NFTN 10: Maritza

While I was out dating lifeguards, shopping, and running into other people's cars (more on that later), Maritza, the housekeeper, was housebound. Maritza did not have a car to drive and was hours away from her husband who stayed back at the house. I felt sorry for her, as she retired to her small room to watch TV every night and missed her husband. So I invited Maritza to go out with me. I had the suburban to drive and we went to the boardwalk, to a small carnival with fortune-tellers, and walked around. I think we went to the movies once or twice too, until Lisa Thebault stepped in and forbade me from taking Maritza out with me and told both of us that we were not allowed to socialize or speak to one another. I couldn't believe it. Sometimes I thought Lisa was the worst of the Thebault pair, but then Brian come in for reinforcement. Once though, Lisa had started asking me to frenchbraid her hair for her, as I'd done a number of times, and Brian asked Lisa if she was going to tip me and Lisa got mad and said no. I was Lisa's servant and she took what she could get. By the time I knew Lisa, she had removed herself from her humble beginnings. She remarked once to me (why me?) that So-and-so "really knows how to handle her help" and I found out she was taking tips. Basically, the idea is to so degrade another human being that they forget they have "certain unalienable rights". If I mentioned needing notice before babysitting I was harassed and told I was naive and young and didn't know what a "nanny" position was really about.

When I took Maritza out once, she pulled me into a fortune tellers tent. I didn't want to go, because of religious reasons, but Maritza begged me. So I went as it was kind of "her" night out. The fortune teller took one look at me and said I'd be married within 5 years and to use birth control because "You are highly fertile!". I laughed because this woman didn't realize I was also "highly celibate!" Nothing she said about me came true. But she told Maritza she'd have a baby within a year. Maritza then told me she and her husband tried for 7 years and couldn't conceive. However, she conceived within one year after the trip to the fortuneteller, and after I had already left the Thebault's, she called me to tell me. But then, of course, the Thebault's fired her for being pregnant. Philip enjoyed her company at times and liked helping her with her work so I was sad for him.

Maritza had long black wavy hair. It was beautiful. Thick, shiny, and pitch black. She was shorter with a good figure and an okay face--sort of long, but nice smile. She worked fast and was vivacious and loved to talk. For the Thebaults' to tell her she couldn't talk...well, you may as well muzzle a cat.

Maritza was peeved that I didn't help with laundry as the former au pair had, but I had specifically requested a nanny position, not nanny-slash-housekeeping. I told the agency from the start that I didn't want to do "light housekeeping". I hate housekeeping. Anyone who has seen my car or house knows.

Freddy, her husband, was very quiet. I don't remember him saying anything. He worked as the gardener. Philip once said he wanted to be a gardener, like Freddy, and his parents laughed. I could see Philip had a love for nature, though, and it didn't surprise me. Maritza told me Philip loved his German au pair because she took him on long walks out in the woods every day. He loved this. I have a photo of Philip and Christie out in their garden in their overalls, and Philip is pulling out a flower to look at it more closely.

Maritza and Freddy lived in a guesthouse on the property. Lisa once had a yardsale and Maritza bought some items from her. I was a little sad, because I didn't want to see Maritza buying their cast-offs, but Maritza liked what she bought. Lisa gave me a bunch of old dresses from her working days with Brian. I looked at them and told Lisa her style had changed. Lisa lingered to ask how. I told her these dresses were sort of innocent and girlish, with the puffed sleeves and tiny flower prints and flowing skirts, and that now her style was much more tailored. She said I was right. It was inevitable. I wore one of the dresses once but felt odd, wondering if I was wearing a dress that Brian remembered Lisa in, when he first fell in love with her. I wondered, too, if she wanted him to remember.

Maritza made quasadillas at the house, which I ate. She mainly snacked as she worked--I don't recall a time Maritza actually sat down to eat. She was always working. It was harder for her to work when the kids wanted to imitate and watch, but Maritza accomodated them, singing songs to them, and telling Philip, "That's right! Good job!" when he helped her with the dust pan or broom. Christie mainly tagged along at times. I tried to distract them so Maritza could work, but that's part of the charm of childhood--menial work looks like fun and interests kids.

I cooked for the kids and picked up after them, and put their laundry away, but anything I did was strictly child-related, which suited me.

I could not have lasted as long as I did if Maritza had not been there. She was fun, and a gossip, and full of spirit and fire. She invited me to her house and to meet her extended family after they were kicked out by the Thebaults. They lived in a tiny, tiny, shack in the Far Hills or maybe it was Short Hills. It was a very small apartment shared by multiple family members. On the East Coast, the constrast of the monied and the poor is stark. It is like the Caribbean, where you will see a huge mansion or estate, with a large gate, just a mile away from the poorest barrio where the happier people live, despite their circumstances.