After his birthday, Alexey, while going through the gifts, found a lottery ticket in one of the envelopes.
“Pfft, they might as well have put in an advertising flyer,” the birthday man thought. “I’ve never been lucky anyway.” But just for laughs, he decided to check the numbers on the website.
When he compared the drawn numbers online with those on the ticket, his hands began to tremble: every number matched. He had won a big prize. Not millions, of course, but he had never held so much money in his life—only in his dreams.
After checking several more times to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him, Alexey eventually received the full amount on his card and began to wonder what to do with such a windfall.
“Maybe buy a car?” a wild thought crossed his mind, but he immediately drove it away by force of will. “What for? I don’t even have a driver’s license. Neither does my wife. And our son already has his own car. No, I need something more rational! Maybe a country house? Although… Marina already complains about being tired all the time, and a dacha means hard work.”
He wanted to think further, but then it hit him: a vacation! He needed to buy vouchers for a health resort! He immediately remembered his mother’s chronic bronchitis—she coughed so hard the walls shook.
His mother-in-law had joint problems; she was constantly whining and complaining.
His wife, Marina, had been suffering from insomnia for a long time. All those side jobs and overtime hours had turned her from a young, vibrant woman into someone of indeterminate age, with a pale face, dull eyes, and dark circles under them.
Even Alexey himself felt a general weariness in his body, which had crept up on him by fifty. So the idea of a family retreat and treatment at a health spa didn’t seem so silly.
When his wife found out about the winnings and his decision to take everyone to a sanatorium, she had her suitcase packed by evening.
“Marina,” Alexey laughed, “I just suggested it; I haven’t even bought the vouchers yet.”
“Lyosha, I’m like Gerasim—I’ll agree to anything!” his wife waved her hand tiredly. “Anywhere, as long as I can sleep and not see those nasty faces at work who want everything ‘here and now.’”
Her mother also welcomed her son-in-law’s proposal with delight.
“Oh, Alexey, I knew one day I’d get dividends from my investment in your marriage!” she laughed.
“What investment did you make in it?” Alexey asked sincerely, surprised.
“Excuse me? I gave you my daughter! Raised, fed, and educated her,” she burst out laughing.
“Ah,” the son-in-law understood. “Well, yes, my wife is gold!”
But Alexey’s mother said nothing to his offer. More precisely, she said, “I’ll think about it!” and hung up.
The next day, apparently after giving it some thought, Zhanna Grigoryevna showed up at her son’s house.
“So, here’s the deal, Alexey, I’m not going anywhere!” she declared categorically.
“You don’t want to treat your bronchitis?” her son was surprised.
“I want to understand why you forgot about your sister?!”
“I don’t understand, what does Tatyana have to do with this?” Alexey didn’t follow his mother’s complaint.
“What do you mean? She’s your family too, just like Liza,” she lectured her son.
Liza—his sister Tatyana’s daughter—was a spoiled girl.
“So what?” Alexey still couldn’t grasp where his mother was heading.
“If we’re going to a sanatorium, then the whole family, with daughter and granddaughter. But they’re not interested, so just give me the money. And Tatyana’s and Liza’s share too!” Zhanna Grigoryevna announced, putting her son on the spot. “They’re your family too, so you owe me triple the money.”
Alexey was shocked by his mother’s arithmetic.
“So you think my family should decide how I spend my own money?” he asked with a frown.
“A good son would,” his mother persisted.
“I offered to take you to a sanatorium, get treatment, relax, breathe fresh air, drink mineral water from a spring!” Alexey exclaimed.
“I don’t need your fresh air! It’s right there, free all around! I need money!” Zhanna Grigoryevna finally admitted.
“May I ask what for?” her son’s curiosity overpowered his indignation.
“I want to make Liza happy,” the girl’s grandmother revealed. “I want to give her a kitten.”
Alexey nearly fell over.
“So you want me to cancel the trip and treatment for everyone just so you can buy a cat? What kind of cat is that? Made of gold?!” his eyes widened.
“It’s a very expensive cat,” his mother explained. “We went to an exhibition with Liza and they told us it’s an elite breed.”
Alexey clutched his head.
“So making your granddaughter happy means taking everything away from your son?” he groaned at such injustice.
“Alexey, you’re just jealous!” Zhanna Grigoryevna said sternly.
“Jealous? Of what? That some flea-ridden animal costs more than half my annual salary? No, Mom, I’m not jealous, I’m outraged! And I won’t give you money for that! If you want, come with us to the sanatorium; if not, that’s your choice!” Alexey said firmly.
“I’m not going!” his mother snorted indignantly and began to gather her things. “I never thought my son was so stingy!”
After she left, his sister Tatyana called him a little later.
“Why didn’t you give Mom money?” she pounced on her brother right away.
“Why should I?” he realized he’d have to fend off accusations again.
“Because we’re your family too and we’re entitled to money,” Tatyana brazenly declared.
“Listen, you have a husband! Liza has a father! Let him pay for your crazy whims! And I’m not obliged to hand out my gifts left and right just because you want me to.” Alexey was already shaking from these conversations.
“You’ve become so… stubborn and greedy,” his sister hissed through her teeth.
“And you wanted me to be squeezed dry? What kind of family are you, that instead of saying ‘thank you’ you demand ‘give more, three times more!’?”
“Well then go to your sanatorium! We’ll buy Liza a kitten without you!” Tatyana shouted and hung up.
“Lyosha, what happened? You look pale,” Marina asked, looking into the room and seeing her upset husband holding the phone.
He told his wife about the quarrel with his mother and sister.
“So why are you so upset? Zhanna Grigoryevna made her choice. Doesn’t want to go—fine. You can give her the money you were going to spend on her voucher and let her buy a baby elephant, a unicorn, or even the devil himself,” his wife suggested.
Finding this idea reasonable, Alexey called his mother.
“Mom, I can give you the money for your voucher, if you don’t mind. But not a penny more.”
“No and no!” she replied sharply. “Either you give us for all three, or don’t bother me anymore! After all, I’m your mother!”
“Fine, then not a single extra kopeck! I already help you plenty. The renovations in your apartment were paid by me, I buy you pool memberships, I pay for your private doctor visits! I even wanted to take you to a sanatorium for three weeks. But no, you want a kitten that costs as much as a used crossover…”
“And what if it wins at an exhibition?! That’s an investment!” Zhanna Grigoryevna made another attempt.
“For it to win at an exhibition, you have to take care of it, feed it properly, groom it, and Tatyana can’t even be bothered to comb Liza’s hair and braid it, so she just cuts it short,” Alexey continued out of sheer momentum. “In the end, no pedigree cat is worth our health!”
“So why are you calling then? I told you—I’m not going anywhere. And I don’t need your money if you won’t give it for your sister and niece too!” his mother began to boil.
“Fine. Suit yourself,” Alexey’s patience ran out, and he hung up.
From the sanatorium, Alexey, his wife, and mother-in-law returned rested, refreshed, and even looking younger.
Meanwhile, Tatyana’s house had turned into hell. Zhanna Grigoryevna had taken out a bank loan and bought the kitten anyway, which turned out to be just an ordinary alley cat, only dyed. The scammer was selling cats with fake certificates and pedigrees.
The cat quickly grew up and not only yowled incessantly demanding a mate but also shed fur everywhere—on the furniture, on the bed, in the soup bowl, up their noses and in their eyes.
And it didn’t even please the granddaughter. It turned out she liked cats only from a distance, not in her own home—especially when the cat marked the corners and pooped in her slippers. So much for that “investment.”
