the maid

Anja comes bumping into the classroom and complains, aloud, “The maid keeps stealing my clothes,” then drops herself into an empty desk with a disgusted thunk. No one asks her how she knows this for certain or why she feels it necessary to announce it to a group of 15-year-old biology students, few of whom seem to be her friends. Anja’s father owns six car dealerships in the valley; her mother is an art broker. Her personal driver brings her to school. A bodyguard accompanies her. She will graduate in the top third of her class, though barely, and matriculate to one of the toniest colleges on the East Coast, at which time her father will refer to the annual tuition as “tip money.” Over the same period of time, the maid, who is not stealing Anja’s clothes, will suffer her mother’s death, her father’s hospitalization and the diagnosis of her teenage son’s learning disability as “severe.” The maid’s name is Luisa. She once saved Anja’s life when Anja was choking.