Story: Daphe and the White Apron. Part 7.

by Monica Graz

Author’s note

Apologies for the delay. As often happens to us amateur writers, real life activities can be at times very demanding and challenging.

They will be two more episodes to finish Daphne’s predicament.

Episode 7 below and episode 8 that will follow very shortly.  

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“Girl! Halika dito.” Rosie yelled impatiently to Lita from the dining room, in that peculiar mixture of Tagalog and English, Taglish as it was called between the Filipina maids abroad.

Lita hastily had a last sip of her coffee checked her appearance in the kitchen mirror- a habit that she couldn’t resist- adjusted her work apron and run towards the dining room where Rosie was setting the table for this evening’s dinner party.

“Yes Miss Rosie,” she said with her customary small bob. In the past few weeks she started calling her Miss, to Rosie’s delight; she did it without being asked, simply because her submissive genes had completely taken over and she was acting as the junior maid in the Ahmad household with Rosie becoming more and more the housekeeper.

“We have only two hours for the house preparations and then we have to change to our black and white serving uniforms.” Rosie continued with urgency in her voice. “Go and clean very thoroughly the guest bathroom, ‘linisin ang banyo’ “repeated her order in Tagalog as if Lita couldn’t understand English “and be aware” she continued “that Mme is very particular about it. Make sure there is plenty of toilet paper and clean handtowels. Then come back here and help me set the table.”

“Yes Miss Rosie, linisin ang banyo”Lita answered repeating Rosie’s order like a young army recruit, looking at the same time at the huge table that could sit 14 people and a feeling of apprehension and fear overtook her. The Ahmads have asked 12 important people for a semi-formal dinner and she was worried if some people of Daphne father’s connections in London might be present. After all, as Magda confessed to her, Mr. Ahmad had lots of contacts in the Greek shipping world. The only guest that Lita already knew was Magda herself. The Ahmads invited her because they wanted to thank her for finding for them this ‘jewel of a maid’ as they have called Lita on several occasions.

She took her cleaning equipment and started cleaning the guests’ bathroom which was quite big and had the option of male and female cubicles. Over the past few weeks she had become very proficient in her cleaning under the strict supervision of Rosie and the scrutinising eye of Mme Ahmad.

As the bathroom area was full of mirrors she couldn’t resist looking at herself dressed in her daily maid’s uniform, ‘uniporme ng dalaga’ as Rosie used to call it. She looked quite dishevelled after a whole morning of heavy housework but her look in the mirror never stopped creating an inner excitement to the point of sexual stimulation. More than four months later she never thought of abandoning her ‘Lita being in Service Program’ as she called it.

Her mind drifted away to the past few weeks and the events that had driven her deeper to her present predicament as she worked mechanically. She thought once more, that more than four months had passed already since the day that on an impulse she put Magda’s white serving apron on, this humble piece of clothing that started the whole thing.

After her discussion with Magda at the end of her first day’s work at the Ahmads residence she followed her advice and offered her wages to Rosie as a gesture of good will. Rosie accepted them eagerly without any second thoughts as if she was expecting it. Now that she was thinking again about the whole incident she was nearly certain that Magda must have mentioned something to Rosie beforehand. After that a new kind of relationship was established with Rosie becoming her strict mentor and instructress in all aspects of being a proficient maid.  

They also started together a so called ‘Filipinisation’ program where Rosie made a point of giving commands in Tagalog or Taglish and Lita trying to follow them, with difficulty to start with but with lots of eagerness to learn more as if the original Lita that influenced her so much during her teenage years had moved in to her body!

She was down in her hands and knees scrubbing one of the toilet bowls when she remembered, still with mixed feelings, the e-mail she received from her University. Her supervising professor, the one who was going to examine her thesis had a car accident and he was in hospital in critical condition. So, all his teaching and his PhD programs were suspended indefinitely! Wow, what an unexpected turn. She didn’t have to feel guilty anymore of not being able to do her research. She immediately wrote to her father and said how much devastated she was after the news and she was going to take a year off to change scenery and try to rethink her life. 

Her father was unexpectedly quite understanding and as he was - as expected- in a very busy mode gave his consent and simply added to his message, ‘Stay out of trouble Daphne and be in regular touch. Anyway, Magda tells me that you are in good spirits and I’ll ask her to be more supportive. And if you decide to travel, you know funds are not a problem, but please keep me informed of your whereabouts. You could probably come down to Mykonos for a few weeks and enjoy the Greek weather.” Daphne thanked her father, but the last think she wanted right now was to be Daddy’s spoiled daughter in a familiar place. She politely refused and said she would keep him informed for her movements.

