The rain slowly caressed the cold floor of the outside world, Sitting by the crooked window seat, I got my own type of first-row tickets to its beauty. The drops came sprinting down the window as the new ones joined in on the race.
Rain,
At this point, the single natural phenomenon was the only constant in my life. I realized very early in my life that it always rains after a tragedy.
Was it some sort of messed- up symbolism?
Hell if I know.
All I knew was that when my mother died, it rained.
When my sister suddenly ran away with some unknown homeless idiot, it rained once again.
Even when my father inevitably left, it had rained.
I guess that's what brings me here today.
Sarah's funeral.
I signed as I looked around the funeral reception. The thrilled guests filled the relatively adequate room. There was a rectangular wooden table filled with all kinds of little decorations of origami animals I created while eating the remains of the uneaten food that we called lunch. I was lucky to even get a scrap of paper but thankfully my saddened look and sob story had done the trick.
There was loud party song blasting through our ears as if we were in a club rather than a funeral. Me being practically a slave to the manor, i never had time to listen to any form if music but from the way this one was blasting through my eardrums, I was almost thankful.
The other maids were dancing around and laughing together as if they completely forgot they were here to mourn their daed friend.
I guess I couldn't blame them. If I were in their situation, I too would have used every ounce of the one night of freedom I was presented with.
When I found Sarah dead, it was nothing like I had expected it to be . I didn't make some ridiculous obscene gesture as I imagined I would have.
Instead, I just stared at her. Her lifeless body was scattered against the cold floor of the living quarters and more and more shocked faces were starting to circle around her.
long awaited tear slipped down my chest. I couldn't cry for days, it got to the point where I began to question if she even meant something to me. But then I would remember.
You'd think as someone who grew up hand in hand with death it wouldn't affect me as much anymore. That it would get better and this time you would escape unscathed . But it didn't, it didn't get better.
The ceremony was quick and simple. The lords didn't care enough to let us bury her so they just simply burned her body and gathered us all on one of the halls that they didn't use. They would let 20 girls attend to make sure there were still enough maids to work for their bidding. The 20 girls would usually be her door mates. Hence why all these girls who never even cared enough to look at Sarah came just to experience a tiny pause from their distressing reality that this funeral offered.
Sarah's family was not even invited to attend. Not that they would have come anyway. In our world, we don't have families. The lords don't let us see or even contact them . In their eyes, we are machinery, animals, anything to dehumanize us.
The funeral was very quick. Madam Chevrolet wouldn't allow it another way. The ceremony lasted for a few minutes where we would take turns saying goodbye to the dirty glass coffin that held Sarah's body. Then they would turn on the music, give us some leftover and call it a day.
.............
I stepped inside the maid quarters. After 10 years of serving in the manor, this place seemed like the only home that I ever had. However, the place was far from pleasant.
Cracked windows, dirty sheets and ruinous walls were a common sight. Aside from the old beds, the rooms consisted of a small wardrobe where all 20 of us kept our clean and polished uniforms tucked away. There was a small hanging clock above the drawers, used only to know when out shift was about to start.
Glancing at it, there were about 15 minutes before I had to get ready to help out in the kitchen.
I always worked as a kitchen maid but with Sarah's untimely death the roles..... Switched. Sarah worked as a housemaid, meaning she was assigned to random Lord and had to clean their part of the estate while they would be out. Seeing as there were a lot more kitchen maids than housemaids, they chose me to take over her tasks. Unfortunately, they didn't remove the chores I had already so now I was stuck doing both out jobs.
Assholes. All of them.
This also meant I would have about 5 minutes to run up the forty or so floors by stairs from the kitchen to the designated room since the elevator was off limits to maids.
Then I would have about 30 minutes to make their gigantic Billion-dollar worthy room spotless just so I didn't get to "disturb "the Lord or Lady when they come back.
