So, the surgery is necessary?” Konstantin looked at his wife. Ulyana was clearly agitated and couldn’t make a decision. On one hand, the situation required urgent action; on the other, she was afraid to leave her husband and mother-in-law. “Maybe we should postpone it? At least for a month?”
“You know I got a quota. All the tests are already done. It’s too late to postpone. If I refuse now, I’ll have to pay for it myself or wait until my leg completely fails.” ©Stella Kiarri
“No… That’s not an option. If it’s necessary, then go ahead. How long will you be in the hospital? A week? Two?”
“I don’t know, Kostya, it all depends on how well the prosthesis takes.”
“I think quickly. You’ll be running around in a week.”
“I’d like to believe that…”
“Then we need to sort out who will take care of mother for the week,” the husband continued to reason.
“You’re on vacation, so you handle it. I’ll explain everything on how to do it…”
“What? I don’t know how, and besides, you said yourself—I’m on vacation. So don’t count on me,” Konstantin stated emphatically.
Ulyana looked at her husband in surprise. She hadn’t expected such a reaction, considering Tamara Andreevna was his mother. And it was she who had to care for the bedridden woman.
“How can you say ‘don’t count on me’? She can’t manage on her own!”
“Ask your mother to help. Let her live with us for a week. She has nothing else to do anyway.”
“She, for your information, has a part-time job! And she’s not young enough to take care of your mother.”
“Either way, you’ll need to find a solution, because I’ve already booked the trip.”
“Where to?!”
“To a sanatorium. It’s paid for by the organization; it would be a sin to miss such an opportunity,” mumbled Konstantin.
“Of course. I don’t know what’s more surprising—that your job finally brought some benefit, or that you’re ready to leave your mother and wife for your own relaxation!”
“Ulyana, why do you always complicate things? You know I need a break. I’m not made of iron.”
“Of course, you’re the only one who deserves a vacation. I hope the sanatorium is at least within the Moscow Ring Road so you can drop by the hospital. I’ll need things, crutches… who knows what?”
“No. It’s further away… the sanatorium is near the Black Sea. So I won’t be able to come. Ask your mother-in-law to bring you what you need.”
Ulyana shook her head. Her husband’s logic baffled her.
“Alright, don’t make a monster out of me. In the end, there’s Lena. Call her, maybe she’ll find time to take care of our mother.”
Ulyana remembered her sister-in-law. Elena was always busy and rarely appeared, mostly during holidays. She never helped with their mother, limiting herself to infrequent calls.
Nevertheless, Ulyana decided to try and called Lena, explaining the situation:
“I’ll try to come, but I promise nothing. You understand, I’m very busy. My job isn’t like yours where you can do nothing,” Lena replied.
Ulyana held back, not responding to the barb. She worked as an accountant and often took work home so as not to leave her mother-in-law alone. Why Lena considered her a do-nothing was a mystery, since Ulyana earned more than Konstantin.
Honestly, Ulyana had hoped until the last moment that her husband would postpone the trip, but it didn’t happen.
“Let’s take a couple of photos,” he suggested.
Ulyana felt embarrassed, touched her tousled hair.
“I don’t look very good,” she replied.
“What are you talking about, Ulyana, you’re so beautiful,” Ruslan assured her warmly and blushed.
“May I tidy myself up?”
“Of course! And meanwhile, Kolya and I will draw.”
Kolya usually didn’t like strangers and didn’t let anyone near him, but he even agreed to show his drawing to Ruslan. Ulyana left them with a light heart and went to change.
When she came out in a light linen dress that Vasya had bought her at the fair last year, Ruslan jumped to his feet and stared at her as if mesmerized.
“Let’s go outside,” he finally suggested.
Ulyana felt no embarrassment and looked into the camera as she would look into Ruslan’s eyes. He took far more than a couple of photos, and she, gaining courage, asked:
“Could you send them to my email?”
“You have an email?” he was surprised.
Ulyana raised her eyebrows.
“Of course.”
“Oh. Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend.”
“I’m not easily offended.”
She wrote her address on a drawing sheet, and as Ruslan took the paper from her hands, their fingers touched, and neither was quick to pull away.
When Ruslan left, the house immediately seemed empty. But it wasn’t even five hours before he sent her an email with the photos. The subject of the email read: to the most beautiful girl in the universe.
The photos were beautiful. Ulyana really wanted to boast about them, so when Vasya came by in the evening and started asking about the interview he had already heard about, she showed him the photos.
Vasya immediately frowned.
“What kind of poses are those, are you an actress? You put on a dress… Why are you women so mercenary—some dandy comes along with his fancy camera, and you’ve melted away? He’ll write nasty things about you now, and you’ll be crying later!”
“Why would he write nasty things about me?” Ulyana was offended.
“Because that’s how all journalists are!”
“You’re just jealous of him!” Ulyana blurted out.
“Jealous, of what? Because of you? Since that’s what you need, I’ll go. Animals and kids have better senses. And your brother loves me. And my dog saved me from a fire. You’d succeed with Dina’s loyalty.”
