We have a new labandera. She was referred to us by one of the recruiters here in the village.
Let’s call her Gem.
Although she was fully vaccinated according to her, we limited her movements inside the billiard room on the lower ground floor. We didn’t want her to mingle right away with all of us to avoid any virus contamination. She was quarantined for 7 days.
Our billiard room has become a grand storage room. There’s a space on the floor good enough for one or two persons to sleep. We have mattresses there. That was where Gem stayed for a few nights.
On her first night alone, she complained of seeing a ghost. It was a female ghost, staring at her while sitting on one of the boxes.
After a week she moved to the maids’ room. She still claims to see friendly ghosts, this time little children playing around her. She only sees them on Tuesdays and Fridays when her psychic ability and third eye are at their peak.
I asked her to do something else aside from laundry, she said she couldn’t because her right arm was broken. Her estranged husband broke it one time he was drunk. She claimed he was abusive that’s why she left him. They’re not actually legally married.
She lived and worked in Boracay braiding tourists’ hair. She earned a minimum of P150 per head and if the hair is colored, she charges P150 per row. There were no more tourists because of the lockdowns so she left and moved to Manila to wade it out. She still intends to go back to Boracay once the tourists are back aplenty.
Aside from doing the laundry, she enjoys braiding the other maids’ hair.
She has a nice tattoo on her leg.
