Stories published in my book "Para Vivir Seguros (2005) If you missed the previous story, here it is: ##559861

Mrs. Alida began working at the Rincón family's home, taking care of cleaning and cooking. Whenever Mrs. Mayela Rincón needed domestic help, she would turn to Mr. Domingo. He was quite a character in the building. A Colombian, he looked after the penthouse of a multinational executive who was rarely in the city. Mr. Domingo spent his days sitting next to the building's security guard, washing cars, or doing small favors for the owners and tenants. He knew many people, and whenever someone in the building needed a maid, a lady to do laundry and ironing, a plumber, an electrician, a painter, or a mason, they would go to Mr. Domingo, and he would find the right person within his extensive network of cousins, friends, or fellow countrymen.

This was how Mrs. Alida arrived. She immediately made a good impression; she was cheerful, punctual, organized, cooked well, and got along with the Rincón family's three young children. For Mrs. Mayela Rincón, an executive at an advertising company, not having someone to take care of the house and the children terribly affected and complicated her professional and family life. Hiring Alida was a blessing. They had just gone through a period where they tried out three different maids: the first arrived too late and wanted to leave too early, the second scolded and hit one of the young children, and the third disappeared after working for just two days. So, Mrs. Rincón thanked God for finding such an excellent employee.

Alida was so good that, on her own initiative, from the first day, she asked Mrs. Mayela to check her handbag to verify that she wasn't taking anything from the house. It became a sort of ritual that at six in the evening, when Mayela Rincón returned from work, she would find Alida ready to leave, report what had happened during the day, if the children had eaten, how they behaved, the calls received, and finally, she would open her handbag for Mrs. Mayela to check. One afternoon, she commented:

"It's so nice to know that you trust me..."

There wasn't the slightest hint of irony or sarcasm, and Mayela Rincón was a bit puzzled. She couldn't understand how someone whose handbag she was checking could speak of trust in those terms... But such an idyllic situation didn't last long. Mayela Rincón began to notice that some of the children's underwear was missing. One night, she mentioned it to her husband:

"Honey, I don't understand what's happening with the children's clothes. From everything we bought at the start of the school year, there's hardly anything left: socks, panties, underwear, t-shirts..."

"And when did you start noticing the clothes were missing?"

"I'm not sure, I hadn't checked the closets in a while..."

"Well, with the number of maids we've had, it wouldn't be surprising if one of them took those things... They could also be misplaced... The kids leave their dirty clothes everywhere."

Mayela Rincón spoke with Alida and asked her to check the laundry basket, the laundry area, the children's closets, under the beds, and furniture, but the clothes didn't turn up. The next morning, as she was leaving to take the kids to daycare, the janitor approached her.

"Yesterday, your maid told me you trust her a lot and to make it easier for her to get in, you were going to leave her a set of keys... You know, ma'am, the condo has forbidden giving building keys to employees... If you want to give her keys to your apartment, that's your decision, but you can't give her the gate and common door keys..."

"But that's strange, I haven't told Alida anything about that... Where did she get that idea?"

In the afternoon, she mentioned it to the maid. Immediately, Alida gave a different version:

"No, it wasn't like that. The janitor must have misunderstood... I did talk to her, and I did say that you trust me and that it would be convenient for me to have a key to enter in the mornings... That's all..."

The next day, when she was hurriedly opening the car door, Mr. Domingo approached her.

"Always keep your valuables locked up, ma'am..."

Mayela Rincón was in a rush and didn't pay much attention to Mr. Domingo's comment.

On Monday at noon, right after lunch, Mayela, with a distressed look on her face, called her husband aside:

"We have a problem here..."

She showed him a small empty jewelry case.

"What was in there?"

"The kids' medals. You know, what their godparents gave them at their baptisms, some gold chains, some bracelets... All of that was in here. On Saturday, I took the case out of the safe so they could wear their medals to the Bermúdez's party... At night, I put the medals back in here but forgot to put the case back in the safe. Just a little while ago, I don't know why, I looked at Alida, and something told me to check the case. I opened it, and it was empty... Plus, she walked into the room just as I was holding the case. You should have seen the look on her face. She took the medals."

"Do you want me to talk to her?"

"No, I'll handle this..."

Mayela Rincón went to the laundry area, where Mrs. Alida was ironing some shirts.

"Look, Alida, many things have gone missing in this house. But this is the last straw. You took the chains that were in this case."

"But ma'am, I didn't..."

"No, Alida, none of this 'I didn't do it'... Grab your things. Here, take this for transportation, go home, and bring me my chains. If you don't, I won't pay you your two weeks' wages..."

"Ma'am, I swear on my children..."

"Don't bring your children into this. Go and bring me my things!"

Mayela Rincón discussed the unpleasant matter with the janitor and Mr. Domingo. He first pointed out that he wasn't responsible, that he simply knew her, that she wasn't even family, and that, besides, in another apartment where she had worked, the lady had lost some jewelry...

"Mr. Domingo, you should have told me that before hiring her…"

#venezuela #inseguridad #seguridadpersonal