Nastya laid her new swimsuits out on the bed—three of them, each prettier than the last. A light blue one with white polka dots, a black one with bright tropical prints, and an elegant navy-blue one. She had bought them a month earlier, as soon as Oleg had finally agreed to the trip.
“Can you imagine, Oleg?” she said excitedly, stroking the silky fabric of her pareo. “Ten days by the sea! A real sea, not the river near the dacha. I’ve been dreaming about this for so long…”
Oleg sat in an armchair scrolling through the news, occasionally glancing at his wife. He was forty-two, and Nastya was thirty-eight. They had been married for seventeen years, and he still did not understand why vacations excited her so much. Their dacha was perfectly pleasant—peace and quiet, their own vegetable garden, and the bathhouse every Saturday. Why travel somewhere and waste money?
“It was a good discount,” he said placatingly. “Forty percent off the regular price.”
“Exactly!” Nastya sat down beside him on the bed. “And it’s a four-star hotel with all-inclusive meals. Oleg, we haven’t gone anywhere together in such a long time…”
For the past three years, they had spent their vacations at their dacha outside Moscow. Oleg considered it the sensible choice: they saved money, he could take care of things around the property, and Nastya got to relax too, after all. Admittedly, she spent most of her time cooking and tending the garden, but at least she was out in the fresh air.
Nastya worked as a senior accountant for a construction company. There was always plenty of work, especially at the end of each quarter, when she stayed late checking reports and correcting her subordinates’ mistakes. Sometimes Oleg would find her sitting at the kitchen table at eleven at night, finishing something on her laptop while absentmindedly sipping tea that had long since gone cold.
“I’m tired, Oleg,” she would tell him. “So tired that sometimes I feel as though I have no strength left at all.”
Still, she had managed to persuade him to buy the vacation package. Two weeks earlier, she had come home glowing with happiness.
“That’s it—the tickets are booked! We’re flying out on July twenty-fifth!”
Oleg had merely nodded. They had already set the money aside, and the discount really was good. Maybe the trip would be worthwhile after all.
Now, watching her prepare, he had almost made peace with the upcoming journey. Nastya was happy, and her happiness had always had a calming effect on him.
The doorbell interrupted their peaceful vacation preparations.
“It’s Mom,” Oleg said after looking through the peephole. “She’s early today.”
Valentina Petrovna appeared in the doorway carrying a heavy bag, her face looking weary. She was seventy-one, and in recent years she had often complained about her health.
“Come in, Mom.” Oleg helped her take off her coat. “How are you? How are you feeling?”
“What can I say, son?” Valentina Petrovna lowered herself heavily onto the sofa. “I had to call an ambulance last week. My heart seized up so badly that I thought that was it—the end.”
Nastya froze with the pareo in her hands. There was something familiar about her mother-in-law’s tone.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?” Oleg asked anxiously. “What did the doctors say?”
“What could they say?” Valentina Petrovna waved dismissively. “They said it was my age. My blood pressure keeps jumping, and my heart is acting up. They prescribed medication, but it’s so expensive… And they recommended something else too. They said I should go to the seaside and breathe the sea air. Apparently, it’s very good for the heart.”
Nastya felt everything inside her tighten. She knew her mother-in-law well enough to understand that this conversation had not come out of nowhere.
“To the seaside?” Oleg repeated.
“Yes.” His mother sighed. “But how could I possibly afford it, son? My pension is tiny, and vacation packages are so expensive these days… I suppose an old woman like me simply isn’t destined to see the sea.”
Silence settled over the room. Nastya looked at her husband, hoping he would recognize his mother’s game. But Oleg sat there with a concerned expression, clearly deep in thought.
“Mom, when did you find out about our vacation?” Nastya asked quietly.
“Oleg told me last week when he called,” Valentina Petrovna replied innocently. “I was so happy for you. Young people need to rest and enjoy themselves.”
“That must have been when she called the ambulance,” Nastya thought, but she said nothing aloud.
“Mom,” Oleg said slowly, “what if… what if you went instead of Nastya? The package has already been paid for. We would only need to change the name.”
Nastya felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
“Oleg, what are you saying?” Valentina Petrovna waved her hands. “How could I possibly do that? It was supposed to be like a second honeymoon for the two of you, and I’d be there with all my ailments… No, no, I won’t hear of it.”
“Mom, come on.” Oleg moved closer to her. “What second honeymoon? We’re not newlyweds. And you genuinely need to improve your health. The doctors said so.”
“Son, I can’t accept such a gift.” Valentina Petrovna shook her head, though a note of agreement had already crept into her voice. “You’re young. You should travel together. There’s nothing left for me in life anyway…”
“Mom, don’t say that.” Oleg took her hand. “You’re the only mother I have, and your health is more important than any vacation.”
Nastya stood motionless, watching the performance. Her mother-in-law alternated between refusing and accepting, while Oleg became increasingly insistent. Neither of them even looked in Nastya’s direction.
“Well, all right,” Valentina Petrovna finally surrendered. “Since you insist… But I feel so awkward about it. Nastya, dear, you don’t mind, do you?”
