—That’s how we ended up falling out. We haven’t spoken for two months,” Anna Viktorovna told her friend sadly. Ella Andreyevna had been away for a long visit with her older son and his family, so she didn’t know about her friend’s quarrel. “He doesn’t call, and neither do I. How does that even happen? I’m not going to call first—but my son! Surely there must be some feelings in his soul for his mother?”
“Oh, come on—what else did you expect from them? The kids grew up, and the mother became unnecessary. So what use are you to them now? Next thing you know, you’ll be the one needing help,” Ella Andreyevna snapped angrily. “Just accept it already.”
“I can’t. It hurts. I didn’t deserve to be treated like this…”
As soon as Anna Viktorovna retired, just as she’d planned, she bought a puppy. She started spending a lot of time with him, walking outside. She also bought a bicycle and rode it often. She led an active, interesting life full of pleasant little заботы, and she had no time to be bored. Still, from time to time she would remember her son and grandchildren. And she would remember her daughter-in-law too—she seemed like a good woman. They’d never even argued…
“This won’t do,” Alyona told her husband again, not for the first time. “A mother is a mother. Why did you come down on her so hard? If she doesn’t want to work anymore, that’s her right! And we don’t really need a new car—this one still drives. Why are you so desperate to replace it?”
“You don’t need it. But I do. You don’t understand,” her husband replied quietly, standing with his back to her, arms folded across his chest. He stared out the window, thinking. He didn’t like this situation either.
“You’re like a little kid, honestly! Mom owes you everything!”
“Alyon, don’t start. I feel sick enough as it is,” Ilya said sharply and walked out of the room.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Alyona snorted and started making dinner—still thinking about her mother-in-law. She felt ashamed that Ilya had fallen out with his mother and wasn’t speaking to her. After all, she’d never done them any harm—only helped. But her husband didn’t understand and kept holding onto his resentment.
“Anna Viktorovna, please forgive us! Ilya’s hot-tempered—you know that! He’ll blurt things out, he doesn’t even know what he’s saying, and then he suffers for it afterward. And he doesn’t know how to make peace. But I can see it—he’s been walking around like a man drowned,” Alyona said fervently.
She looked at her mother-in-law and noticed that after retiring, she had started to look fresher, younger. Anna Viktorovna was seventy-two, but now she looked sixty—no more. Well done, Anna Viktorovna, Alyona thought with admiration.
She had come to visit her mother-in-law with the children without telling Ilya. He was rushing around looking for a new job and was at yet another interview.
“I’m so happy to see you, my girl!” Anna Viktorovna said and hugged her daughter-in-law. “So what about the car?”
“Oh, nothing. Don’t worry about it. Ilya’s looking for a job with a proper official salary. Once he gets hired and works three months, he’ll take out the loan in his own name,” Alyona answered. “And there he is—speak of the devil.”
Alyona’s phone beeped, and she answered the call.
“What? Really? That’s great—congratulations! No, we’re not at home… No… Where? At your mom’s place—that’s where. Yeah? Okay then,” Alyona said, set the phone on the table, and smiled загадочно.
“Mom! Grandma! Can we go for a walk with Richie?” Alyona’s children, Polina and Slava, asked, peeking into the room.
“Go on!” Anna Viktorovna answered for both of them. “He loves walks, and the weather’s nice. Just take the leash—Richie still doesn’t listen very well.”
Chatting cheerfully, the kids left with the dog. Soon Alyona and her mother-in-law saw through the window how they headed along the path toward the park.
“They’re so grown up already…” Anna Viktorovna said, admiring her grandchildren.
“Yes—Slava’s fourteen, and Polina has already turned thirteen… Please forgive Ilya. He didn’t mean to hurt you,” Alyona said again and hugged her mother-in-law, whose eyes shimmered with tears.
An hour later, when Polina and Slava returned from their walk and sat in the kitchen drinking tea, someone suddenly rang the doorbell. Anna Viktorovna went to open it and saw her son—though first she saw a huge bouquet of flowers, and only then her son behind it. Ilya stepped into the hallway, handed his mother the flowers, and she burst into tears again.
“Mom… I, uh… I bought a vase like the one I broke at your place back then,” Ilya said, pulling a big box out of the bag he was holding and giving it to her.
“Wow! It’s beautiful!” Anna Viktorovna exclaimed as she unwrapped the gift. “But I probably won’t put it on the table. I’ve got a little troublemaker now who loves tugging on the tablecloth and knocking everything onto the floor. I’ll hide this beauty in the glass cabinet.”
“They promised to hire me, Alyona—can you believe it? The salary will finally be fully official. I’ll be like a normal person at last,” Ilya said and hugged his wife.
Anna Viktorovna placed the vase in the cabinet and looked at her son and daughter-in-law. She smiled and thought how lucky Ilya was to have met such a wise woman as Alyona.
“She’s the one who inspired me to look for a new job!” Ilya announced importantly to his mother, still hugging his wife.
“Well done, you two,” Anna Viktorovna said with a smile…
“And that’s how they made up. I’ve got a wonderful daughter-in-law!” Anna Viktorovna later told her friend.
“Yes… If it weren’t for her, you’d have been sulking at each other until forever. Ilya would never have come to make peace—he’s far too proud,” Ella Andreyevna smiled.
“That’s exactly it! And yet he worries—I know he does…”
“All’s well that ends well.”
“Oh, it’s not ending at all—I’d even say it’s only beginning,” Anna Viktorovna said mysteriously.
“What’s beginning?” her friend didn’t understand.
“Alyona’s expecting a baby, it turns out—she’s in her third month. She called me yesterday and told me…”
“Well, I’ll be damned!” Ella Andreyevna tossed out yet another saying. “Now I get it—why your wonderful Alyona was laying it on so thick. Grandma’s help will be needed soon!”
“Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. The older kids are already big—they’ll help if needed. But you know, I’ve been thinking… it’s a good thing to be needed by someone, isn’t it?”
“It is! If we didn’t have children and grandchildren, you and I would be sitting like two sticks in the forest—useless and not needed by anyone. We’d have started howling from loneliness ages ago,” Ella Andreyevna agreed and laughed. “And you know, I went to that ballet studio and bought a subscription—I’m going to take classes. Just don’t laugh!”
“Why would I laugh? Good for you!” Anna Viktorovna praised her friend—though she still couldn’t help snickering into her fist