«I asked you kindly—watch the son! How can you be so heartless? The child is soaking wet and you’re just staring at the monitor!»
«What are you starting for?» Vadik frowned, glancing over his shoulder at the crib. «The boy is lying there quietly, not crying. Why are you making a fuss?»
«You at all, what?! Do you think if he’s not screaming, he doesn’t need attention?!»
«And what, should I just flip him back and forth?» Vadik smirked and buried his nose back into his laptop. A new project was hanging in the balance, and time was running short—the deadline was burning. And here was Natashka with her quirks—keep an eye out, I need to see a doctor.
«Listen, I’m warning you!» Natalya yanked the back of the computer chair. «You’re going to have to sit with the son, I’m going into the hospital!»
Vadik choked and forgot which keys he had wanted to press.
«What?!» he barked, turning pale. «Are you out of your mind?!»
«I haven’t fallen off a tree!» the wife returned to the crib and picked up the baby. «The doctor said I have a polyp and it needs to be removed urgently! So, darling, you’ll sit with the child—you can’t escape it!»
«And how long do I have to sit with him?» Vadik stretched out, hoping his wife was joking. «Are you sure it’s urgent? Maybe let him grow up a bit and then remove it?» «Are you an idiot?! Who’s going to grow up?!» the young woman yelled at him. «The polyp or Mishenka?! What are you even talking about?!»
«Well, let Mishka grow up and then you can go,» Vadim said uncertainly and glanced sideways at his son. The boy was smacking his lips and trying to catch his mother’s gaze—the child was a month and a half old and didn’t understand anything yet, but felt some kind of unrest. Mishenka furrowed his pale eyebrows and amusingly wrinkled his button nose.
Mom instinctively kissed him on the forehead and stroked his chubby little hand. The boy smelled the familiar scent of his mother’s milk, and a feeling of calm spread through his tiny body. He was about to cry—his bottom was uncomfortably itchy, but mommy quickly solved the problem by changing his overflowing diaper for a clean one.
«Quiet, sunshine, all is well—mommy’s here,» she rocked the baby, and he drifted off to sleep unnoticed.
Vadim sat, staring at one point. He was scared and confused at the same time. The prospect of being alone with the child was even more frightening than a project not handed in on time. How to solve this problem, Vadik did not yet know, but he was not going to give up.
«Nat, don’t make a fuss,» he whispered, trying not to wake the tiny son. «Let your mother sit with him, and I’ll help her!»
Natalya carefully laid Mishenka in the crib, covered him with a thin blanket, admired the boy, and then turned to her husband.
«Let’s go to the kitchen! We need to talk!» hissed Natasha and nodded her head.
«What’s there to talk about?!» Vadik whispered furiously as soon as they were in the kitchen. «Are you out of your mind? How am I supposed to sit with him?!»
«Don’t hiss already! He can’t hear!» the wife put her hands on her hips. «You’ll sit normally, just don’t forget to change his diapers, or his whole bottom will peel off!»
«Are you stupid, Nata?» Vadik gloomily shook his head. «What am I supposed to do with him?»
«Vadik! Don’t start!» the young mother stopped his suffering. «You’ll manage, where are you going to go! You are capable of feeding the child and changing his diaper—you’ll last a couple of days!»
«How many?!» the young dad gasped. «I thought a couple of hours! What, a couple of days?! Are you going to a sanatorium? What are they going to do to you that you need to stay in the hospital so long?!»
«How should I know, Vadya?» she sat down on a stool and hugged herself. «I’m scared myself—the doctor said something. They say if you don’t remove it, it’s unknown what it’ll turn into… Such horrors are written on the internet… I’m very scared.»
«Hey, mother! Don’t make a fuss!» he approached her closer but did not dare to hug her. He knew that she could not stand pity—she did not want to be weak.
«Everything will be fine, Nat!» Vadim said and lightly pulled her ponytailed hair. «We’ll cope! I’ll think of something…»
«Vadik, what can you think of?» Natalya shook her head. «The polyp needs to be removed, even if you burst. There’s no one else to leave Mishka with but you. I’m freaking out for no reason and worrying about my son. What can you think of here? If it needs to be removed, then lie down and don’t think about anything!» confidently said Vadim and hugged her. «Mishka and I won’t perish—are we men or not! Worry a little and start writing a childcare manual! Understood?»
Natalya pressed against him, inhaled his scent, and felt that there was no one dearer to her in the world than Vadik and Mishenka. Unfortunately, her mother had left for a week to the country house in another region, and she did not want to bother her. She was prone to panic over any reason, and here was plenty of room for it—a joke, her daughter was facing surgery…
A few days later, after submitting the necessary analyses and writing a detailed childcare manual, expressing and freezing breast milk, Natalya lay down in the hospital. Vadim drove her there and now sat in the car, glancing at his son. Everyone’s nerves were on edge—the young mother understood that her son was staying not with a stranger, but Vadim was poorly oriented in reality. He was a programmer and everything that happened around him, and not in the monitor, often caused him bewilderment.
