Are you not overdoing it?» Vasily skeptically looked at his friend, who was unloading his things from the SUV. «Look, your wife will get tired of your ‘departures.’ She’ll kick you out herself, where will you go then? Back to your parents? You’ve quietly sold your grandmother’s apartment long ago and spent the money.»
«To whom? Tasha getting tired? She adores me. Wouldn’t say a cross word. Now she’ll wait for me by the window and think about how to please her husband better. The main thing with a wife? It’s all about proper upbringing. And I’m good at that,» Alexei smugly replied. «Yes, I spent the money. But look, what a beauty I’ve bought,» he pointed towards the shore where a new white boat was moored, and smiled again, pleased with himself and life. «Let’s go, the guys are waiting.»
Alexei slung the bag strap over his shoulder and briskly walked towards the group waving at them.
«Alesha, what’s wrong again?» Tasha asked this morning, seeing how her husband was packing his things once more. Her face instantly fell. «I just reminded you that this weekend we were planning to take Slavik to the amusement rides. He was so looking forward to it. He would stand on a stool and cross out the days on the calendar.»
Tears welled up in Tasha’s eyes as she remembered how their six-year-old son dreamed of riding the toy cars at the park. He had seen such a car in a friend’s yard, but Tasha and her husband couldn’t afford to buy even a similar one for their son, and the friend wouldn’t even let him touch it, obviously because it was an expensive toy.
So Tasha and Alexei promised to take their son to the park where he could rent one.
«What again, you ask?» Alexei stopped his packing and looked at his wife with contempt. «At least that I didn’t dream of marrying such a spendthrift.»
«I’m a spendthrift? How so?»
«Who came up with these toy cars in the park? You should have bought some sausage instead.»
«But you yourself supported me and promised our son,» Tasha couldn’t understand her husband’s reproaches. «And sausages? We have a whole fridge of food. Do you want sausages? I’ll buy them anyway. But Slavik, he’s just a little boy, he was so dreaming,» Tasha looked pleadingly at her husband. «Let me put your things back,» she tried to take a shirt from his hands that he had taken off the shelf.
But Alexei snatched the shirt from his wife’s hands and, forcefully stuffing it somewhere into the middle of the bag, rose from his knees:
«I’ll stay at my mom’s for now. Think about your behavior. Report back on Monday. Then I’ll decide whether to come back or not.»
He swiftly left the apartment, angrily slamming the front door.
«That’s how it always is,» Tasha thought sadly, helplessly sinking onto the foyer pouf.
She dropped her hands onto her knees and silently cried.
Her husband’s behavior today was not new to her.
Alexei had started staging these dramatic departures about a year after their wedding, just when Tasha was three months pregnant.
That day, her husband had asked for fried eggs for dinner. She cooked them, but she did it the way they did at her home. She couldn’t even imagine that by «fried eggs» her husband meant plain fried eggs. At Tasha’s home, a simple omelet was called fried eggs.
What then did Alesha do? How he ran and yelled:
«What kind of incompetent are you?! Who did I marry?! You whipped eggs with milk. Who eats like that? I’ll tell my mother what you’re like. Let the mother-in-law be disappointed.»
«Quiet, quiet, Alesha,» Tasha tried to calm her husband, she really didn’t want and was afraid to look bad in the eyes of her mother-in-law. «I didn’t know how you like it,» she apologized. «You never asked for fried eggs before, you even said you didn’t like eggs. Let me fry it the way you like.»
«And this? What about this?» he shook the pan.
«We’ll throw it out. What can we do.»
«Ah, throw it out?! You just want to throw everything away. Can’t manage money. What to expect? A student. It’s me who should work, support.»
Tasha wilted. Alesha indeed married her when she was still in her fourth year of university. He said it was no problem, and that he earned enough.
That was the first time Alexei packed his things and went to his mother’s.
«What is this, Tasha? What were you planning to feed Alexei?» Less than an hour later, Tasha already heard the disgruntled voice of Tamara Pavlovna on the phone.
«Tamara Pavlovna, I just didn’t know what kind of fried eggs Alexei likes,» Tasha stammered timidly. «He would have told me right away how to make them. But it turned out this way.»
