Chapter Text
1
Standing out in the pouring rain, Elise realized how dire her situation was. She held an umbrella over her head as the raindrops pattered down. The world seemed to be mocking her. She turned out the pockets of her raincoat. Two quarters and five dollar bills. That’s it. That’s all Elise had to her name. Standing there, she looked back resentfully at the brick building she’d just walked out of. She had just been fired from her job of four years. For seemingly no reason at all aside from cutting costs. Just great, she thought bitterly.
On the street, people moved past her like oh so many shadows. Their faces looked as dismal as the sky did. It was hard to tell what made them more miserable though, the weather or the city itself. Tentatively, her fingers worked at the change in her pocket. She wanted to march back into her job and scream at them, but she knew she wouldn’t. She could barely muster the want to even go to the bus stop to get home.
There was nothing for her to do besides exactly that though.
The rain started coming down harder and Elise couldn’t help but to be bitter about that too. Nothing had gone her way lately. Her roommate had suddenly moved out after trashing the apartment, leaving Elise to deal with all the expenses on her own. Her car had broken down and even though she had known it would sooner or later, it seemed to have the perfect timing for fucking her over. Now, she was jobless. Was she going to be homeless too? The thought brought unwanted tears to her eyes.
She shut them tight as she walked down the street. She didn’t want anyone to see her cry. Not that anyone would really care. Crazier sights than a young woman crying happened every second in New York. If you looked past the soggy mascots extorting money from tourists and past the rising heaps of garbage bags, then it was easier to see what the city really had to offer. It offered lonesome, tired people with blue collar jobs. Most of the inhabitants were really quite miserable or just outright angry for the most part. Trying to be positive in a place like this was like trying to catch smoke in your hands.
Elise had reached the bus stop before she knew it. The feeling of helplessness threatened to swallow her whole. Thunder rumbled above and she looked up through the glass canopy of the bus stop.
Her reflection stared back at her. She was skinny, with dyed maroon hair and tired bags under her eyes. Her makeup was modest, yet her style bled through easily. Thick eyeliner and wings covered each eye, with soft, pink blush coating her cheeks and chin. Circular gold glasses kept slipping down the bridge of her thin nose. Her rain coat was two sizes too big, and the belt cinched around her waist easily. Underneath, a black and gray sweater vest was just visible, with a black collared shirt under it. The pants she wore were just as modest as everything else, plain black slacks. Her rain boots were sparkly purple though; a present from her sister two years ago.
Taking a deep breath, Elise shook off her umbrella and closed it. There was no one else there thankfully and she allowed a few warm tears to fall. Thunder rumbled overhead again. It might’ve been soothing if not for her current state of affairs.
Elise knew the bus wouldn’t show up for at least 10 minutes, so she quietly took out her phone and scrolled through job listings in her area. There was little to look at in that regard. Most of the listings required experience and schooling that Elise just didn’t have. It made her want to cry harder but she bit her lip to stop the tears. Crying wasn’t going to make a job magically appear. She needed to find something though, and she needed to find it today. She didn’t have the luxury to wait.
After a couple minutes of scrolling, she sighed and put her phone down. There was nothing. What a shit show. Instead, Elise looked out at the world around her. Cars and taxis drove down the wet, asphalt streets, splashing dirty water over the sidewalks as they went. The tall city buildings crowded overhead, looming like monoliths in a gray sky. They seemed to lean in and stare down at her with dim, watery eyes. More people sat down at the bus stop after a while, blue, black, spotted umbrellas dripping with rain. Their faces looked every bit as tired as she knew hers did. The city did that to people.
One old woman was reading the daily paper. The edges were damp from the rain by the time she seated herself next to Elise. The woman carried on as if she didn’t notice. Elise read the headline: “New York Labeled Top Destination to Visit in the United States.” She rolled her eyes. She had thought that too when she moved here nearly five years ago. At first, it had been everything she thought it would be. The lights, the Broadway plays, the people, it had all been so movie-esque. Now, it had lost most of its charm.
The woman turned the pages over with wizened old fingers. Her hair was stark white and rather voluminous for her age. Her umbrella was faded black and old, a hole here and there giving away its years. Elise kept reading the articles as they went past. New bills being passed, orders for the trash services in the city, gang violence, and something about a parade later this month. It sounded like a traffic disaster to her.
After a couple more pages, the woman reached the job listings. Elise cleared her throat and politely asked the woman if she could have those pages. She smiled warmly at her. “Of course, here you go. Good luck.” Her hands shook slightly as she handed Elise the pages.
“Thank you.” Elise replied, more shallow than she intended. She knew the little old woman didn’t mean anything by her kindness but Elise wished that she hadn’t been so chipper. It made her wish that she, too, could somehow be joyful despite everything.
She smiled at the old woman half-heartedly and started to glance over the help wanted ads. There were always many listings for construction and hands-on type jobs but there was no way any contractor in their right mind would take a skinny 24 year old woman and put her to work with a jackhammer. Though it would be funny.
