Mothers Mercy

8.

When we got down to the basement and stepped into the first room, it looked nothing like a typical dark and damp basement. There were no windows, but everything else looked like a normal first floor in a house. A cozy room with sofas, chairs and bookshelves filled with books - oh I had missed to read in the years with Julie and Henry. There were a large TV and a big stack of board games.

“This is the leisure lounge. When we have time off, we can be together here and have some fun. We have movie nights and game nights. I’m real good at Scrabble” Celestine said at winked at me.

It felt like I had known her for years instead of 15 minutes. If all the others were like Celestine, this could be my paradise - until I turned 18 at least.

“In there is the basement bathroom. That’s for Yellows only. We have our own baths on the second floor. We use the toilets down here if we watch movies or play games. And in here is the “Yellow room”.”

Celestine opened the door and reviled a room in a dark, warm yellow color. The floor was almost all covered in soft looking mattresses, pillows, duvets and blankets. All in clean white linens.

“We change linens down here once a week, or if they get dirty or someone is sick. Then we change them immediately. Yellows always sleeps down here - you just pick a pillow and a blanket or a duvet, it depends on what you like, but as I said we also sleeps down here from time to time. It feels a bit like camp.”

I could imagine that. 11 girls lying together, telling stories or gossiping. It was almost to good to be true.

“Our laundry room is down here as well, but behind the stairs.”

Celestine showed me the huge laundry room. 3 industrial washing machines and 3 industrial dryers. On the other wall was a whole wall of shelves with the same kind of linen as were on the beds in the “Yellow Room”.

“We all have the same linen, that makes is a lot easier. In the second floor rooms we change linens after each customer. Everything else is nasty. That will be one of the things you will be doing as a Yellow. Coming up and change our linens while we prepare ourselves to come downstairs again.”

Eww was my first thought. Now I had to handle dirty sheets filled with sweat and other liquids. Maybe I would be allowed to wear gloves.

“We help each other with the washing, drying, ironing and folding in the daytime. Shall we go upstairs again?”

I nodded and followed Celestine back to the stairs and back up to the first floor.