Hello, darling! I have a big surprise for you! Prepare your signature dish for dinner tonight!”
“What happened?” Svetlana asked, worried.
“Everything’s fine! I’ll tell you later!”
The call ended, and the woman looked out the window with doubt. It was a chilly October. Her husband’s call didn’t lift her spirits; after twenty-five years of marriage, he had never done surprises, especially big ones.
The doorbell rang just as she was pulling the signature meat with the secret sauce from the oven.
“Hello, housewife! It smells delicious!” Nikita exclaimed, putting a bottle on the table with a flourish. “Set the table! The provider has come home!”
“Why are you so fired up? The provider, huh?” The woman squinted at her husband.
“I’ll wash my hands and then tell you over a toast.”
Pouring wine into glasses, Nikita began with grandiosity, “I raise this glass to the best husband and father in the world! And to us… and to two weeks of wonderful vacation at the best three-star hotel by the ocean.”
For a moment, Svetlana even felt happy, but her husband continued:
“Did you know Misha can dive with a scuba tank?”
“Who?” the woman asked, confused.
“Misha! Our dear daughter Polina’s husband.”
“And what does Misha and Polina have to do with this?”
“What’s wrong with you, Svetlana? Have you been sitting at home too long? We’re all going together, as one big family.”
Svetlana put the glass down without even taking a sip. She tiredly looked at her husband.
“Who paid for the trip?”
“I did, of course!” Nikita proudly tapped his chest.
“So you’ve been feeding me promises of a trip to a paradise island, saving up for twenty-five years, and now you want us to fly with your daughter and her husband?! I see them every day already! They don’t cook at home because they always eat at ours! You even buy groceries for them and pay the rent because they don’t understand ‘grown-up papers.’”
“But Polinotchka…” Nikita began.
“What about Polinotchka?! I had you at eighteen! I comforted myself with the thought that I’d live later! And what now? I’m forty-five. I’ve seen nothing and been nowhere. I work from home. I don’t leave the stove or sink.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. The resentment was suffocating.
Svetlana loved her daughter but felt absolutely indifferent to her son-in-law. She believed that adults should live independently. When she was eighteen, pregnant, and married, no one helped her. Her husband, who worked at a research institute, was of little help. She mastered accounting and has been consulting and managing several businesses to this day. Sometimes, the responsibility for the family’s well-being rested solely on her shoulders.
“Svetlana!” her husband’s voice grew sterner. “What’s with all the whining? We already spend so much time together, and the kids haven’t made it yet, they’re still finding themselves. They need help.”
“Have you tried thinking about me?”
“Of course! You’re going too!” he said. “What’s the problem?”
“Apparently, the problem is me…” the woman whispered, standing up from the chair and walking to the room.
The next day, Polina came over.
“Hi, mom! And I didn’t come empty-handed,” she waved a box of frozen pizza.
“Hi. The microwave is over there.” Svetlana gestured toward the kitchen, then sat back in the chair, facing her computer.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Misha is coming soon, and I thought you’d make some soup and maybe something for tea to go with the pizza.”
“The kitchen is that way,” Svetlana pointed again without breaking from her work.
“Why are you so angry? Dad complained that you didn’t appreciate his gift.”
“To understand me, you have to be me,” Svetlana quietly replied.
“What’s that mumbling under your breath? Your daughter comes to visit, and you’re acting like I’m not here! I thought we’d sort through the wardrobe and go shopping for vacation things. I even called Misha to carry the bags!”
Svetlana couldn’t take it anymore and stood up from her chair.
“Listen, daughter, if you don’t see it, I’m working. And I’ve been working for you for twenty-seven years! So that your father could sit on his rear end without prospects or a decent salary. So that my daughter could use me as a cook and a payment card for shopping.”
She took a deep breath to continue, but then the doorbell rang. Misha had arrived. The thirty-year-old guy with a thick beard, mustache, and his usual scooter.
“Hello, Aunt Svetlana! I’ve brought you a gift! From the whole, let’s say, team. Nikita Sergeevich is also involved!” He said and pulled a blender out of his backpack. “Sorry, no box. It didn’t fit in the backpack. But all the attachments are here.”
