— «This is just some slop!» Nina Ivanovna slammed her spoon down on the table.
Her daughter-in-law, Nastya, blushed and ran out from the table.
— «And under which fence did you find this ugly duck?!» Nina Ivanovna looked at her son, Sergey.
— «She’s not an ugly duck, she’s my wife,» Sergey calmly replied.
Every time she met her daughter-in-law, Nina Ivanovna was simply seething with hatred! Everything was wrong! The food—slop! The house—a mess! Anastasia herself—always unkempt and dressed as if from a second-hand store!
Sergey tried to explain that by insulting his wife, his mother was also insulting him. But Nina Ivanovna refused to listen!
— «I will see to it that my son has a worthy wife! Not this rude, uneducated simpleton!» Nina Ivanovna screamed.
By nature, Sergey was a non-confrontational person and tried to resolve disputes peacefully. And now, once again, he tried to calm his mother.
— «Mom, this is my life, and I chose my wife myself! I love Nastya.»
— «What do you know about love?!» Nina Ivanovna interrupted. — «What do you know about family?! Before the wedding, you were supposed to introduce her to me! That’s the tradition! My parents chose my husband for me, as the elders in the family know better what kind of wife a son needs, as they raised him!» Nina Ivanovna gasped with rage, — «And you! You found this one… on some patch and even married her! Without family or dowry! I raised you, spared no effort! If your father had lived, he would have given you a piece of his mind!»
Sergey grimaced. He remembered well how he stood in the corner for the slightest fault and got «what he deserved» for any misstep. And his mother got it from him sometimes too.
Such upbringing neither embittered nor suppressed him. Sergey endured, but already in childhood, he decided that his family would be different.
He was not offended by his parents and respected them, but believed that a modern family should have a different order.
From childhood, his mother tried to instill in him the idea that he should marry a very prestigious and preferably wealthy girl with influential parents. And she constantly meddled in his personal life, suggesting ambitious girls who knew the value of everything and were ready to climb the ladder from husbands to the highest point possible.
But Sergey was looking for that warm and tender feeling. He was looking for mutual love. He needed a cozy family, not a doll with only thoughts about money.
He met Anastasia at university, and they hid their relationship for a long time. Nastya had come to the city from the countryside, where she only had an older brother.
A simple and calm girl, not spoiled by a wealthy life, captivated Sergey with her openness and lack of mercenary views towards men.
— «You’re not listening to me again!» his mother continued to lament. — «I will lay down my bones, but you will not live with this hopeless orphan!»
— «Mom… stop. Enough!» Sergey couldn’t take it anymore and pointed her to the exit.
Nina Ivanovna got ready to leave.
— «In short, I give you a week to get divorced. I have said everything!» she concluded and, slamming the door, left.
Sergey was very upset and hurt by Nina Ivanovna. He entered the room and saw Nastya packing her things.
— «What are you doing?!» he froze.
— «I’m leaving, Sergey,» his wife answered in a colorless tone. — «Nina Ivanovna won’t let us live. I can’t listen to this anymore. I’ll go back to the village, live according to my status. Please, sleep in another room. Thank you.»
Nastya slammed the door in front of his nose and locked it. No matter how hard Sergey tried, she wouldn’t let him in. In desperation, Sergey went to the guest sofa and fell asleep there, hoping his wife would cool down and reconsider.
The alarm woke him up. Sergey rarely woke up to it, as each of his mornings started differently. His wife would wake him with a gentle kiss and invite him to a delicious breakfast.
— «Beloved?!» Sergey shouted. But there was no answer. He got up and looked around. The dirty dishes were still on the table. Nastya had indeed left.
— «It’s nothing serious,» Sergey reassured himself, — «After work, I’ll go to her job with flowers. We’ll have a romantic dinner, reconcile. And I’ll deal with my mother somehow.»
Leaving the mess in the kitchen, Sergey put on a crumpled shirt and went to work. All day he tried to call his wife, but to no avail. Sergey left work early and went to Nastya.
— «She worked until lunch and left, on vacation, they say,» the security guard at the entrance replied. Sergey scratched the back of his head with one hand: in the other, he held a bouquet of roses. Although at the store they asked him what flowers his wife liked, he couldn’t remember. So he took the universal choice, roses.
Anastasia didn’t respond to calls and messages.
Arriving home, Sergey surveyed the room. Without Nastya, the apartment was dark, stuffy, and unbearably depressing. And still not cleaned…
Taking out his phone, he called his boss.
— «Sorry, family circumstances! I need to leave urgently.»
Hanging up the phone, Sergey took off his tie, rolled up his sleeves, and started washing the dishes. After cleaning the apartment and changing clothes, he set off to find his wife.
— «I’m telling you for the last time!» Sergey banged on the table where Nina Ivanovna was sitting. — «Give me her address!»
— «If she left, it means she doesn’t love you!» his mother, barely hiding her joy, tried to reason with her son. She worked in «the authorities» and had the opportunity to find out the address of Anastasia’s brother, but firmly did not want to do so.
«Why did I come to her again?» Sergey thought. — «She’s so attached.»
He wanted to say many loud and rude phrases, but suddenly he let go.
Sergey handed his mother the bouquet of roses bought for his wife and quietly said:
— «Thank you, Mom, for everything. Goodbye. Forget and forgive us.»
— «What do you mean, goodbye?! Seryozhenka?!» Nina shouted, but it was too late. She irritably threw out the bouquet and decided that she would never forgive her son for such an act.
Sergey did not sleep all night, and the next morning, he went searching.
Besides the name of the village, Sergey had no information. He drove around the village for three hours, looking for the brother’s house under Nastya’s maiden name, asking everyone.
— «Excuse me, are you Alexey, by any chance?» he addressed a man chopping wood on the street.
— «Alexey,» the man answered grimly.
— «And I’m Sergey. Your sister’s husband.»
— «You better get out of here while you still can, Seryozhenka!»
— «I won’t leave without my wife,» Sergey confidently said.
— «We’ll see about that…» Alexey began swinging the axe.
At that moment, Anastasia came out of the house and, seeing Sergey, froze.
— «Lёsha, stop!» she yelled at her brother. He waved his hand and left.
— «Sort it out yourself, sister.»
— «Please forgive me, Nastya!» Sergey handed her a bouquet of wildflowers he had bought from an old lady on the road. — «I still don’t know what your favorite flowers are…»
— «These are my favorite…» she said and accepted the flowers. — «By the way, your mother called.»
Sergey tensed.
— «Why?»
— «She said she’s cutting off all contact with you and if her son is still of interest to me, I can take him for myself!»
— «Am I of interest?» Sergey asked with a smile.
— «I don’t know,» Anastasia playfully stretched out and, smiling, took the arm of now only her man.
