If you leave now with the kids, I won’t take you back,» Tatyana Petrovna screeched. «Just so you know: I’m leaving my apartment to an animal shelter!»
«Do what you want,» I tiredly replied. «But we won’t stay here a second longer.»
My world collapsed in an instant. Just yesterday, Alexei and I, along with our three children, were planning where to go on vacation, happy that we finally saved up for the first mortgage payment and could finally move out of the rented apartment.
But today, the world lost its colors and smells, shrinking to the size of a room with faded wallpaper. Joy and love for life trickled out of me, and every morning started with the question: «Why did I wake up in this world?» And then I clung to the only lifeline for which I opened my eyes: for our three children.
«Mama, how will we live without… daddy,» my eldest son, Miron, whispered.
«I don’t know, sweetheart,» a storm churned inside me, and tears were about to burst the dam. «We have each other; we’ll cope.»
«And how will we tell Nastya that daddy is no more?»
«I don’t know,» Miron and Svetlana, my eldest, knew of the sorrow. Nastya was only four, her daddy’s favorite. We were afraid to tell her about the tragedy.
I turned back to the wall. At eye level on the wallpaper was a drawn heart. «I love Lisa,» it said underneath the heart. When we first rented this apartment, Alexei drew it and declared that he would always be with me. I cried again, then fell asleep again: living with such pain was unbearable.
«Lisa, I was thinking, maybe you could move in with me?» Tatyana Petrovna, Alexei’s mother, suggested on the ninth day.
«Alright,» to be honest, I didn’t care what happened.
«We’ll be good together,» my mother-in-law hugged me for the first time in 12 years.
Then I thought that now I had someone to share my grief with. Tatyana Petrovna lost a son; I lost a husband. Alexei was a wonderful, caring, and responsible man, able to turn any trouble into a joke. We seldom spoke with Tatyana Petrovna before: she didn’t want to interfere in our affairs. We saw each other once every couple of months, no more. And I didn’t know how our life together would turn out. I just cut out a piece of the wallpaper with the heart – and moved to my mother-in-law’s.
At first, everything was fine. Tatyana Petrovna lived alone in a four-room apartment. She allocated two small bedrooms to us. One for Miron and Svetlana, and the other for Nastya and me.
Previously, my husband and I rented an apartment in an old house. The owners forbade us to change anything in their two-bedroom, even bringing our own furniture. Otherwise, we would have had to get rid of their junk… But here, at my mother-in-law’s, we finally had our own space.
«Lisa, I took the liberty of furnishing your rooms. Take a look, do you like it?» Tatyana Petrovna looked at us ingratiatingly.
«Yes, everything is great!» Miron immediately occupied the second level of the bunk bed.
«These shelves are mine, and these are yours,» Svetlana declared, opening the wardrobe.
My mother-in-law smiled contentedly. In our room with Nastya, there was a sofa, a dresser, and a computer desk: Tatyana Petrovna knew that I tutored online. Now I took more students, and all this money went towards food.
«Thank you so much,» I smiled for the first time these days, and the world stopped collapsing.
«No need to thank me, we are family,» Tatyana Petrovna also smiled.
«We invaded your space, disrupted your usual life. Please tell us about the rules that are accepted in your home.»
«Oh, Lizochka, I was not mistaken when I said 12 years ago that you would make a wonderful wife,» Tatyana Petrovna’s eyes welled up with tears.
The rules were simple. Morning exercises were mandatory, then breakfast. Now, while it was summer, after breakfast, the children could go out for an hour or two, then study to not forget the school material. Tatyana Petrovna even bought some interesting educational books! After lunch, Tatyana Petrovna usually slept, so the children were not allowed to make noise. And – everything had to be in its place.
«Lisa, why didn’t you put the vegetable oil in the fridge?» the complaints began exactly two weeks after our move.
«It’s a habit, we did it this way at home.»
«In my house, vegetable oil is always stored in the fridge.»
The next complaint was about the morning exercises. The children were lazy in the mornings to do them but more than made up for it at sports sections. Tatyana Petrovna was a fan of a healthy lifestyle, and every morning, regardless of the weather, she went for a jog that ended at a playground with outdoor exercise equipment.
«Mama, I don’t mind the morning jog,» Miron sadly said. «Just… not at six in the morning.»
«Son, I understand, but this is Tatyana Petrovna’s house, and we must follow her rules.»
«Even such stupid ones?»
«Sweetie, give me some time, I’ll come to my senses, find a job, and we’ll buy our own apartment.»
Yes, we couldn’t move out from Tatyana Petrovna’s: there was no money for rent, and I wasn’t getting hired. After university, I only worked for two years. Then Miron was born, a year and a half later – Svetlana, then – Nastya… Yes, there was part-time work, tutoring, but as Alexei put it, «for pins.» My parents were far away, seven hours by car. My elder brother lived with them.
