Chapter 2: Chapter Two
"What exactly don't you get?" Celine asked, holding up two Gucci bags and asking which would fit the suit she had selected better as she always did.
"You know, the whole plan! The one where I get to be a maid at the Richards'. Me? Maid? I'm a graduate!" Tessy replied fitting a pillow between her crossed legs and shaking her head in rebuff.
"Come on! You aren't doing anything here," Celine said, moving over to where she sat. "If I'm right, this is my family we are talking about. I just need someone from the inside to give me inside information and I can't think of anyone better. I'll pay you money and let's not forget we are talking about the Richards here, It's your opportunity to see Damian," she replied poking Tessy's fingers teasingly.
"Fine! You know I'd never resist when Damian's name is mentioned. I'll do your bidding. Use me!" She replied rather too sarcastically. "But wait a second.. You're usually the one who thinks things through, how come you didn't think of the possibility of them not wanting a maid? I mean, you said it yourself. They are broke and don't have money. Shouldn't they be thinking about retrenching workers rather than employing new ones?" she askbed
"You're right! I'm the one who thinks things through and I've thought about that. I have a plan," Celine replied.
*****
Tessy walked past the tall buildings of the Sunrise estate where the Richards lived just as Celine had predicted. Celine had spent the better part of her life studying each of them but lost track of their activities after Stephen died. Her mother, who was once a maid at their house, had told Celine when she felt she was of age to have known the truth that she was actually the daughter of the wealthy business man, Stephen Richard.
She remembered that night like it was the night before. She remembered asking her mother why a prominent figure fathered her and yet she grew up in abject poverty and also recalled her mother's response being that the Richards weren't good people and were after her life. Of course a nine year old girl didn't comprehend the gravity of those words until her mother went missing. She filed series of reports at the station with her legal custodian, but there were no words from her mother anymore. She was very certain the Richards had something to do with her disappearance and she was just a step away from getting it all figured out.
Tessy reached the gate and heaved a sigh of relief. She knocked on the gate and when she heard the lock being tampered, took a step backwards and prayed words in her heart. A rather grumpy old man poked his head out through a small opening and asked who it was she looked for. His face had white and black stubbles scattered about his jaw like a chess board with its pieces. He had fine lines of wrinkles across his forehead and wore a creamy white singlet which Tessy could have easily sworn it had formerly been white. His front tooth broke at the end and so he occasionally stuck the tip of his tongue between the space when he spoke.
"Sir! I'm here for any job. My mother is sick in the village and I have no other place to go," Tessy started, cursing the fact Celine had made her use the state of her mother's perfect health condition to do her bidding. Not only was her mum in perfect condition, she was also in the States well taken care of by her other siblings.
"No vacancy," he bluntly replied closing the gate when she stopped him, holding onto the black gate.
"Please sir, I know you have children and if you were to fall sick, you know the length they would go to make sure you're fine," she replied pleadingly kneeling this time.
"I said no vacancy!" He replied again sticking a toothpick between his unevenly crafted teeth.
"What's going on here?" A voice from inside asked. He came into sight and she discovered it was Daniel, the other brother she had heard about. He had one of his hands firmly tucked in his jean pocket and the other on his phone. He looked at the gateman and then subsequently through the gate to see Tessy kneeling on the floor.
"Oga Daniel, I dey tell this woman say vacancy no dey she still dey beg," he replied leaning on the gate for support.
"Who are you?" He asked diverting his gaze to Tessy. Tessy's voice shrunk and formed a more sullen look and expression as she begged on how important the job was to her. Daniel took pity on her and helped her up while the latter struggled to dust the faded skirt Celine gave her. He placed his index finger and thumb right into both eyes as he set his mind thinking on what he'd give her to do. "We don't need workers here, but I guess you can clean the ground floor. Two weeks under probation and if you impress me, you'd keep the job. OK?" He asked and she leaped for excitement as she replied in the affirmative.
