“Zhenya, why are you lying in front of the TV again? Is there really nothing else to do? Just lying there, rubbing your belly, you lazybones,” Margarita Lvovna said in her usual manner.
What lazybones? It’s Sunday today, you know? Can’t I at least peacefully lie down on my rightful day off without being disturbed? — Evgeny replied angrily. — Or does the ‘boss’ not give me permission again?
Zhenya, why get angry? You need to take care of your nerves; doctors say they don’t recover. Didn’t we agree yesterday to go to the dacha? We need to clean everything up before winter, you know — his mother-in-law answered calmly. — I’m worried about you and want to help. But you take everything as an attack.
Who did you agree with, Margarita Lvovna? This is the first time I’m hearing about it! — the man said irritably. — And besides — it’s our dacha, not yours, if you forgot. We’ll clean it when we want!
There had been no peace in their own apartment for a long time! Evgeny even started to flinch at his mother-in-law’s voice and could only dream of peace.
As soon as she showed up a month ago without any warning, their quiet life was over. Neither sitting quietly in the evening after work with a beer and dried fish, nor watching a favorite show, nor sleeping in properly was possible anymore.
Margarita Lvovna got up at five in the morning, turned on invigorating music throughout the apartment, and did a set of exercises—for a healthy body and a vigorous spirit, as she proudly called it. But doing it alone was boring. So she sought like-minded people among the relatives living in the apartment.
“Youth, get up!” she would enter the couple’s bedroom at the crack of dawn. “Time to energize, to come alive! No lying around—look at those bellies you’ve grown, shameful!”
The couple got up reluctantly because they knew Margarita Lvovna wouldn’t let it go. Yawning and barely opening their eyes, they tried to imitate some movements.
Evgeny was angry. His wife Katya tried to calm him down.
“Zhenya, bear with it, it’s temporary. Mom will leave soon. Let’s not upset her. And anyway, no matter how you look at it, she’s right. Lately, we’ve gotten a bit out of shape. Beer, fish, pizza, chips with croutons — it all adds up. Half my wardrobe is already bursting at the seams.”
“Funny how a silly morning workout is supposed to help you lose weight,” her husband replied annoyed. “We’d be better off sleeping longer in the morning. That’d be more useful.”
And today, on his rightful day off, Evgeny was surprised to learn that they had to go to the dacha, more than forty kilometers away, and do something there.
“What dacha, Margarita Lvovna? Have you even looked out the window? It’s raining, and it’s freezing,” Evgeny tried to object.
“Oh, so what! The rain will stop soon. I was looking at the forecast, not out the window. And wind and cold—well, it’s no big deal. It’s autumn. We’ll dress warmer. Such weather is even better for work, it invigorates, you know.”
During the whole month the wife’s mother stayed with them, the son-in-law fulfilled all her wishes and whims. He was already quite tired of such servility.
Sometimes she needed to be taken to the central market where she looked for fresh veal and farm cottage cheese. Other times the whole family suddenly went to the pool or to a sauna on the other side of the city, spending good half-days in the heat.
Katya’s mother completely disrupted their usual routine and way of life.
But that would have been half the trouble. Especially since the man noted with some pleasure that he had lost five kilos — the exercises and pool had done their job. What was worse was that the mother-in-law tried to humiliate him at every opportunity.
“Kateryna, you never listen to your mother. Not now, not when you were young. And you chose no husband, admit it to yourself,” the mother said to her in the evenings in the kitchen. “My Anechka lives in a palace with her Mikhail! And the cars they drive — no comparison to your ‘Niva.’ And they vacation not at a dacha like you, but in the Maldives. Or the Canary Islands.”
“Mom, please don’t start,” the daughter responded kindly, trying to hold back displeasure, not wanting to argue with her mother.
“If you had listened to me, you’d be living like that too now,” Margarita Lvovna kept going, thinking that her son-in-law couldn’t hear her.
“Listen, dear mother-in-law, don’t you think it’s rude to humiliate your son-in-law while living in his apartment?! I hear everything, I’m not deaf! Why don’t you just go to your Anechka if everything is so wonderful there? Why come to us, so poor and wretched?” Evgeny finally lost his temper one day.
“There you go, he’s shouting at me,” Margarita Lvovna said calmly, pointing at her son-in-law as if he were an inanimate object or a statue. “And after that, you’ll say I’m wrong. I would’ve gone to Anechka, I definitely would, especially since they invited me. But they aren’t home now — they flew to the Dominican Republic for two weeks.”
“So you’ve been living with us for a month already! Probably your daughter and beloved son-in-law have already arrived. Go visit them then. And we need to rest too. From you,” Evgeny pressed on.
“No, no, I didn’t plan to go there yet. And I don’t want to go home either. I’m always so lonely in autumn. If Leonid were alive, I wouldn’t feel so down. So I’ll stay with you for now, okay, Katya?” With these words, the woman even managed to squeeze out a dry tear.
“Of course, Mom, live as long as you want,” Katya answered, reproachfully looking at her husband. “You’ll help Dasha and Vita with their lessons while we’re at work.”
Evgeny couldn’t stand it and slammed the door as he left.
In the evening, he told his wife everything.
“How much longer will she keep messing with my nerves? Don’t you think Mom is abusing our hospitality? She humiliates me shamelessly. Do you think my patience is iron? I’ll have to buy her a ticket myself and send her home!”
“Stop acting like that. Mom is not a stranger to me. Let her live as long as she needs,” his wife argued.
“Do whatever you want! Just don’t bother me!” he shouted in frustration.