«Lisa, you’ve completely slackened! It’s autumn outside, and you’re only mopping the floors once a day!» Tatyana Petrovna spat venom. «Your children have been stomping around since morning, dirt all over the apartment!»
«I washed both the floor and the shoes after your morning jog,» I tried to defend myself.
«Then your hands are growing from the wrong place,» my mother-in-law snapped.
At lunch, other complaints sounded.
«Lisa, you’ve oversalted the soup again!» my mother-in-law grumbled. In reality, it wasn’t true.
«Tatyana Petrovna, I actually undersalted the soup today,» I tried to defend myself. And I reminded her. «Today everyone added salt to their plates.»
«Don’t lie!» Tatyana Petrovna didn’t want to hear any objections. «Then it’s your children who tricked me!»
Miron and Svetlana’s eyes widened in surprise, and Nastya even asked.
«Mama, why does grandma lie?»
«Me?! Lying?! What are you teaching the children, ungrateful?! I took you in, and you!..»
«But we really didn’t do anything,» Miron indignantly defended.
«Lies! If you don’t like living here – clear out!»
Svetlana cried: she is a very sensitive girl. Miron hugged his sister and led her to the room.
«They’ve fallen on my head,» the mother-in-law grumbled. «I do everything for them, and they – play tricks!»
«Tatyana Petrovna, my children are well-behaved, kind, and honest. You are unfair to them!»
«Who are you to talk! You, like a cuckoo mother, dumped your offspring on me, and now you’re even trying to drive me out of my own apartment.»
«Me?!»
«Of course! You make the children play on the floor so they get sick. Then you’ll blame it on the jogs!»
«I never even thought of such a thing!»
«Of course! And the salt? Why is my food always oversalted?»
«Tatyana Petrovna, I don’t understand what you’re talking about!»
It got worse. Whatever I did, it was always wrong. Tatyana Petrovna, in front of the children, didn’t hesitate to sling mud at me. We, the children, having survived the intense stress associated with Alexei’s departure, now found ourselves in even greater stress.
Nastya needed diapers again at night. And she hadn’t had a single accident in a year! My daughter hid behind the sofa and whispered to dolls about how the witch yelled at her. Svetlana and Miron started doing worse in school: Tatyana Petrovna made a habit of bursting into their room and starting scandals.
This woman’s imagination, apparently, knew no bounds.
«You want to drive me out of my own apartment!»
That’s what the mother-in-law yelled if someone put an item not in its place. For example, a mug not on the left on the shelf, but on the right.
«You’re poisoning me!» – Svetlana was given children’s perfume, and the daughter sprayed it on herself once.
«You sat on my neck and dangled your legs!»
I bought groceries for us and my mother-in-law with the tutoring money for the third month in a row. The cheapest, no frills. Honestly, I often went without lunch and dinner – just so the children had enough to eat. My mother-in-law paid the utilities. She bought delicacies and sweets and ostentatiously ate them alone.
«There, what a lazybones, playing on the computer all day, she’d better do a proper cleaning at least once!»
I spent two hours cleaning every day. But not because the children were messy, but because my mother-in-law didn’t think it necessary to wash her dishes, ate in the living room on the sofa, walked around the apartment in shoes. But she reminded me several times a day about «cleaning.»
«Yes indeed, my son chose a wife. Lazy, ugly, quarrelsome, she drove Alexei to his grave…»
One day I came home and heard such lamentations from my mother-in-law. She was complaining to someone about how hard it was to live with her daughter-in-law.
«Oh, there she is, not dusty. It hasn’t been half a year, and she’s already wagging her tail. No shame, no conscience.»
I locked myself in the room and dialed my friend’s number. After university, she returned to her native village, worked at a school, and we communicated only by phone.
«Lizochka, hello, darling. How are you?»
«Nadya, everything is bad… I can’t stand it without Alexei, the mother-in-law is driving me mad. And there’s nowhere to go…»
«Lisa, come to me. An English teacher quit at our school yesterday. Right in the middle of the term.»
«But who would take me, I’ve hardly worked!»
«Lisa, they will! Our principal and director – worldly people! They’ll help with everything. There’s official housing available. Quiet, calm – you’ll like it. You’re tutoring, so you remember everything. Well, will you come?»
«I don’t know…»
Moving from a big city to a village was scary. I was still acutely grieving Alexei’s loss, and now the prospect of leaving my familiar environment, pulling the children out of school in the middle of the term, and going who knows where was dawning.
«Lisa!» Tatyana Petrovna screeched in the kitchen. «Where have you been wandering all day?! I’m hungry, and there’s not even a hint of lunch! There, they’ve imposed themselves on my head! Damned Herods! And who allowed you to eat my sausage?!»
