The Dinner Party

"What are you doing, Sun Mei? What's taking you so long? The guests are waiting!"

Mrs. Lin burst into the kitchen like a hurricane and glared at Sun Mei. Her formal dress and dark hair looked splendid, but her angry attitude spoiled the picture. She seemed ready to devour Sun Mei on the spot.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Lin…" Sun Mei mumbled. "The salad will be out in a second!"

"It better be!" Mrs. Lin yelled. "Otherwise, you will be out on the street!"

As soon as she stormed out of the kitchen, Sun Mei felt like bursting into tears.

She wiped her hands on her apron, sat down on a chair and put her head in her hands. She knew that she could not afford to cry now, but she had been suppressing her tears for weeks.

She had flown from China to San Francisco almost two months ago to work as an au pair for Mr. and Mrs. Lin, who had two young sons. Mr. and Mrs. Lin had made a ton of empty promises to her. They had claimed that they were a nice, easy-going couple who needed a Chinese girl to help them take care of their children and teach them their native language. They had said that they loved to travel and that they would bring her with them on trips around the world. However, their biggest lie was that they would help her enrol at a university in her free time.

Sun Mei wanted to laugh out loud. Free time had been a foreign concept to her ever since she had moved there.

She worked 16, sometimes even 18, hours a day. She watched the two boys, fed them, bathed them, homeschooled them, read them stories, and then put them to bed. Sun Mei loved the boys. They were the only spark of joy currently in her life, as they thankfully did not take after their parents.

What she didn't enjoy at all was cooking meals for everyone, doing Mrs. Lin's laundry, taking care of the garden, and cleaning the house from top to bottom every single day. None of these tasks were included in her contract.

Although Sun Mei didn't mind helping out around the house a little, these days she hardly had any time left to sleep before the boys woke her up in the morning. As if that wasn't enough, three days ago, Mrs. Lin had announced that they would be hosting a dinner party for their business associates.

Sun Mei wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and stood up. Her feet wavered slightly from exhaustion, but she still picked up the huge salad bowl and walked out of the kitchen.

The walk down the hall and out into the garden was long. Mrs. Lin loved her garden and had decided that it would be the perfect spot for this big social gathering.

As a result, Sun Mei had to walk past semi-drunk guests who stumbled between the flower beds and looked at her as if she was a strange, possibly extinct creature.

Sun Mei quickly walked around a peacock-shaped bush, eager to deliver this salad and avoid Mrs. Lin's wrath. Unfortunately, before she could even cry out, she tripped, threw the salad in the air, and landed on the ground.

The salad landed on an unsuspecting guest.