I was getting increasingly gloomy listening to what the Vorontsovs, the loveliest couple of tenants, were telling me. Even Denis, my husband, realized that a problem had arisen, probably because of the look on my face. Lera, my wayward younger sister, had really crossed the line this time, and Denis and I needed to act very quickly, practically lightning-fast.
‘Tanya, can you lend me some money?’ my mom’s voice was extremely anxious. ‘There’s still two weeks until my pension, and I really need it. I know you and Denis aren’t exactly rolling in it, at least you have some extra income—the apartment.’
‘How much do you need?’ I hesitated a bit. ‘All our expenses are planned, and Denis has some tricky gadget broken in his car that needs ordering.’
Mom mentioned the amount she needed, and I whistled—it was substantial. Interesting, what did she need it for? Mom hesitated for a while before saying:
‘Actually, it’s not for me, it’s for Valeria. She says her phone broke, and she’s left without any means of communication.’
‘Judging by the amount you’re asking for, Lera wants a premium-class phone,’ I responded. ‘And what does she need such a device for? To show off?’
‘How should I know?’ Mom started to get heated. ‘She came to me, I don’t have it. She’s embarrassed to ask you directly, so she chose me as a mediator. So, can you help?’
‘I don’t know,’ I honestly answered. ‘I need to talk to my husband; I can’t just take such an amount out of our family budget, sorry. He’ll return from work, we’ll discuss everything, and I’ll call you back, okay?’
Mom reluctantly agreed. And why is she so keen on getting a new phone for Valeria? Well, that’s a rhetorical question; the answer is obvious.
Mom has always loved Lera more than me, that’s just how it turned out historically. As my husband says, ‘The mother-in-law really over-loved the younger daughter, and she grew up into a capricious, unruly girl.’ He knows this from what I’ve told him. Whatever Lera asked for in her childhood—she was bought it if possible. Valeria grew up without knowing the word ‘no.’
A significant amount of time has passed, but Lera hasn’t grown out of her childish ways, still ‘milking’ me and Mom, even though she supposedly works, or at least pretends to.
Denis listened attentively to my mom’s request and issued the following verdict:
‘If Natalya Borisovna had personally asked me for money for her own needs, I wouldn’t have refused. But when it comes to Valeria—I’m against it.’
‘I am too, but I don’t want to upset Mom,’ I sighed. ‘God forbid, she’ll start borrowing from acquaintances again. It happened before when Lera decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Moscow, by the Kremlin tree. Valeria was frolicking around Red Square while Mom covered her debts for several months.
‘The problem with your sister is that she wants too much but can’t afford it,’ Denis replied. ‘She doesn’t think according to Confucius, you see? There’s no harmony in her.’
He laid his simple phone on the table, nodding towards it:
‘As a head of the sales department, I could afford to buy, for example, an ‘apple’. But tell me, what would this purchase add? Intelligence, or perhaps authority? Exactly, Tanya, neither. I’m perfectly satisfied with my old phone because I see it simply as a means for calls, not for the camera to have a crazy number of megapixels.’
Denis, as always, was right a hundred thousand times over. But how to convey his wisdom to my sister’s feeble mind? That’s the thing, you just can’t. People like Valeria can’t be reasoned with.
I had to take on the unpleasant mission of calling mom and refusing. Mommy took the news very badly:
‘Did Denis not allow it? I recognize his handiwork…’
‘You shouldn’t think that way about him, mom,’ I defended my husband. ‘By the way, he said he would have given it to you without a second thought. But Valeria has gotten herself another whim, sorry.’
Mom wanted to continue the dialogue on this topic, but I didn’t listen, citing urgent matters and hung up the phone. Especially since my daughter Liza was pulling me by the hem of my home pants and handing me her favorite book—’Neznaika on the Moon.’ She’s only five years old, Liza can’t read yet, but she loves listening.
We just got to the place where Neznaika and Ponchik landed on the moon when my phone rang again. Lera was on the display. Here we go…My intuition did not fail me:
‘Pity, huh? Will you go broke without this money?’ Valeria attacked me without greetings.
