– Mom, Dad said that we’re going to Grandma Nina’s dacha this weekend! Is there a playground there? – Nastya said during a walk, revealing her father’s plans. Plans that he hadn’t discussed with his wife.
– When did your dad tell you this? – Marina raised her eyebrows.
– I don’t remember… maybe yesterday. – Nastya looked at her mother. – Will it be fun at the dacha?
– Darling, I don’t even know why dad said that. Let’s talk about it later, – Marina answered tactfully, although inside she was seething. Her husband, Sasha, had decided something again. He did what he thought would be right. What was best. But not for Marina.
In the evening, when her daughter was already asleep, Marina approached her husband and asked a direct question:
– Why did you tell Nastya that we were going to your mother’s dacha?
– Because she asked about grandma. The child is bored.
– Ah… And you decided to get rid of her questions in this way? So this answer means nothing?
– Why? I told it like it is. Mom misses us too, she’s waiting for us to visit.
– We can meet her in the city. There is no need to drag ourselves to the dacha.
– Mom is counting on us. On our help. I already said that we will come.
“I don’t want to go, Sasha, hear me!” Marina stood at the kitchen threshold, trying not to scream.
– You’re at it again, – the husband sighed wearily. – This is a dacha, Marina, fresh air, family!
– Your family, Sasha, not mine! – she clarified bitterly. – I’m tired of pretending to be happy about your shashlik, garden beds and fresh air! I don’t need it. And my daughter is still little. Who knows what could happen?!
“Mom’s waiting. She’s got everything ready, marinated the meat. We can’t let her down,” he snapped.
– Okay, in that case we’ll go for a day.
“I said that you and your daughter will stay from the first to the tenth of May,” Sasha said casually, without looking up from his phone.
– No. If you want, stay forever. I have no intention of ploughing my way through your dacha! – Marina barked, forgetting that her daughter was asleep. Fortunately, Nastenka did not hear her parents’ squabble. She had bright, colourful dreams, and in her little world everything was rosy and wonderful, which cannot be said about the world of adults.
In the morning, the parents’ argument continued. But Nastya, who, as it turned out, had been promised a gift from her grandmother by her father, packed her backpack herself and told her mother that she wanted to go.
– Hello? Yes, I’ll be there today at three. I need to take my wife and daughter to the dacha. Yeah, – the husband was talking on the phone and, seeing his wife’s face, who didn’t expect this, he hurried to justify himself:
– I’ll take you to Mom’s dacha now, without traffic jams, and I’ll come tomorrow. I need to finish some things at work. Mom is waiting for you, let’s get moving. Nastya, are you ready for the trip? – asked the husband, stuffing bags with gifts for his mother into the car.
– Yes, daddy!
Marina wanted to object, but the look at her little daughter, happily sorting through her toys in her backpack, made her shut up.
The road to the dacha dragged on forever. The daughter chatted happily in the back seat, singing some songs. Marina tried to smile, but inside everything was shrinking. She felt like a hostage of circumstances. In a family where she had no right to vote.
The house of the mother-in-law, Nina Sergeyevna, stood on the outskirts, almost in a field. Marina did not like this place: midges and mosquitoes from a small pond, the smell of old wood and the lack of amenities – instead of a shower, a bathhouse, instead of a comfortable toilet in the house – a shed on the edge of the garden.
“Why didn’t you make a toilet at home?” Marina asked once. Her husband and mother-in-law looked at her as if she were a weirdo.
– Why? A dacha is a dacha. We are not kings, we can take a walk to the toilet, – Nina Sergeyevna said then. Marina, who was used to the conveniences of the city, was puzzled by this answer. Her mother-in-law had money, and her son, Sasha, earned well. They simply did not understand why they should spend money on this. It would be better to install a new greenhouse or update the stove in the bathhouse.
The same applied to replacing furniture and renovating the house.
“It’s good that at least there’s a normal stove in the house instead of a stove like in ancient times,” Marina joked to herself, looking at the ancient gas burner and the basin where her mother-in-law washed clothes. She considered it stupid to take an automatic washing machine to the dacha, even though she lived outside the city all summer. So she washed in a basin…
– Well, finally, I thought you wouldn’t come! – snorted the mother-in-law, greeting the guests.
“Mom, I’m going to work. Marina will help you with your chores,” Sasha said and, having unloaded his things, he rushed off to the city.
– Mommy, who is that in the photos? – asked Nastya, entering the house.
– Dad.
Marina once again noted that on the walls and shelves there were only Sasha’s photos: him as a child, him at school, him at graduation. No photos of their wedding, no photos of their granddaughter. Nothing but Sasha and his mother.
