“Lisa, look,” Nick said and started the washing machine so that Lisa did not have enough time to react. “You won’t call anyone ever again in your life.” Nick laughed.
Lisa’s last connection to the world was no longer available.
When Clara went downstairs, and her kids proudly told her that they had destroyed Lisa’s cell phone, she was not surprised at all and just said, “My dear children have a very good sense of humor.”
During dinner, the host family discussed Lisa’s ingratitude, and she understood everything.
“The girl is so ungrateful. Why does she want to leave our family? She should be very pleased that we brought her to our village, and she got the opportunity to work here in this mansion.”
When the clock struck eight, Lisa was released to go to her room. Only then did Lisa dare to climb down from her chair. Her room was in a deep gloom. 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 her grief was so irresistible that she fell down and began to sob. No one supported her. Left to herself, she gave way to tears, and they watered the floorboards upon which she was lying. Lisa tried to be obedient. She wanted to do so much: to become a “family member,” to make friends, to earn respect and love.
20
Two months had passed. Lisa felt like she had spent an eternity there.
Lisa was a caring and loving babysitter for the kids, who, unlike their parents, was always there for them. They played together, cooked together, and Lisa educated them. Their mother, although she gave birth to the four kids, was quite indifferent to them, thinking only about her dentist office and new fancy cars. Sometimes Lisa felt that she had suddenly become a “substitute mother” for them.
Lisa gave all her love and time to the host family, but they never appreciated such a sacrifice. She never received anything except for a little pocket money.
Lisa’s high expectations of being an au pair, an equal, were not fulfilled at all. The reality turned out to be harsh. She was not treated as a family member, but rather as a cheap maid allowed to eat the rest of the food and spend 24 hours a day with four naughty kids, but she stayed home alone when the host family decided to travel. She, a young and educated naïve creature, had signed an unfair contract with her agency, which she could not cancel as the penalties were extremely high. She had to accept the fact of spending a year enduring these conditions.
Lisa never wanted to quarrel with her host family, as she had already signed the contract for one year with them. She decided to humbly accept the reality, as hard as it was.
After such an unexpected diet, she developed a model’s figure and became very pretty. She saved every cent for her dreams, travels and studies.
It had only been two months since Lisa arrived, but she already felt jaded. When she signed up for the cultural exchange, she had been so happy. She had been cheerful and open minded, excited to learn about new cultures. Now, she could see she was only naive. Everything she had believed she was coming to was a lie. The cultural exchange program was abused by people like this family. The only travelling she got to do was on a bicycle and hardly gave her the chance to see anything. She wasn't a family member. It all turned out to be empty promises and nothing more.
When she again rode a bicycle in rainy weather for a long distance, she saw not a single person, so she cried from helplessness into the distance.
“I am so stupid. What I thinking? I was going to spend a year babysitting in a Barbie house, being treated as an equal. Yeah right. I was so naive. I should have known I wasn't going to be a family member.”
Lisa stood in the middle of the village thinking of these things. She felt like a fool. She had a teaching diploma and she was being treated like a teenager with no obedience. She did everything for this family and still, they thought she was ungrateful. She felt like even the goats in the village were laughing at her.
She felt so frustrated and had no way to vent out her emotions. There was a silence in her journey that gave her the freedom to think. It gave her the freedom to cry, as well.
She rushed headlong down the field, stumbling over piles of garbage. Hearing an evil cry of surprise and pain, she ran even faster. Only then, leaning against the rough boards of the hanger, did Lisa take a breath. Sighing deeply, she felt pain where she had cut herself. Tears welled in her eyes. She threw back her head and closed her eyes.
Everything she had previously believed in suddenly fell apart.
Being a “family member,” “cultural exchange,” “travelling”—everything turned out to be just empty promises.
Lisa sobbed for a long time, sitting in the middle of a corn field. She knew that no one heard her when she was in the corn fields. It was the only place she could go. She sat down in the tall field and cried. She didn't want to give up her dreams. She may have been wrong about this family, but that didn't mean she was wrong about everything. There was still hope and she was going to find it.
Suddenly she realized that she did not want to give up her dream of travelling. She wanted to go to Paris. She had saved every dollar she could. She might be able to buy a ticket. It was nothing more than a day dream. She knew that she was obligated to a legally binding contract. She had to stay for the entire year. She was all alone in a foreign country. She only had herself to blame for her circumstances.
Besides, she still had to collect the money for the return ticket. For that purpose, Lisa had to work a year.
But she was no longer the candid, cheerful and naive Lisa that everyone knew before.
She was all alone in a foreign country. She only had herself to blame for her circumstances. And only she herself was responsible for her life.
21
Lisa wanted to put together a nice ad, looking for a new host family. She would be happy to leave this one behind. After the host family found out she wanted to leave, they begun to treat her poorly. Lisa was surfing the internet one evening when Nick came downstairs.
“What are you doing?” He asked sharply.
“I'm looking for something,” she answered indirectly. Nick shook his head.
“You're stealing our internet. You have to pay for access to the internet.”
“I want to write my parents.” She tried to explain.
Nick shook his head again.
“We don't care. You're in our house and everything here belongs to us. That includes the internet. You're not allowed to use it anymore unless you're going to pay us.”
The next day, Lisa had no more access to the internet. She wasn't sure if Nick had done something, or the host parents had disabled the computer from going online. That evening, Lisa spoke to Clara about the issue.
“I don't have access to the internet anymore. How can I write to my mother?” she asked.
Clara shrugged.
“Well, you can come into our office to write your daily letter. Ten minutes should be enough to write a short email, right?” she suggested.
Lisa shook her head.
“You can always use the internet at my parents' house while you're there. Or, head into town. I mean, you don't have any free time when you're here anyway,” Clara added.
Lisa was speechless. Allowing her access to the internet wasn't costing them anything. It was a basic human right for most people. She needed access to the internet to write her family and friends. It was her only connection to the outside world. It was also the only way she was going to find a new host family. She suspected that was why Clara had taken away her access. Someone must have checked the history on the computer. They would have seen she was looking for a new host family.
Lisa was given an entire day off shortly after. She decided to go into town and find an internet cafe to use. It took her seven hours on the bicycle to get into the nearest town. All she had on her were a few apples from the garden and a bottle of water. She went through five different villages, looking for an internet cafe. At each station, she asked where she could find one. There were none.