“Oh God, I’m so fed up with everything!” — Alexey threw his keys onto the hallway table with a bang as he entered the apartment.
“Lyosha, what’s wrong?” his wife asked in surprise. Masha usually came home from work earlier than her husband and managed to tidy up the apartment and cook something for dinner before he arrived.
“What do you mean, what? That! I’m tired of everything! This job, the routine, the daily grind — it’s all wearing me down. No way out!” Alexey was noticeably irritated. “Masha, let’s go somewhere to rest. Maybe to the sea, or to a sanatorium. I’ve got no strength left.”
“But you need to take time off work,” Masha thought for a moment. “And we already promised your father we’d help at the dacha…”
“To hell with the dacha! It’s not going anywhere in two weeks, but I’ll soon burst like a balloon,” Alexey interrupted his wife. “What’s more important to you — the onion beds or your husband’s mental health?”
“Of course, you, Lyosha,” Masha saw that he was serious, so she didn’t joke about the garden beds. “I’ll talk to work; they won’t refuse. I haven’t had a vacation for two years.”
“Well then, should I buy the tickets?” Alexey rubbed his hands, pleased.
“All right,” Masha agreed. Besides, she herself had long wanted to rest, but something always got in the way — their son’s graduation, then his admission to a university in another city, then the neighbors upstairs flooded their apartment — they had to do repairs. Her energy was running out too.
“I’ve decided,” Alexey told his wife. “The sea is expensive, so we’re going to the sanatorium. There’s a lake nearby, and it’s affordable.”
Masha didn’t argue; she rarely argued with her husband. Even when Alexey bought wallpaper after the flood that she didn’t like but was cheaper, or when he dissuaded her from accepting a good job offer from a company.
“That’s so far away to go!” he said unhappily. “You’ll completely neglect the house. So what if the money is good?! Do you think I don’t earn enough? The neighboring store needs sellers. Close to home, and groceries always at hand.”
Masha agreed. True, she didn’t like that job at all, but at least she managed everything at home.
Probably the only time she argued with Alexey was when he tried to force their son to enroll not at the university the boy wanted, but the one Alexey considered better.
“No!” Masha said firmly to her husband then. “Our boy has the right to decide where he wants to study! And you won’t impose your opinion on him.”
Not expecting such resistance from his compliant wife, Alexey backed down but later resentfully reminded her that he was no longer considered in this house. Masha had to convince him otherwise.
So, the train tickets were bought, the suitcases packed, the vacation approved. Two days before departure, Masha got a call from Ivan Matveyevich — Alexey’s father.
“Hello, Mashenka!” the father-in-law’s voice sounded strange. “I can’t reach my son. Is he okay?”
“Hello, Ivan Matveyevich. Lyosha went to the store and left his phone charging at home, probably switched off. What happened? Your voice sounds odd.”
“Well, my back is killing me. I can’t move or breathe. Sitting all hunched over,” the father-in-law complained and immediately groaned. “Maybe your son could stop by? At least give me an injection; the nurses charge too much for house calls. The neighbor used to live nearby but moved. The new neighbors are young and don’t want to help.”
“Of course, I’ll tell him. He’ll be back soon, and we’ll come. Please hang in there.”
At that moment, her husband returned, and Masha passed on the father’s request.
“Why always at the worst time?!” he groaned. “What bad luck!”
“Lyosha, come on, illness doesn’t choose when to come. It’s not his fault he’s in pain. Let’s go see how he is. We have to help; he’s alone.”
“He has a sister, if you haven’t forgotten,” muttered her husband.
“His sister can barely walk, if you remember,” Masha raised her voice. “Let’s go.”
Alexey grumbled under his breath but followed his wife, who was already standing at the door.
The father-in-law’s door was open. He stood near the kitchen window, bent double, afraid to move.
“I twisted myself wrong!” Ivan Matveyevich looked apologetically at his son and daughter-in-law. “If Valyusha were alive, I wouldn’t bother you.”
Valya — Ivan Matveyevich’s wife, Alexey’s mother — died several years ago. Since then, the father-in-law lived alone. The son and his wife visited him occasionally; the grandson often dropped by from school while living in town.
“Dad, why now?” Alexey was visibly irritated. “We’re getting ready for vacation, and you have your sciatica!”
Masha pulled his sleeve angrily.
“Guys, forgive an old man,” Ivan Matveyevich’s guilty and miserable look made Masha’s heart ache. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“It’s okay. We’ll take care of you. Where’s your medicine kit?” Masha washed her hands and looked questioningly at her husband. He mumbled and went to look for medications.
Half an hour later, Ivan Matveyevich could straighten up and slowly hobbled to the couch. The daughter-in-law and son carefully laid him down and covered him with a blanket. Masha checked the kitchen and the fridge — there was enough food for the day.