– Nastya, play in the garden. And Mom and I will go unpack our bags and cook dinner.
“I won’t leave my daughter alone in the kindergarten. She’s not used to this,” Marina said.
– Oh, big deal! What could happen to her?
“I won’t leave Nastya,” Marina interrupted.
– Okay, then take the potatoes and a bucket with you. I don’t care where you peel them, even on the Moon, – Nina Sergeyevna said dryly, entrusting her daughter-in-law with an important task.
While Marina was busy with potatoes, Nastya was running around the yard, collecting some twigs and grass. In the house, Nina Stepanovna was talking on the phone, as Marina understood, with her son.
– Yes, it’s good that you got here. Well done. No, don’t rush tomorrow, come as it turns out.
Marina put the bucket aside. She expected her mother-in-law to say something like “Daddy sends greetings to you and your daughter.” But nothing of the sort came. The husband simply reported to his mother, forgetting about his wife and daughter. Or maybe Marina was just winding herself up.
– Mom, I’m thirsty. – Nastya ran to her mother. Marina noticed that the child was scratching his leg strangely.
– What do you have there? Come here… – Marina looked closely and saw a small, almost invisible black dot on her daughter’s leg.
– It itches… Did a mosquito bite you? – Nastya asked, Marina shook her head. It wasn’t a mosquito at all.
“Oh God, no, no, not that,” she whispered, not knowing what to do, what to grab onto, or how to be.
“What do you have there?” Nina Sergeevna asked discontentedly.
“It looks like a bream,” Marina said quietly, trying not to show her fear and not to frighten her daughter.
The mother-in-law jumped up and started wailing. In truth, she was more of a fuss than a help:
– How could you? Five minutes on the street and already with adventures! What kind of mother is she? She didn’t keep an eye on me!
– Mom, what’s wrong with me? – Nastya was scared. – What kind of bream is this? Is it a fish?
“It’s like… Like a mosquito, only a little bigger,” Marina exhaled. With shaking fingers, she called a taxi to go to the nearest hospital.
– Where are you going? Why? I’ll clean it up myself now, – the mother-in-law suddenly declared, realizing that her daughter-in-law was going to take her granddaughter to the doctor.
– No! I heard about infected individuals, it’s dangerous! – Marina refused.
– Oh, come on, I clean up for cats in no time! Nothing will happen…
– Nina Sergeevna, Nastya is not a cat, she is my daughter. And we will do as I said.
– Well, as you know, if you want to spend money on a taxi, then go. – The mother-in-law shrugged.
Marina wrote to her husband, but he did not answer the message. Having got into a taxi, Marina nevertheless called him.
“What happened there?” the husband asked irritably.
“Nastya has bream…” she sobbed. “We’re going to the hospital…”
– Well, since you’re already leaving, what should I do? Go.
– Maybe you’ll come today? Sasha…
– Today I can’t, no one will let me leave work for such nonsense! Okay, Marin, come on, I have to work. That’s what doctors are doctors for, to help. I’m useless in this regard. – Some voices were heard in the background, the husband hung up.
Marina clutched the phone.
He didn’t even ask how his daughter was. Where and how she caught the insect… He had no time for them.
Luckily, the nurse turned out to be clever, and Nastya held up well, but Marina almost fainted when they brought her what needed to be submitted to the lab.
– He’s not infected? My daughter is not in danger? I saw a program about people who were bitten and lay in a coma…
—————————————————–
— Woman, you are so interesting… How should I know what he is like? We need to take a test. Our lab is closed for May. Keep an eye on the girl. If there are symptoms, come immediately.
They returned to the dacha when it was getting dark. They had a quick bite to eat, and the daughter asked to go to bed.
That night Marina did not close her eyes. Nastya was quietly snoring next to her, and she caught her every breath.
Sasha didn’t call. Marina didn’t call him either.
The morning began with a strong wind. Marina had barely dozed off when the shutters slammed. After which a real storm began.
– Good morning. We need to clear everything out of the garden: laundry, tools, what if it rains… Go, there’s milk on the stove, – said the mother-in-law, entering Marina and Nastya’s room.
Marina had to get up and follow Nina Sergeyevna’s instructions. While she was pottering around in the garden, Nastya woke up and went to her grandmother’s kitchen. Marina vaguely remembered what happened next. A loud roar, like an explosion, a crackle and smoke from the window of the house. As Marina found out later, the wooden house was not protected from the weather, there was no lightning rod, so the lightning hit it right. There was a short circuit and a fire. The old tree caught fire. Marina rushed into the house, throwing clean linen right on the ground.
