The only hope that Lisa had to escape this host family was to find another one.
Lisa was given a cellphone from the host family. It was small and cheap. It had no features and the children told Lisa that it was a piece of garbage. But it was good enough to make a phone call and that was what Lisa needed.
After lunch, she was sitting alone with one of the children. Staying alone with the toddler while her host family was in the garden, she grabbed the cellphone, hid behind the sofa and called the agency.
"Hello. I work as an au pair. I am totally unhappy with the family," she whispered, fearing that her host family could hear her.
"Why?" The male voice was not particularly friendly.
After almost two months of this imprisonment,Lisa was ready like never before to fight for her freedom, and she continued: "I work a lot more than 20 hours a week. I have four children. The family lied to me; everything that was in the contract was a lie. I get no language courses, no free time." Lisa began to cry.
"You cannot leave the family alone during the holiday season," the male shouted.
"I would love to work in a big city," she suggested.
"What? Do you have a boyfriend there? Or a job?" he wondered.
"No, I don’t."
"Okay, call me after the holidays," the male voice ended their conversation.
While she was on the phone, she attempted to mask the phone call from the children. She didn't want them to overhear the conversation she was having with the agency. Unfortunately, this was not a success and one of the children told the parents what Lisa had been doing.
Later on, when Lisa was cooking dinner that evening, little Nataly came to her and hugged her. "Why do you want to leave us?" she whispered.
"How do you know?" Lisa asked, surprised.
"We all heard yesterday when you called the agency!" Nataly exclaimed.
"I want a little more freedom," Lisa tried to explain.
"You can have a day off just for you!" Nataly said.
So the host family knew about her conversation. Later, Lisa discovered that her host family had hidden a baby phone in almost every room. They spied on her.
After discovering that Lisa was about to leave her host family, the children stole her cell phone and put it in the washing machine and called Lisa afterward.
"Lisa, look," Nick said and started the washing machineso 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 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.