— Denis is going to stay with us for a couple of days, you don’t mind, do you? — Vitya asked his wife.
— If it’s necessary, — Lilya shrugged.
— Make him a bed on the couch and cook something, — Vitya waved his hand dismissively, as if giving her freedom.
— Fine, — Lilya replied phlegmatically and left the room.
— Now that’s training! — Denis admired.
— It’s all about the master’s skill! — Vitya said smugly. — At home, I’m the boss and head of the family! What I say goes!
And if there’s any fuss, out in three seconds without replacement — no warnings!
— Really? When you trained her, did you kick her out often? — Denis asked with interest.
— Once was enough! It was winter, and I was on edge! She got it, as if it was ingrained in her from birth! — Vitya laughed.
— Solid! — Denis approved. — I’m far from that level yet! But I see what to strive for!
— Brother, you can’t assert yourself right away, or they’ll tie you up later! Lilya only once went against me in eight years of marriage! But since then, she’s well trained!
Lilya peeked into the room:
— I made the bed, I’m going to fry some potatoes now, — she said calmly. — With onions or garlic?
— With garlic? — Denis was surprised.
— Yep, delicious! You’ll be blown away! It’s a bit more complicated than just throwing in some onions!
You have to add garlic juice at the end to get the aroma! — Vitya swallowed. — With garlic! — he answered his wife.
— Uh-huh, — Lilya nodded and went to the kitchen.
— Listen! — Denis looked at his brother enviously. — Now this is living! And about this — he snapped his neck — is she quiet too?
— Well, I don’t overdo it, but she buys it herself and then brings it to me by the TV! — Vitya sighed blissfully. — A properly raised wife has never ruined any man’s life!
Learn, little brother, while I’m alive!
— Hey, why did you say I’d stay a couple of days? We were just going to have dinner! My girlfriend’s waiting for me! — Denis said.
— I wanted to show you some finesse! — Vitya patted his brother on the back. — Letting relatives stay over is the last thing to do! And Lilya didn’t make a sound! Made the bed without any fuss!
— Impressive, — Denis nodded approvingly. — If my parents kick me out again for not working, I’ll know who I can crash with!
— And not just crash, but in comfort! — Vitya smiled. — Now watch this! The deadly move!
Denis tensed.
— Denis changed his mind about staying! Make the bed! — Vitya shouted toward the kitchen.
— Two minutes, — Lilya answered. — But will he at least stay for dinner?
— Are you going to eat? — Vitya asked quietly.
— Yeah! — Denis nodded. — I’ve never tried potatoes with garlic.
— Yes, we’ll have dinner! — Vitya shouted.
— Are you going to drive tonight? — Lilya asked.
— No! — the brothers answered in unison.
— Good, then I’ll put a bottle in the freezer for appetite and digestion! — Lilya said.
— Well? — pride shone in Vitya’s eyes. — How is it?
— I’m totally impressed! — Denis said, shaking his head.
Lilya prepared dinner, set the table, and left the brothers alone. This act caused another wave of admiration.
Denis simply couldn’t find words to describe how well his brother had trained his wife.
And Vitya was happy, nodding along, continuing to boast about who was the master in the house and something about household rules.
After seeing his brother off and going to bed, Vitya blissfully thought:
“Good thing he didn’t know Lilya before! How lucky it was that he studied in another city and later was more busy partying than with how his brother lived or what was going on in his family!
And it’s also good that Lilya is so compliant! Didn’t really have to train her! Always agrees with everything, always calm, obedient! A wonderful wife!”
With these thoughts, Vitya fell asleep.
But waking up in the middle of the night was quite unexpected. The place where his back should have been felt wild pain and burned like fire.
Worst of all, he couldn’t move.
If you needed a model of a calm person, you could easily appoint Lilya.
Her classmates said it was easier to anger stones than to get Lilya emotional. Even in adolescence, she was categorically unflappable.
It was her calmness and serenity that Vitya married her for. He had experience with a quick-tempered and emotional girl.
Six months was enough to then spend two months on valerian drops. After that relationship, two gray hairs appeared.
With Lilya, he felt great. Their relationship developed steadily, without ups and downs. They approached the wedding without fuss.
Vitya’s parents tried to probe the bride. But sensible complaints Lilya took into account, and nonsense she simply ignored.
No matter how much the new mother-in-law tried to provoke a scandal, Lilya listened like a statue, then said:
— Okay. That’s your opinion. You have the right to it.
That disarmed them. But Alla Yuryevna said something was wrong with her.
— A normal woman can’t be like that! She’s like dried fish! At least blink! What’s wrong with her, the wall or what?
— Mom, I have to live with her, not you! — Vitya said. — And I’m fine with everything!
— Oh, I can completely ignore her! Not even think about her! — Alla Yuryevna answered.
Mom said, mom did!
Vitya wasn’t too upset that his mom became indifferent to his young family. Alla Yuryevna had a contradictory and extremely tiring character. Only Vitya’s dad, Semyon Olegovich, could handle her.