‘Consider it exactly so,’ I calmly answered. ‘As your older sister, I strongly recommend you curb your appetites. If you can’t afford the flagship model of phones, leave that idea for more appropriate times. That’s all…’
‘It’s all your Denis stirring the waters,’ declared Lera. ‘He makes such money but doesn’t want to help me out.’
‘Don’t look into his wallet, Denis works like Papa Carlo for the good of the family. And you can’t manage without ‘give me’ like without gingerbread cookies.’
This sharp remark clearly didn’t sit well with Valeria:
‘I work too! But it’s not my fault that I have a small salary, only enough for renting an apartment. And you have an extra income from renting it out.’
‘That’s reasonable. Or do you need reminding why grandma gave me the apartment?,’ I smirked.
Actually, grandma gave me the apartment because she loved me very much. But there was another factor. After our father, her son, passed away, grandma Lyuba became very weak. I was in college at the time, Lera was finishing school. Grandma constantly needed help, as she simply couldn’t manage on her own. I even moved in with her because my sister immediately declared that she didn’t find herself behind garages, she’s not the ‘Red Cross’ and didn’t want to ruin her youth taking care of an old woman.
In the end, the deed was written in my name, which caused black envy in my sister. She long complained and whined about it, but nothing could be done, everyone got exactly what they deserved.
By the way, mom also passionately supported Valeria. When I married Denis, we lived in my apartment for a while, and then we built a big house in the suburbs. We achieved this thanks to incredible efforts, painstaking work, and a bunch of loans at the bank. Otherwise, it’s simply unrealistic for ordinary people to build a solid two-story house, no matter how you twist it.
Lera, however, considered that the apartment was not entirely deservedly given to me, as if it was she, not me, who spent a colossal amount of time by our sick grandmother.
Mom was very upset with Denis and me for not giving Lera money for a new phone. Interestingly, what benefit is there in all this story for her—a paradox, indeed.
Mom’s resentment was so strong that she didn’t even come to Liza’s birthday. Interestingly, what’s the child to blame? Especially since she was so looking forward to grandma, constantly asking me:
‘Mom, when will Grandma Natasha come? She promised me a talking doll…’
‘There’s another doll involved, also a talking one,’ Denis joked, obviously hinting at Lera. ‘What doll are you talking about?’
Liza began to explain in detail to her father what doll she wanted. Denis nodded, winked at us, and went somewhere. He returned with a huge toy, almost as tall as Liza herself.
‘Here you go!’ he handed the doll to Liza. ‘I met your Grandma Natasha in town, she apologized, said she couldn’t make it, but sent you this gift.’
Liza happily clapped her hands and rushed to her room to introduce the doll to her other toys.
‘I think we shouldn’t involve the child in our adult affairs,’ Denis declared. ‘Let it be this way—Liza is happy and thank God. And if your relatives don’t understand something, that’s their business.’
I looked at my husband with happy eyes. What a wonderful man I have! Smart, generous, and very judicious. Several months passed, and Mom and Lera didn’t contact me at all. I felt a bit uneasy, but I didn’t want to call first. Then I would admit my guilt, and I definitely didn’t consider myself guilty.
Denis reassured me, saying that it was a temporary phenomenon, soon Mom and Lera would make themselves known.
‘Is it the first time or what?’ my husband told me. ‘Remember how it happens. First, they provoke a conflict, getting a cold shoulder, they get offended, then they cool down, everything goes back to normal.’
‘That’s true,’ I nodded in agreement. ‘I’m not a little girl to be manipulated like that. And Lera has long needed to learn to live independently. She thinks everyone owes her in this life, but that’s not the case.’
‘What am I talking about?’ Denis took my hand. ‘They’ll definitely call, don’t worry. It’s just a matter of time, nothing more.’
Lera did indeed call on Saturday morning, but what she told me smelled of some absurdity.
‘We’ll be coming soon, evict the tenants from the rental apartment,’ my sister declared.
‘Who’s we?’ I didn’t understand. ‘Valeria, do you have a fever? What are you talking about? On what grounds are you planning to evict tenants from my apartment?’