Vasya loved Dina dearly; he had rescued her as a blind puppy from a lake, feeding her goat milk from a pipette. And the dog reciprocated, following him around, guarding, and fawning. And she had led him out of a fire two years ago.
“Well then, live with your Dina!” Ulyana yelled after him.
Vasya left, and she remained with her photos. She looked at them, thinking about what to write to Ruslan. She couldn’t come up with anything. She went to bed and couldn’t sleep for a long time, watching the stars through the window. I wonder, is Ruslan sleeping? Or is he also looking at the stars and thinking of her?
Ruslan wrote to her the next day. He sent the text of the article, asking if everything was written correctly.
Ulyana read the article three times. She really liked it. But there were inaccuracies, and she wrote him back. Thus began their correspondence.
It was the happiest week of her life. It was as if wings had grown on her back. She checked her mail every half hour, they wrote to each other about their most secret dreams, and everything seemed to go even better than before, except her relationship with Vasya worsened.
For three days he sulked, not visiting her. Ulyana heard him deliberately speaking loudly with his dog, but he stayed away from the common fence. Then he came over to make amends, but Ulyana’s thoughts were only occupied with Ruslan, with whom they discussed the possibility of meeting.
Ruslan proposed coming to her, but Ulyana knew that with Kolya around, there wouldn’t be honest conversations or a kiss, about which she had dreamed. So she invited Ruslan to walk by the lake.
“Such luck comes once in a lifetime! If I refuse now, it’ll only be for money later,” he paraphrased his wife’s quote. Ulyana had to call her mother—Olga Yurievna never refused her daughter help. She agreed this time too.
“I’ll be coming, how else? Of course, Lena would help… it’s easier together.”
“I’ll call her again later,” Ulyana promised and began to prepare for the hospital.
“Will you take me to the hospital? I have a lot of stuff, it’s inconvenient to go by metro. And my leg hurts…”
“Call a taxi. I can’t.”
“What are you busy with?”
“Train in the morning.”
“They offered you a flight on Wednesday, two hours and you’re there!”
“I love the romance of trains, decided to leave earlier. I’ll rest longer by three days.”
“And mom?”
“What about mom? What does she care? The main thing is that they feed her on time.”
Ulyana blushed. She hoped her mother-in-law hadn’t heard those words.
Tamara Andreevna, although bedridden, was still a perfectly normal woman of sound mind. She could engage in any conversation and loved poetry, reciting Pushkin’s poems by heart and enjoying watching a cultural channel.
Ulyana had a warm relationship with her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law accepted care with gratitude, understanding that Kostya had shielded himself from this responsibility.
She often said:
“If I had a different daughter-in-law, I would probably already be living in a retirement home.”
“What are you talking about, Tamara Andreevna… don’t say that. Would we allow that?” Ulyana took her hand and comforted her. Konstantin nodded and went to the bedroom to watch TV, delegating all care of his mother to his wife.
Realizing that waiting for help from her husband was futile, Ulyana arranged things with her mother, then called a taxi and went to the hospital.
The surgery was successful, but the woman had to learn to walk again. Rehabilitation took quite a long time, and all this time her husband was basking on the sunny coast of the Black Sea. He called his wife several times to make sure she was getting ready for discharge. But she did not cheer him with news.
“Mom’s tired. Call Lena yourself, ask her to replace her at least temporarily. Your sister doesn’t talk to me,” Ulyana asked.
“I promise nothing,” Kostya said. An hour later, Lena called Ulyana.
“Listen, when are they discharging you?” she asked.
“In a week.”
“Got it. Well then, I’ll come.”
“Thanks. We’ll be waiting.” ©Stella Kiarri
Lena didn’t come the next day, nor the day after… Olga Yurievna had to hire a caregiver at her own expense to get some rest and go back to work part-time. In addition to caring for her mother-in-law, Olga Yurievna had to visit her daughter in the hospital, because no one else came to Ulyana.
Seeing that her mother was completely exhausted, Ulyana asked the doctor to discharge her earlier.
“I’ll manage somehow. I can’t lie down for long, my family is waiting at home,” she said, receiving her discharge. Life forced her to get back on her feet faster than others.
Of course, she couldn’t perform familiar actions as before. Olga Yurievna also couldn’t rest: now she had to come and take care of her daughter and mother-in-law for a while.
“And when is Kostya coming back? He’s been gone for a long time…” Tamara Andreevna asked.
“A month’s voucher… supposedly,” Ulyana replied. “Maybe he extended it to avoid seeing us longer,” she bitterly smiled. The next moment her phone rang.
“Oh, Lena ‘woke up’… Hello?”
“Hi, so they discharged you?” asked the sister-in-law.
“Yes.”
“I’m heading your way. Set the table.”
“Is that so? Well, come on… come over,” Ulyana responded calmly. She hoped that Lena would stay for a few days and help with taking care of the mother, but this didn’t happen.
She spent exactly an hour with Tamara Andreevna. After that, Lena went to the kitchen and waited to be fed and served. The sister-in-law was used to the daughter-in-law always welcoming her hospitably.
