Photo prompt: © Fatima Fakier Deria
He came down to find the kitchen cold. The coffee machine bereft of beans, the range orphaned of the pan that sizzled on it every morning as far back as he could recall. His lunch boxes waited on the table, naked in their transparent emptiness.
He was sure that the vacant orange juice glass was put on them just to spite.
He never believed her that she’d up and leave if he kept ‘forgetting’ her papers. He never thought she’d have anyplace else to go. But there he was. Alone. The servant that had been a fixture for him, gone.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Na'ama Yehuda 
I liked the twist that the missing person is a servant. I’d thought, wife
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Neil. I was thinking that this might what people could think … and I wanted to portray the ‘taken for granted’ point … well … to a sharp point … 🙂
LikeLike
Serves him, I’d say. Though, true, I don’t know the full situation. And there are always two sides. At least two.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Serves him” is the perfect response!
Because she had, and won’t anymore …
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Na’ama Y’karah,
Put me down for another “serves him right.” Glad she had enough self-respect to leave him on his own. No doubt he’s shocked. Perhaps he’s learned something about using people. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Rochelle! I’d like to think that she’d planned for this a long time (after all, he would not take care of the papers she needed … so she must’ve had to find other ways to do what was necessary, for it certainly showed her cared naught about what SHE needed …). And I hope she’s left for a far better life … As for him? I don’t much care if he eats out of a can for the near future … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Similar idea indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Seems so, eh?
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
From “he kept ‘forgetting’ her papers” I’m assuming she was closer to a domestic slave than a domestic servant. I hope she finds some friendly help.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, I would think you are thinking correctly … and … while not many like to think of it, this kind of slavery – especially via trafficking in undocumented persons — is not unheard of in ‘developed countries’ where slavery is supposedly outlawed.
I hope she’d left after making a good plan for a time, and that she’s moved into more respectful circumstances. …
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love the ending… might have caused me a twist in my neck from the redirect 😉
Serves him right and all we can do is wish her luck. As you mentioned in a comment above, she must have planned this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah … well, if he didn’t see this coming, he’s blinder than he wants to believe … though perhaps now he’s ‘awakened’ to some of the reality he should’ve seen before … And, yeah, serves him right! So there!
LikeLike
I’m sure he saw what he wanted. Took her for granted and now is “shocked” that things have changed…
LikeLiked by 1 person
boo hoo to him … 😉 woo hoo to her! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Boo woo hoo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, not the wife. Nice misdirect. A bit late to realise how important that servant was to him!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And … that if he’d been more humane and respectful to her, perhaps she’d still be there to care for him … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have been sorely tempted. sorely tempted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL! (I hope… 😉 ).
LikeLiked by 1 person
i guess she had enough. she must have found a new employer eager to help with her papers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed! And … if he was holding her papers from her on purpose, because it worked for him that she could not leave … all the more reason (and kudos to her) for her to work on a plan to leave anyway, and do so. As she maybe did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Shades of labor trafficking. Once the visa lets them enter the country with their “employer” the state department forgets about them. Maybe she met someone who knew how to get her to help while she was out buying supplies for the household. Good story, Na’ama.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, shades of the too many who live in the shadows and some of whom do not have even the freedom to leave. Unless they find some help to better their circumstances. I hope she did find a way, given that he certainly was not interested in changing a status quo that worked for him even if it did not at all work for her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gosh, that was a very well put together piece, lovely language. Good stuff
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Shrawley! 🙂
LikeLike
Neat tale, good misdirection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Ceayr! 🙂
LikeLike
She must have been desperate to leave without her papers. An excellent twist.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Keith … yes, she must’ve been. Or – I hope – she took her time and found someone else who could help her and left once she had another, better, option …
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d bet you had most of us thinking his wife had left him; right up until you mentioned her papers, which was very clever to use a a device to put that twist in. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Linda! I admit a bit of intent behind that ‘plot twist’ … And … because the realities of some of the lesser seen members of society – be it those who are married and taken for granted, or have had little choice in the realities they live.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Relationships based on arrangements always turn south of deals aren’t upheld. Can’t say who is at fault here, that would be a much longer story. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
It could be all manner of possibilities, one of them being that she was an essentially trafficked person (as happens to too many people in service, who come into the country with ‘papers’ that their ’employer’ takes or holds on to or lets expire … making the domestic basically a slave who cannot leave … It takes great courage to find ways to do so, especially after many years, though some manage to find a way out.
And yes, even if less exploitative relationships, if deals aren’t upheld, relationships cannot be healthy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha, let’s see him squeeze his own orange juice. I bet it squirts all over his suit 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah! Sweet orange juice revenge! (Perhaps even a squirt in his eye … 😉 ).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like how you portrayed him as helpless without his servant – time he got a grip and maybe treat his next one with dignity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh not get another one … and learn to do for himself … But, yeah, poor helpless man without orange juice and no lunch at the ready … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
May be she was pushed up against the wall. One opportunity she found, she scooted. Now he has to find another help or ready himself to do some work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. Seems like this may well have been the case!
LikeLike
If she was in a bit of tight spot with her papers, and perhaps fewer options outside of her current employment, I admire her self respect in leaving a job that didn’t respect her. Hopefully, she had something better waiting for her. Good twist with the servant at the end too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Fatima! Yes, she was in a very tight spot and he either did not care or was pleased to benefit from it … She did the right thing and I hope she had something better lined up by the time she left. …
LikeLiked by 1 person