“How did you end up here?” Sophia dropped the book she was reading to the side and pushed up from the bed she lay to rest on her pillow, her eyes on the maid who was cleaning her room.
There was no clock, calendar nor phone or watch to check the time and date so she didn’t know what the day was.
However she’d used the maids’ words and turns in bringing her a meal to understand the days.
Today was seven days and five days after meeting with Luca and since then she hadn’t been herself, the maids wouldn’t tell her a thing and she knew who’d told them to do so.
Luca
She didn’t know if she needed to be angry or happy.
He was keeping updates on his injuries knowing if it were bad, she would be worried and want to see him but altogether she was really worried, any information concerning his wounds will scratch that itch on her heart.
If he didn’t want her to know.
Then so be it.
She’d been cool and forthcoming by listening to him and not throwing a fit stuck up in this room for more than a week now.
Her eyes swerved to the maid who’d been standing there gaping at her like her talking was a spectacle for everyone to behold.
The rag in her hand quivered and Sophia sat up and folded her hands on her chest.
Since no one wanted to speak to her, she was going to do the whole talking and asking and that was going to start with the different faces she’d been seeing.
So different and constant.
The maid in front of her was brown skin and perhaps was from the Hispanic community, her curly hair and that face Sophia had seen from the people back in high school and college.
But what baffled her was where they were all coming from.
Her mind didn’t want to conjure up any possibilities for whatever her brain was picturing.
Never.
Her father hated that trade and she too hated it. This story is hosted at g.com.
She didn’t know much about her father’s business but the little she knew, they traded guns, drugs and bullets that were dangerous for the government and limited edition drinks her father always had in his cellar and home bar.
Lest for that, she knew nothing, her father always kept everything away from her.
She knew this from eavesdropping on his soldiers whenever they were discussing in the living room and she had pods in her ear where they’d think she wasn’t listening.
But she heard everything.
Everything a novice like her who was left in the midst of men who presumed she was still a kid would grasp after her mother died.
Every new word said went directly to her brain, her nanny let do as she liked, afraid of her father.
And now here they were back to the girl tucking a loose strand of her dark hair behind her ear, her legs shaking and she knew the next thing that would happen if she didn’t approach or placate her.
Run for the hills
She slid out of the bed, moving her way across the room to her leaving space between them.
She couldn’t make body contact yet, and instead stretched out her hand to her.
She has to make the first move before more contact.
“Hi” Sophia waved her other free hand in the air, the maid’s eyes followed the movement with her eyes, she gulped retreating.
Sophia exhaled, this was going to be a long ride.
She shifted back herself and smiled at her.
“You don’t have to be scared of me” she calmly said, nodding at her but still no answer.
Sophia rummaged through her brain for a new tactic to get her attention and she rerouted to ask the question that has been tugging at her heart right from the start.
“Do you speak English?”
She can’t not think of a young girl like her not knowing or hearing English in such a house filled with hot blooded men, she wasn’t sure no more if Luca’s men could keep their hands to themselves.
She had received a brunt of her stubbornness to do as they pleased and though he was probably six feet now that was because of Luca.
She didn’t know how far he could go for another woman.
“Hola” the maid waved back to her, smiling and Sophia beamed back waving too.
She was right after all.
She wasn’t English but she would take anything for silence “I..I..can speak ingles”
Sophia stepped forward and thankfully she didn’t pull back “I’m Sophia and you are?”
She would start by asking about her name before prying for more information concerning where Luca patently brought them from.
The mixed races and faces and colours weren’t just coincidences.
Something was going on here and as far as she knew asking luca was pointless or anyone.
This might be a good opportunity.
“Your name?” she probed raising her brow at the maid “I won’t tell anyone” she continued, maybe it sounded stupid but she knew what having a trauma meant, not willing to speak to anyone for a certain amount of time.
She’d been little but the death of her mom had shook her world and her father’s crumpled the world and truthfully if it weren’t for Luca she didn’t know how she could’ve coped with such grief in such little time.
Or the shock and trauma of seeing her father’s blood gushing out from his neck, the blood pooling at her feet like she was at the beach.
That day was traumatizing albeit she didn’t know what happened to the maid but understood why she withheld answers and her voice from people.
“Don’t be scared. I won’t tell anyone about this” Sophia prayed she understood whatever she was saying, it wasn’t convincing enough actually like she was coaxing a child to do something.
She was an adult.
The rag dropped to the floor and Sophia’s head whipped down to the thudding sound and then up “promise?” The maid bobbed her head asking, her voice so soft, Sophia went with her and nodded her head too humming.
She would do anything to get to talk and maybe make a friend out of her.
Staying alone in this room would soon start getting into her head and that was the least of the problems she needed.
“So?” She nudged her to the direction of her bed, where they could talk more and the maid nodded smiling and Sophia smiled back walking back to her bed for the maid to follow.