Nastya slowly raised her eyes. Her mother-in-law was looking at her with an expression of feigned guilt, while something resembling triumph gleamed in her eyes.
“I…” Nastya began, then stopped. “I need to think about it.”
“What is there to think about?” Oleg exclaimed. “Mom is ill, and the doctors recommended the seaside. We’re not monsters.”
Nastya went into the kitchen and mechanically began washing dishes that were already clean. The conversation continued in the living room. Oleg was explaining something about the hotel, while his mother gasped with delight and thanked him.
“I’ve put up with this for seventeen years,” Nastya thought as she furiously dried a plate. “For seventeen years, she’s managed to get anything she wants from him. And what about me? I’m always expected to give in, to understand, to be the sensible one.”
She remembered how Valentina Petrovna had suddenly fallen ill the previous year, just before Nastya and Oleg were supposed to visit friends at their country house. Three years earlier, she had suffered a heart episode on the very day Nastya was going to attend a company party. Something always happened whenever her son’s attention was occupied by something—or someone—else.
That evening, after Valentina Petrovna had left looking pleased and happy, Nastya could no longer contain herself.
“Oleg, do you understand what just happened?”
“What happened?” He looked at his wife in surprise. “Mom is sick. She needs to go to the seaside. We did the right thing.”
“Oleg, she did it deliberately!” Nastya sat down beside him on the sofa. “Can’t you see that? As soon as she found out about our vacation, she called an ambulance.”
“Nastya, how can you say that?” Oleg frowned. “Mom is ill. Her heart…”
“Her heart has been bad for twenty years! And it always gets especially bad whenever she wants something from you.”
Oleg stood up and walked over to the window.
“Is it really so difficult to give your vacation package to my mother?” her husband asked, shaking his head disapprovingly. “She’s an elderly woman, Nastya. This might be her last chance to see the sea.”
“And what about my chance to rest?” Nastya’s voice trembled. “I work twelve-hour days, come home half-dead, and spend my weekends cooking, doing laundry, and cleaning. When do I get to rest, Oleg?”
“You rest at the dacha.”
“At the dacha, I cook for your friends, weed the garden beds, and wash dishes! That isn’t rest!”
Oleg turned toward her. There was genuine incomprehension in his eyes, which was the worst part of all.
“Nastya, a vacation isn’t the most important thing in life. Helping Mom’s health is important. I’ve already made my decision. I’ll transfer the ticket into her name tomorrow. Besides, Mom agreed, so it must be the right thing to do.”
He headed toward the door.
“Oleg, wait…”
“This discussion is over,” he said without turning around. “And there’s no need to make a scene.”
The door slammed shut. Nastya was left alone in the living room where, only an hour earlier, she had been planning her long-awaited vacation.
The following day, Oleg busily handled the changes to the travel documents. Valentina Petrovna arrived early in the morning and discussed the details of the trip with her son. She was unusually animated and spoke at length about the benefits of sea air for elderly people.
“Nastya, dear,” she said to her daughter-in-law, “you aren’t angry with me, are you? I feel so terrible for depriving you of your vacation…”
“It’s fine,” Nastya replied coldly.
“You’re so understanding,” her mother-in-law said fondly. “I’ve always told Oleg how lucky he is to have you as his wife.”
On the day of their departure, Nastya saw them off to the taxi. Oleg hugged her goodbye.
“Don’t get lonely,” he said. “Rest at home and catch up on your sleep.”
“Get some rest,” Valentina Petrovna echoed. “My son and I will bring you some seashells from the beach.”
Nastya silently waved goodbye. The car disappeared around the corner, and she slowly went back upstairs to the apartment.
Her swimsuits were still lying on the bed in the bedroom—the light blue one with polka dots, the black one with tropical prints, and the navy-blue one. Nastya stared at them for a long time, then walked over to the computer.
The travel agency’s website loaded instantly. Packages to the same hotel now cost twice as much—there was no discount, and it was the height of the season. Nastya looked at the price and gave a bitter smile. Then she opened her banking app.
There was money in their joint account that they had been saving for a kitchen renovation. Oleg wanted to replace the tiles and buy new cabinets. Nastya transferred the amount she needed to her card and paid for the trip.
Her flight was in two days.
She bought new sunglasses, a beautiful beach bag, and a light summer dress she had wanted for a long time but had never dared to purchase because it was too expensive. Now she was no longer trying to save money.
On the plane, settled into a window seat, Nastya switched her phone to airplane mode. There were three missed calls from Oleg and two messages. She did not read them.
Below her, white, fluffy clouds drifted past, just like the ones she had dreamed about as a child. Nastya leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. In four hours, she would be by the sea.
Her sea.
She would think later about what would happen when she returned. Or perhaps she would not return at all. She had vacation time, money in the bank, and a profession that would allow her to find work in any city.
For now, the plane was carrying her toward the sound of waves and the warmth of the sun, to a place where no one demanded that she give up her place beneath it to somebody else.
Clouds drifted past the window, and for the first time in many years, Nastya felt truly free.
