Can you believe it, Antosh? Yesterday I went to your brother’s new wife, and she threw me out of the apartment! Out of his apartment! She turned out to be even ruder than your Lida! I’m just in shock!” – Galina Stepanovna told her eldest son as he drove her home from the shopping center.
“And why did she throw you out?” – Anton asked wearily.
“Hmm…” – the woman smirked. – “I like that.”
“What do you like, mom?”
“That you no longer object when I call your good-for-nothing wife a rude person! That’s progress!” – she explained.
“And what’s the point of saying anything? Just to make everything worse again? Thanks, but no! I don’t want that!” – trying not to get distracted from the road, Anton replied.
“You should have long accepted that your Lida is a real snake and divorced her before things got complicated with children! But no, you love her! And now you’re supporting her and two little brats…”
“Mom! Stop it! I’ll drop you off right here!” – her son threatened.
“Just try it! Just try it! Then you can consider that you no longer have a mother! Got it?! Just like your little brother!” – Galina Stepanovna snapped.
“I already have that feeling, and it’s becoming more and more stable! Just understand that I have my own family, I’m happy! I love Lida and our children with her! Your grandchildren, by the way! If you can’t do that, love our family, then at least don’t sling mud at them, because even my angelic patience can burst!!!”
Galina Stepanovna wanted to argue back at her son’s speech, but he sharply turned the car, shaking her quite a bit, so much so that Anton’s mother bit her tongue a little.
For about ten minutes they drove in silence, Anton already started thinking that she finally understood, that it was finally getting through to her that he loves his family and wants her, as a mother, to be happy for him, to love them too, or at least to stop constantly spitting venom towards Lida and their children. But Galina Stepanovna had her own opinion about it. She didn’t express it right now because she was afraid that Anton would really drop her off before reaching her home, but he had already heard it many times.
He knew perfectly well that before meeting Lidiya, his wife, his mother constantly picked brides for him that she herself would approve of. They were mainly daughters of her friends. Different ages, some older than Anton, some younger, there were even some who were still underage, but Galina Stepanovna knew their mothers and could somehow influence the girls, adjust them so that they would become ideal daughters-in-law for her.
She did the same with Anton’s younger brother, only he decided to leave home altogether so that his mother would no longer interfere in his personal life, his decisions, and his choice. Later, of course, he returned to his hometown because he was transferred back here for work, but he was already married to the one he chose himself. Anton went to their wedding with his own family, with his wife and daughter, his son was only in the plans then. But Anton and Igor’s mother, Galina Stepanovna, didn’t go anywhere because she thought that her younger son was making the same mistake as the elder, namely, not doing as she wanted.
But Igor and his wife didn’t care about Galina Stepanovna’s opinion. They lived outside the city, saw Anton and his family often, but practically never saw Galina Stepanovna. She only recently started showing interest in her younger son’s family when she learned through acquaintances that she would soon have a third grandchild. And, of course, she didn’t like this news, although no one asked her what she liked and what she didn’t.
But she decided to mend relations with Igor, so that he would finally invite her to his home. And what she started telling Anton happened just yesterday. Igor’s wife, though she was pregnant, threw her mother-in-law out of the house. She even wanted to sic the dogs on her, but decided that she shouldn’t poison the animals with such nastiness as her mother-in-law. And Igor himself came out of the house to the boiler room just in time to catch the moment when Galina Stepanovna was screaming and panicking as she ran out of the house, and his wife came out onto the porch after her mother-in-law with a kitchen towel and shouted:
“If you cross our threshold again, you won’t get off so easily next time!”
Then she told her husband what nasty things her mother-in-law started saying about their future child, and he fully agreed with her.
Only the elder brother hadn’t had the chance to tell him yet, so Anton might not have driven his mother shopping today, even though they had agreed on it a week ago.
He “might not” have driven her, because no matter what his mother did, said, or how she treated his family, his wife, and children, he still forgave her a lot, though he was angry at her and had argued with her repeatedly. But he understood that besides him, his mother had no one else, as Igor clearly made it clear to this woman that he would rather consider himself an orphan than let her into his life again to poison it. True, this was before she pretended Igor decided to let this woman back into his life. And, of course, before she spoiled it all again.