The signal that Valeria had ended the conversation was my response. I sat down on the sofa, trying to figure out what that was. Strange Lera—to be neither seen nor heard for a significant amount of time, then to set some ultimatums. I spent about 10 minutes in thought.
I scratched the bridge of my nose, got up to go to the kitchen, and the phone rang again. This time it was Valentina Vorontsova, the kindest woman who had been renting my apartment for several years with her husband, Aristarch.
‘Hello, Tanya,’ she began anxiously. ‘Sorry to call, but some young girl is literally barging into the apartment. She has a small dog with her, and she also has two large sports bags. She says she’s your sister…’
‘How did she introduce herself?’ I asked briefly.
‘As Valeria,’ Valentina answered. ‘She claimed you were aware and wouldn’t object to her evicting us. Please tell me, for what reason have my husband and I fallen into such disfavor? We always pay the rent on time, keep things clean and orderly…’
‘There are no complaints against you,’ I replied. ‘This girl could very well be my sister Valeria, but she definitely shouldn’t be there. In any case, wait, try not to worry. Denis and I will come soon, and we’ll sort this out.’
Denis had been standing opposite me, attentively listening to my phone conversation. He had long understood everything:
‘What, did Lera show up? Trying to seize the apartment?’
‘Exactly,’ I responded. ‘She nearly scared the poor Vorontsovs to death. We need to go. Only there’s nowhere to leave Liza. Taking her with us is definitely not an option.’
‘Why don’t you ask the neighbor Marina to watch her,’ Denis suggested. ‘She also has a daughter; they’ll play for a couple of hours.’
That’s what I did. Marina warmly welcomed Liza, assured me that everything would be fine. Denis and I got into the car and rushed to the apartment where Lera had caused a commotion. Already on the first floor, it was possible to hear how the younger sister was shouting:
‘This is my apartment, understand? It accidentally ended up with Tanya, due to a misunderstanding. So pack your things and get out of the apartment. Chapa and I will live here.’
Who is this Chapa anyway? In any case, we needed to hurry, the neighbors might call the police any minute, and I really didn’t want that. Although if it comes to extreme measures…
I opened the apartment door with my set of keys. Indeed, on the landing were two large sports bags. Interesting, how did frail Lera drag them here? But that’s beside the point. Denis and I entered, and the following scene presented itself—the Vorontsovs were stunned, blocking the entrance to the apartment, while my sister stood in the corridor with some pug in her arms. That must have been the infamous Chapa.
‘Hello, Aristarch, Valentina,’ I greeted them. ‘Hello Lera. What’s going on here?’
Everyone started talking at once, creating such chaos that I could barely understand what the matter was. It was only clear that my sister decided to turn my tenants’ home into a ‘Teremok’, evict these people, and live there herself. I wonder by what right?
‘Valeria, what’s the matter? By what right are you commanding here?’ I asked my younger sister sternly. ‘This is my apartment, you know that perfectly well.’
‘I have nowhere to live!’ Lera declared. ‘Chapa and I were kicked out for non-payment; we can’t just go to the station.’
‘And you couldn’t think of anything better than to barge in here and scare people,’ I scoffed. ‘Well, that’s totally expected of you, well done.’
‘I’m your sister!’ Lera brought up a significant argument. ‘What, you’ll leave your sister on the street, while these people will live here?’
‘These people have paid six months in advance,’ I replied. ‘They always do that. Next. You’re now taking your bags and going to mom’s.’
‘And what if I don’t?’ Lera challenged.
And then Denis impressed me once again. He took out his phone and dialed someone:
‘Mihalych? Hello…Denis is bothering you. Do you have a camera free? For whom? There’s a wild one here. Encroached on my wife’s property. When will you come? Excellent, waiting.’
Lera realized who Denis was calling, dashed to the exit, only her heels sparkled. When the conflict was exhausted, I cautiously asked my husband:
‘What kind of acquaintances do you have in the police? You never told me about them.’
Denis showed me his phone—it was completely dead.
‘It was a joke!’ he laughed. ‘But it worked, didn’t it?’
I laughed too. Wow, indeed my Denis is an extremely resourceful person, that can’t be taken away from him. Mom and sister no longer call me, but I’m no longer worried. Silence is better than such crazy actions.