«Alright. Don’t be nervous. It’s harmful in your condition,» after listening to her daughter-in-law, the mother-in-law replied conciliatorily. «Today I’ll feed him, and he’ll stay the night. He’ll return to you tomorrow.»
Tasha breathed a sigh of relief.
«It seems the storm has passed,» she thought.
Alesha did indeed return home the next day, but he spoke to his wife through clenched teeth for another week. Barely Tasha managed to beg for his forgiveness.
It turned out, it was only the beginning.
After that, Alexei’s departures became frequent. Anything wrong, and he’d pack his things and leave.
«Who else but me would put up with someone like you and even love you?» he would say on such occasions. «You should’ve learned better how to be a good wife. All this is like a kindergarten.»
Hearing her husband’s moralizing, Tasha would curl up into a ball.
What to reply? Alesha was right.
He appeared in her life when she had almost despaired of ever receiving a bit of real love and happiness. So attentive, kind, mature. Alexei was ten years older than Tasha.
At her parents’ house, she had been like a servant to them and their beloved younger son.
Tasha, fetch this, bring that, go to the store, do the laundry, clean up, help Sasha.
Sasha got failing grades in school?
«Why didn’t you do your brother’s homework?» her mother reproached. «Why should you do it for him? Because he has other things to do.»
«Hands not growing from the right place. Can’t you iron a shirt properly,» her father hissed at her if he didn’t like the creases on the sleeves.
While her grandparents were alive, they still stood up for Tasha:
«Why have you turned the girl into a servant?» Tasha’s grandmother sternly reprimanded her daughter. «Go and do it yourself. You had Sasha for yourself for old age. Ah, for a husband! Then let him take care of it.»
Her mother would fall silent for a while.
But when the grandparents passed away one after the other, nothing held back Tasha’s mother anymore.
Tasha fell in love with Alexei. Or maybe she just wanted to run away from home.
«You’ll be safe behind me like behind a stone wall,» he promised, proposing to her.
And on the wedding day, he suddenly said, as if reading her thoughts:
«Well, be grateful, I saved you from your family. Otherwise, you’d still be running errands for them.»
His revelation choked her. One thing to think that herself, another to hear it from her husband. But she just lowered her eyes.
What to reply? He told the truth. All outsiders always saw who in Tasha’s family was the beloved child, and who was used, occasionally throwing:
«You’re not bad. When you try, you do well.»
And Tasha smiled in response, like a circus dog that received a piece of sugar for a good performance in the arena.
A little, but still nice. Appreciated. Who knows, maybe if she tries harder, they will finally love her, not just Sasha, right?
In any case, Tasha left her parental home with joy. And now she tried to become a good wife to Alexei, a good mother to Slavik.
«Just that it turns out badly,» Tasha raised her head, emerging from the memories.
She works and even earns more than Alexei, but he still reproaches her for being a spendthrift and a bad housekeeper, unable to manage finances.
Here he goes again, saying that she planned to spend money on foolish things.
But how on foolish things? Tasha remembered how her son’s eyes lit up with hope when she promised him that he would indeed ride on a car like his friend’s.
«Sausage, of course, is good. Important, useful. But a car is just entertainment. But how can you deny a son?» Tasha sighed bitterly again.
«Mommy, are we going to the park today?» Slavik ran to his mother’s room just as dawn broke, climbed onto the bed, and hugged her with his little hands.
«Of course, we’ll have breakfast and then go,» she crossed her fingers behind her back. «Alesha, if he finds out, will be displeased, but I can’t deceive my son,» Tasha thought.
«Mom, look what I can do,» the little boy skillfully rode down the park pathway under an instructor’s watch.
«Well done,» Tasha smiled.
She settled on a bench and happily ate ice cream, watching her son have fun. Then she got up. Took a few pictures.
«Did you like it?» she asked her son when he ran up to her, smiling broadly, waving goodbye to the instructor.
«Very much,» Slavik put his little hand in hers.
A moment later, the boy looked back where he left the car and suddenly sighed sadly, not like a child.
«When I grow up big, I’ll earn a lot of money.»
Tasha was just about to ask her son why he needed so much money when he, sighing again, said:
«And I’ll buy such a car for my son. And I’ll let other kids ride it, because not everyone can afford one, but they want to ride.»
