«If you leave with the children now, I won’t take you back,» Tatiana Petrovna shrieked. «Just so you know: I will bequeath the apartment to an animal shelter!»
«Do what you want,» I replied wearily. «But we won’t stay here a second longer.»
My world crumbled in an instant. Just yesterday, Alexey and I, with our three children, were planning where to go on vacation, happy that we had finally saved enough for the first mortgage payment and could finally move out of the rental apartment.
But today, the whole world lost its colors and smells, shrinking to the size of a room with faded wallpaper. Joy and love for life were draining from me in a thin stream, and each morning began 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 are we going to live without… daddy,» whispered my eldest son, Miron.
«I don’t know, sweetheart,» a storm churned inside me, and tears were about to break through the dam. «We have each other, we will cope.»
«How will we tell Nastya that there’s no daddy anymore?»
«I don’t know,» Miron and Sveta, my older ones, knew about the sorrow. Nastya was only four years old, she was daddy’s little princess. We were afraid to tell her about the misfortune.
I turned back to the wall again. At eye level on the wallpaper, there was a heart drawn. «I love Lisa,» said the inscription under the heart. When we first rented this apartment, Alexey drew it and declared that this way 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?» Tatiana Petrovna, Alexey’s mother, suggested on the ninth day.
«Okay,» honestly, I didn’t care what was happening.
«We will be good together,» my mother-in-law hugged me for the first time in 12 years of acquaintance.
Then it seemed to me that now I had someone to share the grief with. Tatiana Petrovna lost a son, I – a husband. Alexey was a wonderful, caring, and responsible man, able to turn any trouble into a joke. Previously, Tatiana Petrovna and I had little communication: 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 a piece of wallpaper with the heart – and moved in with my mother-in-law.
At first, everything was fine. Tatiana Petrovna lived alone in a four-room apartment. She allocated two small bedrooms for us. In one – Miron and Sveta, in the other – Nastya and I.
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. Because then we would have 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?» Tatiana Petrovna looked at us ingratiatingly.
«Yes, I like everything!» Miron immediately occupied the second tier of the bunk bed.
«These shelves are mine, and these are yours,» declared Sveta, opening the wardrobe.
My mother-in-law smiled contentedly. In Nastya’s and my room, there was a sofa, a dresser, and a computer desk: Tatiana Petrovna knew that I tutored remotely. I took on more students now, and all that money went to food.
«Thank you so much,» for the first time in these days, I smiled, and the world stopped collapsing.
«You’re welcome, we’re family,» Tatiana Petrovna smiled back.
«We’ve invaded your space, disrupted your normal life. Please tell me about the rules that are accepted in your home.»
«Oh, Lizonka, I wasn’t wrong when I said 12 years ago that you would be a wonderful wife,» tears welled up in Tatiana Petrovna’s eyes.
The rules turned out to be simple. In the mornings – mandatory exercise, then – breakfast. Now, while it’s summer, after breakfast, the children could walk for an hour or two, and then – lessons. So they wouldn’t forget what they had learned in school. Tatiana Petrovna even bought interesting educational books! After lunch, Tatiana Petrovna usually slept, so it was forbidden for the children to make noise. And – everything should be in its place.
«Lisa, why didn’t you put the vegetable oil in the refrigerator?» — complaints started exactly two weeks after our move.
«It’s a habit, at home we do it this way.»
«In my house, vegetable oil is always stored in the refrigerator.»
The next complaint concerned morning exercises. The kids were lazy in the mornings to exercise, but they compensated for it in sports sections. Tatiana Petrovna was a fan of a healthy lifestyle, and every morning, regardless of the weather, she went for a run that ended on the playground with outdoor exercise equipment.
«Mama, I don’t mind the morning run,» Miron sadly said. – Just… not at six in the morning.
«Son, I understand, but this is Tatiana Petrovna’s house, and we must follow her rules.»
«Even such stupid ones?»
«Sweetheart, give me some time, I’ll recover, find a job, we’ll buy our own apartment.»
Yes, we couldn’t move out from Tatiana Petrovna’s: there was no money for rent, and I couldn’t get a job. After college, I only worked for two years. Then Miron was born, a year and a half later – Sveta, then – Nastya… Yes, there was a side job, tutoring, but as Alexey used to say, «for pins.» My parents were far away, seven hours by car. Along with them lived my elder brother.
«Lisa, you’ve become so lazy! It’s autumn outside, and you only mop the floors once a day!» Tatiana Petrovna spat venom. – Your children have been stomping since the morning, dirt all over the apartment!
«I washed both the floor and the shoes after your morning run,» I tried to defend myself.
«Then you have hands growing out of the wrong place,» my mother-in-law cut off.
Other complaints sounded at lunch.
«Lisa, you’ve oversalted the soup again!» the mother-in-law complained. In fact, that wasn’t true.
«Tatiana Petrovna, today I actually undersalted the soup,» I tried to defend myself. And reminded. – Today everyone added salt to their plates.
«Don’t lie!» Tatiana Petrovna didn’t want to hear any objections. – Then it’s your children who put salt for me!
Miron and Sveta’s eyes widened in astonishment, and Nastya even asked.
