EPIPHANY
"You're hired Sara," Mrs. Lance Del Toro announced with a twinkle in her bright blue eyes and with a beaming smile.
Sara Service squealed with happiness. Her three months long job search was over. She was about to start carrying her weight again in her relationship with her nice, live-in boyfriend.
The two women sat across from each other in a nook in the huge kitchen of the Del Toros' huge house. Mrs. Del Toro wore a sleeveless, white dress with deep purple dandelions on it that had a plunging neckline. Her long raven hair hung down to her slim waist. She delicately fingered her necklace of gemstones as she gave Sara her full attention. The print-out of Sara's resume lay on the table between them.
Sara was a bright, bouncy, happy brunette with dark blue eyes, square high cheekbones, slightly thick pouty lips. She had a wedge of worry between her eyebrows which belied her bubbly, easy-to-laugh-outloud personality. Sara had an athletic body from riding her bike everywhere. Her breasts were full enough to distract. Her skin of her face was slightly dry from being outdoors a lot. She was 37 years old. She was wearing tight black Lululemon workout pants and a tight red t-shirt with a smiling sloth on it.
"Can you start tomorrow morning?" asked Mrs. Del Toro, her thin lips curling into a lop-sided grin.
"Su-sure!" Sara blurted out, thinking to herself: That was fast.
"Great--be here at 8--Mariz will show you the ropes," said Mrs. Del Toro as she stood up in high heels. The women said good bye and the Del Toros' new maid quickly left their huge house eager to begin her new job.
***
Sara was born in a small Washington town, the third child of strict fundamentalist parents, especially her father. She left home the day after her 18th birthday. Sara took a Greyhound bus to LA and slept on her gay brother's couch. He was trying to make it as a chef. He got Sara a server job in the restaurant he slaved away in.
Sara wasn't afraid of hard work and over the last 19 years she'd become a Jacqueline of all trades: server, nanny, retail sales in electronics, car mechanic, clerk in a comic shop and more.
She also loved dance clubs and to party. Sara reveled in her escape from her father's house. She joyously lost her virginity to one of her co-workers at Dairy Queen, a sweet Mexican boy. It hurt and was over too fast but she loved them both getting naked in a park on a hot summer's night. It was soon after this that Sara started clubbing.
After years of a wild whirlwind of sextravagance Sara settled for serial monogamy and started living with men who took care of her. One of these men, the second to last one, cheated on her so she left him. Sara was 35 at that time. She went four months without a bf, her longest dry spell.
One day a 19 year old skate boarder sweet talked her during her shift in a taco food truck. They went on two dates. On the second date, when his parents were away for the weekend, the skate boarder cummed inside Sara five times. His enthusiasm was incredible. She didn't date him again.
Sara was starting to feel too old to wear a sexy nurse costume during Halloween when she ran into an old bf. They had gone out for three months when she was 20. He was ga-ga over her. She left him for the club scene. He was doing well for himself; he now owned a yoga studio. He was still ga-ga over her; she was touched that he was still so nice. Soon they were living together in a bungalow.
When she quit her back breaking, soul-destroying home support worker job her nice boyfriend had paid her share of their expenses. Truth be told, he always earned more and paid more than Sara. Sara was feeling like a free loader after three months of job searching in vain.
Her nice boy friend told her not to sweat it. Something will turn up. And now it had. Another yoga studio owner (who was a silent partner in his biz) was looking for a maid and Sara's nice bf had recommended Sara as someone trust worthy for the job. Mrs. Del Toro asked to have Sara's resume emailed to her and for Sara to come to her house in three days for an interview.
***
Mrs. Del Toro opened the door to her huge house revealing a vision of sexy sophistication: her slim body sheathed in a tight burgundy sleeveless dress that ended just above her knees, with earrings and a necklace that sparkled with diamonds. She impatiently waved the on-time Sara into the foyer.
Pointing into the Great Hall Mrs. Del Toro instructed: "Walk through there and you'll find the first floor kitchen--Mariz is in there--bye I'm having lunch with a friend--my husband is still asleep--bye." And like the Cheshire Cat Mrs. Del Toro stepped outside, closed the door, leaving nothing behind but the scent of her perfume and her slowly disappearing smile.
Sara took off her straw hat and mirrored sun glasses and blinked rapidly at the size of the foyer... the house. It quickened her first-day-on-the-job jitters. She was dressed in a sleeveless, tight orange top and a very short white canvas dress with a plastic, orange belt. Her finger and toe nails were painted bright orange.
She sighed, put her hat and sunglasses on a nearby small table and took off her sandals. Sara tied back her fine brunette hair in a loose bun and walked in bare feet in search of the other maid. The cool of the marble felt good.
Sara found the first floor kitchen but Mariz was no where to be found. On one of the granite counter tops were simple maps of each floor of the huge house and a few pages of chores and instructions. Sara glanced at them briefly. She didn't like to read.
"Hello, Mariz, where are you?" Sara called out and received no reply at all. Curious, Sara started to explore. First she opened the fridge, then the drawers and cupboards. Everything was spot-less and in its place.
Sara then wandered down hall ways, opened doors, gawked at the erotic paintings in alcoves until she happened upon a spiral stair case. Sara went up the spiral.
She got out on the second floor, stepping on to the hard wood in the middle of a long hall way. At the end of the hallway the light of dawn shone through opened double doors.
Sara slowly walked towards the light until she stepped on a Persian rug in a large office. Before she could study the study she noticed an opened sliding door. Sara stepped out on to the sundeck.
Sara jumped to see a large, olive skinned bald man wearing dark sunglasses sitting in a wicker egg patio chair. His only item of clothing was loose camo shorts.
"You're the new maid," observed the man in a neutral tone in a deep, resonant voice, stock-still. Sara could not see his eyes behind his dark glasses.