He had intermittent deafness since childhood. So he could just not hear his wife’s nervous outbursts. Although Vitya suspected Dad was faking.
He himself was often a witness to Mom screaming and Dad calmly reading the newspaper. Mom shouted herself out, then Dad turned his head and said:
— Dear, did you say something?
Probably that was the secret of their long happy marriage.
But there was another reason why Vitya was left alone so easily. That was his younger brother Denis.
He constantly got into trouble, and Mom fussed over him like over a fragile sack. When he purposely went to study in another city, Mom visited him three times a month.
—I have to know how my son is doing!
And after the institute, when Denis returned, he had no desire to work, but restless energy. That only added to Alla Yuryevna’s adventures.
And Vitya, living his calm life with his beloved wife, simply enjoyed the absence of outside irritants.
They calmly started living in a rented apartment. Just as calmly, their daughter was born. They took a mortgage without any worries. They did repairs without a single shout(!).
They lived and enjoyed life.
Vitya never hid his wife from society, though never made it public. But they appeared a couple of times at a company party, the boss’s birthday, colleagues’ anniversaries.
Then Vitya started getting questions.
— How did you train your wife to be quieter than water, softer than grass?
If Vitya had said right away that she was always like that, there wouldn’t have been any problems. But he decided to fantasize and show himself better than he really was.
He blurted out:
— Training is a great thing! And a wife who wants to live happily with her husband must be trained better than that shepherd dog!
And his imagination knew no bounds. Vitya made up on the fly how he trained Lilya, how he raised her. How she resisted. How much trouble she caused him. And in the end, surrendered to the mercy of a strong man, recognized his authority.
— That’s why she behaves the way she does now! — Vitya boasted. — She doesn’t say a word without her husband’s permission!
He made it up himself, believed it himself, and then started broadcasting it to the world.
Lilya heard echoes of these thoughts a couple of times but, by nature, just let them go in one ear and out the other.
— If he wants? Let him! Maybe it makes life easier for him, — she said quietly, but no one heard her.
And it was worth listening. Even in that phrase, there was a catch.
Lilya’s life story began at about seventeen. The reader probably guessed that before seventeen, something happened that was intentionally left unsaid.
Yes, dear reader, Lilya was not always so calm and compliant. She just chose that way of behavior for herself for the rest of her life.
She had to grow up too early.
Lilya was born in a perfectly normal happy family. Her mother was an investigator, and her father was a combat sambo instructor in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
If Lilya couldn’t understand her mother’s work, her father’s work was clear to her. She was more of a daddy’s girl.
In short, from four to sixteen, Lilya spent all her free time at her father’s workplace. And planned to become an instructor too.
But because of certain events…
Her parents died when Lilya turned sixteen. Her parents’ colleagues quickly found the culprits and put them in jail, but Lilya was advised not to wait for revenge.
— Girl, you need to live your life, — her dad’s boss said. — Anger, irritation, shouting — they’ve never brought anyone any good. Your parents never quarreled! That’s why you grew up so sweet and good.
— I understand, — Lilya replied.
Since then, she became an island of calm in a world of raging emotions. Her grandmother, who took custody of Lilya, was surprised her granddaughter became like that.
— Grandma, it’s okay, — Lilya said. — Part of me stayed with my parents. And what’s the point of tearing your soul? If something isn’t critical, you can just give in, and if someone starts stepping on your head, you can just do things your way.
That was the principle she lived by with Vitya.
“He wants to be the boss? Fine! As long as he doesn’t get cocky, let him think he’s the leader!”
But the stories Vitya started telling under the influence of his imagination didn’t please Lilya much. But when he put on a show in front of his brother, Lilya understood someone had crossed the line.
— Ow! That hurts! — Vitya cried out.
And in response, another sharp blow below his back. The light in the room switched on, and Vitya saw his wife’s figure with an army belt in her hand.
— What’s that? — he roared. — Damn it?
— And you? — Lilya calmly asked. — When did you train me?
— Then it’s time to start!
Vitya pulled his hands out of the towel loops Lilya tied him with. Freed his legs and rushed at his wife.
The floor and ceiling switched places a couple of times, and Vitya found himself lying on the bed.
“Hard mattress, though,” he thought.
He jumped up again, but not so quickly, and rushed again. This time he found himself on the floor.
“And the mattress is soft!”
He got up with a creak.
— Vitya, next time it will be finishing moves, — Lilya calmly said. — It will hurt a lot. You want that?
Vitya took a risk. He took a long time to regain consciousness. A wet towel lay on his head.
— Lilya, — he croaked. — What was that?
— Vityusha, I love you, but I don’t like what you say with your mouth, — Lilya said calmly as usual. — When you tell stories to strangers — okay. But that’s your brother. A relative.
I don’t want him to have a bad opinion about me. So please, don’t do it anymore!
Her behavior after the nighttime incident didn’t change. Still the same compliant, calm, and balanced.
But now Vitya knew that in that calm surface, who knows what lurked underneath. So he just tried not to provoke.
So, a happy family — just with a little secret.
Still waters run deep.