«Mama, why does grandma lie?»
«I?! Lying?! What are you teaching the children, ungrateful?! I took you in, and you!..»
«But we really didn’t do anything,» Miron indignantly tried to justify.
«Liar! If you don’t like living here – get out!»
Sveta cried: she’s 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 – make mischief!
«Tatiana Petrovna, I have well-mannered children, kind, honest. You are unfair to them!»
«Well, who’s talking! You’re like a cuckoo mother, dumped your offspring on me, and now you’re also 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 runs!»
«I never even thought of that!»
«Oh sure! And the salt? Why is my food always oversalted?»
«Tatiana Petrovna, I don’t understand what you’re talking about!»
It only got worse. Whatever I did, everything was bad. Tatiana Petrovna, in front of the children, did not hesitate to throw mud at me. The children and I, having survived severe stress associated with Alexey’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! The daughter hid behind the sofa and whispered with dolls about how a witch yelled at her. Sveta and Miron started performing worse in school: Tatiana Petrovna had a habit of bursting into their room and causing scandals.
The imagination of this woman, apparently, was boundless.
«You want to drive me out of my own apartment!»
So screamed the mother-in-law, if one of the children put something not in its place. For example, a cup not on the left on the shelf, but on the right.
«You’re poisoning me!» – Sveta received children’s perfumes as a gift, and the daughter sprayed them on herself once.
«You sat on my neck and dangled your legs!»
For the third month, I was buying food for the children and my mother-in-law with the money from tutoring. The cheapest, without extravagances. To be honest, I often went without lunch and dinner myself – just so the kids were full. The mother-in-law paid the utility bills. She bought delicacies and sweets and demonstratively ate them alone.
«Look at her, what a lazybones, playing all day on the computer, better she’d at least do a proper cleaning once!»
I spent two hours every day cleaning. But not because the children were littering, but because the mother-in-law didn’t think it necessary to wash her own dishes, ate on the couch in the hall, walked around the apartment in shoes. But she reminded several times a day about «cleaning.»
«Oh yeah, my son chose a wife. Lazy, ugly, quarrelsome, she drove Alexey to the other side…»
One day I came home and heard such lamentations of the mother-in-law. She complained to someone about how hard it is to live with a daughter-in-law.
«Oh, she showed up, not dusty. It’s been half a year, and she’s already wagging her tail. Neither shame nor conscience.»
I locked myself in the room and dialed a friend’s number. After college, she returned to her native village, worked at a school, and we communicated only by phone.
«Lizonka, hello, darling. How are you?»
«Nadya, everything is bad… I can’t bear life without Alexey, the mother-in-law is driving me crazy. And there’s nowhere to go…»
«Lisa, come to me. Yesterday, the English teacher resigned in the middle of the quarter.»
«Who will take me, I’ve hardly worked!»
«Lisa, they will take you! Our deputy director and director are worldly people! They’ll help in everything. There’s also official housing. It’s quiet, calm – you’ll like it. You tutor, 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 the loss of Alexey, and now the prospect of losing the familiar environment, pulling the children out of school in the middle of the quarter, and moving somewhere unknown was dawning.
«Lisa!» screamed the mother-in-law in the kitchen. – Where have you been wandering all day?! I’m hungry, and it doesn’t even smell like lunch! Look, they’ve imposed themselves on my head! Damn villains! And who allowed you to eat my sausage?!»
That was the last straw.
«Nadya, give me the deputy director’s or director’s phone number…»
«Lizok, don’t worry, I’ll put you on speaker now!»
«Hello, Lisa, I’m Ekaterina Ivanovna, the school director. Nadezhda Leonidovna told me about you, I know you haven’t worked in school for long. Don’t worry, next year we’ll upgrade your category, this year I’ll find a way to give you extra payments. Just come! » – the director’s voice sounded as gentle as a mother’s.
«Okay…»
«We have a service car. Tomorrow morning the driver is going to your city, can stop by for you. He’ll be free around three. Will you have time to pack?»
«Yes, of course!»
Honestly, I was glad that they decided an important issue for me – organizing the move. And we had surprisingly few things.
At the school where Miron and Sveta studied, they were surprised at my decision, then explained how and when I could get the children’s documents. Miron’s homeroom teacher lamented that her precious treasure (that’s what she called my son) was leaving.
Less than a day after the phone call, I was already loading things into the car. When the mother-in-law learned that I was leaving, she spat venom, spewing such curses that my ears curled in shame.
«Just so you know, traitor, if you walk out the 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 Tatiana Petrovna to sit with her grandson, but she declared that she wasn’t hired as a nanny.
«And the apartment… Just so you know: I will bequeath the apartment to an animal shelter!»
«Do what you want,» I replied wearily. – 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 terrible months, and said goodbye to my mother-in-law.
«Get out,» Tatiana Petrovna pursed her lips and then spat after me.
«Liza! You’ve arrived! Hooray!» – Nadya was almost jumping with joy. – Yesterday, colleagues and I went to your apartment. We washed the floors, dusted… There are boxes – take a look, if you need anything, feel free to use it. Everything will be enough for the first time. About furniture… I’m sorry, but we can only help with the furniture in a month.
