What is this disgusting stuff you cooked?! It has no taste!” Victor threw his fork on the table, demonstratively pushing his plate away. His wife, Nina, had a severe cold, and her sense of smell was temporarily dulled. She couldn’t distinguish tastes and was even unable to feel the salt and pepper, so she was afraid of oversalting. Despite her illness, she bravely prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the family and worked from home to not let her colleagues down. Perhaps that’s why she couldn’t recover and looked simply awful.
“Vitya, eat the sausages, just for today… Can I lie down? I probably have a fever over forty… I don’t have the strength to cook something else,” Nina said quietly.
“You just want to lie down! You’re getting so lazy, soon you won’t fit through the door!”
“Vitya…”
“What, Vitya? Tired of telling acquaintances you’re just fat, not pregnant!” he replied angrily, glaring at his wife.
It was unpleasant for Nina to hear this. However, she was used to it; if her husband was in a bad mood, he wouldn’t choose his words or worry about her feelings.
“Mommy, go lie down. I’ll make something…” their daughter, Anya, appeared in the kitchen. She felt sorry for her mother, so as soon as she came from art school, she rushed to the kitchen instead of doing her homework.
“Your place is not by the stove, it’s studying! Bring your diary here!” Victor banged his fist on the table.
“Dad, we have electronic diaries…” Anya reminded him.
“Bring the electronic one! I don’t care, just stop talking back!”
Anya humbly placed her phone in front of her father. He looked at her grades and, finding nothing to criticize, began to comment on her appearance.
“You look just like your mother! A peasant! Not hair, but fluff! You should look at other girls! Your peers are already dating rich guys! And you? Who needs you in your torn jeans and oversized sweater?! Always wanting to sit on my neck?!”
“Vitya, why are you starting this? Anya is our beauty…” Nina tried to defend.
“Did anyone ask you? Go to your room and lie down! Sick!”
“Dad, why do you talk to us like this?” Anya looked at her father with tearful eyes. “What have we done to you?!”
“Shut your mouth before I slap you!” Victor clenched his fists. His daughter annoyed him more and more, especially since she increasingly resembled Nina. And Nina was like a thorn in his throat.
Anya silently wiped away her tears and, taking a chicken from the refrigerator, began to cut it.
She had no appetite, so after quickly frying the fillet, she brought a piece to her mother and sat down on her bed.
“Eat.”
“I don’t want to, sweetheart… I have no strength.”
“Should I go to the pharmacy?”
“Everything’s there. I went this morning.”
“Should I call a doctor?”
“No, I just need to rest a bit…”
“Who will wash the dishes?!” A shout from the kitchen made both mother and daughter flinch.
“I’ll go…” Anya said quietly.
“Pay no attention. He loves us. Just… Maybe problems at work or something hurts. That’s why he’s in a bad mood.”
Anya looked at her mother sympathetically. Sometimes she felt that Nina lived in a parallel universe.
“He loves us. He doesn’t even love himself every day!” thought Anya, wiping the table.
The next day she came home late: there was a performance at the dance school, and afterward, the girls went to a cafe.
Anya came home happy, but her mood disappeared when she heard shouting.
“You’re good for nothing! Couldn’t even raise a daughter properly! What are those dances for?! And drawing? Nonsense! She should have gone to a technical school, where they teach sciences!”
“She’s a girl, Vitya…”
“And what?! I want her to study and work where I place her!”
“Vitya… let her choose with her heart.”
“You never listen to what I say! Always arguing!”
“Okay, Vitya. What’s wrong?”
“Everything’s wrong! You’re not right! The daughter’s not right! Even that painting on the wall… It’s been irritating me for 16 years. Can’t stand to see it! I want a divorce.”
“But Vitya, we have a daughter… How about us?” Anya heard sobs. “I love you… I’m trying… And the painting… We could remove it,” Nina pleaded tearfully, swallowing her tears. Her father had hung up that painting; he had painted it himself, and it was dear to her heart. But to save the family, Nina was ready to take such a desperate step.
“Trying?! Look at yourself! No beauty, no figure. And those hair, peasant! Who wears a braid at your age?! I like blondes… And you?”
Anya couldn’t bear to listen to her parents’ quarrel. She quietly left the house and went to her grandmother’s.
