The Ruin of the Help

12:27 AM Tuesday, April 24, 2012

We got a new helper because my cousin was going abroad already and I needed someone to help me with the chores. We got her last Wednesday and she dutifully let my cousin teach her how things are done in our home. Friday, she even endeared herself to me a little bit by having initiative to really look after my firstborn in the playground... enough for my son to adore her for it.

Then, weirdly enough, as I was trying to put my youngest back to sleep last Saturday morning, she thought of taking two old cellphones I left lying downstairs... and left the house. She ran into my husband at the gate and pretended that she was going to buy some cellphone load. Hubby let 15 minutes or so pass before starting to look for her. In the end, she didn't return anymore... but all her things were still with us.

From what happened, we surmised that she may just have thought of borrowing my phones to meet someone, but meeting my husband at the gate prompted her to fear coming back. You know how one stupid decision sometimes has this domino effect of everything collapsing around you? I think that's what happened to her.

She gave the agency we got her from some lame excuse that she left because she felt embarassed that I was expecting her to cook... but that she also wants to come back. I just said, we'd return her things if she'd return my phones but we're never going to accept her back. How could we, with two little ones she might just leave behind on a whim.

Hubby finds her things lying around distateful so he started packing them in one big bag to throw away.  As hubs rummaged through her bags (in case there's something there of ours that we didn't know about),  I can tell that the things she left behind are all she has in the world... and then hubby found strips of newsprint. They were ads of men looking for girls with their numbers. One was even particular about being interested in promiscuous girls.

Hubs told me, such is the ruin of her promising life (because we already agreed that if she turned out smart and hardworking, we'd send her to the public college). I did notice she was texting a lot that Friday... I didn't think though that she was already planning dates and what-nots.

Texting... how easily it ruins lives sometimes. And to think I had warned her already that there are a lot of men who will take advantage of her. But well, she did also take advantage of us.

A part of me is wondering whether I should show her mercy and not press charges anymore... but what if she does it again? And the cellphones she took, though old, had great sentimental value to me. My old SUN phone contains 1000+ messages I couldn't delete... and now, I also cannot archive them anymore.

So, I'm sorry, but I will make sure you're never NBI cleared again.