Chapter 5 - The Discovery
Back in the house,
the chaos was just beginning.
Martha woke up at her usual time,
expecting the smell of bacon and the sound of the kettle.
Instead,
she found a tomb.
The air was stale,
filled with the lingering scent of last night's fish.
She walked into the kitchen,
her slippers clicking on the floor.
She saw the sink full of dishes.
She saw the messy table.
"Emily!"
she screamed,
her voice cracking.
"Emily,
get out here this instant!"
No response.
She stormed to the bedroom,
ready to rip the blankets off me.
She found David sitting on the edge of the bed,
looking dazed.
"Where is she?"
Martha demanded.
"She's not here,
Mom.
Her stuff is gone."
David's voice was hollow.
He pointed to the open wardrobe.
Martha pushed past him,
looking at the empty hangers.
She ran to her own room,
to her vanity.
She found the velvet cloth.
The keys were there,
but when she checked her purse,
she let out a howl.
"She took the money!
She took the card!"
Robert came into the room,
looking confused.
"What's all the noise about?
Where's my porridge?"
"There is no porridge!"
Martha shrieked.
"The girl has run away!
She robbed us!"
Jessica emerged from her room,
rubbing her eyes.
"What do you mean she's gone?
Who's going to make my lunch?"
They all stood in the kitchen,
surrounded by the filth of their own making.
Martha looked at the tablecloth.
She saw the words I had written.
Her face turned a deep,
angry red.
"How dare she!
After everything we did for her!"
David tried to call me,
but the line was dead.
He tried to call my mother.
My mother,
bless her heart,
had been told exactly what to say.
"I don't know where she is,
David.
Maybe if you had treated her like a human being,
she wouldn't have left."
She hung up.
The family was paralyzed.
None of them knew how to operate the dishwasher.
None of them knew where the extra trash bags were.
The house,
once a place of order maintained by my invisible hand,
was falling apart.
Martha sat at the dirty table and started to cry.
Not because she missed me,
but because she lost her servant.
Robert went to the cupboard and found a box of dry cereal.
He ate it with water because no one had bought milk.
Jessica complained that her favorite blouse was dirty and hadn't been washed.
David just sat there,
looking at the empty spot on the bed.
He realized,
too late,
that the 'rules' had cost him everything.
He had traded a partner for a mother's approval,
and now he had neither.
The twelve dishes from the night before were now attracting flies.
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The house smelled of rot.
It was a perfect reflection of their family.
