Tears were streaming down my face and I couldn’t stop them, no matter how hard I tried.
Still, through my blurred vision, I was leaving my hometown to a place I’d never been and I wished I wouldn’t be from this day forward. My aunt had told me the name of the city, and the directions to tell the cab driver – directions I didn’t know where they'd lead me. Not that it mattered now. Nothing mattered anymore. I was broken, damaged. My life was ruined and I didn’t know what I’d do now. I was certain of one thing, though. I was going to live with my aunt, in a house where she worked as a maid.
I cried even harder. I’d left all of my friends. I’d left home.
Home? No, not home. I’d left the house where I lived. I couldn’t call it home anymore. I had nobody waiting for me there. The only person that had been always there, waiting for me, had died.
My mother. Most people say that when you express your hurt out loud, it feels like an enormous weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
It didn’t help, though. It only made me cry more. It only forced me to remember, once again, my mother, smiling to me, talking to me about college, when suddenly... it happened. Her eyes had turned opaque, she’d stopped talking. Losing all of the strength her little and fragile body had held for so long, she’d fallen on the floor, her body trembling, like if having a heart attack. And she did have one. I remembered grabbing the phone, calling for help. It had been too late when they’d knocked on my door to try to rescue her from what had taken her away from me, from everyone else.
Why her? She was perfectly healthy, no matter how much everyone else said otherwise. She had two jobs to provide me of everything I wanted and needed. She always gave everything she could. She was cherished by everyone who knew her...
She was my mother! Why take her away from me when the one I was left with was her?
My own shaking hands wiped off my tears. It was useless to do that. I couldn’t stop crying so cleaning them wouldn’t make any difference.
Time passed and I didn’t notice. By the time I could open my eyes and watched what surrounded me with a clear sight, the cab driver was opening my door. “We’re here, Miss. If I’m right, this is the house.”
I actually didn’t speak as my eyes faced the huge white mansion that stood before my eyes.
I got out of the cab, in order to take a good look at where I was about to walk in, and spend the rest of my miserable life, just like my aunt. Not that i don't like her or anything, its's not that. It was the fact that she wasn't my mother. No matter how much i loved her, appreciated her taking me in, there'd still be a gaping hole in my heart at the end of the day.
The dark green gate seemed pretty secure when it came to keeping unwanted guests out of the property. Between the gate and the mansion, was a beautiful garden that I could see it continued to the sides and to the back of the mansion. It was impossible to see how much of this area belonged to the property itself, because it was huge and from where I stood, I couldn’t see any visible marks ending the property. Two expensive cars were parked inside of the property, in front of the mansion.
“Here are your things, Miss.” The cab driver called my attention when he placed all of my bags at my side.
I eyed him carefully with my pale grey eyes. “Thanks.” I turned to face him, my naturally light chesnut hair with hazel highlights followed and bounced softly past my shoulders, and reached into my wallet, taking out the money to pay the cab driver. “Here.”
He checked it and then said, “Well, have a good day, Miss.” He got in the car again, and drove away.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at the sky, whose colour was changing into a deep, dark, limitless shadde of slate blue. It was late, already. I looked at my watch and saw it was 8 PM. The trip had taken three hours, totally.
Reaching for my phone, I called my aunt and warned her I’d already arrived.
Aunt Deena was the only person I’d contact with when it came to my father’s family. He’d died before I was born so I never really got to know him. It had never bothered me, though. I’d had my mother. Had. Now, all I was left with was the memories I had from her.
I never used to really see my aunt that much. In fact, whenever I was with her, I couldn’t sympathize with her as much as I wanted to tell the truth. She was a hard person to deal with, though caring with her loved ones, as my mother had once told me.
Before my mind could drift off to any other thought, I heard someone, “Inky! Oh, you arrived at such a bad time... they’re having dinner!” She was surely talking about the family she worked for as a maid. My name is Indigo, but everyone calls me Inky or Ink.
Maid, I thought for myself. I’d graduated from high school and was ready to go to college... if my mother hadn’t died and I hadn’t been left with no money since I’d used most of it on the funeral she deserved.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, “I didn’t mean to arrive so late."