The young father had no idea how to cope with a child—almost all responsibilities lay on Natalya’s shoulders. Vadik was only trusted to walk with his son outside, and even then only for a couple of hours. Now, in his understanding, severe trials had come into his life, and he had a poor idea of how to deal with it, but he did not show it.
«Well, bro? Let’s go home, we’ll be fighting with you,» he told his son, lying in a tiny portable cradle. Mishenka’s nose wrinkled, and the child suspiciously grunted.
«Here it begins…», sighed the father and pulled out of the hospital parking lot. «Mikhail! Hang on until we get home! Otherwise, we’ll suffocate!»
He accelerated quickly but carefully—Vadim was carrying the most precious thing his wife had entrusted to him and he could not let her down. Vadim loved Natashka very much, even though she was a bit scatterbrained and unpredictable. They had been married for five years and had not planned to have a child, but Mishka decided that he was very needed by his parents and appeared without asking permission. How it happened, Natasha and Vadik still could not understand—they knew perfectly how to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. If not for a sudden burst of passion that covered them outside the city at friends’ cottage.
That’s where Mishka happened…
At first, they were confused, not knowing what to do with it, but then, seeing the genuine joy in the eyes of their parents, they understood that happiness had knocked on their door not by chance. And Mishenka was born.
He was a healthy and very calm child, just could not stand hunger—the baby would start screaming, like cut, just if the feeding was delayed for a minute.
He demanded his, and Natasha prayed to God that her eardrums would not burst and the neighbors would not file a police report that she was abusing the baby.
And now, while Vadim was driving his son home, he first started grunting, emitting suspicious sounds, and then began to cry. It wasn’t cautious whining—Vadik thought that a siren was turned on at full volume.
«Lord!» he prayed, pressing the gas pedal harder. «Just not this!»
When they got home, Mishka was howling like a sufferer and had no intention of stopping.
«Vadik, what happened to you?» asked a neighbor in the hallway as Vadim rushed past her with the screaming baby in the cradle.
«Oh! Maria Gavrilovna! Don’t even ask!» Vadim threw as he ran into the elevator. «I wish I knew myself!»
When they were in the apartment, Mishenka miraculously shut up and Vadik suspiciously looked at him.
«What’s up, bro?» he tugged the baby’s leg. «Are you alive?»
Misha looked at his father displeased and wrinkled his nose again.
«Alright! Calm down!» the daddy pleaded, taking off his jacket. «I’m coming! Just don’t scream!»
He quickly washed his hands—Misha grunted displeased, warning that he was getting hot and it wouldn’t be bad to take off his jumpsuit.
«Just a sec, bro!» Vadik carefully pulled the baby’s body out of the clothes and realized, judging by the smell, that a surprise awaited him. «Not this! Did you do it on purpose?!»
Rolling his eyes, trying not to breathe, Vadik unpacked the baby, discovered that there was a lot of «surprise» and it couldn’t be managed with just wipes.
«Alright, bro, we’ll have a bath!» said the young dad resolutely, pushing the bathroom door. «How does mom check the water so as not to boil your butt? With an elbow, I guess?»
Somehow managing with the slippery baby’s body, Vadik dried him off, put on a new diaper, and sighed with relief—Mishka lay content and didn’t even squeak.
«Good job, boy!» he praised his son. «I guess, we’re good! Maybe you’ll even let me work, huh?»
Mishenka didn’t think so—it was feeding time and he didn’t know how to postpone it.
«Ah! Here we go!» Vadik shook his head when the son began to whimper and then cried at full volume. «Then lunch! What work here?»
Half an hour later, when Misha finally fell asleep on daddy’s chest, having eaten and burped on his clean T-shirt, Vadim dialed a familiar number and whispered:
«I’m screwed! Come over—I have a burning project and I won’t make the deadline with Mishka! What, are you a woman or what?!»
That same evening, Natalya called her husband and heard strange sounds in the background—a female voice was singing a lullaby.
«Vadim! What’s going on!» she asked sternly. «Who’s in our apartment?!»
«Nobody,» the husband mumbled, and the sounds stopped. «How are you?»
«I’m fine!» Natalya barked. «Don’t sweet-talk me! Answer, whose female voice is singing a song to our child?!»
«Nat, why are you making a fuss?» he said a bit more confidently. «Mishka and I are all good! He’s clean, fed, and contentedly sleeping. Want, turn on the video call! See for yourself that everything’s fine.»
«I’ll turn you on right now!» Natalya flared up, feeling that her husband was lying. «Go around the rooms and show everything! Give me Mishka!»
«Give him the phone?» Vadik was stunned.
«You fool!» the wife fumed. «Show me him!»
«Oh, right now,» the man turned on the camera. «Just don’t get nervous, it’s probably harmful to you…»
«It’ll be harmful for you right now!» she threatened, unwilling to believe her own husband. «What are you even doing there?!»
«Nat, what are you?» Vadik defended himself, showing her the sleeping sonny. «See? The guy’s sleeping—full and content, and you’re waking him up!»
