For now, she was lucky that her mother wasn’t close to any of the moms from school. If she were, Mina might already have found their small apartment packed up in boxes and a moving truck in the alley.
“Mina?” Sara peeked her head into her daughter’s room, the door almost immediately stopped by the piles of teenage debris. When Mina didn’t answer, Sara braved the obstacle course of clothes and magazines and walked into her daughter’s dark room to open the blinds and window.
“Ahhhh, Mom!” Mina answered, throwing the comforter back over her head to protect herself from the onslaught of fresh air and light, both of which were toxic to a very sleepy teenager. Grumbling, she curled up under the covers and tried to ignore her mother’s movements throughout her room. All she wanted was to lie in bed comatose for another few hours as she gathered strength to face another day at school. Was that too much to ask? When Sara stubbed her toe on an unidentified object, she let out a gasp of pain but held back any forthcoming remarks. Mina bit her lip guiltily under the covers, knowing she really needed to clean up her room. She was grateful that her mother never harangued her about it.
“We’re leaving now. I have to pick up a few things before taking Charlie to school. I’ll be late coming home after I drop off a packet at the Carmichaels’ residence. Be home for dinner, okay?”
“Wait! The Carmichaels? No way!” Mina shrieked, sitting up in bed and throwing the comforter behind her. “I mean, don’t they have live-in maids? Why would they want to employ another company?” Mina knew that whatever happened, she could not let her mother go to the Carmichaels’. What if they told her mother about what happened at the bakery? What if they tried to thank Sara? Or worse, what if her mother became the Carmichaels’ maid. No. Mina could not let that happen.
“Well, maybe they heard what a great job we do and want to hire the best. We definitely could use the extra money.” Sara looked at the piles of clothes and sighed wearily.
“What if I do it?” Mina shot out without thinking.
“Do what, honey?” Sara nudged a pair of dirty socks with her shoe over to what she assumed was a dirty clothes pile.
Mina had to think fast. “I lent Brody my notes, so I have to go over there today anyhow. So give me the Happy Maids packet, and I’ll drop it off for Mrs. Carmichael.”
Sara thought about it. “Well, that would work, because then I wouldn’t be late to the Browns’. Why, thank you, Mina.” Sara smiled.
Mina tried and failed to return her mother’s smile when she realized the full implications of what she’d volunteered to do. Mina was an idiot.
Sara put the packet on the kitchen table, and Mina watched as she and her younger brother, wearing a Superman cape, headed out the door. Mina ran back to her bedroom, grabbed a purple pillow off her bed, and screamed into it, dancing around the room.
Green movement captured Mina’s attention, and she froze when she realized that her mother had opened her window and blinds. Mrs. Orn, the eighty-year-old cat lady from the building next door, was watching her with one eyebrow fully raised. She’d happened to be watering her window box full of daisies when Mina made her dancing debut, and was now likely drowning them.
“Sorry, Mrs. Orn,” Mina called, and dashed to the ledge to close the window and blinds.
Looking at the clock, Mina was glad to see that she had woken up with plenty of time to take a shower. Grabbing her robe, she flung it over the top shower bar and began to work on the infinite twists and turns of the shower spigots. It was easier to crack a double combination safe than it was to coax hot water out of these ancient pipes. Mina said a quick prayer to the god of plumbing and bathroom fixtures and, after a few spurts of murky brown water, hot water eventually began to rain down.
After a quick and refreshing shower, she donned her blue terry bathrobe and slippers and pulled on the ancient porcelain bathroom doorknob. She must not have prayed hard enough to the god of bathroom fixtures, because the bathroom door handle came off in her hands.
“No…no…no…no. This can’t be happening!” Mina pounded frantically on the door and called for help before remembering her mother and brother had left early. She desperately tried to reattach the door handle, but all she succeeded in doing was pushing the other one out the other side.