For many people, the May holidays mean long-awaited rest, the scent of blooming lilacs, and the first smoky aroma of barbecue drifting through the air. But for Elena, these days had turned into her own personal branch of hell over the past few years. When the calendar began flashing those red holiday dates, she made a promise to herself: this time, everything would be different. All she wanted was silence.
Unfortunately, her husband’s relatives had completely different plans for her life, her house, and her nervous system.
Elena was sitting on the veranda of their small but very cozy country house. The spring sun warmed her shoulders gently, and in her mind, she had already drawn up the perfect plan for early May: the book she had been unable to finish for six months, quiet walks to the forest, and absolutely no work calls.
Her husband, Mikhail, was busy in the garden, fixing the currant bushes. They had both worked themselves to exhaustion the entire quarter and deserved this peace. But the idyll was suddenly shattered by the sharp, piercing ring of a mobile phone. Mikhail wiped his hands on his apron and answered.
“Ah, Oksana! Hi… Yes, everything’s fine… What? For the May holidays?” Mikhail’s face slowly changed from friendly to confused. “Well, we were actually planning…”
Elena went cold. Oksana, Mikhail’s younger sister, had an amazing talent: she never asked, she simply announced.
A minute later, Mikhail came over to his wife, guiltily avoiding her eyes.
“Lena, here’s the thing… Oksana called. Basically, she said, ‘We’re coming to your place for all the May holidays, and we’ll celebrate together!’ With Vadim and the kids.”
Elena slowly closed her book. A familiar wave of irritation rose in her chest, mixed with a dull feeling of resentment.
“‘We’ll celebrate together’?” she repeated. “Misha, you do understand that in her language it means: ‘We’ll relax, and you, Lena, will spend ten days at the stove, wash our towels, and wipe spilled juice after our children’?”
To understand the scale of the disaster, one only had to remember the previous year. Back then, Oksana and her husband had also “dropped by” for a couple of days — which somehow stretched into an entire week.
This was what it had looked like last time.
In the morning, Oksana and Vadim arrived with three bags of chips and a couple of bottles of soda. At the same time, they devoured Elena’s homemade breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with the appetite of construction machinery.
On top of that, Vadim did not go near the barbecue once during those seven days. He sat in the rocking chair, discussing the fate of the global economy, while Elena dragged heavy trays of meat back and forth.
And finally, the two nephews turned Elena’s lovingly maintained lawn into a tank training ground, and her favorite vase into a pile of broken shards. Oksana only smiled fondly and said, “Well, they’re exploring the world!”
After they left, Elena spent three days simply lying down and staring at the ceiling. The house needed a deep clean, and her wallet needed emergency resuscitation.
“Misha, I can’t do this anymore,” Elena said firmly. “Your sister is a grown woman. She has her own country house, even if it’s not as comfortable as ours. Why do they always come to us and expect everything ready-made?”
“Lena, well, they’re family…” Mikhail muttered out of habit. “We can’t just throw them out. Oksana says they’re having financial difficulties right now. Vadim didn’t get his bonus. They want to relax in the fresh air without spending too much.”
“Without spending too much for them, Misha,” Elena replied. “Because we pay. With money and with our health.”
This time, Elena decided not to argue. She understood that direct confrontation with her husband would make her look like the “evil witch,” while Oksana would become the “poor little lamb.” She had to act more cleverly. If they wanted to “celebrate together,” then everyone would truly celebrate together.
That evening, Elena called her sister-in-law herself. Her voice was sweet and unusually cheerful.
“Oksanochka, hi! Misha told me you’re planning to come to us for all the holidays? Oh, how wonderful! We’re so happy! I’m just putting together a plan for our shared vacation.”
On the other end of the line, Oksana clearly became cautious. Usually, Elena greeted her news with a heavy sigh.
“Yes, Lenochka, we decided to bring the kids out of the city,” her sister-in-law chirped. “You don’t mind, do you? We’re simple people, we don’t need much.”
“Of course, of course!” Elena interrupted. “I’ve just prepared a shopping list. Since there will be six adults and the children, we’ll need a lot of food. I’ll send you the list of meat, vegetables, and delicacies in messenger. And, Oksana, our lawn mower is broken, and the veranda needs repainting. I told Misha that Vadim could help — the two of them will get it done quickly! And you and I will do a full weeding of the garden beds. I saved that work especially for us. It’s more fun together!”
Silence hung in the receiver. Elena could almost physically hear the gears grinding in Oksana’s head.
“Uh… Lena, but we’re coming to rest…” Oksana said uncertainly. “Vadim is very tired. He just wanted to lie down…”
“So are we tired, darling!” Elena replied brightly. “That’s exactly why this year we’re doing self-service and mutual assistance. Whoever doesn’t work doesn’t get barbecue — remember that saying? By the way, bring your own bed sheets and towels. My washing machine has been acting up, and I don’t want to overload it.”
On the first of May, exactly at ten in the morning, Vadim’s old crossover rolled up to the gate. Elena came out to greet the guests, armed with a wide smile and… two garden shovels.
Oksana got out of the car, carrying not bags of groceries, but a huge inflatable mattress and a beach bag. Vadim climbed out from the driver’s seat, stretching and showing with his entire appearance that he was ready for a ten-day siesta.
“Oh, it smells so good here!” Vadim exclaimed. “Mishanya, so when are we lighting the coals? I’m starving. Haven’t eaten since morning.”