He led her into the house and she begun her first job of searching for any security cameras but luckily didn't find any under sight. The compound was large enough to build another house that big in it. She had seen only one car at the garage and an old rusty bus that had loose strings of cobwebs sticking out from it. It had a door that was at the verge of pulling out entirely and the white paint had rust eating it up. Celine had explained how bad their condition was to her, but she clearly didn't explain it well enough. The little shrubs by the fence had water drops coating the leaves which she understood to be dew or a freshly watered plant.
Opening the front door, Tessy looked around again at the white ceiling and about it searching for security cameras but found none. The aura she got from the house felt ancient, one of royal descent. The furnitures weren't modern, in fact, there was a big arm chair at the end of the living room with a soft padded cushion at the back rest that seemed like a King's chair. Another twin white cushion opposite the other and a large centre table between them. From the door where she stood, the dinning table was just by her left and it was made purely from wood. The dinning seats had the same material covering them as the arm chair. At the other side was a bar with some of the wine bottles having the Richard's label on it. There were four stools each disarranged around the wooden case that protruded from the bar.
He retreated into the hallway and came in minutes later with a brush, a dust pan, a rag, a mop stick and a plastic bucket with foaming lather in it. "Clean up!" He instructed making his way out of the house, but stopped midway and turned to see her already sweeping. He smiled and asked her what her name was.
"Theresa," she replied holding the pleated white long skirt. The black top she wore had the words 'Girl power' scribbled across her bossoms and her black scarf she knotted beside her head had the ends she tied bulging out like a bump.
"That's a wonderful name. You know, for one this hardworking but yet unemployed, you do seem quite educated and your English is sound, very sound that one would think you didn't school here," he said. Tessy froze and curled her toes as she did and cursed her refined accent which was the inevitable result she got from schooling in the Oxford University. She looked up to meet his eyes demanding for an answer she couldn't provide.
"Thank you sir! I actually schooled here but didn't finish my education because of lack of money so that's why I'm working," she replied.
"Very well then. I hope you impress me enough to keep your job," he said and reached into his pocket continuing, " people like you are supposed to be in school securing a bright future. I just hope things would change for the better in this country. Here, take this for your mother's wellbeing," he said and handed over two thousand naira notes to her.
"I can't take that sir!" She replied clutching the brush she swept with. She didn't need that money. She had more than enough already and felt he needed it more.
"I insist," he said and took her hand up placing the crisp naira notes into her palms and folded it. "Keep working," he said and disappeared through the front door.
Tessy returned back to her job of sweeping and swept under the dinning table, reaching into hidden corners in between cushions and gathering dust that assembled together forming sand. She stopped to cough as the dust had enveloped the air. She didn't expect any better as it were a house of only busy men. No one would take time to clean the house like she was about to.
She pushed the cushions about and raised the curtains that rested on the floor as she dusted them, and stuck them through the iron bars by the windows. She would return each chair to their positions after sweeping and gathered the dirt by the wall and brushed them into the dustpan. She looked around to be sure no one was there and slowly picked up her phone to put Celine through. She placed her earpiece's end into her phone and then the speaker ends into her ears.
"Hey Tessy! How goes it?" Celine asked feeling quite cherry.
"Terrible! It goes terrible. I'm cleaning their very dusty house after Daniel squeezed naira notes into my hands because he thinks I'm an unemployed beggar. Just tell me what I need to do," she replied.
"That means our plan worked! OK umm... I need you to go to the top floor and see if you'd find anything helpful. Legal documents... pictures... anything," Celine said and Tessy retreated, cutting the call as she walked through the hallway with the bucket and mop stick carefully taking the stairs upwards when she heard clanging sounds in the kitchen. She stopped and tip toed to see who it was. It was Duncan, the last brother and she could see he gulped down a glass of orange juice with his back facing her.
She turned to leave still on her toes when he offered her a drink. She was startled and quietly turned back to him to meet his back still facing her. She wondered how he knew she was there as she politely turned the offer down.
