Nine days have passed since Mae hired me as a maid. I’m still squeamish about collecting filthy sheets from the sweat-soaked mattresses upstairs. Gerdy showed me how to peel and spool the sheets from the bed without touching the mattress. I don’t know how she tolerated this for so many years. Or how the girls sleep on stained mattresses every night. The chore wouldn’t be so vile if the girls removed the sheets and brought them to the washing room or left them outside their rooms to collect. My face grimaced with disgust when Gerdy explained this was part of my job. I can handle dusting, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the toilets, and laundry, but this makes my skin crawl worse than toilet plunging.
I’ve dodged Manman many times, but today as I collect dirty sheets from the girl’s rooms on th