Aunt Deena pushed a button on the remote she held and the gate started to open automatically. I grabbed my stuff and walked in the property. Then, I faced my dark haired aunt.
She hugged me the moment I approached her. No tears seemed to threaten to fall from her eyes, though the same didn’t happen with me. Thankfully, I was able to hold them back.
“Come on, Ink.” My aunt said, breaking the hug and helping me with some of my stuff. “I have to introduce you to the Coopers!”
I cleared my throat, “Introduce me?” I asked, surprised. “They’re rich, why would they want to know who I am?”
“The Coopers like to know who works for them. You should feel lucky since Mrs. Cooper has let you work for her without meeting you first.” My aunt said, hurrying towards the mansion, with me trying to keep up with her.
The moment my feet touched those white steps, I started thinking about the family I was going to be introduced to. God, it would be so embarrassing. Even if I had eighteen years old, I was just as shy as a five year old.
As I thought about how the family was, I didn’t even notice my aunt opening the main door that led to the foyer, richly decorated. “They’re in the dining room, the second door on the right.” She started, “Place your bags here, Jett will put them in your room later.”
Jett? Whoever it was, he or she was doing me a favour, because I was tired of carrying my heavy bags.
“Come on, come on.” My aunt pulled me and led me throughout the foyer, till the door she’d talked about. “Don’t say anything unless Mr. or Mrs. Cooper asks you something.”
I didn’t even have time to reply, because the second later, she opened the door and threw me to the sharks.
My eyes widened as I faced an old fashioned dining room, but with a touch of modernity, though my mind soon forgot about how the room was decorated when my eyes faced the silent family who were staring intently at me.
At the centre of the table was Mr. Cooper. It had to be. The man of the house always sat there. He had a fierce look, his frosty blue eyes easily pierced through my body. He had very short black hair and a pale complexion. At his right side, I supposed, was his wife, Mrs. Cooper. She was smiling at me – so I smiled back – showing me all of her too perfect and white teeth for her age. Her skin was very well treated, despite her surely 40 years of age. Her straight blond hair fell beautifully over her petite shoulders and back, framing her face and contrasting with her brown eyes.
At Mr. Cooper’s left side was no one. But after that seat, there was one other seat where a boy was sitting. He was staring at me, and god, I felt so humiliated. He seemed to be eighteen – my age – and that made it all worse. His eyes, though blue, had nothing to do with Mr. Cooper’s, and as for his hair, it shared the same colour with his mother’s.
“Welcome to our house.” Mrs. Cooper said, getting up. “I’ve ordered the maids to arrange a room for you, so you should be fine.”
“Thank you.” I said quickly, anxious to escape that test.
“What is your name?” She asked nicely. God, I was sure my aunt had probably said my name to her! Had she forgotten it already?
“Indigo. Indigo Evans.”
“And-”
“Gabi.” Mr. Cooper’s cultured voice was heard, cutting off his wife. “The girl must be tired, let her rest so that she can start her day tomorrow early. We have Nathan’s graduation party, remember?” He didn’t even look at me.
“Of course.” Mrs. Cooper said, not angry at all for being interrupted. “Just so you know, I am Gabbriela, and this is my son, Blake.” She pointed at the boy in front of her.
I nodded with an uneven smile on my face, and finally, my aunt spoke for the first time I’d stepped into the dining room. “Well, we shall let you have dinner quietly.”
“I’m sorry for the interruption.” I apologized politely.
Mrs. Cooper smiled. My aunt hurried, “Come on, Inky, let’s go.” Before I turned around, I heard my aunt speak again, “Oh, hello, Nathan!”
Another one to meet? I asked myself. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and turned around to meet the last one.
My body froze instantaneously when I saw him right behind me, so tall with large shoulders and narrower hips. If my eyes were pale grey, his were this bright, icy greyish blue. They were beautiful, probably able to attract and attack anyone that had been dumb enough to get close to him and cross the limit. His dark brown hair with jaw length framed his face in a perfect way. His skin was just like Mr. Cooper’s, though he had pink coloured cheeks, softening even more his milky complexion. Still... that didn’t make him appear any nicer. Yes, he actually looked mean. He didn’t have a smile to offer me, and he seemed he wasn’t interested in me at all. At least Blake had smiled.