His whole body came into view as he left the counter where he rested and reached into the grey fridge bringing out a farm fresh orange juice pack and she watched orange coloured liquid with visible pulp fill the transparent glass. "You're the new maid. We often times scrutinize the people we bring into our home before they can work for us and yet you somehow managed to get lucky with the job. Good for you! You're lucky to have met Daniel and not Damian," he spoke up returning the counter with the glass of juice in his hands and stared at the glass. "You know, My father didn't only make wine. He also had a fruit juice factory and this was brought in yesterday. Are you sure you don't want some?" He asked again as he placed the rim of the glass on his pink inner skin inside his lip and took a long sip. He dropped the cup noisily on the counter and it was half the original amount.
"No thanks," Tessy replied turning to leave and Duncan stared at her, taking another sip.
She held the bucket again with the mop stick dancing in the lather as she went upstairs. She got a call from Celine and quickly stuck the earpiece's ends into her ears. She reached the first door and fiddled with the doorknob but it didn't open.
"Celine, the first door is locked," she said and Celine told her to try the other doors quietly. She approached the other door beside the first and it opened giving off a light squeaky sound from the hinges. "I'm in the next room," she said and closed the door after her. The room was neatly arranged and had a fluffy red rug at the middle. "I'm not sure who the room belongs to," she said and stared around for clues. She didn't need to look further as the large pencil drawn portrait of Damian hung on the wall stared back at her. It felt piercing and for the first time she saw the corners of his lips lift up to a smirk. "Damian," she said and smiled in self satisfaction as she saw his picture.
"You're in Damian's room? Just be quick and leave there before anyone sees you," Celine replied from her end.
"Relax! Let me explore his room a bit and feel his presence," Tessy said, sitting on the bed and swinging her slender legs smiling to herself then she stood up and straightened the crease her weight caused. She opened his wardrobe and saw only black suits aligned in perfect order. His shoes were just above the wardrobe and they still shone from the polishing it was given.
"Tessy! Be fast and leave that room," Celine replied worried. Tessy opened the side drawer beside the bed and the first one had a watch and some cufflinks in it. Then she opened the other and saw a white envelope with a name scribbled across it.
"Oh my God!" Tessy exclaimed as she slowly stood up observing the words written with black ink.
"What? What is it? What did you see?" Celine asked.
"A letter and it has your name on it," Tessy replied.
"Celine Okafor?"
"No! your real name, Diane Richards and a Margaret," Tessy replied.
"Mum? My mum! Open it and tell me what it says... No bring it over," Celine replied sobbing. Tessy turned to leave the room and heard footsteps approaching. She quickly tucked the letter into her skirt and covered it with her black top and then she dunked the mop deeper into the lather and squeezed the juices off the mop swaying the stick from one side to the other on the floor.
"Who are you?" It was Damian and he looked just as he did in his pictures maybe a lot better in person. His beards were trimmed nicely and evenly and for some reason, shone very brightly. His eyes glistened but with fierceness and sternness. She stared at his lips and how it was crafted with perfect divine skills. He was on a black suit ironed so hard you'd fear the sharp corners might cut your skin. "Deaf?" He chipped in.
"Uh- I'm so sorry. I'm the new help and I was just cleaning the house," she replied bending her head.
"My room is always clean and now you just stained my rug. Don't you know that when you're cleaning a room, you should move everything blocking your way and clean it well? Now this rug will give off an offensive odour! I would have to wash it again," he said still by the door. He looked at his bed and moved closer to it then added, "you sat on my bed. How dare you?" Tessy looked at the bed and saw nothing that could have convinced him that she did. She knew she had straightened the bed after she stood up but for some reason, he still found out. "Get out!" He ordered and she walked away wounded. He kept observing his room as he stared at his wardrobe and then his drawer.
"Tessy are you there? What happened?" Celine asked.
"I'll tell you when I come over. I'm on my way... What's important is that I have it," Tessy replied and opened the front door when someone hit her from behind with a medium sized brass replica of the statue of liberty then she fell down with a loud thud dropping her phone.
"Tessy! Tessy are you there?" Celine asked from her end. She heard Tessy drop heavily to the ground and said to herself, "Oh my God! What have they done to you?"
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