A middle-aged woman met Mina at the door. Her hair was neatly arranged in a bun, and she wore a dress that looked too formal to be recognized as a maid.
"Hello, I am Miss Vira, the lady butler of this mansion. What specifically is your experience, cleaning, cooking, taking care of pets, or gardening?" She asked while checking her head to toe in a very scrutinizing way.
"Miss, I haven't tried working any of what you mentioned in a mansion. However, I was the only one doing all of that in our own home," Mina answered and was hoping that her answers were good enough for her to land a home and a job.
"Okay, if that's so, I'll assign you to the easiest job in this house. You will be helping Lisa in housekeeping." Vira pointed to the girl who had just passed by. She was wearing her uniform, a white dress with a black apron. Lisa was pushing a cart filled with cleaning materials, just like what she saw on TV that was being used in hotels.
Lisa only looked at her as she tried to smile and waved at her. Nevertheless, she nodded. It didn't bother Mina that much. She thought that maybe Lisa was just being formal and work-focused. However, she was pretty sure that she would soon be her friend too.
"Come follow me to the quarter to change your dress."
Vira advised her to put her things on one of the lockers in the quarter and hand her a set of house helper's uniforms. Before she had even changed her dress, her stomach grumbled shamelessly, and even Vira heard it.
"Did you eat your breakfast before coming here?" She looked at her, wondering.
Mina only shook her head in response to Vira's question. She didn't want to talk more about what had happened to her. She didn't want to stain the reputation of both of her parents.
"If that's so, hurry up, then follow me to the kitchen. I will give you ten minutes before you'll start your work."
After she had eaten, Vira brought her to their boss's office. A busy lady a little younger than her was busy with something on her desk. She was flipping paper pages and checking them one by one.
"Hello Miss Lottie, this is the girl Mrs.Farah sent to be our new helper." Vira greeted her as soon as they got in.
Mina followed her and kept herself quiet.
"Oh, hi, what's your name. I'm sorry I'm pretty busy this early." She smiled and glanced at them for a moment and looked back to the papers.
"I'm Mina, mam. Thank you for accepting me."
"It's okay, Mina. Nice to meet you. By the way, Vira, has she already met my brother?"
"No, not yet, Miss. Your brother wasn't home yet," Vira replied.
"Oh yes, I forgot. He was on a business trip. Wait, let me check. Oh, he will be coming home today. Please make sure to prepare everything, Vira. You know my brother, he might probably be in a bad mood again. He is always stressed every time he arrives from a business trip. You know so well how much he hates traveling."
"Yes, Miss, I will make sure that not a single thing will ignite his bad mood."
***
Lisa instructed her to do the floor while simply dusting the decorations. However, Mina was confused with the equipment they used for cleaning. All she knew was the broom and the map.
She swept the floor and waited for Lisa to give her instructions. She didn't know if she had to use the mop or the other equipment. Mina attempted to approach Lisa, who was standing in one corner facing towards the one big elephant figurine.
Mina thought that Lisa was simply busy wiping the figurine, the reason for her not to hear her call. However, when she got near her, she realized that Lisa wasn't actually dusting the figurines. Instead, she was busy with her phone.
Lisa flinched when she noticed someone was staring at her and glared at Mina when she saw that it was her. She thought that it was her boss. It made her anxious for a moment, and she hated Mina for that.
"Are you snooping at me?" Lisa peered.
"N- No, I just want to ask you what to do next."
"Stupida! It's just a simple cleaning on the floor, and you still didn't know how to do it? What is an eight-year-old girl? Maybe even an eight-year-old girl can do better than you." She tucked the phone in her pocket and walked away from her, heading towards the next figurine.
"I haven't used this equipment before. I don't know when to use it and how?" Mina tried to explain and partly begged Lisa to teach her.
"Grr, can you just find a way to learn that? Stupid?" Lisa gritted her teeth and walked away further.
Mina was worried that she might make a mistake in handling the equipment. There was floor scrub, and she could guess that it needed to be attached to an outlet by seeing the long wire with it.
As much as Mina was worried that she might not know how to operate it, she worried that Lisa might blame her if the floor wasn't clean enough. She still didn't know how meticulous her new bosses were about cleanliness. Besides, as she understood, they needed to avoid giving her male boss a reason to be in a bad mood.
Mina read the instructions and did what was written. However, she was still worried that it might need at least experience to learn to operate the machine. It was said there that the control would be in her hands.
If she pressed it hard, she might lose its control and would just sprint across the floor. However, she had to try it anyway. She wouldn't learn without trying.
She turned on the equipment, and the machine started grumbling, indicating that it was ready. She made a sign of the cross before she pressed the control. As Mina had or hadn't anticipated what would happen next. Mina had probably pressed the control button harder than it was supposed to be, and it suddenly dashed across the room, heading to the stand near the door, where they placed an exquisite and expensive-looking mermaid figurine.
The electronic scrub directly hit the stand, making it wiggle.
Lisa screamed as she noticed and anticipated what was about to happen. Any second soon, the mermaid figurine would fall and would surely break.
Hastily, Mina ran towards the figure and tried her best to reach it, hoping that she would before it hit the floor.
Nevertheless, she slipped and was about to fall when she was half meters away from the object, the worst, she failed to reach the figurine.
She closed her eyes and was expecting to hear a crushing sound, as much as she was expecting to hit herself hard on the floor.
On the contrary, she didn't hear any smashing sound of porcelain as well as she hadn't felt the pain of falling to the hard ground. Instead, Mina landed on someone's body, a man particularly, and noticed that someone was also holding the figurine she was about to save.