You shouldn’t have come along with me to your parents’ place!” Ira said discontentedly when she and her husband entered the apartment.
“No, you should have! It’s just that you…”
“And why are you always pointing your finger at me? Am I supposed to be the only one at fault for everything?” she asked Danila, not just displeased now, but angrily.
“Sometimes, you really should just keep your mouth shut! When someone’s telling you something, just listen without commenting! That’s all that’s expected of you, Ira!”
“Really? Maybe I should just cut my tongue off? Or take a vow of silence? And when your mother starts insulting me, blatantly offending me and my parents, I’m supposed to just agree with everything? Right?”
“That’s not the point!”
“How is it not the point when it’s exactly when she starts making it personal that I begin snapping back at her? How is it not the point?!” Ira was ready, at that moment, to have the same scandal with her husband as she would have at his parents’ house. “And you just stood there, looking guilty at your dear mother and—let me repeat—did NOTHING! Not even tried to stand up for me! What about you? And what about your father!”
“Do you really think I was supposed to talk back to my mother, in your opinion?!” Danila began to get even angrier.
“You could have simply told her to stop insulting me and meddling in my parents’ affairs!” Ira answered. “Look, your parents are practically saints – I’d almost have to pray for them, considering that they contributed two hundred thousand for our down payment, while mine are the worst in the world because they didn’t help at all!”
“But if that’s how it is, Ira! Why are you angry about the facts?”
“Angry about the facts?!” Ira retorted indignantly. “And nothing about you being your mother’s only son while I have a sister and two brothers? No?”
“That’s their problem now!”
“Get lost, Danila!” Ira said quietly but clearly.
She went into the bedroom, closed and locked the door behind her, signaling to her husband that he wouldn’t be spending the night in the bedroom with her.
Danila, still feeling indignant, went to the living room, sat down on the couch, and turned on the TV.
He couldn’t understand why Ira was so furious today. His mother had plainly said that he and his wife should be grateful to her parents, because they had helped when money was needed. And Ira hadn’t even asked her own parents for help.
Ira paced in and out of the room before going to bed. The couple didn’t speak any further. Both believed they were right. But Danila had his mother’s support—he had been thoroughly charged up by her while they were visiting with his wife that day.
Ira, on the other hand, couldn’t understand why her mother-in-law had rallied against her and her parents so vehemently. They were in entirely different situations. Her in-laws had raised one son, given him an education, and got him a job arranged by his father, and they had given the couple, almost like a gift from above, two hundred thousand for the down payment. Now that was quite a feat!
Her own parents had raised and educated her, and besides that, they had other children—two of whom were school-aged and one a college student. They also needed help with education and everything else. Naturally, Ira hadn’t turned to her parents for help. She understood that they already had enough to worry about without her.
Danila, however, was raised spoiled, the only selfish child in the family, and he couldn’t even imagine that things might be any different.
Before they were married, they didn’t have these problems. They loved each other very much, treasured each other’s opinions. But once they married and money matters came up, Danila immediately ran for help to his parents, while Ira tried to solve the issue on her own. There was no support from her husband. He always expected help—and that help was provided.
The next morning, Ira discovered that her husband wasn’t home. She didn’t call him to ask where he had gone early that morning or why. She was still angry with Danila over last night. For having practically persuaded her to visit his parents for a week, and then, when his mother started telling her all kinds of nasty things about how her own parents were not needed, how she was going to raise her children the same way—Danila didn’t stand up for his wife at all. This situation made her wonder if she needed a family like this, a husband who couldn’t defend her in any way. Ira wasn’t exactly thinking of divorce, but subconsciously, it started to cross her mind.
Danila never considered that he should have defended his wife, much less go against his mother’s words. After all, he wouldn’t be able to look her in the eyes after that; he’d be ashamed.
Closer to noon, he returned home. Ira was in the kitchen, cooking. But she didn’t even raise an eyebrow at his arrival. She didn’t come out to greet him as she would have any other time. She was still angry with Danila and felt that he should be the one to approach her first with an apology.
He approached her, but not with an apology. Instead, he shouted:
“Get ready!”
Ira turned to him in complete bewilderment.
“What do you mean? Get ready for what? Can’t you see I’m cooking? And besides, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere with you!” she retorted.
“Turn everything off and get ready! We’re going to my mother’s! You’re going to apologize for last night!”
“What makes you think I should?!” Ira exploded.
“And what about the fact that her blood pressure skyrocketed because of you yesterday! She got so nervous from all the things you said!”
“And what about her saying things to me—nothing happened because of that? No?”
“Ira, this isn’t a joke anymore! You offended her—so you must apologize! So, get ready, while I…”
“I’m not going anywhere! And I’m not planning on apologizing to her, Dan! Why should I? If she behaved so rudely, and I merely answered back in kind, then should I have to drive to her place and grovel for forgiveness?”
“She’s older than you, and you should have at least a modicum of respect; she could have just kept quiet yesterday!”
“Right, and then again today, tomorrow, and forever, huh?”
Danila turned off the stove and grabbed his wife by the wrist to forcibly lead her into the room, realizing that she wouldn’t get ready willingly, and definitely wouldn’t go with him.