That was the last straw.
«Nadya, give me the principal’s or director’s phone number…»
«Lizochka, no need, I’ll put you on speaker now!»
«Lisa, hello, I’m Ekaterina Ivanovna, the school director. Nadezhda Leonidovna told me about you, I know you didn’t work in school for long. Don’t worry, next year we’ll increase your grade, this year I’ll find a way to give you bonuses. Just come!» – the director’s voice sounded gentle, like a mother’s.
«Alright…»
«We have a service car. Tomorrow morning the driver is going to your city anyway, he can pick you up. He’ll be free around three. Will you have time to pack?»
«Yes, of course!»
Honestly, I was glad that someone else had decided an important issue for me – organizing the move. And surprisingly, we had very few belongings.
At the school where Miron and Svetlana studied, they were initially surprised by my decision, then explained how and when I could get the children’s documents. Miron’s class teacher lamented that her dear treasure (she called my son that) was leaving.
Less than a day after the phone conversation, I was already loading things into the car. When the mother-in-law learned I was leaving, she spat venom, spewing such swear words that my ears curled up in shame.
«Just so you know, traitor, if you walk out that door now, I won’t take you back! And don’t ask for help with the grandchildren!»
Ha! As if I ever asked her for that! When Miron was just born, I tried a couple of times to ask Tatyana Petrovna to sit with her grandson, but she declared she wasn’t hired as a nanny.
«And the apartment… Just so you know: I’m leaving the apartment to an animal shelter!»
«Do what you want,» I tiredly replied. «But we won’t stay here a second longer.»
The children joyfully dragged their school backpacks with textbooks and notebooks to the car. I took the last bag, glanced at the apartment where we spent four horrible months, and said goodbye to my mother-in-law.
«Get out,» Tatyana Petrovna pursed her lips, then spat after me.
«Lisa! You’ve arrived! Hooray!» – Nadya nearly jumped with joy. «We went to your apartment yesterday. Cleaned the floors, dusted… There are boxes – look, if something is useful, feel free to use it. Everything you need for now. Sorry about the furniture, but we can only help with that in a month.»
We were allocated a three-room apartment in a small panel house with four owners. The furniture included two old sofas, an ancient wardrobe, a dining table and a cooking table in the kitchen, and a refrigerator. It seemed even older than me.
In the boxes, there was a single-burner stove, an electric kettle, dishes, curtains, bedding. Colleagues also left me a brand-new pearl-pink bucket, a mop, and an incredibly beautiful table lamp. The apartment truly sparkled with cleanliness. Even the windows!
«Mama, at least no one will reproach us for a piece of bread, right?» – Svetlana declared, looking around.
«Daughter, I worry about you, whether you can find new friends.»
«Of course, we will!» – Miron confidently replied. «It’s not the wild steppes, look how big the school is!»
That same day, my documents were accepted at the school. The weekend was ahead, so I could dedicate a couple of days to studying the program and trying to remember the teaching methodology.
«Mama, let’s tell fortunes tonight!» – Svetlana suggested.
«What do you mean?»
«You need to put a comb under the pillow and say: ‘In a new place, may a groom appear to the bride!'»
«Where do I, a mother of three children, need to marry?» – I laughed.
«Come on! And in the morning, tell us who you dreamed of!»
The night was tough: I always find it hard to sleep in a new place. At first, I dreamed of Alexei. We were walking through a meadow, and I could literally smell the scents of the grass.
«Lizochka, my dear. Sorry I left so early. I’ll try to always be near you, support you, help you.»
«Aleshenka, I’m so lonely… I don’t know if I can ever be as happy as I was with you…»
«Of course, you can! And you came exactly where happiness awaits you. Look!» – Alexei pointed somewhere, but there was nothing there.
«Where?..» – I turned to him. His palm was still warm in my hand, but he himself melted away like fog.
Then, in my dream, another man approached me. Tall, with reddish hair and such familiar autumn-leaf-colored eyes. He put his arms around my shoulders and said:
«Don’t be afraid. I’m here.»
Thunder roared, the rain started, and the man thoughtfully threw a jacket over my shoulders.
I woke up from the noise: the storm was raging not only in my dream but also outside the window. I closed the vent and saw that Svetlana was also awake.
«Did you have a dream?» – I asked.
«Yes, about daddy. We were walking through the field, and he introduced me to Maxim.»
«What Maxim.»
«He’s a boy. He’s a year older than me, red-haired.»
«Do you know him?»
«Not yet,» – Svetlana shrugged.
On Monday, I already started teaching. The very first lesson was in Miron’s class. And what a coincidence! – his desk-mate was named Maxim, and the boy was red-haired!
While I was amazed at the coincidences, the first lesson ended. Ekaterina Ivanovna approached me during the break and smiled.