— Fire! Help! — the mother-in-law screamed, running around the house and grabbing some things. For some reason, she did not think about saving herself and the child. The neighbors came running to the screams, someone called the fire department. Marina barely managed to get her daughter out and the cat out. Nina Sergeyevna only took care of her phone and bag.
Fortunately, we managed to localize the fire ourselves – local men put out the fire before the firefighters arrived. The house survived, only part of the kitchen was burnt.
– How are you? Marin? Come to us, – one of the neighbors offered his help.
Meanwhile, Marina was thinking about what would have happened if Sasha had been with them… He might have reacted faster, put out the fire right away, or at least been nearby.
But he still hasn’t called her since last night.
When the bell rang, Marina even flinched in surprise.
But it wasn’t her phone.
On the veranda of the neighboring house, the mother-in-law picked up the phone and spoke:
– Yes, Sashenka, I’m alive… I’m fine… Don’t worry. The house was damaged, but not badly. We’ll have to do some repairs. Yes, yes, I managed to take the documents out. Don’t fuss, the neighbors helped. Marinka is no use. Everything would have burned down if the men hadn’t come running to my screams. – Nina Sergeyevna sobbed into the phone, assuring her son that she was alive and well. Not a word about Marina or her granddaughter.
Marina heard the conversation and felt disgusted.
Sasha called the wrong person again. He didn’t ask about his daughter’s condition. Didn’t he really understand the obvious?
When Sasha finally showed up at the dacha, calm as if their house hadn’t been on fire that day, Marina had already made a decision.
— I don’t know about you and your mother, but my daughter and I are going home. Take us.
– Marina, what’s wrong? Everyone’s alive. The house is almost intact. What kind of tragedy is this? So what, it smells a little like burning. But it’ll go away. I bought some paint, I bought a fragrance that neutralizes smoke.
She remained silent, not believing that Sasha was so stupid.
“Okay, I’ll call a taxi. I should have done this earlier,” she muttered.
– Oh, come on, you touchy one! – Sasha laughed and wanted to hug her. – What’s wrong? It seems like the bream bit Nastya, and you’re still mad.
– Really, Marin, stop wasting your time on nonsense. Better take a brush, we’ll paint over the soot, – Nina Sergeyevna butted into the conversation. – Today we’ll all have to sleep in one room, the one furthest from the kitchen. Oh well, we’ll squeeze in.
Marina retreated.
“Don’t worry, there won’t be any crowding. I’m filing for divorce,” she said so calmly that Sasha froze.
– Why?!
She looked at him straight:
— Because I was always the odd one out in your family.
Nastya didn’t make a fuss. She went to the city with her mother.
While packing her things, Marina came across an old photograph: she, Nastya and Sasha on a walk in the park.
Nastya was just learning to walk then. She stretched her hands to her father – and he stood with the phone near his ear. Then Nina Sergeyevna called him, he did not hang up, but stood there during the photo shoot, talking to his mother.
Marina then laughed it off.
And now I saw their whole life in this.
It wasn’t a stress-induced blurring. She always felt like an outsider in this family.
When their daughter was born, the first thing Alexander did was call his mother-in-law to “help”. Marina dreamed of quiet happiness for the three of them. But Nina Sergeyevna settled in their house – with her eternal comments, advice and dissatisfied silence.
“My mother is special,” Sasha justified himself then. “You have to understand that.”
“Understand”.
She “understood” that day when, returning from the maternity hospital, he first stopped by to pick up his mother to show her his newborn granddaughter, and Marina, tired and pale, sat in the car and waited for Nina Sergeevna to pack her things.
She “understood” when, on their wedding anniversary, he took his mother for an important examination, ignoring the dinner that Marina had spent the entire day preparing.
She “understood” even when she heard on her birthday:
— I need to choose a present for my mom, her birthday is coming soon too.
Marina always gave in. Always closed her eyes.
But not this time. Now she has a daughter. But it seems like her husband only has a mother left. The only one and so special.
Several weeks passed.
Sasha thought his wife would come back. Sitting in his mother’s kitchen, he complained about Marina, sincerely not understanding what he had done wrong.
And Marina?
Sometimes Marina remembered that terrible May.
The hospital, the smell of antiseptic, the screams of the mother-in-law, the smoke, the fear for the life of the daughter…
And not a single warm word. No support from her husband. Indifference, in contrast to the care for her mother.
But all that was in the past now. Everything in her life was different now.
First, she herself.
First, her daughter.
And only then – the rest of the world.
