Chapter 7:
Mina’s Daily Struggles
LATELY, MINA had skipped doing the dishes. When I peeked into the kitchen sink, it wasn’t rare to see dirty tableware sitting there.
I didn’t mind her skipping it. Mina handled most of our chores day to day—in fact, I felt bad leaving everything to her in the first place. I figured I’d use this as a jumping point to start washing dishes too. The detergent I developed scrubbed most of the nastiness off any dirty plate easily, and cleaning what was left took less than ten minutes.
“Thanks for doing those dishes, Mr. Reiji.”
“Don’t mention it. If anything, I should thank you.”
I didn’t mind Mina ignoring the dishes, but it was rare for her to bypass household chores without saying anything. After all, she wasn’t Noela.
The queen of shirking caught me staring at her. “What, Master?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. Now, why would Mina suddenly stop doing dishes? There had to be a reason, but I couldn’t come up with one. “Hey, Mina, is everything okay?”
“Huh? Well…” She thought for a moment, then replied, “Yes! Everything’s fine. Every day is delightful.” She nodded with a smile you could only describe as “saintly.”
Then how come… “So, um… I noticed you stopped doing the dishes lately.”
“Oh, yes. I’ll be better soon. I promise. Sorry, Mr. Reiji.” Mina bowed her head apologetically.
Wait… What does she mean that she’ll “be better soon”? “It’s totally fine. I’m not mad or anything. I’m just genuinely curious about what happened.”
“Actually, this is the problem.” She showed me her palms.
“Hm?” Looking carefully, I saw why she stopped. “Your hands are all chafed…”
“Mm-hmm.”
Noela stared at Mina’s hands, then her own. “Rough. Dry.”
“Exactly. I thought maybe dishwashing had something to do with it, so I’ve been taking a break.”
“Got it. That makes total sense.”
My hands hadn’t changed much since I took over for Mina, but she washed the dishes daily. It was possible the dish detergent itself affected her skin. My skin definitely felt tight after dishwashing, so I could see how repeating the task could lead to rough, dry hands.
“How are yours, Noela?”
“Groo?” She showed me her hands. Her skin was moist, super soft, and nice to touch. “Tickles, Master.”
“Sorry.”
Maybe it had to do with my own skin type, but I never had dry or rough hands. It seemed that wasn’t the case for others. In hindsight, lots of folks had dry hands back on Earth too.
“I think plenty of women have this same problem, Mr. Reiji,” Mina told me.
“Gotcha. I trust you completely on that.” Mina was basically my representative homemaker at this point. “I’ll try making something.”
“Thanks so much!”
I left the dining room and entered my lab. Noela quickly followed me; with her help, I began developing a new product.
Noela responded to the aroma in the air right away. “Groo? Good smell.”
“Women will use this, so I figured I’d give it a floral scent.”
This product was strongly associated with women, but men used it as well. I would make a separate, unscented version later too, for folks who didn’t like the flowery smell.
Hand Lotion: Moisturizing cream. Apply to skin to prevent roughness/dryness.
“Done. Let’s have Mina try it.”
“Groo!” Noela agreed, her tail wagging.
I left the lab and handed Mina the bottle. “We made a new treatment, Mina.”
“Wow—it smells incredible! Like flowers, or maybe even fruit!”
Thank goodness she likes the aroma. Getting a scent right was trickier than you’d think. If I enjoyed it, that didn’t mean others would. “This cream has a moisturizing effect. Applying it will keep your skin from drying out.”
“Goodness gracious! Really?” Mina was acting like a flabbergasted guest on an infomercial.
“Give it a try.”
“All right.” Scooping out some lotion with her finger, she rubbed it across her palm before spreading it over both hands.
Noela sniffed the air. “Good smell!”
Mina brought her hands to her nose and likewise sniffed them. “Tee hee hee! I could do this forever.”
“Noela try too!” Copying Mina, Noela spread the cream over her hands, then sniffed them like crazy.
“Besides the scent, how’s it feel?” I asked. I knew I’d have to keep tabs on Mina today as the lotion’s full results wouldn’t show immediately.
“My skin’s so firm!” Mina replied. “Is that how moisturized skin feels?”
Noela, meanwhile, scooped more lotion onto her hands, sniffing it all the while. Then she brought her hands to her mouth.
“Hold your horses,” I told her.
“Groo?!”
“It only smells good, okay? It isn’t yummy. It’s not food!”
“Arroo. Too bad.”
Is it officially Noela’s opinion that anything that smells good should taste good?
Just then, I heard a voice from the drugstore. “Good day, Mr. Pharmacist!”
I checked the storefront and saw Rena from the Rabbit Tavern. “Welcome. What brings you here today?”
“Mayo, please! Dad’s researching recipes using that stuff.”
“Gotcha.” I gathered up several bottles of MayoMayo Max for her. I totally understood why the Rabbit Tavern’s proprietor would look into the product, since you could use mayonnaise in numerous dishes. Oh…come to think of it, Rena washes tons of dishes too. “Hey, Rena, do you ever have problems with dry hands?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, can you show me your hands real quick?”
She held out her palms. They weren’t as bad as Mina’s, but they were still dry, although it didn’t really seem to bother the barmaid at all.
I decided to give her some of the prototype too. The more testers, the better, right? “Noela, get some more hand lotion.”
“Groo! Gotcha!” Noela turned away, heading off to grab a bottle.
“Wow!” Rena exclaimed when Noela handed it to her. “It smells so good!”
“Flower and fruit extract,” the werewolf explained before I could.
I seized the opportunity to explain the lotion’s effects. “Putting some on your hands will moisturize them and keep them from getting rough and dry.”
“Wow! I didn’t know there was a treatment for that kind of thing!” Rena spread some lotion on her hands immediately. Just like Mina, she took the opportunity to smell it again from her fingers.
“Let me know how it works for you, okay?” I asked.
“Yes, of course!” She then paid and went home.
Soon after, two women who also seemed to be housewives dropped in asking where the hand lotion was. “We heard about it from Rena at the Rabbit Tavern,” one told me.
“You have more, right?” the other asked. “That skin moisturizer stuff?”
Their high-pressure demeanors were something else. “Um, it’s a prototype right now, not an official part of the Kirio Drugs lineup. Is that all right?” I didn’t mind asking friends to test trial products, but I typically gave normal customers a warning when it came to prototypes.
“That’s fine!” one woman assured me. “Let us try it, please!”
The other woman spotted Noela holding a bottle. “That’s it! The moisturizing cream that smells so good!”
They immediately put some lotion on their fingers and smoothed it over their hands.
“Amazing,” they said in unison, rubbing their hands together. “It’s so moist…!”
“We’ll be back!”
“Yes! As soon as it’s an official product, we’ll buy some.”
After giving their assurances, the two women departed. They were certainly in a rush, but at least I knew now that the product was viable.
“This cream really is wonderful, Mr. Reiji!” Mina informed me later. Her feedback spurred me to make the hand lotion an official Kirio Drugs product that very day.
As soon as it went on sale, the women from earlier came back and each bought a bottle. Noela couldn’t deal with their assertive attitudes and hid behind me the whole time they were in the store.
“We’ll be back!”
“Once we run out of hand lotion, that is!” Once again, the women departed.
It’d be nice if they came to buy other things too…
The brand-new hand lotion became popular—and not just with those two, but with women all over town.