«Nadezhda Leonidovna was right! You are indeed a talented teacher! I approached the classroom several times. I’m sure we’ll work well together!»
The term was nearing its end. I invited «my» parents (I was given class management in Miron’s class) to a meeting. Very nervous. And when the parents started entering and introducing themselves, I barely contained my surprise. Among them was the man from my dream. He also stared at me wide-eyed.
«I’m Dmitry, Maxim Lukyanov’s father. I’m a single father; my wife passed away a few months ago. So please don’t be too strict with Maxim and me…»
«I understand you. I also became a widow this summer…»
«If you need any help – just ask. After all, we’re neighbors,» – Dmitry smiled.
And indeed, I found the best helper in him. Hang a shelf, repair a desk, organize a picnic for the class – Dmitry always helped in everything. Even when my faucet broke, and I didn’t know what to do, he rushed over with tools and fixed everything. In return, he asked for nothing, not even trying to court me!
«Mama, Maxim and I are going to slide down the hill!» – the second term flew by like one day, and my elders quickly made friends with the local kids. Svetlana found a close friend in red-haired Maxim Lukyanenko, and the three of them – with Miron – were constantly disappearing somewhere.
«Be careful there!» – I ordered more for order’s sake. There was nothing to worry about: Maxim was as reliable as his father.
Three hours later, my heart anxiously clenched. I started calling the children, but they didn’t answer. Thoughts – one scarier than the other – spun in my head. Finally, one of Miron’s classmates picked up the phone.
«Elizaveta Andreevna, we were sledding down the hill, and then Miron, Maxim, and Svetlana went to the lake. But that was a long time ago.»
«When?!»
«About an hour and a half ago…»
The lake.. What if the ice broke? What if the children were kidnapped? What if they got lost? Thoughts – one scarier than the other – stirred in my head and caused panic. I called Nadya and asked her to watch Nastya. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Dmitry stood on the doorstep.
«Don’t worry, everything’s fine with them.»
«With whom?» – not understanding anything yet, I was already putting on shoes and throwing on a down jacket.
«I’ll tell you on the way.»
In short, the children had fun on the hill and decided to go to the lake. It was covered with ice, but the winter that year was very mild, with constant thaws and frosts. Svetlana stepped on the ice, it cracked, the daughter slipped, Maxim rushed to lift her, and both fell into the water. Fortunately, it was shallow, only knee-deep, but from the shock, both fell and got soaked through. Miron pulled his sister and friend ashore, and all three ran home to Maxim – he lived near the lake.
«Mama, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again!» – my daughter sobbed.
«Sorry, I watched my sister poorly,» – my son almost cried.
«Sorry, it’s my fault,» – Maxim snuffled.
Dmitry reported: he changed the children into dry clothes, brewed tea with raspberries, a sauna – was heating up.
The children, from the stress they experienced, fell asleep immediately after the sauna. And Dmitry and I talked all night.
«When I saw you at school, I thought I was going mad,» Dmitry confessed.
«Why?»
«You see, you appeared in my dream before that. Walking through a meadow with some man. Then it started raining. I look – you’re standing alone, water flowing down your hair. In the dream, I approached you and covered you with a jacket. That morning, for the first time since… I woke up calm.»
«And you appeared in my dream…»
We talked until morning. Remembered our previous families, shared dreams and plans. It was already dawn outside when we finally had our fill of talking.
«You know, today, for the first time in a long time, I’m smiling. It feels like something bad has ended, and ahead – only good. Lisa, let’s try to start a new life.»
«Together?»
«Yes… I think you and your children deserve care. And I can take care of you. And I won’t let anyone offend you.»
A month later, I met Dmitry’s future mother-in-law, Anna Alekseevna.
«Lisa, Dmitry told me that you also experienced grief,» she started cautiously.
«Yes, around the same time as he did.»
«How fate arranged it… so young!»
«That’s how it turned out.»
«Lisa, I’m familiar with your children – they often pop in to visit Maxim for pies,» – near Anna Alekseevna’s eyes twinkled wrinkles. «Wonderful children! And how they appreciate each other!»
«You’re right, they are my happiness!»
«I think you will be happy with Dmitry…»
The children quickly fell in love with the new grandma. And they immediately started calling her: grandma. And Dmitry they very quickly called daddy – on their own. Anna Alekseevna cherishes her grandchildren – all of them. And I gladly call her mom.
Dmitry and I are happy. When we started living together, it felt like we had known each other all our lives. Our family has grown even more: six months ago, twins, Antoshka and Lyudochka, were born. I plan to return to school in the new school year: Ekaterina Petrovna promised to «come up with something» so I can combine motherhood and work.
And you know, I’m sure: with a caring husband, wonderful children, and simply an incredible mother-in-law, we will succeed!
