Once, after several hours of playing with the kids, Lisa felt hungry. The children constantly had something to eat. Of course, in secret from Lisa. Lisa discovered how the children got the cookies. The host-grandmother noticed that Lisa saw, and asked indignantly, "Would you like a cookie as well?"
"Yes, please," Lisa said quietly.
But the grandmother threw a look at Lisa as if she had said something totally unexpected. As if she had now asked for half of the house.
"Here you are!" She gave Lisa with trembling hands a half of the cookie and looked at her very angrily, as if she was asking for something forbidden.
This gaze was something Lisa could not forget. It was always there when she thought about asking for anything.
Since Lisa was also a proud girl, she did not want to ask for food at Grandma’s ever again. She suspected that she would always receive the evil eye, and the cookies have a bad karma. Should she always apologize when she wanted to eat something now? Should she always feel as if she stole something when she asked for a cookie? Should she always beg for a little piece of each meal? The children ate more than Lisa, a grown woman, did.
Later on, when the parents arrived to pick up the children, Lisa was told she was to bike back to the mansion. On the way home, she noticed how dark and empty the streets were. In the evening, Lisa asked Clara how big the town was.
"It's not very big." Clara laughed.
"There is around eight hundred people in total."
Lisa was shocked to learn this. On the questionnaire that Lisa had seen, the family said they lived in a small town. It turned out to be very small. Lisa hardly considered it a town at all. It was a village.
Her host family owned a dental clinic. Clara and her husband were both CEO's of the company. Clara was a powerful business woman, who often worked many hours. She had children, but they spent most of their time with their father, or grandmother. Clara's mother often looked after the children during the day, to give Clara more time to work. Clara was always busy, sitting in her office. Although, she always had time for the things she loved. She had many hobbies, which included salsa dancing and travelling abroad. Her husband never travelled with her. Clara always travelled alone, or with her closest friends. Instead, he was expected to stay home with the children while she was away.
Both parents were often too busy to spend time with the children. Although Christian was left in charge, he was often in his home office. There, he would expect to be left uninterrupted to continue with his work from home. The children were expected to entertain themselves and each other. They saw their parents only a couple of minutes day, usually at breakfast. But with Luca needing more attention, the family started to consider the upbringing of their children. The children needed more help than either parent could provide.
Nataly was learning to read and count, but she was struggling to learn on her own. She needed someone else to help instruct her and teach her. Nick and Julia both started to show a decline in their grades. Both had received negative reports from school about the level they were at. It was the first time the family had such awful grades. No one was helping them with their homework, so their grades started slipping. Luca needed almost twenty-four hour supervision. Whenever he was left alone for even a few minutes, he caused destruction. He always wanted to play as well. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and want to play. Someone needed to be around to play with him whenever he wanted.
The family had no choice but to bring the children with them to the clinic. Every day of the week, besides the weekends, the children had to go to work with them. Although Nick and Julia were in school, they still had to watch Luca and Nataly. The two of them would sit downstairs while the parents were at work in the clinic. Their grandmother lived close to the clinic as well. She would make the children lunch every day. She would look after them as much as possible. But, whenever she was cooking or doing her own activities, the children were left unsupervised.
The four children were extremely overwhelming to the parents, and grandmother. Finally, the family decided that they needed extra help to raise the children and take care of the home. After researching the cheapest way to find help, they came across an add for an au pair.
Their grandmother cooked lunch, and they ate together. Then Lisa did her duties of taking care of the children until the evening.
Every day, they gathered together for lunch at their grandmother’s house. For dinner, the parents brought the children home. Lisa asked the children if they had played with her gifts.
“Well...” the 6-year-old Nataly replied. “I threw away the Barbie you gave me, because I have so many of them.”
“They are just too spoiled and have too many toys, ” said the father, who had overheard the conversation, and he apologized.
Lisa felt humiliated. She had saved every cent to buy some presents for the kids, but they were not able to appreciate them at all.
5
The kids fell in love with Lisa as she was the only caring person in that house. Her responsibilities included the preparation of dinner. Lisa had never been a cook before. She was honestly afraid. She was afraid of how hot the cooking pans could get. She was also afraid of the fire inside of the stove. So, she used to avoid cooking whenever she could. Now taking care of these children, she had to learn to cook.
The turning point for her was the morning Nataly baked a pancake for herself. Lisa thought about how this six-year-old child was less afraid of the stove than she was. So, she overcame her fear.
Afterwards, she realized how much fun it was to cook. She got excited every time there was a nice meal being made. She'd look up recipes on the internet. She also asked Clara for any recipes she had around the house. She started to get creative with the food she was making. She put a great deal of time and energy into making delicious food.
She baked cakes or made casseroles. There was not much to do in the village besides cooking.
One dinner, she made the family a delicious potato and meat meal. They were baked potatoes, cut down the middle, with vegetables and chunks of steak around the plate. She knew the whole family enjoyed the meal because the food disappeared very quickly and the dishes stacked up. Another time, she made an apple pie that was simply delicious.
One day, Lisa decided to cook up omelets for the children. She didn't get fancy with the ingredients. She simply used the eggs and sprinkled in some cheese for added flavor. She didn't want to try adding vegetables or spices. She thought this would be appreciated by the family.