C1 THE HOUSE MAID TROUBLE 1

Jiire is the baby of the house in the family of sir and Mrs Emiola, he is the only male child of this great couple and he was born when they were slightly above the middle age of their lives. The Emiolas are wealthy people but not a type who allow children to grow up rotten due to senseless pampering that most rich people like them usually bestowed upon their children!

As wealthy as they are they have never hired a maid, this not because they did not at one time or another consider doing so; but for some critical considerations they did not come around to hire one.

At the time they first considered hiring a maid, Grace Emiolas who was the wife was a world bank regional manager to the west of Africa and she ran the world bank regional affairs from their head office which was in Lagos where she lived with her husband.

She was well respected in the world bank main headquarters which is in Zurich as rare brilliant mind and they were considering her to climb up to be the president for the whole world bank.

This then was a big challenge for her, because already as a regional manager she did not have enough time for her home, as she was then having two growing daughters she needed to take care.

To make the matter worse, her husband too was a very busy C E O of a vast multi billion dollars corporation, which he inherited from his father and he rarely stay at home because of his constant travels across the globe to defend the interest of his vast empire.

If Grace should accept the offer of the power that be tipping her to climb up to be the president for the world bank, her daughters will completely lack parental care and attention. For even as regional manager she was having great headache combining the job with the raising of her daughters.

It was at this time she first considered hiring a maid, because one of her trusted subordinate in the office had a maid and she constantly told her how helpful her maid was in caring for her own child

For this reason, Grace decided to discuss hiring a maid with her husband; but when she placed the idea before her husband he did not like the idea of leaving their children in the hand of a maid; because according to him most stories he has heard from people who left their children in the hands of maids were not good!

Since her husband did not like the idea she was torn between her career and the proper raising of her children. It was even because she used to be so busy she has not had another child; though she desire to have a son, because having a son is important to most African couples.

Though her husband did not ask her to resign from her job which gave her little time for her home, but him saying no to hiring a maid mean only one thing to her; she has to quit her job to dedicate time to her children and reduced the stress of dragging her daughters daily between their school and her busy office.

Really she did not like to quit her job, but what should she do?

She decided to ask her mother for advice on this dilemma, because she knew her husband fear her mother; if her mother put in a word about hiring a maid she knew her husband will allow her to have one. But to her shock, her mother was more blunt in the support of her husband's stand against hiring a maid.

She said, "Do you think I was a fool when I dropped my own job to dedicate time to raising you? If I did it for you it is now your turn to do it for your own children. You have proven your worth before the world by rising to become world bank regional manager at a very young age. And it is a great thing they acknowledge this by asking you to become the president; but tell me what will be your gain if your children grew up wrongly because you have no time for them and are you working for money?

She answered and said, 'No, I am not doing the job because I lack money"

""Good, I know the reason you are doing it is that you can boast that you are the youngest female to rule the financial world. But by the time you achieve that and your children turn out bad because a maid raised them after her own likeness and they are who you are not, will you be proud of yourself?

Look, one of the prices of life good mother's paid to be counted as good mother is their ability to sacrifice their dreams, pursuit of gains and fame to raise their next generation. I did it for you and I want you to do it for your children.

You are even lucky because of two things, first, your husband is so wealthy and so caring that you cannot lack reward for your sacrifice.

Secondly, you started very early because of your brilliance, by the time you finish raising your children you will still have time to pursue this career and still become world bank president"

When Grace heard these from her mother, though she was not happy with her admonition, but sorrowfully she went home thinking of resigning.

However, it was not her husband's refusal that sealed her decision not to hire a maid. It was what happened the following day that she returned from her mother's place and got to her office that forced her to drop her desire to hire a maid.

Her junior colleague who was the one encouraging her to hire a maid did not showed up in the office. She called her because it was unlike her not to show up in the office and not to call to ask for permission

When she picked up Grace phone call she was sobbing and Grace could not hear her words clearly.

This young lady had a master degree from America, she has been so faithful, dependable and friendly with Grace that she loved her dearly! Because of this Grace tried to ask her questions on the phone; but the lady did not answered her questions. Rather she just continue to cry, saying, "My son, oh my son! The maid has destroyed my son"

Then the phone went dead before Grace could ask her what the maid did to to her son. The lady's name was Cecilia, when Grace heard her mournful cry a chil came over her!

With great concern she picked her car key and went out to look for her. Cecilia and her husband were not in any way as rich as Grace and her husband, but they were comfortable enough financially to own a house in government reserved area in Lagos; while Grace and her husband lived in a mansion in newly built Banana island where the super wealthy people of Nigeria lived.

When Grace got to Cecilia she met some of her neighbors who told her that Cecilia's son has been rushed to the national medical center for children.

She asked them what really happened to the son? The neighbour told her that the maid and the house guard at Cecilia's gate began to have affairs shortly after she was hired. To avoid the son seeing their sexual activities, she usually induced him to sleep with drug.

For this reason, Cecilia most often used to return home in the evenings and meet his son sleeping, but she did not know his sleeps were drug induced.

This morning, the boy just began to act strangely and she took him to the hospital, when she got there and the doctor examined him; the doctor told her she must immediately take the boy to the national medical center for children because the sleeping tablet she gave to her son had damaged his brain

Hearing this, Cecilia called her husband and when he arrived they both took their son to the center. On getting there the doctor they met there also blamed them that they had given too much sedatives to their son and this shocked them because they never for once gave the boy a sleeping tablet

When Grace heard this, she asked what has been done to the evil maid? The neighbour told her that the maid sensed that it was the drug she usually give to the boy that is affecting him and she ran away. But luckily she was caught and has been handed over to the police. In police custody, she confessed that the security guard gave her the drug to make the boy sleep; so that they could have the whole house to themselves.