She barely suppressed a smile when she observed herself in her current condition, kneeling in front of a toilet bowl cleaning it and looking as any dishevelled cleaner or maid. If only her father could see her now!

She got a shock when she heard Rosie’s voice behind her, “You are slow girl, ‘ikaw ay magabal’, chop, chop and come and help me in the dining room.”

“Yes Miss Rosie, finish very quickly and coming,” she said in her bad English that became automatic to her by now, to the point that Magda had said to her the other day, ‘keep talking like this girl and nobody would suspect that you are anything else than what you appear to be, just another uneducated migrant cleaner.’

When a few minutes later she joined Rosie in the dining room the latter gave her a disapproving look saying, “You look dirty girl, ‘ marumi babae’ and you smell also, go and change your apron with a clean white one and make sure you wash your hands well, I can’t let you setting the table with that stained apron on, run along now, not much time left.”

“Yes Miss Rosie, be back in a minute,” Lita answered secretly enjoying Rosie’s bossy attitude and run to her room by the kitchen. When she came back a couple of minutes later she looked quite tidy again with her clean apron and her hair tied back more vigorously.

She started helping Rosie in laying the table. She worked mechanically; after all she was familiar with that sort of semi-formal dinner parties. She remembered how she loved helping the original Lita back in her parents’ house to set the table on similar occasions. She remembered all that cutlery and crockery they had to use and all those glasses and of course the pristine white napkins.

They were finishing in the dining room when Mme Ahmad appeared suddenly. Both of them were too busy to hear the front door opening. She scanned the table and said, “At first glance it looks correct but I’ll come back for a proper inspection; is the guest bathroom clean and ready?” She looked at Rosie as she said that.

“Yes Mme,” Rosie answered with a slight bob, “Lita just finished cleaning it.”

Mme Ahmad sniffed the air, an unpleasant look in her face. This time she turned to Lita and said in a rather condescending manner, “You smell of perspiration girl, it is a very unpleasant smell that lingers around, make sure that you have a good shower and put plenty of deodorant afterwards.” 

Then with a more amused look added, “After all you are not a Filipina in that sense, true Asian girls never smell. Rosie has to work with you a bit more. You might clean well like a Filipina but certainly you are not bodily clean like they are!” 

Lita blushed all over and for a moment the Daphne genes took over. How dare she talk to me like that she thought? She managed to control herself and answered with certain indignation in her voice, forgetting momentarily her Pidgin English, “I’m sorry Madame, I had to work very hard to finish all the cleaning and as it happens it has been an unusually warm day for this time of year. I’ll have a good shower later Madame.” 

Mme Ahmad didn’t seem to notice her indignant tone of voice and simply added as she was talking to an ignorant peasant girl just arrived from her village to the big city, “Make sure you do that and you should make a habit to use deodorant before you dress in the morning, I can assure you that helps a lot to avoid unpleasant smells when you perspire.”

She left as abruptly as she came heading for her bedroom to get ready herself. As she was climbing the stairs she added, “I probably already mentioned to you both that the children will stay out tonight with friends and Mr. Ahmad will arrive directly from his office with some of the guests.”

“Yes Mme, very well Mme,” the two maids answered in unison and then Rosie looked accusingly at Lita, saying in a low voice, “You forgot yourself again girl and talked like an Oxford professor. 

Thank God that Mme Ahmad is too preoccupied and paid no attention. And of course, she is right, you must start using deodorant before you put your uniform dress on every morning and make sure that your dress is well washed. Unfortunately, the material of our uniforms, that polyester cotton mix is not the best, real cotton is much better.”

“Sorry Rosie,” Lita answered still upset and forgetting her rule to address her as Miss, “Mme took me by surprise and I answered without thinking. She is right of course; when you do lots of manual labour you must be careful on those issues. Probably we could check on line if we can buy cotton uniforms, I am prepared to…”

Rosie rolled her eyes and stopped Lita with her hand, “Enough of your pontificating Lita, we can talk about that another time. Let’s finish here and go and prepare ourselves. We have an hour until the arrival of the caterers and two hours before the guests start coming.”

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