“We’ll come by tomorrow, I’ll give you another injection and cook something,” Masha promised her father-in-law. “But for now, rest.”
At home, a dispute erupted between the spouses that escalated into a big quarrel.
“What did you think up?” Alexey protested when they returned home. “We’re leaving soon, and you want to cook his meals and give injections?!”
“That’s your father!” Masha tried to reason. “Who will help him if not us?”
“Call an ambulance and have him hospitalized! They’ll treat and feed him there,” Alexey insisted.
“You know he’s stubborn and won’t go to the hospital. Besides, with this diagnosis, they may not admit him. It’s crowded there, no space. He’ll get better faster at home. Home walls help,” the wife did not give up. She looked at her husband in amazement, not understanding when he became so callous. “Maybe he’ll feel better tomorrow and manage on his own.”
But the next day, the father-in-law didn’t improve enough to care for himself, cook, or wash.
“Lyosha, you have to stay!” Masha sighed when they returned from Ivan Matveyevich’s place.
“Do whatever you want!” her husband got angry. “I’m going on vacation with or without you! My arguments mean nothing to you! Sitting by a sick old man all vacation wasn’t in my plans! I didn’t slave away all year for this!”
Still, Masha hoped Alexey would come to his senses and stay, but when she woke up in the morning, neither husband nor suitcase was home.
“To hell with filial duty! To hell with shame and conscience! I’m drained and exhausted!” Alexey thought as the train wheels clattered. “I have the right to rest! And let everything burn with blue flames!”
While his wife cared for his sick father, spending her vacation on him, Alexey indulged in relaxation at the sanatorium. Evenings he stuffed himself with far from “diet table” food and drank whatever was sold in the local alcohol store.
He only answered the phone once when Masha called, and that was just to ask her not to disturb him during his vacation.
In the second week of the trip, Alexey met a lady who worked as a waitress in a nearby café. They started a romance that showed no signs of ending by the time Alexey’s vacation was over.
As usually happens — in one’s hometown you may not meet a single acquaintance in a huge crowd at some mass celebration, but in a small sanatorium, you unexpectedly meet fellow countrymen you hadn’t seen in a hundred years.
So Alexey ended up, along with his sweetheart, in the sights of old friends who, to his misfortune, were vacationing at the same time and place. The surprised friends tactfully did not reveal their knowledge to Alexey but asked Masha after returning to the city if she and her husband had separated.
Masha understood the meaningful silence to mean “No.” Moreover, the time when Alexey was supposed to return home had already passed. And from him came only a single SMS: “Delayed — no tickets!”
Masha cried, worried, and it didn’t escape the father-in-law’s notice. Information about Alexey’s affairs reached Ivan Matveyevich too.
“What a scoundrel!” Alexey’s father slammed his fist on the table in anger. “Is that a son? Is that a husband?! A traitor! To abandon a wife who sacrificed her vacation, her rest, to care for an old man who isn’t even her relative! What a pig you have to be!”
“Ivan Matveyevich, please calm down!” Masha was worried. “You’ll have another stroke, and my vacation is ending. Here, have some tea with mint and honey. It soothes. I’ll survive. Our son is already grown. He won’t disappear. I’ll get a job at the firm where my husband didn’t let me go. They called me back — a place opened up.”
“Mashenka,” Ivan Matveyevich couldn’t hold back tears, “forgive Valyusha and me. Thank God she won’t see this shame. I don’t know how we raised such a worthless son. Well, nothing! The cat will pay with mouse tears!”
Alexey returned after a month. It turned out he had quit remotely.
“Maria, I want a divorce,” he announced when he came to Masha. The apartment belonged to her, and Alexey could not claim any share of the living space. But he had another plan. Having obtained Masha’s consent for the divorce, he went to his father.
“Dad, I’m leaving town and getting married again. I want my share of the apartment and the dacha,” Alexey got straight to the point.
“How about a fig in your teeth instead of a pipe?” Ivan Matveyevich got angry. “How dare you show up here? Open your eyes! I’m still alive! What share? You get nothing! Were you sitting by my bedside when I couldn’t move? Did you give me injections? Did you run to the store? Help me get to the bathroom? Feed me with a spoon? You? No! So why are you making demands now? There’s no share for you! Everything’s left to Mashenka and the grandson. Now get out! And if you show up again, I’ll beat you, if I have the strength.”
Not expecting such resistance from his father, Alexey, stunned, returned to the resort town, bringing with him a certificate of freedom. His girl, learning that her beau had neither big money nor his own housing, waved him goodbye and immediately started a romance with the new café manager where she worked.
After wandering around, Alexey changed climates and went to a northern work shift, cursing fate and realizing he had destroyed his own life with his own hands and there was no turning back.