"Lisa, I want to go to the beach. It's so nice out," Ben announced.
Lisa thought about it. Ben was used to soulless career parents who never had enough time for him. He loved Lisa and considered her to be one of his best friends. She was a contrast to his parents. Although his parents could buy him anything he wanted, Lisa could spend time with him.
On this particular day, Ben was restless. So, Lisa agreed to take Ben to the beach. She packed up a blanket, her laptop and a couple toys for Ben to play with. Then, they headed in the direction of the beach. Ben rode his tricycle through the woods while Lisa ran behind him.
"Ben, slow down! Why are you going so fast?" She jogged along behind him.
"We have to find a nice beach." He peddled to his heart‘s content. Lisa followed along as Ben kept peddling. It felt like they had searched all the beaches and Lisa was out of breath. Finally, they approached one of the beaches and Ben yelled, "This is it!"
Lisa was relieved that they had finally found a place to sit down. She wasted no time pulling out the blanket and laying in the sand. She had worn a light, white blouse. She felt like she was sweating through it. She also chose to wear jeans, but she realized it was hard to chase after Ben in such a restrictive material. Lisa sat down, and stretched out under the shade. The sun was shining in their eyes, and through the branches of the trees,Lisa saw a wonderful beach. Her young naïve heart began pounding harder.
She sat on the beach in the shade. Ben ran off and started building sandcastles with the other children. Lisa pulled out her laptop and wrote a letter to her distant friends. She told them all about her adventures and her travels. She ran her thin fingers through her hair, then endlessly re-read her writing. Her mind could not concentrate.
After Ben was done playing in the sand, Lisa brought him home. That evening she fried pancakes, which little Ben loved. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to the heart of little Ben was through pancakes.
It was an ordinary family dinner. The host father came home from work, tired and worn out by stress in the jungles of the office and sat down at the table in his office a chic suit.
They ate in silence for awhile.
“What did you eat today for lunch, Ben?”
“Spaghetti with sauce. I went to Marc’s birthday party.We ate cake,and I brought home gifts.”
“Well done.”
Ben rolled his pancake with the chocolate cream filling and formed it into the shape of a cigar. He leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up onto the table. He pressed the “cigar” to his lips. He pretended that he was smoking it like an important chief, sitting in a chair. Then began eating his work of art joyfully. He was enjoying the freedom of doing whatever he wanted.
“Ben, what are you doing?” his dad asked from across the table. There was a scolding tone to his voice. Ben laughed.
“Whatever I want. I'm the boss here,” he boasted, crossing one of his legs over the other. Lisa moved her chair over to the side.
“How did you come to that conclusion?” Marc asked, looking athis feet.
“When my dad is home, he's the boss. When he's not, my mom's the boss. When they're both gone, I'm the boss,” he explained.
“And Lisa?” Marc asked him. Ben finished eating his pancake, and pulled his feet down to the floor. He dropped his hands on the table loudly.
“She's just a servant,” he dismissed, looking over at Lisa. She looked down at the ground, turning a light shade of red. She did what she could to avoid eye contact, shuffling her feet. She had no response. She had previously considered that she wasn't really part of the family. Ever since she came to live in this house, everyone had been really nice to her. They told her that they were happy to have her. She let almost half an hour go by while she stood in silence, feeling awkward and uncomfortable.
Lisa headed downstairs to her room. She opened the door, and looked around. Her usually pleasant room felt dark, and gloomy. She went to the corner of her room, and dropped down to the floor. She couldn't help but wonder, did her “family” lie to her? Had they been truthful when they said an au pair was considered as an equal? Was she nothing more than a servant to them? Where had Ben heard those words? Was that what they told him when she wasn't around? Did everyone talk about her this way?
It seems to be an ideal host family, but it was not. Her life turned to be hell.
She huddled in a corner and sat down on the floor. That magic power, which still supported her, began to dry up, the reaction came and swept grief was so irresistible that she fell down and began to sob. Nothing supported her. Left to herself, she gave way to tears, and they watered the floorboards on which she was lying.
29
That Thursday came, with its usual routineof doing the laundry and the ironing. Lisa thoughtwas folding skirts, pants, t-shirts, and blouses, and putting every article neatly into its respective drawer.
That is it, thought Lisa, combing back her curly brown hair and putting them into a bundle.
Sighing, she began to comb her hairmechanically.She had done it that way every day for years. It was a simple hairstyle, practical, and most importantly, cheap. To make ends meet, she had to take care of every penny she earned.
Lisa looked appreciatively at herself in the mirror. “Hmm...I am pretty,” she thought. A neat haircut. Blouse. Jeans. A poor and naïve babysitter. She smiled sadly at her own reflection.
Without really thinking about it, she selected herblouse for the day. It was a sky-blue blouse thataccented her figure tastefully, while beautifully setting off the color of her eyes.
Lisa tried to lighten the mood, dressed in this blouse. When she came down to breakfast, Ben was already sitting at the table, looking through the window. Her host father poured his orange juice. They exchanged friendly greetings.
Lisa looked tired, with dark circles around her eyes. She was stressed over the past few days. Marc woke her up, announcing that he had prepared a special breakfast that morning. Lisa got up and followed him into the kitchen. Her stomach was churning and she knew she wasn't going to be able to eat. She was too afraid of the judgment. She peered into the kitchen and saw that he was preparing rolls of bread that were covered with butter. Lisa tried to be polite as she declined the food. Her host father handed her one of the rolls and went back into the kitchen.
„That blouse really suits you.“ Marc said warmly.
His compliment stunned Lisa.
Her host family had an unusual tradition of buying rolls for breakfast on weekends. They went in the morning for fresh bread rolls to the bakery, then at home they enjoyed fresh rolls with jam, honey, sausage, cheese or chocolate.
Lisa wanted to leave her host family alone for the weekend, so that they could enjoy the time together, doing some activities without spending a fortune for Lisa. But her host family mostly stayed at home, as going out cost money. Once they told Lisa that they were saving every cent for their dream house with a swimming pool.