Now Igor definitely won’t let her get close to him, his wife, and his future children. Anton was more than a hundred percent sure of that. His younger brother was more categorical than he himself was.
“What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?” – Anton’s mother asked when he had already pulled up to her house.
“I’m working! What about it?” – he responded.
“I thought you’d drive me…”
“You don’t need to mention it, mom! I won’t be able to take you anywhere the day after tomorrow, I won’t even be in town!”
“Is that so? But you’re working!” – Galina Stepanovna was somewhat surprised and tensed up.
“They’re sending me on a business trip!”
“For long?” – she asked less shockingly, and if Anton had looked at his mother at that moment, he would have noticed some slyness in her eyes, as if some sinister plan was beginning to form in her mind.
“For three or four days. The management hasn’t said exactly yet, but judging by the work of that branch they’re sending me to, I might be delayed!”
“Maybe then your Lida could take me…”
“No!” – Anton sharply interrupted his mother. – “She definitely won’t take you anywhere, I won’t even ask her, mom! You don’t know how to behave with her, and I don’t need scandals and fights with my wife afterwards!”
Galina Stepanovna pursed her lips, showing her son that he was insulting her and said:
“If only you had married…”
“That’s it, mom! Get out of the car! I need to go home, and I’m not going to listen to your new complaints with old holes!”
Anton himself got out of the car to open the door for his mother, and she definitely left his car.
Galina Stepanovna didn’t say anything more to her son, didn’t thank him for driving her around all afternoon, putting off his own affairs, didn’t say goodbye, didn’t say anything at all, but just walked off offended to the entrance.
Anton got back in the car and drove home, he was already shaking from communicating with his mother in such a manner, so the home atmosphere was very useful to him now.
When Anton was on a business trip on the second day, his mother decided to mess with her eldest son. First, to get back at him for how he spoke to her in the car, and second, to put into action her plan, which had begun to form then in her son’s car. It wasn’t enough for her to spoil the mood of one daughter-in-law, she decided to do the same to the second one, to get back at Anton.
Before going to Lidiya, she stopped by the store near her house, picked out the oldest cake that was on display, called a taxi, and went to her daughter-in-law, without warning her of her visit.
Galina Stepanovna knew what time her daughter-in-law took her daughter to school and her son to kindergarten, and what time she returned home, so she decided to arrive around that time to intercept her daughter-in-law near the apartment door.
She arrived almost at the appointed time, opened the entrance with her intercom key, which she had had ever since Anton and Lida had just taken their apartment on a mortgage, and sat down to wait for her daughter-in-law on the steps in front of the door.
When Lidiya came up to her apartment half an hour later, she was shocked to see her.
“Galina Stepanovna?!”
“Hello…” – she greeted timidly.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’m waiting for you, dear…”
“And why is that? Do you want to spoil my mood again, like in all our previous meetings?” – opening the apartment, Lidiya asked.
“No… I actually… I wanted to talk to you, Lid… To apologize…” – simulating embarrassment, shame, the mother-in-law replied.
“Really? And what inspired you to do that?” – raising an eyebrow, Lidiya clarified.
“I don’t know if Anton told you about the conversation we had the other day…”
“Yes, he did!” – the daughter-in-law interrupted her, not letting her into the apartment, although she had already gotten up from the stairs and was intending to enter.
But Lidiya stood in the doorway so that she couldn’t slip into the apartment.
“Well… That’s… I wanted to talk to you, to apologize, and then to Anton… Because I was sitting at home… Alone… Thinking about all this and…” – here Galina Stepanovna started to sob, breaking through her daughter-in-law’s pity.
At this moment, Lidiya’s heart “tightened”. It all looked so sincere that she fell for her mother-in-law’s words.
“I bought this cake here…” – added Galina Stepanovna.
“Alright! Come in! – the daughter-in-law gave in. – But I still have a lot of things to do! We can talk, and I can cook dinner at the same time, okay?” – she clarified with her mother-in-law.