Other listings included food service, at-home nursing, computer-based jobs and the like. She had been fired from a graphic design company. She had years of experience with computers, but not coding or programming. Elise was a designer at her heart. Ever since she could remember, she had been drawing. Her parents had never encouraged it but she never let that stop her. By the time she was in high school, Elise was knee deep in a blossoming video game company. Riding off the tails of that, she thought she would run off to New York and pursue her dreams there. That’s what the movies tell you about this city, isn’t it? City of dreams.
City of disappointment.
She had been hired at a game development company almost as soon as she moved here. They had loved her character creations and so many of her assets were put into numerous RPGs and mobile games. Apparently, they didn’t like them enough to keep her around. Why hire a living, breathing person when AI can create anything out of thin air for free? She didn’t get to keep any of her assets either. Each and every one belonged to the company, as per her contract. She was forced to leave with nothing.
Shaking her head, Elise tried to focus on reading the ad pages.
A couple others listings caught her attention, enough for Elise to at least put the phone numbers in her notes app. A librarian’s aid, a receptionist at a fortune 500 company, and a scribe for one of the local courthouses. She was just about to hand the pages back to the old woman when something caught her attention at the last second. A tiny little box at the end of the columns, just in black in white: Private maids wanted, at-home cooks and cleaners. Housing, rent, and food provided with growth opportunities. $40 an hour to start. Further questions may be answered here: 485 Chatham Square.
Elise frowned as she read it. $40 an hour was too good to be true, and it was too vague by far for her liking. She bent further over it, rereading the words. It looked professional enough, but anyone could make anything look professional in a newspaper. She would know. Yet the promise of housing and payment was so immediately tempting…
Her fingers played with the two quarters in her pocket. Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten at all today and it was already well past noon. The empty pit made her aware that she didn’t even have enough for a single meal. Her cheeks burned as she realized that, at this point, she would do just about anything to get her life back together.
Anything.
Like going to an address with little promise of actually paying her what they offered.
The sound of air brakes and a slosh of brown water over her boots let Elise know the bust had arrived. Good thing they’re waterproof, she thought as she stood up.
She looked down at the listing again, and then over at the old lady who was gathering up her paper and umbrella next to Elise on the bench. Elise made a quick decision to rip out the ad and shoved it deep into her coat pocket where it would stay dry. She handed the pages back to the woman and tried for a smile. “Thanks again.” She said dryly.
The woman took them from her happily and made her way onto the bus, slowly creeping her way up the slick steps. Others followed her, umbrellas coming down in tandem.
Elise took a step forward to follow and paused. She looked at all the others climbing onto the old city bus and knew that she should go too. She should go home and figure out a plan for herself. She should go home and call the numbers she had typed down on her phone.
Yet she didn’t.
“You comin’ or you stayin’?” Called the driver. He looked down at Elise, eyeing her in a slightly annoyed way. The rain continued to fall.
She took a step back. “Staying.” She called back.
He nodded sharply and closed the double doors with a squeak. Elise watched as the bus began to drive off, and she saw the old woman in one of the back windows, her nose right back into the newspaper.
She put her hands into her pockets and stood quietly alone. Again, Elise found herself looking at the world around her. So many people going about their lives, all of them looking crushed under the buildings. Shaking her head, she brought out the ad. She read it again. “Private maids wanted, at-home cooks and cleaners. Housing, rent, and food provided with growth opportunities. $40 an hour to start. Further questions may be answered here: 485 Chatham Square.”
The address wasn’t far, maybe a 10 minute drive to the nice part of the city. Elise knew it was the nice part because her boss- former boss- would sometimes host work parties at his pent house in Chatham Square. Besides going to his place, she never really made it up there. It always felt too alien. She didn’t like the way people would stare at her when she walked by the manses and estates, like she were some subway rat that had crawled up from underground.
At that point, she didn’t know what overcame her. It had to be desperation, but she stuck out her hand to call a cab.
Eventually, a yellow and white van pulled over to the side and rolled down their window. It looked tattered, the yellow long since faced and the white taxi sign on top unlit.
“Where you needing to go, young lady?” Asked the New Yorker. His accent was thick, a tell-tale sign that he must have lived here his whole life.
Elise looked at the ad again and grimaced, but she told him the address all the same. He nodded and unlocked the doors. She hopped into the cab; It smelled of wet dog, popcorn, and stale pizza, yet she found it familiar and comforting. She breathed in deeply and sighed out.
The cabby noticed and smiled slightly. “Yeah, the rain’ll do that to ya. It’s gonna be $4.00 and some change but you can pay me when we get there.” And with that, he pulled away from the curb.
That was going to be the last of her money. Panic gripped at Elise’s stomach briefly but she took another deep breath to calm herself. She closed her eyes and stuck the ad back in her pocket. She just wanted to see the validity of any of it, that’s all, she told herself. What kind of housemaid job would ever offer $40 an hour starting? Not many jobs offered that. Not even white collar ones close to the middle of the city where the hospitals and wall street were. It had to be prestigious. Some creepy old rich man in need of a team to run his house. She doubted that she would be hired but it never hurt to try.
Elise nodded and resigned herself to her choice. It couldn’t hurt to just see.