Thirty-two-year-old Vanessa was sitting on the living room couch, folding freshly dried clothes, while seven or eight children ran around the living room, dining area, and bedrooms causing a ruckus. Two quieter girls were treating the walls as their canvas, intently drawing graffiti indistinguishable from the works of abstract artists.
These children belonged to the neighbors, who had to work in the citrus orchards and hence had entrusted their children to her for paid childcare.
At that moment, the television was featuring Bob Costa selling a weight-loss cola. Vanessa had nothing but disdain for the product. She didn't believe such a cola existed and, even if it did, she had no intention of buying it. Her husband came home every day exhausted from tending to the fruit trees in the orchard, lying in bed like a corpse after dinner, showing no interest in her whatsoever.