“Well, it’s great, isn’t it, mom? You love to cook, this is a wonderful gift for a housewife!”
Svetlana only bitterly smiled and walked to her room.
“What’s wrong with her?” Mikhail’s puzzled whisper reached her ears.
“God knows. Maybe dad messed something up. Let’s get out of here.”
“And what? Not even going to eat?”
“Take the pizza. You’ll eat at home.”
“I hate frozen pizza. I’d rather have fresh pies.”
“Well, bake them yourself!” Polina snapped.
When the door closed behind the guests, Svetlana covered her face with her hands and whispered:
“Maybe I’m a bad mother and wife…”
A troubled sleep took over her tense mind.
She dreamt of little Polina, who had a tummy ache. Then she dreamt that boys in the yard were bullying her, and Svetlana was protecting her daughter. After, she dreamt that Nikita’s salary was cut, and Svetlana comforted her husband and took on additional work. Then she was running somewhere, with Misha chasing her on his scooter.
And suddenly… everything became very quiet and peaceful. She stood at the top of a hill. Below, a river meandered, and in the distance, a chain of mountains could be seen, with the sunset casting a crimson-red light over their peaks.
Waking up, Svetlana knew what to do.
“Hello, darling! I’m home! How are you? Are you feeling okay? Polina said you didn’t want to go shopping and didn’t like the gift.”
“I don’t need anything from the store.”
“How about a swimsuit and a hat? I need to buy shorts and a T-shirt.”
“Well, go ahead and buy them. I’m not going anywhere with you! Not to the store, not to the beach! I have my own ocean. You deal with the shopping and preparations yourselves. Don’t bother me! I have a lot of work.”
Nikita froze.
“And what about the money? I’ve already paid for everything.”
“Consider it payment for my nerves.”
Nikita snorted loudly, which signified his maximum level of offense, and stopped talking to his wife. Svetlana was perfectly fine with that.
Two days later, she finished her important tasks, packed warm clothes and her laptop, and called her husband.
“Hello. Changed your mind? I’m not angry anymore.”
“I don’t care about your offenses, Nikita,” Svetlana said calmly. “I’m calling to say I’m going on a business trip, for an indefinite amount of time. Don’t forget to check the mail and pay for the apartment. That’s all.”
She hung up, feeling a wave of relief. Smiling at her reflection in the mirror, she left the apartment.
The long flight didn’t dampen her impression of the meeting with beauty. Checking into the hotel, getting acquainted with the schedule, and the services passed by like a blur.
And then it was! The moment! Smoky volcanoes on one side! The raging ocean on the other! Svetlana took a deep breath and trembled as she watched the sunset paint the majestic beauty of Kamchatka in crimson-red colors!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, on a warm beach, Nikita Sergeevich and Mikhail had been suffering from diarrhea for the fourth day. Polina, however, did her best to take care of them, scolding her father for his greed. The hotel they stayed in looked nothing like the fancy resort she had imagined. She told her father everything she thought, and in return, he accused her of selfishness. Mikhail, on the other hand, simply suffered. In addition to his digestive problems, something in his beard itched terribly…
“Do I really have to shave?!” he whined, scratching and running to the bathroom. “Come on, do something!”
“What?!”
“Give me some medicine!”
“I don’t know which one…”
“Call mom! She knows!”
“Mom turned off her phone.”
They all complained many times about Svetlana’s absence and her turned-off phone. The vacation went down the drain, practically in the literal sense.
Svetlana returned a month later. She was greeted at home. On the table were rolls and a burnt pie.
“I’m moving to Kamchatka,” Svetlana declared. “If anyone wants to join me, we’ll discuss it. The rest is not up for discussion.”
“No way… We’ll come to visit, mom…” Her daughter was a little upset but let Svetlana go.
Nikita tried to speak, threaten, and be offended. But Svetlana no longer lived in the past. Two months later, she and her husband divorced.
At the edge of the world, life acquired its true taste! The taste of salty wind in the face… And maybe, she would still find her true happiness…