This is just slop!» Nina Ivanovna threw her spoon on the table.
Her daughter-in-law, Nastya, blushed and ran from the table.
«And under what fence did you find this fool?!» Nina Ivanovna looked at her son, Sergey.
«She’s not a fool, she’s my wife,» Sergey replied calmly.
Every encounter with her daughter-in-law was a fiery trial for Nina Ivanovna! Everything was wrong! The food was slop! The house was a mess! Anastasia herself was always unkempt and dressed like she shopped at second-hand stores!
Sergey tried to explain that by insulting his wife, his mother was also insulting him. But Nina Ivanovna wouldn’t listen!
«I will ensure that my son has a worthy wife! Not this crude, uneducated simpleton!» Nina Ivanovna yelled.
Sergey was by nature a non-confrontational person and always tried to settle 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?! You were supposed to introduce her to me before the wedding! That’s the tradition! My parents chose me for your father because the elders in the family know better what kind of wife a son needs, as they raised him!» Nina Ivanovna gasped with anger, «And you! You found her… on some patch and even married her! From nowhere, without a dowry! I raised you with no expense spared! If your father were alive, he’d give you a piece of his mind!»
Sergey winced. He remembered well how he stood in the corner for the slightest misdeed and got «what he deserved» for any transgressions. And sometimes, his mother got it from him too.
Such upbringing neither embittered him nor crushed him. Sergey endured, but even as a child, he decided that things would be different in his own family.
He wasn’t angry with his parents and respected them, but believed that the modern family should have a different way of life.
Since childhood, his mother had tried to instill in him the idea that he should marry a very prestigious and preferably wealthy girl with influential parents. She constantly meddled in his personal life, recommending ambitious girls who knew the value of everything and were ready to climb the ladder from husband to the highest point.
But Sergey was looking for that warm and tender feeling. He sought mutual love. He wanted a cozy family, not a doll with only thoughts about money.
He met Anastasia at university, and they kept their relationship secret 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, won Sergey’s heart with her openness and lack of mercenary views toward men.
«You’re not listening to me again!» his mother continued to complain. «I’ll 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 started gathering her things.
«In any case, I give you a week to get a divorce. I’ve said my piece!» 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 replied in a toneless voice. «Nina Ivanovna won’t let us live. I can’t listen to this anymore. I’ll go back to the village, live up to my status. Please, sleep in another room tonight. Thank you.»
Nastya slammed the door in his face and locked it. No matter how Sergey tried, she wouldn’t let him in. Desperate, Sergey went to sleep on the guest sofa, hoping his wife would cool down and reconsider.
The alarm clock woke him up. Sergey rarely woke up to it, as every morning began differently. His wife used to wake Sergey with a gentle kiss and an invitation to a tasty breakfast.
«Beloved?!» Sergey called out. But there was no answer. He got up and looked around. Dirty dishes were still on the table. Nastya had indeed left.
«It’s okay,» Sergey reassured himself, «After work, I’ll pick her up from work with flowers. We’ll have a romantic dinner, make up. And I’ll deal with my mother somehow.»
Leaving the mess in the kitchen, Sergey put on a wrinkled shirt and went to work. He tried to call his wife all day, but to no avail. Sergey left work early and went to Nastya.
«She worked until lunch and left, on vacation, they say,» the guard at the gate replied. Sergey scratched his head with his free hand; in the other, he held a bouquet of roses. Although the store clerk had asked him what flowers his wife liked, he couldn’t remember. So he just bought universal ones, roses.
Anastasia didn’t respond to calls or messages.
Arriving home, Sergey surveyed the place. Without Nastya, the apartment was dark, stuffy, and unbearably gloomy. And still not cleaned…
Picking up the phone, he called his boss.
«Sorry, family circumstances! I need to leave urgently.»
Hanging up, Sergey took off his tie, rolled up his sleeves, and started washing the dishes. After cleaning the apartment and changing clothes, he went out to look for his wife.
«I’m telling you for the last time!» Sergey slammed the table where Nina Ivanovna sat. «Give me her address!»
«If she left, it means she doesn’t love you!» the mother, poorly 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.
«And why did I come to her again?» Sergey thought. «She’s tied me up.»
He wanted to say many loud and harsh phrases, but suddenly he let go.
Sergey handed his mother the bouquet of roses he had 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 she would never forgive her son for such an action.
Sergey didn’t sleep all night, and the next morning, he went out looking.
Besides the name of the village, Sergey had no information. He spent three hours driving around the village, looking for the house of Nastya’s brother by her maiden name, asking everyone.
«Excuse me, are you Aleksey, by any chance?» he asked a man chopping wood on the street.
«Aleksey,» the man replied sternly.
«I’m Sergey. Your sister’s husband.»
«You better leave here on good terms, Seryozhenka!»
«I won’t leave without my wife,» Sergey confidently said.
«We’ll see about that…» Aleksey began swinging the ax.
At that moment, Anastasia came out of the house and, seeing Sergey, froze.
«Lёsha, stop!» she cried to 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 a grandmother along the way. «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!»
«And am I of interest?» Sergey asked with a smile.
«Well, I don’t know,» Anastasia playfully stretched and, smiling, took her now only man by the arm.