Chapter Three
1800 Words
Bella
After nearly three weeks of resting, my bruises are now faded which I'm glad. My busted lips is now healed. Helios did the document I needed to show to Leandra's friend. I was told her named is Sonia, the head maid in the mansion I was about to work. She manages the mansion's staff and she was the one talking to the new applicants.
"Thank you for driving me here, Helios." I thanked him after he parked his car in front of a elegant mansion.
"I don't mind. Call me when is your day off. I will fetch you here, okay?"
"Okay. Drive safely."
I watched him drive away before I pushed the door bell. I waited for a few minutes before an old lady opened the big gate for me. She's about four foot ten inches tall. Her hair is all white, she looks nice and proper. She smiled at me so I smiled back.
"Hi, I'm Bella." I greeted.
"Yeah I was told. Leandra didn't mention that you look like a living doll. What a beautiful young lady you are." She said nicely. I blushed from the compliments "Thank you, you look beautiful too, ma'am."
''Oh shush! Call me Sonia."
"That's highly indecorous, ma'am. You're older than me." I said with a smile.
"I don't mind. the other staffs call me Sonia and starting to this day, you're part of the house staff. So call me Sonia." She smiled again. Her smile is so inviting, the point that you have no choice of smiling too.
"Anyway, I was told you are only nineteen?"
"Yes."
"Too young. You sure you can do such house chores everyday? Mr. Monzato wants us to clean the mansion everyday because he get unexpected company all the time. He preferred the rooms all over the mansion is well cleaned."
"Yes. I can do chores." I said. It's an easy task to me. I'm not used in cleaning big rooms and bathroom since our apartment is so small but I can adapt.
"Good, good. Our day off is on Sundays. You can go home but make sure to be back on Monday morning, 6:00AM sharp. That's before Mr. Monzato wakes up. I get to set the table and you will be serving the dishes. The maid before you was fired because she tried to steal from Mr. Monzato." She explained as she started to work.
I gripped my bag handle tighter. "That's not nice." i commented.
"I know. Our salary is way too much from the regular maid and she still tried to do such cruel things like that. Mr. Monzato is a nice man and she abused it. If you want to earn good amount of money, do not do things that would make him mad and you will stay here until he fires you or until you resign. Get my point, Bella dear?"
"Yes. I will behave, Sonia."
"Much better. Come I will show you your room."
"I have my own room? Don't we have maid's quarter?" I asked, surely confused. She looked at with a smile, "Luckily, Mr. Monzato wants us to have our own privacy. Each staff have room here in the first floor. Each room have their own bathroom."
I nodded. I scanned the first floor. This is really a good offer for his staff. No wonder Leandra wants me to work here because for once, I can be in peace while working for my own money. Looks like our employer is really a good man. Not all rich man do this kind of things and shows some concern to their employees.
The whole first floor is wide. Grand chandelier and a grand staircase. The whole floor is spacious enough to entertain a lot of visitors. Gigantic glass walls that separates the inside of the mansion from the pool area. The floor is white as pearls, so as the furniture. There's family portraits displayed along the side wall of the gigantic staircase. There's different photos of two boys playing inside the expensive Victorian mansion- based on the designs I saw on my books before. There's this huge portrait of a handsome guy, I cannot saw his full facial features because he is looking on his side while sitting on a chair, wearing an elegant black suit, looks like he is fixing cuffs. The rest of the portraits are just some paintings. My jaw dropped when I saw the painting of Pablo Picasso. The Charnel House.
"You will be signed in the bedrooms of the second floor." Sonia announced. I glanced up to her, she is now walking in front of me. "I informed Mr. Monzato that you are arriving today. He's working right now so I don't know when are you going to meet him."
I didn't answer but I continued to follow her. I was so stunt from the interior of the mansion. The owner have sure taste from the exterior and in the interior design of the whole mansion.
We walked to the left side hallway, after we passed by the dining room. There's multiple room along the small hallway. Maybe this is the area of the staffs here. Sonia opened the door, third door on the left. A small cozy room welcomed my eyes. There's a bed that would only fit a one person, a small cabinet and aniother door that would lead to the bathroom.