We were allocated a three-room apartment in a small panel house for four owners. From furniture – two old sofas, an old wardrobe, a dining table and a cooking table in the kitchen, and a refrigerator. It seemed to be even older than me.
In the boxes, there was a single-burner stove, an electric kettle, dishes, curtains, bed linen. Colleagues also left me a brand-new pearl-pink bucket, a mop, and an incredibly beautiful desk lamp. The apartment really shone with cleanliness. Even the windows!
«Mama, at least no one will reproach us with a piece of bread, right?» – Sveta declared, looking around.
«Daughter, I’m worried about you, whether you can find new friends.»
«Of course, we can!» – Miron confidently replied. – It’s not wild steppes, look how big the school is!
That same day, I submitted my documents at the school. There were weekends ahead, so I could spend a couple of days studying the program and trying to remember the teaching methodology.
«Mama, let’s tell fortunes today!» – Sveta suggested.
«What’s that?»
«You need to put a comb under the pillow and say: ‘Let the bridegroom dream of the bride at the new place!'»
«Where am I, a mother of three children, to play the bride?» – 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. First, Alexey came to me in a dream. We were walking through a meadow, and I could literally smell the aromas of the grass.
«Lizonka, my dear. I’m sorry that I left so early. I will try to always be with you, to support you, to help.»
«Aleshenka, I’m so sad… 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!» – Alexey pointed somewhere, but there was nothing there.
«Where?..» – I turned to him. His hand was still warm in mine, but he himself had melted away like mist.
And then another man approached me in the dream. 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 rumbled, rain began, and the man caringly draped a jacket over my shoulders.
I woke up from the thunder: the storm was raging not only in my dream but also in reality, outside the window. I closed the window and saw that Sveta was also awake.
«Did you have a dream?» – I asked.
«Yes, about dad. We were walking through the field, he introduced me to Maxim.»
«Which Maxim?»
«It’s a boy. He’s a year older than me, redhead.»
«Do you know him?»
«Not yet,» – Sveta shrugged.
On Monday, I already started teaching lessons. The very first 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 said with a smile.
«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 quarter was coming to an end. I invited «my» parents (I was given homeroom leadership in the class where Miron studied) to a meeting. I was very nervous. And when parents started coming in and introducing themselves, I barely held back 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 several months ago. So, don’t be too strict with Max and me…»
«I understand you. I also became a widow this summer…»
«If you need any help – just ask. We’re neighbors, after all,» – 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, even tried not to court me!
«Mama, Max and I are going sledding down the hill!» – the second quarter flew by like one day, and my older ones quickly made friends with the local kids. Sveta found a close friend in the red-haired Max Lukyanenko, and the three of them – with Miron – constantly disappeared somewhere.
«Be careful there!» – I ordered more for the sake of order. There was nothing to worry about: Max was as reliable as his father.
Three hours later, my heart clenched with anxiety. 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.
«Yelizaveta Andreyevna, we were sledding down the hill, and then Miron, Max, and Sveta 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 had broken? 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 look after Nastya. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Dmitry was standing on the doorstep.
«Don’t worry, they’re all right.»
«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 kids had enough of sledding and decided to visit the lake. It was covered with ice, but the winter that year was very mild, constantly fluctuating between thaws and frosts. Sveta 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 Max’s – he lived near the lake.
«Mama, sorry, I won’t do it again!» – the daughter cried.
«Sorry, I didn’t watch my sister well,» – Miron was almost crying.
«I’m sorry, it’s my fault,» – Max sniffled.
Dmitry reported: he changed the children into dry clothes, brewed tea with raspberries, and the 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 crazy,» Dmitry confessed.
«Why?»
«You see, I had a dream about you before that. Walking through a meadow with some man. Then it started to rain. 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 I woke up calm for the first time since…»
«And you appeared in my dream…»
We talked until morning. We remembered our previous families, shared dreams and plans. It was already dawn outside when we finally talked enough.
«You know, today I’m smiling for the first time in a long time. It feels like something bad has ended, and only good things are ahead. 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 hurt you.»
A month later, I met my future mother-in-law, Anna Alekseyevna.
«Lisa, Dima told me that you too have experienced grief,» she began cautiously.
«Yes, around the same time as he did.»
«How fate has arranged… so young!»
«That’s how it happened.»
«Lisa, I know your children – they often come to visit Max for pies,» near Anna Alekseyevna’s eyes twinkled wrinkles. – Wonderful children! And how they appreciate each other!»
«You’re right, they’re my happiness!»
«I think you’ll be happy with Dima…»
The children quickly grew fond of the new grandmother. They immediately started calling her: grandma. And they very quickly called Dima dad – by themselves. Anna Alekseyevna dotes on the grandchildren – all of them. And I gladly call her mom.
Dima 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 bigger: six months ago, twins Antoshka and Lyudochka were born. I plan to return to school in the new academic year: Ekaterina Petrovna promised «to come up with something» so I could combine motherhood and work.
And you know, I’m sure: with a caring husband, wonderful children, and an incredible mother-in-law, we’ll make it!
