Upon entering his home, James Anderson found a note left by his live-in maid. It read, "The taco lasagna is all prepared. Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for forty-five minutes and serve."

James had always loved Merle's Taco Lasagna. He had never had one before she came to work for him. She said it was a traditional dish that she learned from her mother. It was very tasty and authentically Mexican with its ingredients of taco seasoning, black and refried beans, Mexican cheeses, tortillas, and the rest.

"That's presumptuous of Merle," James said. "I wonder why she isn't here."

James turned on the oven and waited for it to heat to the required temperature. In the meantime, he got a beer and sat down. Merle was always around when he needed her, he didn't know why she wasn't here now. It bothered him.

A few minutes later, James put the lasagna into the oven. "Alexa set a timer for 45 minutes," he called out.

His Alexa device replied, "forty-five minutes starting now."

James was curious, he walked to Merle's room. Maybe there was an explanation of where she was. On the way, he removed his shirt.

He looked around the room but didn't see anything out of place. Then he walked into the attached bathroom. He hadn't entered this bathroom for quite a while. There wasn't any need to enter it. There were two other bathrooms in other areas of the house.

He saw a wig on a stand. He recognized it as Merle's hair. He didn't know she wore a wig. He thought her hair was natural. He smiled at the wig and then put it on. He looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. He looked ridiculous.

He looked by the sink and saw a bottle of foundation, not that he knew exactly what it was. He reached for it then shook it. It took only a moment before he came to his senses and decided to put the bottle down. But he couldn't do that, instead of to his own disbelief he opened the bottle. He was being compelled to continue as some invisible entity was forcing him to carry on.

Even though he had never applied makeup to his face before he put a small amount of the foundation onto a flat-top kabuki brush, not that James had any idea what the brush was called.