Elena Walks Away for Good

The maid that wasn’t allowed to sit woke up on the cold laundry room floor. Her head throbbed.

Her body felt weak. She tried to sit up, but her arms shook. Voices echoed above

her—not panic, not fear—annoyance. “She spilled water everywhere.” “This is such an

inconvenience.” Someone finally called an ambulance, not because they were worried,

but because they didn’t want trouble. At the hospital, doctors asked Elena simple questions.

“When was the last time you ate?” “When was the last time you rested?” She struggled to

answer. She admitted she often skipped meals. That she stood all day.

That she was afraid to ask for breaks. She whispered that she needed the job because her daughter