Natalya looked at her son and couldn’t hold back tears—she realized how much she missed him during the few hours spent in the hospital. Everything was already behind, and the doctor said that the patient could go home tomorrow. However, he took a promise from her that she wouldn’t lift the child for several days and then would start taking very careful care of her health.
«Doctor, can I go home today?» Natalya plaintively asked. «I have a tiny son at home…»
«I know,» the doctor smiled, an elderly man in old glasses. «But you, mommy, need rest. You’ll have plenty of time to jump around with your son—life is ahead. And children, if you didn’t know, need a healthy mom, as does a husband to his wife… So, don’t think about leaving before tomorrow. And now—rest! You won’t have this opportunity at home—I know you women!»
Natalya sighed and dialed Vadik’s number. At that moment, she heard a female voice «off-screen.» Now two feelings were fighting in Natalya—she saw that Mishenka was sleeping and everything was fine with him, but something suspicious was in all this, and it very unpleasantly scratched the young woman’s imagination.
«You’re not telling me something, my dear,» a restless thought twirled in Natasha’s head. «Well, let’s see what you sing tomorrow…»
«Alright, Vadik!» she said slyly on the phone. «Let’s until tomorrow, I kiss you!»
«And we you!» the husband hastily replied, glad that it had passed and Natalya quickly believed that everything was fine with them and Mishka. «Tomorrow we’ll pick you up! Write what time!»
That’s where they parted—Natalya lay down in the hospital bed and continued to draw terrible pictures in her head of another woman in her home. Vadim, meanwhile, sat down at the monitor in hopes of finishing the project by morning.
«Are you going to have dinner?» a female voice asked from the kitchen. «Or I wanted to clear everything from the table.»
«Rita, leave everything—I’ll eat and clean up later,» Vadik replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. «I’m burning, I’m done for…»
«Oh, come on, what are you?» the woman chuckled. «You always manage everything…»
Vadim nodded and tapped the keys, listening with one ear to the sounds in the nursery. But, fortunately, the baby was sleeping peacefully, and the father had nothing left but to sigh and fully immerse himself in his work.
Early in the morning, a key turned in the lock, and Natalya carefully entered the apartment. In the hallway, she saw fashionable women’s shoes, and everything inside cooled—she thought exactly what Vadik had lied to her.
«So!» she said loudly, entering the room and seeing her husband’s half-asleep, frightened expression. He sat with red, tired eyes at the laptop and bewilderedly stared at the woman who appeared in the doorway.
«Natasha…» he whispered and rubbed his eyes.
«Not expecting, darling?» she frowned. «What’s up? Caught you off guard?»
«Well, yes,» he mumbled, not knowing what to do. «You were supposed to write when to come for you…»
«I decided not to bother you, dear!» she sneered venomously and went to the nursery. «You have to take care of loved ones, care for them…»
She entered her son’s room—he sweetly slept, snoring lightly and smiling slightly. Natalya adjusted the blanket and tiptoed out. Vadik stood in the middle of the room and guiltily smiled.
«Oh, Natashka!» she heard a familiar female voice from their bedroom. «You’re back already? Well, then I’m leaving, I need to take the kids to school. Andryuha there is fighting with them alone!»
In the doorway of the marital bedroom stood Rita—the wife of Vadik’s older brother. The woman, in her early thirties, stretched and covered a yawn with her hand.
«I pulled out your milk from the freezer, it can be heated already…,» she said slowly, getting ready to leave. «Mishutka almost slept through the night, just fed him at four. Otherwise, everything’s good—your boy is calm, not like our rascals grew up. Had to shake them all night on my arms. So, guys, consider yourself lucky.»
Natalya stood and shifted her gaze from her husband, shifting from foot to foot, to half-asleep Rita. She calmly put on her shoes, kissed Natasha on the cheek, waved to Vadik, and left the apartment.
«What is this?!» finally coming to her senses, Natalya asked insistently in a whisper. «How did Rita end up here?!»
«Well, how, how? Normally!» Vadik hissed back. «Through the door! I asked her to help with Mishka! I have a burning project! How do you imagine—work and sit with a child? I’m not you—I can do everything myself! I have only two hands, not ten! Either he dumps in a diaper, then he wants to drink, then to eat! I had to call Ritka, thankfully Andryuha understood me—he’s an experienced father…»
Natalya exhaustedly collapsed on the sofa and covered her face with her hands.
«Nat, what are you?» Vadik sat down next to her, frightened. «Did it hurt you?»
Natalya began shaking with laughter—she covered her face with her hands and couldn’t stop. Vadik recoiled in fear—he thought his wife had slightly lost her mind.
«Vadya, I’m stupid!» stopping for a second and wiping away tears, she said. «I thought you dragged some other woman into our house! I thought you had a mistress and she was rocking our child while I was away! Imagine, how stupid I am?!»
Vadik’s eyes widened, not understanding how seriously she was speaking.
«What mistress?! Are you out of your mind?!» he was outraged. «I love you!»
«I’m telling you—I’m stupid!» Natalya laughed and hugged her angry, devilish husband. «How do you put up with me?»
«And I know? Because you have to look for such crazy ones,» he shook his head and hugged his wife. «I missed you, you fool…»