“Sorry, Lena, there’s no one to cook,” Ulyana said, looking at the disappointed sister-in-law.
“Why didn’t you prepare? I come so rarely. Fine, I’ll bring a cake from the car. I didn’t buy it for you, but for my son, but since you have nothing, I’ll have to give it to you for tea. If I knew you weren’t waiting for me, I wouldn’t have come…” Lena said, offended.
Ulyana didn’t find what to reply to such rudeness, and she was too busy to be offended anyway. She needed to bring her mother-in-law her medicine.
Lena returned with the cake. She poured herself some tea, cut a piece of dessert, and silently ate it. Neither Ulyana nor Olga Yurievna received any “treats.”
“Alright, I’m leaving. Oh… by the way, should I leave a piece for mom? Where should I put it?” Lena cut a small piece of cake and threw it on a napkin, taking the rest with her and leaving.
“Well, wow… They say it’s true, people change with age. Lena has become completely shameless,” muttered Olga Yurievna.
“God be their judge,” Ulyana said quietly, clearing the dirty dishes after her sister-in-law’s visit.
Konstantin returned home only two weeks after Ulyana’s discharge.
“You took a while.”
“They extended my voucher, so to speak, to heal everything.”
“I see. And I, on the other hand, was discharged earlier.”
“That’s because you don’t know how to get along with people.”
“That’s because I’m a responsible person, and I needed to be home to take care of your mother!” Ulyana couldn’t hold back. “And you were relaxing, having a great time… while mom and I were straining ourselves.”
“Oh, come on, don’t dramatize. Nothing happened. Lena came.”
“For half an hour!”
“Well, you should have asked her to stay… What complaints do you have against me? I didn’t manage to come back, and I’m already guilty!” Konstantin dragged his suitcase into the apartment.
“You know what, Kostya, let’s not unpack your things.”
“I wasn’t planning to. I know you’ll sort out my clothes. Here, take it. You can sort and wash everything.”
“No, dear. I won’t do that. Just take the suitcase as it is and go to the rental apartment. Maybe you’ll find another woman to wash your socks.”
“I will! I already have. By the way, I have a new love. And it’s not some silly resort romance! It’s serious!”
“I’m sure that’s the case, Kostya. Good riddance!” Ulyana was so angry that she didn’t immediately realize that her husband had just confessed to infidelity…
Kostya looked at his wife, grabbed his suitcase, and, without even checking on his mother, left. A few days later, he called and said:
“You’re living in my apartment, and I want to see mom.”
“Come over, she’ll be glad. I plan to work starting Monday; someone needs to take care of your mother while I’m away.”
Kostya was embarrassed, mumbled something, and hung up. Then he called again:
“I’ll come on Friday. You know… make my favorite salad and bake a chicken. With a crispy crust.”
Ulyana was surprised. She thought her husband had decided to return home. It wasn’t difficult for her: the chicken cooked quickly. She set out the salad, cold cuts, cucumbers—everything on the table. But her husband didn’t come alone… He brought an unfamiliar woman.
“Oh, Ulyana… you didn’t leave? I didn’t expect you to be home.”
“And what did you expect? I actually live here!”
“Well… alright. We’ll sit together. This is Natasha, my beloved woman. Meet her.” He paused. “And this is Ulyana, so to speak… an old woman,” Kostya laughed at his joke. The women looked at each other, and silence ensued. “Is mom home?”
“Yes, Kostya. She’s bedridden, if you’ve forgotten.”
Ulyana suddenly felt so disgusted that she grabbed her bag and left in her slippers without saying goodbye. She felt no guilt towards her mother-in-law because she left her in the care of her native son and his “new beloved woman.”
The mother-in-law called a little later.
“Ulyana, dear, come back home. I kicked out that mop.”
“Why? Kostya wasn’t counting on that.”
“Now Konstantin won’t be counting on anything. His woman left, slamming the door, and I told her that the apartment has been in your name for a long time. Basically, he’s now homeless. But I don’t feel sorry for him.”
“How come?” Ulyana gasped.
“I told that Natasha that if she wants to marry Konstantin, she’ll have to take care of me too. She believed me when I said that my son and I had a lifelong contract that whoever takes care of me gets the apartment,” the mother-in-law laughed.
“So, this Natasha is not only unattractive but also foolish?”
“It seems so… In general, Kostya was offended and left. He said a lot… But I don’t care. I haven’t had a real son for a long time, but a daughter. A daughter-in-law is closer than a son. And so it happens in life.”
Ulyana wiped away a tear. For her, the mother-in-law had long become a family member, and she took care of her not because of the inheritance, but purely out of humanity.
Tamara Andreevna gifted the apartment to her daughter-in-law, and Konstantin was left out. After the mother’s death, upon reading the will, Lena was very upset—she received a small garden house from Tamara Andreevna, which she then long shared with her brother.
The family fell apart, quarreled over pennies… And only Ulyana lived happily, starting a new life with a clean conscience. She didn’t take Konstantin back.