“Yes-yes! Of course! As you say!” – entering the apartment, the woman replied.
Her voice had already slightly changed, becoming colder and more like her usual self, but Lidiya didn’t notice, she was distracted by the phone.
“Something urgent?” – the mother-in-law asked her.
“Something like that! Reminder that I need to hurry up with housework and get to work!” – the daughter-in-law waved it off.
“Got it! So let me help you with something, since there’s so little time?”
“No! I do the household chores myself! And only myself, I don’t want to redo it later if I don’t like something!” – Lidiya refused, carrying the groceries she had just bought at the store into the kitchen.
And the mother-in-law darted after her, stood by the table, and watched as Lidiya arranged the groceries, leaving some on the table, apparently for cooking right now. All the daughter-in-law’s gestures, how she did and what she did, were very unpleasant to Galina Stepanovna, so much so that she doubted whether she could continue to play her comedy…
“So what did you want to discuss? Talk? Apologize? I’m listening!” – turning on the kettle, Lidiya asked.
“I wanted to…” – began Galina Stepanovna, but suddenly hesitated. – “What are you doing with those vegetables?!” – she yelled at her daughter-in-law.
“What do you mean?!” – immediately dropping everything and turning to her mother-in-law, she said. – “Is this how you came to apologize for all the dirt you’ve thrown at me for years?!”
“How naive you are!” – the woman laughed. – “Or stupid! Personally, I lean towards the second! But you…”
“Think, just because you’re my mother-in-law, I can’t throw you out of my apartment right now for such words? It’s not like that at all!”
“Out of your apartment?” – she smirked. – “Aren’t you taking too much on yourself? Does my son even know that you consider it your apartment? His apartment as yours? I see that you, an ungrateful viper warmed by Anton, that fat cow, Igor’s wife, just do everything to take everything away from me…”
“From you?! How are you involved at all?” – stepping out from behind the table, ready to restrain her mother-in-law if necessary, Lidiya asked. – “And what right do you have to claim what’s not yours? Or did you gulp down some elixir of impudence somewhere?”
“I’ll give you an elixir right now, just a different one!” – Galina Stepanovna lunged at Lidiya.
But she didn’t notice the “weapon” again in the hands of the second daughter-in-law, which had already driven her out of the younger son’s house. A kitchen towel.
Lidiya started beating her with it. She hit whatever was exposed to the blow, she didn’t care, the main thing was to push this malicious woman out of her apartment this way. And she managed to do it. It was possible to drive Galina Stepanovna out of the apartment, but her things remained in the apartment. Lidiya didn’t open the door again to give all this back, she grabbed Galina Stepanovna’s jacket, her shoes, her bag, the package with the old cake, and threw it all over the balcony.
Then, approaching the door, she said:
“You can go and collect your belongings in the courtyard! If I see you near our house or our children again, I won’t be so merciful next time! Now get out of here and clean our courtyard from your presence!”
After that, Lidiya stepped away from the door. The mother-in-law still banged on the apartment door for about five minutes, ringing the bell, shouting something to Lidiya, but she had already calmed down, starting to cook dinner. Her hands trembled a bit, but it wasn’t scary, but she coped with the stress and the adrenaline rush inside her, not for the first time.
After the mother-in-law had disappeared somewhere, as had her belongings from under the balcony, Lidiya called her husband and told him what had happened in his absence.
And after that, Anton’s angelic patience really burst. It just hit him that you can’t forgive his mother such things all his life. If she pushes everyone away from herself, tricks in this way, constantly poisons life, then let her stay alone and drown on her own in her venom.
He no longer helped his mother, didn’t pick up the phone when she called him, only read messages, but didn’t respond to them, unless, of course, it was something very urgent, like health problems. Otherwise, he decided for himself that since his mother has so much energy that she allows herself to first attack one daughter-in-law, then another, although not even a week has passed, then she will cope on her own, he is no longer going to help her.
That’s how Galina Stepanovna remained alone. Her sons turned away from her, their families even more so, only her friends and some of their unmarried daughters remained. Now she’s aiming to stick her long nose there and teach life to her new victims, but that’s a completely different story…