Tatyana Stepanovna knew her son-in-law’s character and was used to her granddaughter often staying with her.
“Did you argue again?”
“Yes… Grandma, I don’t understand why mom puts up with him?”
“I don’t know, Anya. Maybe it’s love.”
“If all men are like this, I’ll never get married.”
“Dear, all people are different. Your grandfather was wonderful…” Tatyana Stepanovna loved to talk about the grandfather. He was a well-known artist, his paintings hung in the city’s art museum, and one, Anya’s favorite, adorned the main room of the apartment where they lived. “Your talent is from him. You’ll be just as famous, don’t give up on drawing.”
“Grandma, dad wants us to take down grandpa’s painting and remove it…”
“And hang his portrait in its place instead?” frowned the grandmother.
“I don’t know, Grandma. But sometimes I wish I didn’t have a father at all. It seems it would be easier for mom and me.”
Tatyana Stepanovna didn’t respond. She tried not to interfere in family affairs, and lately, she hadn’t even gone to the apartment left to Nina by her father. The atmosphere there was “tense.”
The next morning, Anya left for school, and in the evening she went home, hoping that her parents had stopped arguing.
“Mom, what happened to your hair?” the daughter asked, seeing Nina. The woman had cut her braid and bleached her hair. She was unrecognizable. The braid, Nina’s pride, had been cut off, and Anya felt sorry for her mother’s hair… But what’s done is done.
“Changed my image,” Nina said quietly. Anya said nothing, and Victor, returning from work, disdainfully squinted.
“Your hairdresser deserves a ‘prize’: he managed to disfigure what seemed already beyond spoiling.”
Nina silently looked at Victor. She didn’t understand why she deserved such treatment. From early morning, she had gathered all her strength to go to the hairdresser and please her husband. And he didn’t appreciate it.
Meanwhile, Anya went to the living room and didn’t find her favorite painting in its place.
“Mom?! Where’s the landscape?”
“I removed it…”
“Why?! It’s a memory of grandpa!”
“Grandpa can’t be brought back. Dad’s right, we need to add new colors…”
“You want to hang my painting in its place?” Anya arched her eyebrow.
“Your scribblings? No need to embarrass ourselves. We’ll hang a clock on that nail. I’ve wanted one with a cuckoo for a long time.” Victor twisted his lips into a smile, pulling cheap plastic clocks out of a bag. They were so ugly and poorly made that Anya couldn’t believe it. How could something like that even be hung in the living room?
“I think it’s hideous.”
“You wouldn’t understand!” roared Victor. “They’ll be hanging here. I’ve said it all!”
He settled on the couch, awaiting dinner and enjoying the clocks, which not only looked terrible but also ticked loudly, as if counting down every tense nerve in this “happy” family.
Nevertheless, noticing that his wife had followed his lead, Victor calmed down for a few days. Even smiled, looking at the clocks.
“If this thing makes my father and mother happy, I’ll endure this terrible ticking,” thought Anya.
But the father lasted only a few days before everything went askew again.
“What are you standing there for?! See, I’m watching TV!” Victor shouted at his wife when she tried to wipe the floor during cleaning.
“I’m cleaning the house. It’s dusty… You forbade turning on the vacuum cleaner, I have to do it by hand, not to bother you with the loud noise,” Nina was flustered.
“You’re bothering me by the mere fact of your existence! Get out of my sight!”
“Vitya, really. You could help me…”
“Back off, Nina! Or you’ll be talking to the emptiness! You won’t have a husband anymore, just wait…” he threatened, turning up the volume.
Nina put down the rag and stood, blocking the screen. Victor even choked on the foamy drink he was sipping while watching the show.
“Have you lost your fear, mother?!”
“What do you want for us to live normally? I cut my hair, became a blonde, removed the painting. The daughter now doesn’t go to the studio, she went to the young engineers’ courses by your will. What’s wrong with you?!”
“I’m tired of you! Want to know what I need? Alright, I’ll tell you.”
Victor stood up from the couch to take up more space and seem more significant.
“So, I want my mother-in-law to transfer the apartment to me.”
“Which apartment?!”
