Her mother was doing the dishes while grumbling about what her sister in law had said to her and how they got into an older argument because of that. She could tell that her mother was enraged by that event. She knew that her mother would get so easily annoyed by every little thing, producing her a state of intense stress that she herself would administer daily.
“She even told me about that nice flowered platter. Imagine she had the nerve to tell me that that platter was hers when your father gave it to me on my birthday. I only wish I could tell her what I really think, that she is a skimped old thief with no teeth left in her filthy mouth”
“Never mind her, mama! Don’t get so upset”, the girl told her as she took her eyes from her book. The book was interesting, but she could not focus, seeing her mother so tensed. She thought to herself that she loves her so much, and respects her tremendously, but she will never be like her. This idea put a comfort into the thought of going away to another country. She had visited other countries before, but never had lived abroad before. Soon she would experience a new world and whatever will come of her, she will not be a housewife troubled with petty events that would make her feel miserable and hate everybody around her.
She had a good relationship with her parents, but disapproved their lifestyle, considering it too outdated, entrenched in obsolete habits that kept them into the past. Yet, she had a hard time thinking that she would leave, seeing them only once or twice a year.
She still remembered her mother gossiping about little things when she arrived in Ireland. The new European business hub, Dublin was a promising city for her to start a new life. He was 25 and the encounter with a new culture excited her. Moreover, as she arrived at her host late at night, she could not sleep at the thought of meeting her new colleagues and starting a new life.
Top of the morning, Dublin bus, €2.70 per ticket, a different experience already, compared with the €0.50 price per trip she would pay in her country.
Arrived at the office in her first day, she meets her new colleagues. After the introductions are made, she sits at her appointed desk, quietly awaiting further instructions. As she reads some introductory organizational guidelines she surprises some unfriendly attitudes. What actually surprises her is that these attitudes are not all directed at her, but at each other. In an hour or so, her boss arrives at the office. She presents herself in a charming manner, then she requires updates from the other staff. She seems irritated with the results presented.
In her mind, she always wanted to see how the foreigners were arguing, to have the opportunity to compare these arguments with what she saw in the movies. But after the lunch she wished she had not desired this. The boss, a fair woman in her forties, looking like a Hollywood diva, started swearing like a sailor, punching her fist into the offices of her employees, asking for better sales results. When she was gone along with her assistant, everybody started gossiping.
“And that HannahOh, my God! How hypocritical was that? Oh, let me do that for you too, Meghan, as they were not able to do it so far. Please, we can’t even go to the bathroom without her counting the time we spend there. Oh, why don’t you choke while kissing Meghan’s ass, Hannah”
They were imitating Hannah, the boss’ assistant, criticizing her for her lack of character, as she was always accusing them for not doing their work properly. There was no difference between these modern people and her traditional mother. They were gossiping more than her mother, but unlike her mother, she could sense that these people had no soul. At the end of the week she confirmed this thought, when they turned against one of their colleague, stating that he was not doing his job, when all he did wrong was to help her, the new girl, find a suited home. The poor man was fired first thing the next week.
She gradually lost her interest about the prospects of a new life, in a new world. She could care less about the lovely Dublin weather that she was so fascinated about before getting there and the famous Dublin spire that she previously considered a symbol of Ireland’s economic revival now seemed so trivial. Now she only felt pressure. Pressure from work, to satisfy a highly demanding boss and in the same time to integrate among team members that she disliked. Pressure from the daily expenses of living that made her spend at least €30 per week only on bus tickets. Pressure from her host who asked her to pay in advance if she wanted to stay there for other two weeks.
She reached to a point in her life that she always wanted to avoid: waking up in the morning terrorized at the thought that she has to go to work. She felt terrorized not because of the nature of her job. She was a human resource consultant and when speaking with people she recruited she felt good about her job. Only when she put the phone down she felt pressured, because those were the moments when she could feel the tension in the office. They were like sharks looking to attack the weakest pray and she started feeling like being their favorite target. Everybody was bossing her around, advancing Meghan’s preaches about not being effective enough, organized enough and unable to close any deals. Her only defense was another girl, coming from Spain, who did not know enough English to understand every mean words addressed to her. But ever she could understand words like “you’re not being smart enough, Sylvia”, addressed to her.
The new girl was Alice. She was always dressing elegantly for the office, putting on a discrete make-up that contoured her dark olive-like eyes and complemented her cheerful complexion. Despite her young age she was very perceptive of people’s emotions, attitudes and thoughts even when they wanted to hide them. She could sense that except Sylvia, everybody else was waiting for her to make a mistake, so she was cleaver enough not to make any. Even so, her colleagues were inventive enough to devise errors, based on guidelines that they interpreted to put her in a negative light.
In her new role, just weeks after she started working, Alice felt like she was trapped. She wanted to get away from that place because it was driving her mad. Solely witnessing her boss’s constant yelling, criticism and uncivilized behavior as she found new ways of insulting Sylvia made her feel sick.
One afternoon during their lunch break that their boss agreed with solely because the law imposed it, she opened up to Sylvia, as she felt she could be trusted.
“You know, Sylvia, today, when you were speaking with that client from Turkey I was really admiring you. You have a special quality of being firm in a soft voice.”
“Hombre, come on”, she said smiling, visibly pleased. “Actually my English is not so good. Yours is good. But because of this” she paused, “I cannot do my job properly.”
“I believe you are and I feel it is unfair that Meghan and the rest are messing with you. When it will come my turn, oh, I just don’t think I could handle it.” She immediately changed the subject, sensing that she might have said too much, but later on that day, Sylvia confessed to her:
“If I were to know better English, I would not bear it either.”
The thought was unconsciously shaped in her mind for a while, but Sylvia’s words made her realize that no matter what, she had to leave that place. Her plan was to wait until she received her wage and never return to that place again. So she played their game. She started chatting with everybody, avoiding the actual gossip around Meghan and Hannah or any other colleague, doing everything right. She even started to guess what new errors her colleagues might invent, and she avoided making such errors. She closed her first deal and her second and her colleagues’ attitude towards her changed, as her boss was pleased with her.
When the end of the month came, she took her salary and told her boss that she had other aspirations that she wanted to pursue and Meghan had nothing to comment. Her colleagues seemed sad to watch her leave, but she could actually sense that in fact they were only envious that she was able to flee that place, while they still had to remain slaves on Meghan’s plantation.
Although Alice was disappointed on her first relocation experience, she did not give up her hopes of meeting beautiful people and engaging in exciting activities. Up until that moment, she felt like going back home, where she would meet beautiful people, trying to distress them from their trifling concerns. Old fashioned or not, her parents were capable of love and ready to support her in all her endeavors.
