Path-to-Freedom (version 1)

(9)

Tony always had a lot of friends over for the night but I never saw them, I just always heard them and their footsteps.

There were 5 bedrooms in total in this house and 4 and ½ bathrooms.

When I finished with all the bedrooms, I went downstairs and saw Mary coming out of the half bath.

"Hey, I just sweeped so you can go mop while I go do the bathrooms upstairs, then we'll dust the house together."

I nodded and she stared a moment too long before leaving.

I love Mary. She always wanted to know what was going through my head, what I was feeling but she respected my silence.

I went to the supply closet and grabbed the mop, bucket, and the mop detergent before going to the half bath and filling the bucket with water and some detergent.

I then mopped all of the downstairs and drained the bucket and the mop before placing everything back into the closet and grabbing the dusting supplies.

Walking upstairs, I looked around with the supplies in hand and found Mary in the third bathroom.

"Hey sweetie, I'm almost done in here. You can get started without me." She smiled up at me from her spot on the ground. A brush and towel in hand.

I started off in Tony's bedroom before Mary eventually joined me later on.

It took us an hour to dust the whole house. After finishing, we went into the kitchen to make lunch for Tony.

Over the years, Mary's been teaching me to cook.

Tony fired the chef when he found out that Mary could cook, then gave half of his salary to Mary to keep her working here as both. Like I said before, he hated unnecessary things.

I felt bad when I found out that the chef was fired, he had five children and this was his only income. Tony couldn't care less though.

Mary on the other hand, has two children and five grandchildren.

She once brought her two youngest grandchildren that were around my age and that was the most fun I'd had since Tony brought me here.

Mary is actually from England but she moved here with her husband after her children grew up, she said they wanted a change. This is Mary's first job. She said that she was so happy after finding out that she got hired. I smiled at that. Her husband owned a lot of companies, so they were really well off, it gave her no reason to work.

"Ok, today we're gonna make Baked Ziti. I make my Baked Ziti with ground beef or italian sausage, since we have to go grocery shopping, I'll just use ground beef. I'd use meat sauce instead of marinara sauce and use french spinach, lemon ricotta and smoked mozzarella. This recipe is one of the first ones I've made. It's also the easiest for me. Starting off, first we cook the pasta. While the pasta cooks, we make the lemon ricotta." She speaks dictating her actions. "Next we sauté the spinach. Then we finally layer it up and put it in the oven. Pretty easy." She smiled down at me. Mary was in a way, a mother figure to me.

While we waited for the dish to bake, she cut up some strawberries for us to snack on.

Tony only ever gave me breakfast and dinner.

He never brought me lunch and I never complained. I'm pretty sure that if I did, he would take away what little I was already being given.

But it was ok, Mary would always make a snack for us everyday and I'd count that as my lunch. My third meal.

After eating the strawberries, I washed the dishes while Mary took out the food from the oven and cut out several servings. One for Tony and one she wrapped for me in aluminum. She thought that I had a refrigerator in the basement. She thought I had a lot of things. But in reality, when she wrapped it in aluminum for me, it made it easier for me to hide it from Tony and have it later.

I think some part of her knows that I don't get fed enough since she alway talks about how underweight I was.

I took the aluminum and quickly went downstairs to hide it behind my mattress. Then I rushed back up just in time to stand next to Mary right before Tony walked in.

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What's your favorite food?

I don't really have a favorite, but the ones I eat the most are: pasta, rice, cinnamon rolls and hot Cheetos puffs (those are so freaking good).

What'd you think about this chapter?

Thank you reading you beautiful doves.

-M.