Alice grimaced and wiped her sniffles with her sleeve. It wasn’t winter outside, but it was windy, and they must have been blown out of the car by a draught. “Here we go again, the fourth joint, as long as the girl doesn’t get sick,” Robert thought, catching himself thinking that he was more concerned about how his family would react than about his daughter’s health.
Meanwhile, the door slowly opened. Conversations could be heard in the apartment. The word “came”, spoken in a husky voice from the kitchen, let Robert know that another woman traditionally lived in his house – his wife’s mother, the agile and offensive Elizabeth. She often criticizes him, interferes in their family affairs and treats Robert unfairly. And everything is understandable. His mother-in-law is the kind of woman who had tasted all of his economic characteristics and moral values back in the Soviet Union, carefully transferring them into the family life. For example, now Robert was sure that Elizabeth again rubbed her daughter the wrong way, teaching her to save money and cook more homemade food, to feed her husband and child. Alice became the main object of the so-called “pedagogical” disputes between his wife and mother-in-law. This was invariably annoying.
And Elizabeth’s favorite subject was Robert. Conversations in the way like “…what a strange husband you have, my daughter… Where did you even find him?” had become a tradition.
“No one meets him. A bad sign,” thought Robert, hanging up his coat.
The house slippers, like speedboats, carried him along the standard route – to the kitchen. There were two women sitting around the table. One was a young woman, though she didn’t look too young, but a beautiful and pleasant woman – his wife Mary. And directly opposite her, looking directly at Robert, sat an older woman – her mother, his” beloved” mother-in-law, Elizabeth. The gazes piercing, the displeased faces. In their faces I could read condemnation, rather than the usual indifference. It was clear from their faces that they were both extremely disappointed in the situation.
– Good evening. We are here! – confidently said Robert.
– We can see, – muttered the mother-in-law haughtily. – Why are you so late? It is already dark outside, my granddaughter has to eat, to do homework, and to rest after school. You are a teacher, and you should know that.
His wife was quite, as usual. You could assume that she was afraid of her mother. But having lived with her, Robert could clearly see that she was only using her to keep herself from saying what she was thinking. And now they were probably thinking the same thing.
– I have a lot of things to do at work, today was the faculty meeting. I picked Alice up, and we went to a pizza place. I wanted to relax with my daughter, – Robert made excuses.
He knew that this passage would add additional fuel to the fire. Going to cafes and other leisure activities had an effect on the mother-in-law, like a red flag to a bull. That’s why he said it, to drive her out of her mind. Robert didn’t care anymore. However, his behavior was contradictory. He was not ready for a scandal, he didn’t want it, but the anticipation of a future quarrel, which was inevitable, gave him strength, and, despite his fatigue, he was ready to attack first.
– He fed the child outside again, – my mother-in-law said in her usual indignant voice.
That phrase was already standard in this situation. “He fed the child outside…". Even if he took the whole family to a restaurant and served a fancy dish, she would still consider it the street.
– I made you borsch, there is goulash, mashed potatoes, meatballs. Here’s the salad I chopped, and you have interrupted the child’s appetite. We have been telling you all along that she should eat at home, not outside. Why are you doing this?
A scandal was inevitable. Sometimes words and the energy they carry overflow the cup of patience, and even the kindest and relatively calm person who does not like to quarrel and always tries to compromise, can explode and respond. Robert felt that now or never, he had to show these women who was the boss here. And it was too late to compromise, or he just didn’t want to, or he didn’t know any other more effective way.
– I’m doing what I think is right, – I said, my throat feeling treacherously dry. There was a pause.
– Do you think we don’t know anything? – my mother-in-law shrieked unnaturally loudly.
– Robert, again you … You’re doing it again, – said the wife as she rolled her eyes and leaned her right hand on the tabletop.
“Playing the show again…", Robert’s mind raced. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his daughter close the door to her room tighter. Here we go.
In the same breath his wife blurted out, still covering her eyes and trembling finely:
– You’re always away at work, you don’t answer my messages or phone calls, you don’t listen to our advice, it’s like you’re in your own world. And here we are asking you twice a week to pick up Alice from the studio, and you can’t even do that… there are those words again… You’re being arbitrary again, unforgivable, – she suddenly broke into a high-pitched falsetto, but she has not yet burst into tears, which was to be expected.
This hail of completely undeserved accusations made Robert shudder: “I must, I must, I must… Once again, I… I… I…”
The mother-in-law didn’t interfere so far, looking now and then at him and at her daughter with a troubled look and a disgruntled frown. Meanwhile, Mary, continuing to get more and more wound up, said:
– I have a lot of work every day, and you can’t rely on anything at all. I have no strength anymore,” tears came to her eyes.
Mary looked at her mother demandingly. The mother-in-law all tensed up and prepared for a decisive “throw”.
– Mother… why don’t you say something! – cried at last.
“A forbidden trick,” – thought Robert sadly, but there was nothing he could do about it. Almost always all scandals ended this way, especially with the participation of the “esteemed” Elizabeth. His wife would wail and accuse him without letting him speak, then she would turn to her mother and begin to cry, and then…
– What a poor man he is now, – immediately and harshly, as if at the command, gave out his mother-in-law. – Thee isn’t any support in the family, but only a burden. And Mary cries again, Alice’s lessons aren’t studied again, and it’s very late, and soon it will be bedtime. But what, I … I will not interfere, but you, Robert, think about what you do!
She shook her hands in frustration and, pretending not to interfere, backed away, but very slowly, toward the exit of the kitchen. Nevertheless, Robert knew that she was anxious to continue, and if either of them said one more word, the scandal would surely drag on. But on this occasion, apart from a sense of guilt, there was no harm done to him. Robert, whether from fatigue or frustration didn’t want to say anything, and Mary, suddenly sobbing convulsively, slipped out of the kitchen, even slightly pushing her mother. What happened stopped the “fury” and really made her go home at last. But she didn’t fail to zip up her coat and sting one last time:
– All families are like families, living palsy-walsy… Ah, and yours… I didn’t expect that yours – who goes to the woods, who gets the wood, everyone is on his own.
Robert was frozen in perplexity, not knowing what to answer. Anger was boiling in him and he could not find anything better to say:
– You’d better go to rest, Mom.
And, of course, that phrase was a mistake. Elizabeth, theatrically sighed: “Ah!” And, slamming the door loudly, left. She would not speak to him now for a few days, but would come, of course.
It was quiet in the apartment. He stood in the middle of the corridor, listening to the silence. It was as if time had stopped. A few minutes passed like that before Robert