The next day Evgeny got drunk with a friend who, after a divorce, lived alone in the apartment upstairs.
“Ed’ka, how I envy you, if only you knew!” Evgeny said again in a drunken voice. “No wife, no mother-in-law — complete freedom! You live a real life, not like me. Like a prisoner under strict rules.”
“Look at him! And he comes home completely drunk. No, Katya, you chose the wrong husband, you really did,” his mother nagged nearby while his wife helped him take off his clothes to send him to bed.
The atmosphere was tense. From that day on, the son-in-law stopped talking to the mother-in-law. He tried to ignore all her remarks and requests.
Today, the object of Margarita Lvovna’s attacks was their apartment.
“Katya, have you thought about this yourself? The children are growing, they need their own rooms, and you only have a miserable two-room apartment. Is that right? For example, I come to stay often and live in one of the rooms, and you four squeeze into the other one. That’s very inconvenient!” the mother complained.
“Yes, you’re absolutely right, it is inconvenient. What can we do?” the daughter replied upset, hoping her mother would understand how much she was crowding them with her long stay.
“Yeah! You should have thought earlier about who you marry. Now let your Zhenya at least change jobs to buy a decent place. If he can’t find a good job, let him take a loan,” the mother-in-law said angrily.
“Mom, you know that’s useless. What loan, what job? What are you talking about? And our apartment is fine, why are you picking on it? I’m happy with everything.”
Evgeny listened to all these conversations with growing anger and realized — if his wife’s mother didn’t leave soon, he couldn’t vouch for himself.
But soon, fate helped the man solve the problem.
One day Evgeny happened to overhear a very interesting phone conversation of his mother-in-law.
That day, the couple had gone for a walk in the park with the children. The weather was nice despite autumn. And it was a day off — why not spend time with the kids outside? The mother-in-law, citing a headache, stayed home. But Evgeny had to return because he forgot his cellphone in the rush with the children. He was expecting a call from a colleague.
Entering the apartment, the man heard Margarita Lvovna speaking very emotionally on the phone.
“What! What a horror, Anechka! Oh God, it can’t be! They took the house away? How is that possible? Business. What kind of business is that if they take houses and cars? Tell me, how did Mikhail allow that? How did he let it come to this? Everything was so good for you. Oh-oh-oh, what to do? What will happen now, Anya?!”
The mother-in-law continued to express surprise and shock, and Evgeny, interested, decided to listen to the detective story until the end.
“What — they still owe? Still? After everything was taken from you? Are you kidding? And what about Misha? Oh, I see… I don’t know. It’s a serious matter. We need to think. Of course, you need help. Nobody disputes that. But will I be able to sell my apartment quickly, I don’t know. And then — where will I live? You don’t have a place now, right? At Katya’s, you say? Yes, it seems so. Nowhere else. Don’t be upset, daughter, we’ll figure something out. Hang in there.”
Margarita Lvovna hung up, and Evgeny was so shocked by what he heard that he was out of breath. What incredible audacity! What treachery! Everything was decided behind his and Katya’s back.
“Very interesting, don’t you think, Margarita Lvovna?” Evgeny confidently stepped into the mother-in-law’s room. “You plan to sell your apartment without telling my wife, give all the money from the sale to Anechka, who has serious financial problems, and live with us — poor and miserable relatives? Am I wrong? Did I get it right?”
Seeing her son-in-law, the woman shuddered and went pale. Not only was her plan collapsing, but Katya’s husband had heard everything. Of course, it was unfair to the elder daughter. But what could she do? Anna needed urgent help to pull her and her husband out of debt.
“Zhenya… Evgeny, you must understand, I have no other choice. Later, when everything settles, Anna will give Katya some of the money for my apartment. But for now, this is how it has to be. And I’ll have to live with you,” she tried to speak quietly and plaintively to gain the son-in-law’s sympathy.
“You say you have no choice? No, there is always a way. And I will tell my wife about your deceit right now. And you won’t live with us! That’s my final word. Enough taking advantage of Katya’s kindness and compliance! We’ve had enough of you living off us. Enough!”
“Evgeny, how can you? That’s my own daughter; she must help me in difficult times.”
“And you also have to tolerate your dishonesty towards her? You and your younger daughter simply planned to trick her. Sell your apartment and give all the money to the youngest. And decide to live with the eldest.”
Apparently, their conversation lasted too long because Katya and the children, who had been waiting for Evgeny near the entrance, returned home.
“We were freezing standing there. Why didn’t you come back to us?” she asked, surprised to see how upset and agitated her mother and husband were after a difficult talk.
“We got caught up talking with your mother. It was such an interesting and meaningful conversation! Oh, what! We decided that she has stayed with us long enough and is going home. Right, Margarita Lvovna? That’s what you just told me, isn’t it?”
“Yes, yes! That’s right, Katya. I need to go now. I’ll pack my things and head to the station. Will you help me, Evgeny?”
“With great pleasure! Why wouldn’t I help a close person?” the son-in-law answered briskly. “I’ll even buy you a ticket for the best seat in the carriage.”
Soon Katya and Evgeny learned that Margarita Lvovna sold her apartment and went to live with Anna and her husband, who were now renting a small apartment. They had to forget about the luxurious house. The mother never gave the money from her apartment sale to her elder daughter. She didn’t consider it necessary. And there was nowhere for her to get it.
Evgeny got a promotion at work, and within a year the couple bought a bigger apartment.
Margarita Lvovna no longer visits them. She only talks to her daughter on the phone. Probably Evgeny said something very convincing to her at the station when seeing her off.