Tears welled up in Tasha’s eyes.
She tightened her grip on her son’s hand and led him down the path.
«Mom, where have we come?» Slavik asked as they entered a large toy store, his eyes practically darting around. «Wow, look at these cars,» Slavik ran up to one and cautiously touched it with his finger. «Cooler than Pasha’s.»
«Do you want one like this?» Tasha suddenly asked.
«We don’t have the money,» Slavik hung his head, the initial joy instantly evaporating.
«We’ll find it, but we’ll have to sit on porridge and potatoes with sausages for a bit, which you don’t really like.»
«Mommy, mommy. I’ll eat the porridge and the potatoes and the sausages. I promise,» his son’s eyes lit up with hope.
«You promise? And you won’t fuss?»
The son nodded his head earnestly.
Actually, Tasha and Alexei had money. It’s just that her husband didn’t allow spending it. Wouldn’t even allow taking their son to the sea even once.
«How many useful things can be bought. A washing machine, a fridge,» he would list.
«But we have those, Alesha.»
«What if they break? And just to throw money away to sit in a salty puddle and bask in the sun? So, add salt to the water in the tub and then sunbathe on the balcony. You don’t know how to manage money.»
Therefore, Alexei’s reaction to his son’s desire to have a car that a boy his age could drive was quite predictable.
«For that money, you can buy a used real car,» the husband said, learning about his son’s wish.
«But we have a new real one. But the child wants.»
«Let your child grow up and what to do with it then? Better to save up. Not millionaires, after all. Every penny counts.»
All this Tasha remembered as she arranged the purchase and delivery.
But the joy in her son’s eyes, his bright smile outweighed the doubts and fear of again displeasing her husband.
«After all, I work too,» she thought.
«What is this? What is this?» Alexei, returning home on Sunday evening, stared at the boxes and bags.
«Your things, dear. You have five minutes to take everything and vacate the premises from your presence.»
«What? What are you allowing yourself? Do you know that you are nobody without me! I saved you from your parents. I thought to give you another chance, and this is how you do it!»
«I know, I heard, thank you for saving me. And for the chance too,» Tasha’s voice sounded unusually strict and even, oh miracle! Authoritative. So Alexei was slightly stunned. «And now I’m saving myself and my son from you. And I’m giving us a chance.»
«Beep-beep,» the son wheeled out on the car from the living room.
«You bought it? Threw money to the wind!? What else to expect from you. I always knew that I pampered you for nothing. Came back earlier, and no gratitude.»
«What? Got kicked out of the base early?»
«Which base?»
«Where you and Vasya were cutting through on the boat. So you can have a boat behind the family’s back, but the son can’t have a car?»
«There’s no boat, what are you making up? Making up everything just to justify your spendthrift ways. Would I even buy some boat!»
Tasha shoved a tax receipt under her husband’s nose, receiving which today, she completely calmed down and was no longer tormented by guilt for buying her son a car.
She silently flung open the front door and stood there while Alexei dragged the boxes out.
«Tasha, what have you done?» an hour later the mother-in-law called. «Maybe Alexei went too far. But he wanted to make a real wife and mother out of you. And a boat? Think about it, a boat. He bought it with his own money. He has the right. Immediately take your husband back!»
«Thank you, Tamara Pavlovna, to your son. But no need to try anymore, or to save. I admit it. I’m not a perfect wife and I’ll never be perfect. And as for Alexei. In the end, he should finally become happy, not save and re-educate. And yes, he has the right to a boat. And I have the right not to live with a husband who has the right to a boat, but neither his son nor his wife have any rights.»
Tamara Pavlovna still tried to say something, but Tasha hung up the phone.
Tasha divorced Alexei. He, of course, yelled in court that Tasha was a «defective» woman in all respects, even scary to entrust with a child. But the court sided with the mother.
Alexei is still living with his mother. But he has already found a wonderful girl who urgently needs to be saved. About this, Tamara Pavlovna hastened to inform her former daughter-in-law.
And Tasha got herself a cat.
«Say what you will, but a cat is better, at least it only saves you from mice,» she laughed, watching as Barsik ate sausage.
