Chapter 4 Diana, wait

Diana Rodrigues*

I was leaning against the wall and my tears were falling down my face in anger. And now I owe my whole life to him, and how am I going to pay? Work for free for so long? How am I going to support my family? And even more with my brainless brother, who only thinks about parties and buying things for his motorcycle, forgetting about basic needs, and my mother, who is a good woman but likes excessive luxuries that don't match our financial situation. A hand is on my shoulder and I startle.

"What's going on? Why are you crying?" The man's accent was the same as my boss's; he must have been one of his employees. "Can I help you?"

"It's nothing, just some things happened to me. They always happen."

"Can I help you?"

"No, unfortunately, you can't," I took a deep breath. "Thank you."

"I'll be in town until the end of the week. Take my card, contact me by message if you need to, say that you're the crying girl from the hotel, and I'll know who you are."

"Thank you. The world needs people like you who care about others and not bad people who only know how to humiliate others."

"I have to go, I have a meeting. Don't hesitate to call me."

And so, the handsome young man disappeared down the hall, and I also needed to disappear from there, or I would be in even more trouble than I already am. I took the employee elevator, as I had a lot of work to do. I checked my schedule and saw that, in addition to the presidential suite, I also had to clean some rooms. I grabbed my cleaning cart and rushed to clean the ones that were still left. But my manager appeared.

"Why didn't you come to my office?" She crossed her arms.

"I had more rooms to clean," I didn't say anything about what had happened.

"And if I fired you, you wouldn't have to clean anything, you could just leave."

"I can't be fired, and you won't be able to do that for long."

"What are you talking about?" She was indignant.

"That I burned a suit," I didn't say anything about the watch. "And now I'm going to die working here to be able to pay for it. You can't fire me."

"Who told you that?" She was indignant.

"The hotel owner said I have to work to pay for the suit. He asked me to talk to finance."

"I'm going to check this out. I can't tolerate you being here for so long."

She left, tapping her heels on the hotel corridor floor, and would probably verify whether my story was true or if I was lying so that she couldn't dismiss me. She was feared by all of us, the cleaning women, and could hire or fire anyone she wanted. She was the general manager's aunt. I continued with my work, as I already owed an imported car to the hotel owner before even lunchtime. I tried to do everything right, but I didn't know what people had against me, people like Sirlene, who left the room without even letting me know. If she had done that, I would have left at the right time, and none of this would have happened to me. Geez, I cleaned everything while she took pictures to post on her social media, and she didn't even help me. There are people who like to harm others. They are people who benefit from others' kindness. I'm sure it won't be the last time someone bad will come to benefit from my kindness.

Finally, lunchtime arrived, which was the only good time of my day. Jose and I had lunch together, and my friend always made me laugh. He also had a difficult life like me and always said that we should laugh because our life was already a tragedy. We knew how essential every drop of sweat we shed was for our livelihood.

"Hey, Jose, I have so much to tell you," I put the food I brought from home in the microwave.

"Girl, sit down," he puts his hand on his chest, as if he's about to have a heart attack. "I saw the boss of bosses, the almighty one, and he talked to me."

"I also saw him and talked to him, in the most disastrous way."

"What do you mean? You've already seen him? He entered the hotel in the morning, and," he puts his hand over his mouth. "What did you do, friend?"

"I was cleaning the presidential suite with Sirlene," he makes a face. "While I cleaned everything, she took pictures and pictures. I entered the closet to clean, and when I came out, I came face to face with the man, and Sirlene had disappeared."

"I can't believe you came face to face with the man," he puts his hand over his mouth.

"Yes, and I even broke his watch, which apparently is worth more than my house."

"My God, what are you going to do?"

"Wait, there's more. He asked me to iron the suits - he made a pity face - and I ironed the first and second ones without any problem, but when my manager showed up and started yelling at me, I burned one of the coats.

"Oh my God."

"Sirlene laughed and told me she couldn't wait to see me getting fired - I told the rest of the story - and he got very angry that I was listening to his conversation."

"Oh my God. How are you going to pay for everything?"

"Friend, I'm going to work here for my whole life and I won't be able to pay off what I owe. Do you know how much my salary is? I've done the math over and over again and I'm in trouble."

"Oh Diana, what if you sold a kidney?"

"I'd have to sell my whole body and still wouldn't get the money."

The cellphone rang. The alarm showed that our lunch break was over and we should go back to work. I said goodbye to my friend and went to get my cart to clean one of the suites that were on my schedule for the day. One of the guys from the reception told me to go to the hotel's finance department, and I already knew I would have to pay every penny of that suit. So I headed there. A very beautiful girl with a scarf covering her hair was waiting for me.

"I'm Aisha, and I brought some papers for you to sign. Mr. Murabak asked to deduct the value of the suit and watch from your salary. I'm sorry."

"I messed up. It was my fault for letting other people distract me and for breaking the watch."

"I tried to talk to him..." We were interrupted by my boss.

"Aisha, no talking with the employees. She messed up and should be punished for it. Hurry up with this, I need you to deal with other matters." He even took the pen that was in her hand and gave it to me. "Sign and pay more attention to what you're doing."

"Yes, sir." Without even reading, I signed those papers. His eyes were fixed on me. "Excuse me." Then I headed for the door. I needed to get out of there and cry.

"Diana," I heard his voice calling me and looked in his direction. "Wait."