“Her own. I’ll go there to rest from you. I can’t stand looking at you anymore. I’ll live there a week, rest, and then a week here, with you. The sheep are fed, and the wolves are whole,” he blurted out.
“And where to with mom?!”
“Send the mother-in-law to the cottage. She likes to dig in the garden, and she doesn’t have long left, let her get used to the soil.”
Anya couldn’t listen to her father anymore. She was dusting a vase and, unable to bear those words, dropped it, and it shattered into pieces.
“Hands not from the right place! Just like your mother!” cursed Victor, looking at his daughter with hatred.
“Or maybe not like mother, but like father?! A tyrant!” Anya suppressed the urge to throw a piece of the vase at him and, dropping the shards, ran out of the room.
“You’ve raised a brat, and you still want something from me,” continued Victor, but Anya no longer heard. She quickly dressed and went to her grandmother’s. She couldn’t allow her father to treat Tatyana Stepanovna like this.
The woman listened attentively to her granddaughter and thought.
“I’m afraid that mom will again follow his lead, convincing you to transfer the apartment! And what if he then says he needs your cottage, and sends you to a nursing home?!” Anya cried. “And then he’ll decide that I’m not his real daughter and send me somewhere to a boarding school…”
“Dear, don’t cry. As long as the apartment is in my name, nothing will happen. I won’t transfer it to him,” reassured the grandmother. At the same time, she understood that her granddaughter’s fears were not empty words. If Tatyana Stepanovna suddenly wasn’t around, the apartment and cottage would go to Nina, and Nina might do anything for her husband. Sometimes Tatyana Stepanovna thought that her daughter loved her husband too desperately, to the detriment of herself and her daughter. But Tatyana Stepanovna tried to keep her opinion to herself… Until she realized that the situation was out of control.
The woman didn’t sleep all night. And in the morning, she had a serious talk with her granddaughter. That day, Anya stayed with her grandmother, and in the evening Nina joined them. She cried, talked a lot, and Tatyana Stepanovna listened to her daughter. And Anya… also listened and didn’t understand what kind of family it was if there was no respect among its members.
In the morning, Nina calmed down. She took her daughter to school, then went home. It was hard for her, and she hoped until the last moment… But no miracle happened. Her husband came home even more irritated than he had left.
Fortunately, the scandal unfolded without the daughter.
“Where has that little pest disappeared for the third day? You secretly take her to drawing classes? A friend told me she quit the engineers’ courses! Why did I arrange her there? To embarrass me?!” Victor yelled from the threshold.
“Vitya, please, quieter. I have a headache.”
“You should do less nonsense! Better cook some food! Nothing to eat for the second day!”
“I was at mom’s. We discussed everything.”
“Yeah?” Victor changed his tone slightly. “And? Is she ready to transfer the apartment?”
“Mom has already transferred the apartment, and she agrees to live in the countryside. She’s already packed her things. I’ll take her tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow? Order a taxi and let’s go right now! I’ll quickly get ready, can’t stand to see you, at least I’ll rest in peace and quiet.” Victor threw off his jacket and went for his belongings. He stuffed his clothes and personal items into a large bag. “This will do for now. Did you find a car?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. Take me to my mother-in-law, and the mother-in-law to the cottage. Finally, I’ll rest from you.”
Nina said nothing. She silently walked to the car, and they drove to the station.
“What does this mean?! Where have you brought me?!”
“Go back where you came from. Rest. I’ll file for divorce myself. Don’t worry,” Nina got out of the car and switched to another. A taxi “to a new life” was already waiting for her.
“What about the property division?! The apartment?!”
“Here,” she nodded at his bag and handed him a ticket to the village from which he had come to the city to get married and settle down. “This is all your property. The fact that in 16 years all you’ve accumulated is a cuckoo clock is your problem. Mom transferred the apartment to Anya, you won’t get anything. Goodbye, Vitya. Although no, not goodbye. We’re not cutting off all contact yet: you’ll still be paying alimony for Anya for three years. And I’ll gladly spend it on our needs.”
Victor said something to her as she left, but Nina left him at the station. She knew that Tatyana Stepanovna was changing the locks in her apartment at that moment. There was no way back home for Victor. And although it hurt, she realized: it’s better to “cut off” once than to endure exacerbations for the rest of her life.