“That’s our new maid, Nathan.” Mrs. Cooper revealed. But even when his mother had spoken, the young man had said nothing. In fact, his only answer was an almost noiseless grumble.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was really tall. I knew I wasn’t that tall, but my head reached, what, his chest? I felt like a dwarf! Oh well, I always used to feel little towards this kind of – rich – people.
I lowered my head once the guy passed by me and went to sit down on the table to have dinner. I felt once again broken and didn’t pay attention to his athletic body, to his icy blue eyes...
My aunt placed her hand on my shoulder, and talked to the family, “If you need anything, just ask.”
As for me, I turned around quietly and let my aunt lead me out of the dining room, afterwards. Once I stood on the hall again, I looked for my bags and didn’t see them there. The moment I opened my mouth to speak, my aunt was already answering, “Jett must have already taken them to your room. He knew you were coming and knows where your room is.”
And then, my aunt started pulling me towards the huge set of stairs that was localized in the centre of the huge hall. “Your room is on the last floor. There were no rooms available on the maids’ floor, so Mrs. Cooper was kind enough in letting you stay there. Otherwise, you would have had to share the room with someone else.”
Thank god Mrs. Cooper had been that kind. And no, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I hated the thought of sharing my room. My room was my room, my space and nobody else’s. Especially when I needed one to be alone and shed the tears I’d been holding back since I’d gotten here.
I passed by two floors before arriving to mine, where there was only one room, I guessed. Since my ant didn’t say anything about the other floors, I supposed she would inform me about it all tomorrow. If I had to work here, I had to know where everything was, including the places I was forbidden to enter.
The last floor – my floor since it only had one room, mine – was full of dust. It so needed to be clean. It looked like nobody had come here for a long time. Being this house so goddamn spotless, I was expecting this part of the house to be dirt-free as well.
I opened the only door that was there. And when my eyes watched the inside, I only spotted a bed, some furniture where I could put my stuff and clothes, and a bathroom for myself. That was so freaking good! Unfortunately, like the floor itself, the room urgently needed to be cleaned.
I’ll take care of it when I have the time, I promised myself.
The room was big, actually, bigger than the one I’d previously had. When I really walked in the room, I sighted a huge terrace – oh, I’d so spend my free time there! – just for me.
The room wasn’t bad at all, it just needed to be cleaned. In that moment, I looked at my aunt, and thanked her, “Thanks, for doing this for me... for giving me a home when you knew I needed one.”
“It was the least I could do for you and your mother, Ink.” She smiled sweetly and patiently, something she seldom did. “If you need anything, I’ll be on the previous floor, the third room on the right, ok?”
“Ok.” I doubted I’d need something. All I wanted was to be left alone with my sorrow. “Hum, should I do something tonight?”
“Oh no.” My aunt shook both of her hands, “Mrs. Cooper understood your situation and said you wouldn’t need to do anything tonight. You can rest for the time being. I’m sure you’re tired since it was a long trip, I guess.” Yes, and no. I was tired, but not from the trip. Yes, it had been a long one, three hours of duration, but I didn’t consider it has a long one that left me tired. “Well, have a goodnight, Eva.”
“You too, aunt Deena.” Then, I was finally alone when my aunt left my room with nothing else to say.
The second she closed the door, I threw myself at the bed, the only thing that seemed cleaned enough for me to use. Besides, I really wouldn’t have the patience to clean anything now.
I didn’t even move anymore for the rest of the night, or what I recalled of it. I just arranged a good position and... Finally let my tears freely fell down my eyes as my fingers unconsciously twitched a lock from my hair and my mind showed me all of the memories I had with my mother...
However, I also mentally prepared myself to spend the rest of my life working as a maid.
So, I mentally saluted myself, Welcome to heartbreak, Indigo.