Off to the Side

"He's here! He's here!" screamed the children as a tall man got out of a long limousine. The shouts signalled the time for the kid's parents to get excited- and the time for Clarisse to back out of the picture, to tuck herself away in the bathroom upstairs.

She had been serving this family for ten years; never were there so many preparations to be made for a single night. But tonight- the famous cousin of the children's father was coming to visit her family at last!

As the mother stole towards the door, Clarisse stole one last glance at the center piece she had made for the glass table in the family room. She had spent over four hours crafting the ornament; it now shined in majesty as the cousin ascended the steps to the front door.

'Tommy," the dad said to one of his children, "What is that weird gold thing doing on the table?"

"I don't know, daddy, I didn't put it there."

"Take it off. We don't want that thing there. It's too tacky."

Clarisse was too long gone to hear the exchange, but the next day she observed that the decoration was no longer there. So she asked the children's mother:

"What happened to that center piece I made?"

"Oh that was you! Yeah we took that-"

"Stop!" Clarisse said. "I don't want to hear this again."

Silently she got back to work, regretting not what she had built nor the time it took to build it, but her naivety at expecting a different answer to her question.