them curling up. What she envisioned was a mouth that was constantly puckered. And not kissable. Sandpaper lips. Almost always to the point of bleeding. Though they never bled.

Why? Who knew? Maybe she was breathing too hard? Maybe she was breathing too deeply? The air in her house too dry? Not enough oil in her skin? A ghost was always following her, stealing the moisture from her lips to regenerate itself? A Martian was siphoning her lip cells in a failed attempt to make a carbon based refractor to communicate with the mother ship?

Cause of dry lips – unknown.

Nanna had lip balm in her coat pocket. Pants pocket. Car cubby. Purse. A tube was in every room of her house. On every table, stand, dresser, counter top. Her desk at work. A drawer in her bathroom was full of ‘at the ready’ tubes. Her dry lips would be quenched. At least for a little while. Sweet relief.

She stood at the kitchen sink; with the utensil drawer out, holding an ‘empty’ tube. Down to the nub. Nanna knew there was more balm down in there. How much? She wanted to find out. How to get it out? Nothing worked. A spoon was too big. Either end. The fork tines were too close together. A butter knife was too wide. With her hip, she closed the drawer with a sigh of disgust. This tube was not going to get thrown out. There had to be a way.

Sitting at her vanity, what about this cosmetic spatula? She used it to get every last drop of foundation out of a bottle. Would it work? Was it too wide? With her mind full of curiosity, she took the spatula to the medicine cabinet to find out. To her delight, it worked! Eureka!

The tube just kept going. Day after day. More and more. Balm was just there. She was thrilled with her luck.