"Here. This is your room. My room is across to yours. So if you need to know anything, just knock. Okay?" She said as she helped me put my big bag onto the bed. I smiled at her.
"Thank you."
"Now, you need to get ready earlier. When the clock on your bed side table strikes 6, go out and walk directly to the kitchen, you will help me cook. And then, you have start cleaning at 8, all the rooms on the second floor, you have to clean them all-except the room with the digital code lock. That's our boss' room. That's off limit to you. Do you understand, Bella?"
"Yes. Anything else?"
"There's small living room up there, vacuum the love seats, wipe the coffee table and change the curtains every friday. I will ask Mr. Monzato if he will let you clean his office room here."
"Okay. What if I finished cleaning the second floor, what else I can do?"
"That's we will tomorrow. You rest today. Settle yourself here and fix your clothes to the cabinet over there and I will call you when the lunch is ready." She smiled to me again, and then she walked towards the door when she halted for a moment and she turned around to face me again. "If you get thirsty late at night, feel free to roam around the kitchen. Mr. Monzato wants us to be comfortable here but still. there's a boundery because he is paying us to maintain the house."
"Duly noted, Sonia. Thank you for showing me around. I appreciated it."
She finally left the room shutting the door behind her. I looked around the small room one more time before I settled down and I decided to open my bag to unpack.
When the evening came, Sonia announced that the boss of the mansion will not be around for a couple of days because of the business meetings he needs to attend. Sonia introduced me to the other staffs before we all eat.
"This is, Bella, the new maid. Bella they are the staffs here. There used to be a lot of maid in here but Mr Monzato decided to put only three maids."
They all introduced their names to me. There is this man, which already in mid fifties named Piero, he is the driver. He will be the driver of the staffs when they need to do an errand outside the mansion. Mr Monzato don't require himself a driver because according to Sonia, he got his multiple expensive car.
Then there's two other maids like me. Aurora and Milan. They're both in their late twenties, makes me the youngest here. Milan have a beautiful brown hair, thick glasses and thin lips. She looks approachable unlike Aurora. She's a red hair with snobbish facial expression. They both smiled at me.
The gardener named Isaac is only three years older than me. She's also the son of Sonia. He is assigned to the maintenance of the pool, the garden and the plumbing here. He's wearing this round specs that matched his curly hair.
"Nice to meet you all."
They looked at me with amusement in their eyes. Milan kept on opening and close her mouth while looking at me. "You look like a living doll."
"You're really beautiful young lady, Bella. Hope you enjoy working here." Piero told me as he shook my hand. "I will, thank you." I pressed.
The rest of them just gave me a smile before eating our dinner.
All of them shared what happened to their entire day. The good side of my observation is, they all looked like close to one another and they welcomed me warmly which I'm glad. I'm not really good at communicating with other people because I barely go out also, I don't have a lot of friends from school because I'm shy. The only friend that I consider is Helios. He is the only guy I'm comfortable to be with. Not just because we are neighbors but we grew up together as well, even though he is five years older than me.
"Goodnight, Bella." Milan smiled at me.
"Goodnight, Millie." I smiled back. She wanted to be called Millie because that's her nickname. I bid my goodnight to everyone before I closed my bedroom door behind me.
I sighed as this is my first time sleeping in someone's house all by myself. This is the first time that I'm going to sleep without getting bothered if someone is going to sleep me while dead asleep. This night, I will not get nervous if my father will beat me or not. The only thing I should get worried this time is to get up early and do my job all day.
Finally, I'm about to earn my own and prove to my Papa that i am not worthless like he thinks.
I took out my Mama's small picture and smiled when I saw our little resemblance. I got her black straight hair and her gray eyes and her thick long eye lashes. I was the pretty good combination of her and Papa. Too bad she's not here right now to support me but that's okay. She will be back home before I know it, i just need to some self restraint.
Good things take time.
"Goodnight, Mama." I said before I close my eyes.
- Writer