Elena approached them without letting them enter the house.
“Hello, dear guests!” she sang. “Vadim, is the meat in the trunk? And the vegetables? Oksana, did you buy the cheese and fruit I asked for?”
Her sister-in-law’s eyes began to dart around.
“Oh, Lenochka, you know, we were in such a rush. The lines in the stores were awful… We decided we’d figure it out when we got here. You must have something in your fridge, right? We’ll pay you back later, honestly!”
Mikhail, standing behind Elena, began opening his mouth to say, “Come on, we have plenty of food,” but Elena discreetly, yet very firmly, stepped on his foot.
“What a pity!” Elena said with theatrical sadness. “Misha and I decided to try a healing fast and detox this year. There’s only kefir and a bunch of spinach in the fridge. We thought you’d bring everything for the feast, and we’d make an exception. Well, since there’s no food, we’ll all get healthy together!”
Vadim and Oksana exchanged glances. The prospect of surviving ten days on spinach clearly had not been part of their plans.
The first day passed in strange tension. Elena demonstratively stayed away from the stove. When Oksana’s children began whining that they were hungry, Elena generously offered them apples from the garden.
“Oksana, cook something for the kids,” Vadim finally snapped after three hours. “I’m hungry too.”
“Lena said they have nothing,” Oksana shot back.
“Then drive to the store. It’s only five kilometers from here,” Elena added as she passed by with a watering can. “Vadim, while Oksana goes shopping, please take a look at the fence in the far corner. A couple of boards have come loose. The tools are in the shed.”
Vadim looked at the shed as if it contained a torture chamber.
“I… I’ll look. Later. After lunch.”
“There won’t be lunch until Oksana brings groceries!” Elena reminded him. “Misha, let’s show Vadim where we keep the paint for the veranda.”
Seeing his wife’s determination, Mikhail unexpectedly slipped into the role himself.
“Yes, Vadik, come on. I can’t handle it alone, and Lena says the peeling veranda ruins her mood.”
By evening, the guests looked exhausted. Oksana, having spent a decent amount of money at the local village shop, where prices were higher than in the city, had to peel potatoes and cook for the whole crowd herself, because Elena suddenly “felt a migraine coming on” and went to the bedroom with her book.
By the third day, the “holiday” atmosphere had completely evaporated. Vadim, whose back hurt from painting the veranda and whose pride suffered from the lack of his usual service, began grumbling.
“Oksana, this isn’t a vacation. This is slavery,” he whispered loudly to his wife in the kitchen, unaware that Elena was standing behind the door. “We’re buying food with our own money, cooking it ourselves, and they’re still making us work. Your brother is completely under the thumb. Let’s go home. At least there the sofa is soft and there’s a TV.”
“How can we leave?” Oksana hissed angrily. “We said we were coming for all the holidays! What will Mom say? That we couldn’t get along with my own brother?”
At that moment, Elena entered the kitchen.
“Oh, guys, I was just about to tell you! Tomorrow my parents are coming, and a couple of friends from work too. There isn’t much space in the house, so I thought, Vadim, you wouldn’t mind moving into a tent in the garden, would you? The kids will be thrilled. It’ll be like camping! And Oksanochka will help me set the table tomorrow for fifteen people. We’re planning handmade dumplings — we’ll need to make about five hundred.”
That was the final straw.
Vadim jumped up as if he had been burned.
“Fifteen people? Five hundred dumplings? No, Oksana, that’s it. I have… I have an urgent work call! I completely forgot! I need to be in the city tomorrow morning.”
Oksana, who had absolutely no desire to make five hundred dumplings, instantly picked up the story.
“Oh, that’s right! Vadim did get a call! How could we forget? Lenochka, forgive us, we’ll probably leave early tomorrow morning. We don’t want to interfere with your guests.”
“What? Already?” Elena made the most disappointed face she could, although fireworks were exploding inside her. “But what about the fence? And the dumplings?”
“Next time, definitely next time!” Oksana was already frantically throwing things into a bag.
On the fourth of May, at eight in the morning, Oksana and Vadim’s car disappeared around the bend, raising a cloud of dust behind it. The silence that followed their departure was so thick and sweet that Elena wanted to drink it like expensive wine.
Mikhail came over to his wife on the veranda. She was sitting in an armchair, looking at the painted, though not perfectly painted, boards.
“Lena… Fifteen people aren’t actually coming tomorrow, are they?” he asked quietly.
Elena smiled and pulled her husband closer.
“Of course not, silly. Tomorrow, only silence is coming. And maybe we’ll order pizza so I can rest too.”
Mikhail sat beside her and sighed with relief.
“You know, at first I was angry with you. I thought you were deliberately pushing them out. But now I understand… They really weren’t coming here for us. They were coming for free service. As soon as the service ended, their ‘family love’ ended too.”
“That’s called personal boundaries, Misha,” Elena replied. “Sometimes you have to defend them with a shovel in your hands.”
Elena and Mikhail spent the rest of the May holidays together. They walked a lot, sat in silence while watching the sunset, and truly rested. Oksana did not call until summer, offended by the “cold welcome,” but Elena no longer cared. She knew that from now on, before declaring, “We’re coming to your place for all the holidays,” her sister-in-law would think three times about whether she was ready for work therapy and a dumpling-making marathon.