Before Death

By Eleonora Bulz

When she got off the plane she realized that she had entered a special and different world. If during the nine hours flight she tried to encourage herself, now, in the middle of the crowd, she was feeling alone, without the support, the safety of the place you got used to for a life time. What was waiting for her in this new world, in the new position she has chosen herself, that is to be a nanny? No, nobody obliged her to come here, except that she had to earn money in order to have a better living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Mar 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456892593

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Copyright © 2011 by Eleonora Gigi Bulz.

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4568-9258-6

ISBN: Ebook        978-1-4568-9259-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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When she got off the plane she realized that she had entered a special and different world. If during the nine hours flight she tried to encourage herself, now, in the middle of the crowd, she was feeling alone, without the support, the safety of the place you got used to for a life time. What was waiting for her in this new world, in the new position she has chosen herself, that is to be a nanny? No, nobody obliged her to come here, except that she had to earn money in order to have a better living.

In her native country, after communism collapse and its replacement by a kind of ferocious demo-communism, a real rush for getting rich was unbridled, through economy destruction, plunder and theft legalized by the new leaders, the so-called democrats. These years many people left the country to work illegally in the developed countries, otherwise they would have risked not to survive. Hope for a better life turned into disbelief and despair. After many years of leaving herself to her fate, in a moment of despair that seemed an extraordinary luck, she accepted to be a nanny with a family in the Land of Promise. She could speak the language, she had a driving license and a huge desire to get rid of poverty. So, here she is, passing through the crowd, looking for a person who had her name written on a cardboard.

-    I think you are waiting for me. Hello!

-    Hello, Magic, and welcome. I thought I had lost you.

-    It took some time until my luggage arrived.

-    I am Lucy, the mother of the two children you came for.

Dragging my luggage I managed to get to the car. During the journey I watched her better. She was around 30,she looked tired, but she was like a chatter box, trying to tell me some of the secrets of my new job. A hooked nose that arouse suspicion in me, two big eyes that looked like hypnotizing you and a pretty sensual mouth but with a sinister smile which seemed to give you the creeps. Her brown hair with reddish hues was kept tight around her head, only a few locks of hair fell on her forehead and at the back of her head. A middle height and harmonious body, she seemed the ideal type of mother and wife. I congratulated myself for the choice I had made, confident that finally I was at the right time in the right place.

In almost three hours we arrived in front of the house but I did not realize how the time passed because I was concentrated on what my future duties were waiting for me. Because it was evening, all I could see was only an isolated house with two floors and a garage. It looked terrifying, bleak, cold and threatening and the trees around looked like a shield. It looked like a house in a fairy tale. I entered directly into the dining room and my mistress invited me with a large smile to go downstairs and see my room.

-    We have the basement arranged as a flat. I thought you would feel better and safer here. You have everything you need here, TV, toilet, shower, you can enjoy all the privacy you need. Of course, we have the laundry here and a small workshop of my husband’s. He is fond of inquisition, medieval prisons and all sorts of devices destined, as he says, to relaxation through suffering. He is a good and understanding man, anyway.

I felt a chill of fear down my spine but when I watched her warm and smiling face I put aside any kind of ill omen.

-    Where are the kids, I asked her, bewildered by the silence of the house.

-    They spend a lot of time with their grandparents during school time, because you see, our house is far enough and I am sure you will find it hard to drive at the beginning. You will have a time to get used to the house, to us and the surroundings. Do not worry, you will have plenty to do even if they are not here . . . I leave you alone now and when you are ready, come upstairs and meet my husband and see the rest of the house if you are not too tired.

Being alone, I watched the room that was pretty spacious. There was a double bed in the middle, two night stands on each side, a bed lamp. On the opposite side there was a chest of drawers with many drawers, a cable TV set on it and beside it a large lumber room with many pegs and shelves. Everything was simple and functional. I saw the window giving on to a kind of ventilation, I felt the air coming from somewhere above where the light was coming through, too. I was disappointed by this fake window because I thought I could contemplate the forest at night. The bathroom, a few meters from the room door on a long corridor where two washing machines were placed and a door of her husband’s workshop.

