The Recruiter

The phone rang, the call display showed unknown number, however, the housekeeper girl answered anyway. I guess sometimes never know this may be important phone call. The owners of the house did not mind if she did or she didn't answer the calls and did not mind her taking verbal messages. They liked the idea that someone was always home. It felt like this call needed to be answered, so she did, with her sweet young voice she said -'Hello'. She was only 22 years old and came from very small town where she only was able to finish high school level education, and later she would help her parents around the farm. When she came to the city, she did not know anybody and she still doesn't. The housekeeping position was placed with help of some old family friend that one day contacted them and asked if Maya would consider the housekeeping position. He convinced family that the people are older couple who still like to work, but do not like doing anything around the house. He convinced them that the people were very nice and would pay nice money and provide living. Maya did not really want to leave her parents and her younger siblings. She loved her family and going away and going far away was sad. But then her parents finally convinced her. What are you going to do, marry neighbor's son - probably not, because he already had many girls dropping by his place and he never seem to be happy with any of them. What a waste, her parents thought. After many days of contemplation, Maya finally convinced herself that yes it will be good for her to get a job in the city. When finally she arrived, she never seen such a big house in her life, may be one day on the TV and back then she thought that things like that were not real. The owners must have a lot of money, and she though why do they need such a big house, there is only two of them - what a waste, she thought.
The voice on the other side of phone sound familiar, and said - Hello Maya, how are you? She answered not knowing who that was - I am fine.. And how are you? - she asked back politely. I am fine Maya. Is this a good time to talk? - the voice asked. Yes, and who am I speaking to? - she asked. The voice on the other side answered, this is Tom Miko. I am the person who got you this housekeeping work. I wanted to find out if you were happy with what you are doing? Yes, I am - Maya answered without hesitation. She never really was very talkative person, she usually listen and answered whenever someone asked questions. So I hear, I spoke with your parents and they said the same thing, just wanted to find out directly from you. Maya was thinking, what does all this mean? Anyway, Tom Miko decided to be more direct, and asked if she would consider even better job opportunity. Not far away from here and she will be doing same kind of job and getting pay even better. She stayed silent, while Tom was going on and on about this new opportunity. Here she is alone, no parents, and trying to make this decision if she should leave current job and go to that other place. What am I going to say to the current house owners? - and before she even was able to finish her thought, the voice on the other side of the phone answered. I will talk to your employers, you don't have to say anything. Really she though, but also she thought why this voice sounded more and more familiar. Something is going on here, and I don't know what it is - she thought. So she decided to think about it. Maya finally answered, after Tom mumbled something on the other line. She interrupted - I will have to get back to you on this. Tom was silent. She thought she offended him at first, but the voice came back as calm not knowing if this was different person talking on the phone. Okay, Maya - can I call you back tomorrow same time. Yes Tom, and you have a good night - she said and hang up the phone.She finished up cleaning the kitchen table top, where she started before the phone call. The phone call lasted only about ten minutes, however it felt like ages. She decided not to think about it. She finished up all her work for today and headed up to bed. She liked to go early to bed. She always left a little good night note for the owners. They always came home late, I guess they would eat out most of the time. Cooking was not in her job description, but her duties included to serve morning continental breakfast and coffee. She dropped by the rooms to ensure that everything was in its place. Again she did not have to worry about much because the owners only made some very small mess on the weekends, but they were very good cleaning up after. So how much did she had to do, not much. All the money she earned she was saving. She had a pile of check in her room in the night table that she collected over 1 year. She sometimes wondered why they came through the mail. I guess she never asked how she can even cash these checks. Where she was she really did not have to do anything, everything she needed she had, including food. The groceries were regularly delivered to the house, so she always ate well and cook for herself. Maya stay in touch with her parents, but as time passed she called less and less, since not much was happening around her. She was in bed reading newspaper dated from two days ago. She recalled the earlier call and started to think about it, and most of all not about the offer but why was the voice on the other side of the phone familiar. Of all this she could not sleep, so she decided to watch some TV in the guest room. There was nothing on TV as she was flipping through the channels, so she decided to watch the local weather network. Looked like tomorrow was going to be a nice sunny day, not too cold and not too hot. Enough to spend some time in the garden. Sometimes, she would go and take care of the garden, knowing that some local company would come on the weekend anyway to do all gardening stuff. She would pick some weeds, water some wilted plants and sometimes move plants from one place to another. These people don't know anything about gardening, they just place plants wherever they want. The plants that needed shade were on the direct sun and some would be in the shade crying for sun all day long. She stared to follow sleep, but the familiar voice woke her up. It was the voice on the commercial. It was the local real state sales representative, and she caught the last glimpse of it - 'selling fully furnished houses with the housekeeping services'. Suddenly she realized why on first day of her housekeeping job the owners did not arrive from a long trip.

[FICTION]