Desperation

Over white wine sangria and lustrous milkshakes, sipped among soft light and attentive smiles of waiters and encouraged by nods of understanding faces, I today heard the following:

“You want them desperate, But not too desperate. You know what happens when they’re too desperate.”

A knowing look, head tilted forward.

The topic, you might wonder?

Maids.

It followed the sorry tale of four maids “gone through” in one year. The first had to leave due to ridiculous family circumstances, the second was caught napping in the employer’s bed, the third was a fill-in demanding too much help in her numerous misfortunes, and the forth–what shame, since she was so desperately diligent!–was too much of just that. Maybe her son did get into an accident, but maybe she just wanted to blow off some steam. Either way, $10 were gone. And that was that.

Would you mind sending yours over to train mine? After all, there’s a new maid but trained, she is not. Desperate though, that she certainly is.