I would have liked my bathroom next to my room but I could not have the least pretension. After I had arranged a part of my things in the lumber room and the drawer, lucky me there were not so many, I thought of having a shower because I was very tired and had to refresh a little. The bathroom was small but the shower, the toilet and the sink did not take too much space, space enough to move. What impressed me most was the mirror that took half of the wall and gave the impression of a window. Everything was bright, the beige with brown spots tiles made you feel fresh and hopeful. However, a strange feeling made me awkward of my nudity as if I wanted to draw a curtain over the mirror.

-    God, do not let me feel so suspicious, it is nothing but a mirror and if you do not like your body, do not watch. I took a shower letting myself caressed by the water stream. I was content in that moment, happy to have taken this step and hopeful that everything was going to be fine. Nothing bad could happen to me.

Feeling refreshed I put on a pretty large dress, that kind that lets nothing to be seen through and you hope to please your future masters.

The down stairs led to a corridor behind the house, then you opened a door and you entered the proper house. A bright hall, stairs leading to the 2 floors and the kitchen in front. I was guided by the noises and I entered a large kitchen that I had seen only in movies and which communicated with a living room that was decorated in good taste and was extremely elegant.

-    I was just cooking something. You must be hungry and tired. My husband has not finished his job yet so it is only the two of us.

-    I can help you, just tell me what to do.

-    Today I want to spoil you because you start your job tomorrow but I will be around you till you learn. In one week the most you will feel like home.

Being hungry I ate pretty fast the piece of dough filled with something that seemed like meat, cheese and tomato juice cooked in microwave.

-    We eat something like this but if you want to cook, tell me to buy what you like.

-    Thanks, but it is not worth cooking for one person, so I will eat what you do.

-    As if you are coming from another world. You know, when we tried to find a nanny, my husband strongly wanted to know her name. He says the name always defines the person. He was very surprised by your name and was convinced it would be an extraordinary challenge to have around a nanny with such a strange name. He said she had to have a very strong personality and this excites him. However, you will have time to meet him because I wanted a nanny for at least one year. I will clean up here so, good night and sweet dreams in your new home.

The last part with sweet dreams . . . seemed so strange to me especially because she watched me so long and in an interesting way. I think I am too tired so I started towards my room. When I arrived in front of the workshop I heard noises of ironmongery. Anyway my attention was drawn in connection with his passion for strange things and it is not my business, after all, each one has his own hobby.

THE DREAM

I fell into such a deep sleep as if a force was pulling me towards it, not to harm me but to send me a message, to teach me something I had to have known for long, that was lost together with the last sorcerer. An old man appeared having his eyebrows united. I was in an alley in my country and using signs he urged me to enter the courtyard of a house. He was ill, he was in pain but every time he tried to close his eyes to have a rest something forced him to stay awake. I was scared by the way he was begging me to enter that yard, his eyes were telling me I had to do what I am told, that only this way I will hear his message. I felt paralyzed, my feet did not listen to me as if they were stuck on the ground. I was feeling the desperation in the old man’s eyes as if wanting to help me get unstuck, but his powers were diminishing . . .

I closed my eyes and I tried to think about light. I saw my grandfather passing by me and touching me with his kindness, whispering in my mind . . ." You must do it, only you can help the sorcerer, before death . . . It was something dark that did not let me reach there, I tried to yell but a pair of tongs was squeezing my throat and I slowly began to choke.

I woke up in sweat having the feeling I could not breath, I was still feeling the pressure of the metal on my chest. The air in the room seemed heavy, a smell of horror, of suffer . . . Then I reminded the Sorcerer, it seemed I did not dream and was waiting for me to enter