“What are you doing?!” Ira screamed at him.
“But you won’t do what I’m asking nicely! So you’ll do it the hard way!”
“You asked?! You ordered me around like that!” she shouted loudly.
“No! I did ask!”
Barely managing to break free from her husband’s grip, Ira immediately struck him sharply on the face with her palm.
“Are you even normal?!” Danila shouted in outrage at his wife.
“And you?”
“I just want you to listen to me and go with me to my mom’s! And you immediately…”
“I’m not going to ride along anywhere anymore, and I’m definitely not going to apologize for anything!” Ira interrupted him. “And as for this idea you’ve got in your head that I should do that, you can dish out the same demands to your own mother! Understand?!”
“Where did that even come from?”
“From the fact that it wasn’t me who started the fight last night! Understand? It wasn’t me—it was her! So let her come here herself, and even then, only if I let her in! And as for her blood pressure going haywire, that’s her personal problem; she shouldn’t have put her mittens on my parents!” Ira tried to make it clear to her husband that it was his mother who was at fault in this situation, not her. “I told you I didn’t want to go anywhere, but you insisted…”
“Yes! Yes, you insisted! Because both our mothers called us, and you really shouldn’t have refused, since Mom and Dad helped us when we needed it…”
“Did they give you back those two hundred thousand? Or what? Besides, I never asked anyone for anything; you rushed off to beg!”
“Begging isn’t what I did—I merely asked, which is a different matter, if you didn’t know! And of course, I went to ask for money because I knew my parents had it!”
“Well done! I’m speechless, just a bundle of emotions!”
“And you, Ira… You could have shown at least some respect for my mother…” he said quietly. “But no, you see yourself as so independent, as if you can go anywhere, but in fact…”
“Your mother is nothing to me, you understand? ‘Mother-in-law’ is just an empty term for me! And if she wants respect, she should earn it!”
She didn’t want to listen to any more of her husband’s praise about how his mother was the best woman in the world, and she, his wife, was nothing but an ungrateful wretch. He hadn’t said it exactly like that, but that was the gist, and Ira understood it that way.
“Empty, you say? Empty word?” he quietly asked, no longer raising his voice.
“Exactly! She means nothing to me!” Ira repeated.
“Then get ready and go live with someone who means ‘something’ to you!” he said, the word dripping with disdain. “Otherwise, you’re living here as if nothing matters, and you show no respect for those who gave us this opportunity!”
“So, wait! Why should I leave my own apartment? Have you got nothing mixed up, my dear?”
“Because my parents gave us the money for it, not yours!”
“They gave us money? What, did they buy it for us? They merely added two hundred thousand—if we had saved for three or four months, there’d have been no need for extra funds! But no, you had to rush off to borrow money, so that you and I would be forever grateful to your dear mother! Right? Isn’t she just amazing, having thrown that money at us from on high! Really?”
“What difference does it make? They gave us the money!”
“She!” corrected Ira.
“What?”
“She gave it to us! Your mother, because your father, as I’ve long suspected, doesn’t have any say in your family! And you, I see, want to do the same with me—only you got it all wrong, my dear!”
“Really? Then perhaps you should show your voice by coming with me right now to your mom’s and apologizing for last night! Or, if you’re truly so ungrateful, return the money to her!”
“Is that so? And what about me? Am I the only one living here? Why should I be the one to return something? You took it—so you return it!” Ira laughed nervously in indignation.
“I’m her son! And you… If my mother means nothing to you, then you, too, are nothing in my family, Ira!”
“Then file for divorce if I’m nothing in YOUR family!!!” she replied with venom in her voice.
“I never thought it could come to this…” he said with a wry, unhappy smile.
“What, did you think I’d grovel before your family just because YOU took money that we could have saved ourselves? Is that what you thought?”
“I thought I was marrying a sensible girl, and it turns out I married an uncontrollable hysteric who only cares about herself!”
After these words, Danila went back to the door, put on his shoes, and left the apartment.
He didn’t appear at home for about a week. Initially, after the whole quarrel, Ira was very angry at her husband, then worry and distress set in, but she didn’t want to call him. After all, it was he who was to blame for the fight.
A week later, Danila showed up at home as if nothing had happened after a day’s work and said:
“If you apologize to me and to my mom for everything you said, I’ll come back home!”
Ira said nothing. At first she was glad to see him, that he was safe and sound, that he was all right. But after his words, she simply withdrew into herself for the entire evening. And the next day, she went to court and filed for divorce along with a property settlement.
He wants an apology? Well then, let him drag his mother along, just as he wanted to force her to pay respects last week, and let they both apologize to Ira.
But once Danila learned what his wife had done, he packed his things, gathered everything in the house that he had bought himself—even the washing powder that Ira had asked him to buy a month ago—and left.
And Ira was left at home. Alone. Yet in the last week, she had felt even more comfortable. She understood that this apartment would have to be sold eventually, but she wasn’t in a hurry to move out; she only changed the locks so that Danila could no longer enter, since he had taken everything of his own. And when it comes time to sell, she’ll move out, rent an apartment for herself, and with the proceeds have enough for a down payment—so she won’t be left with nothing in any case…