Vera was hurrying home from work. The day had been exhausting, and all she wanted was a quiet evening — a little peace, a little rest, and a chance to recover after all her hard work.
Her husband was away on business and had promised to come back only the next day. In a way, that was a blessing. She would not have to cook dinner, which meant one less problem to deal with. She could simply enjoy a calm, cozy evening in her own yard.
On the way home, Vera stopped by a shop and bought some cottage cheese and freshly baked bread. She was already imagining herself having a light supper and then settling into her favorite corner of the yard with a book in her hands.
But what was waiting for her at home was so unexpected that Vera dropped the shopping bags right out of her hands.
At first, she thought she had made a mistake. Somehow, for some completely incomprehensible reason, she must have mixed up the houses and walked into someone else’s property.
Her quiet little yard was now bursting with life and looked more like a noisy village square during a crowded fair.
Strangers — people who had appeared there out of nowhere — were making themselves perfectly comfortable, behaving as if they owned the place.
Near the barbecue area, several men were starting a fire, and thick smoke was spreading all over the yard, drifting boldly toward the neighboring property. Vera thought with irritation that her neighbor would definitely scold her for this. They had an agreement: if one of them planned to use the grill, they warned the other in advance. Larisa’s children had allergies, and smoke was harmful to them.
On the cozy garden swing where Vera loved to spend evenings reading, children had climbed up with their feet. They did not notice her because they were absorbed in games on their phones. Vera noticed with annoyance that their dirty heels were comfortably resting on her favorite soft cushions.
In the wooden gazebo, three women of different ages were loudly discussing something and laughing as they set the table. They were using Vera’s dishes — dishes they had taken out of her own house. Cheerful, rather loud music was blasting through the whole yard from a portable speaker.
“Nadya, did you take the drinks out of the car? I don’t see the bottles of mineral water,” one woman called out loudly.
“And the beer isn’t here either,” another replied just as loudly. “Where are the lavash, sausage, and cheese?”
“In the car. We haven’t brought everything in yet. Let the men carry the food bags. I didn’t sign up to haul heavy things around! Though they already brought out the beer, of course. Look at them over there. Celebrating already,” one of the unfamiliar women said, pointing toward the barbecue area.
Only then did Vera notice a strange car standing near the garage. How it had ended up inside their yard, she had no idea.
“Mom, some strange lady came in! She’s standing over there!” one of the boys suddenly shouted, pulling Vera out of her stunned silence after accidentally noticing her.
“A lady? What lady?” The most combative-looking woman came out of the gazebo and headed toward Vera with a knife in her hand.
Vera herself still could not move after the shock she had just experienced. She had literally frozen in front of these strangers.
“And who are you, madam? What do you want?” the woman asked.
“Who am I? That’s a good one!” Vera slowly began coming back to her senses. “I am the owner of this house. As for who you are, I have no idea. And I’m already calling the police to report a break-in.”
Vera took her phone out of her bag.
“Wait a minute! What police? We’re here with the owners’ permission!” the stranger protested.
At that moment, out of the corner of her eye, Vera saw the other men and women starting to move toward them, drawn by the raised voices.
“Well, that’s it. I’m finished. They’ll tie me up, drag me into the basement, and keep partying in my house,” a terrible thought flashed through her mind.
Instinctively, Vera even stepped back toward the gate.
“What’s going on here?” one of the approaching men asked sternly, occasionally lifting a can of beer to his mouth.
“I’m asking who you people are and how you got into our house,” Vera said firmly, deciding not to show these strangers that she was afraid.
“And on what grounds are you asking? Who are you supposed to be?” the stranger with the can demanded, acting important. “Show us some document proving you’re the owner.”
“What document? Are you out of your mind? I live here. This is my house,” Vera said, trying to speak clearly, confidently, almost syllable by syllable.
“I don’t believe anyone without documents,” the stranger insisted. “And just so you know, madam, the owners of this house are abroad right now. They flew away for a week. There you go.”
Then, for some unknown reason, the bold stranger reached his hands toward Vera. Maybe he wanted to shake her hand. Or maybe he intended to grab her, twist her arms, and throw her into the basement.
“Help!” Vera screamed in a voice that did not sound like her own. “Larisa! Vitya! Are you home? Help me!”
“Yes, we’re home,” the neighbor immediately answered from behind the fence. “What happened? Do you need help? Or are you entertaining your guests like this?”
Without thinking for another second, Vera rushed through the open gate and ran straight to the neighbors.
“Lara, call the police! Hurry! Strangers have taken over our house!” Vera burst into the neighboring yard with a terrified face.
“What happened over there?” Larisa asked in confusion. She was washing the swimming pool at that moment.
“I said call the police! Quickly! There are… what do you call them? Invaders in my yard!”
“Who?” Larisa still did not quite believe how serious her neighbor’s words were. “All right, fine. If you say so. I’ll call. But why aren’t you calling yourself?”
“My hands are shaking. I can’t. Please, Lara, hurry!”
Larisa slowly climbed out of the pool and began looking for her phone.
Meanwhile, above the fence separating the two properties, heads started appearing — the heads of the strangers who had occupied Vera’s home. They popped up one after another, and the sight was actually rather comical. The strangers were using the only object near the fence for this maneuver: a decorative tree stump that Vera had once refused to throw away, thinking she would eventually find some use for it.
“Ladies, dear women, please calm down. There’s no need to call anyone,” began the man with the beer. “I just spoke with Evgeny. There’s been a little misunderstanding. Vera, forgive us. We didn’t recognize you. We’ve never seen you in person before. We thought some scammer had come in. Honestly, we were confused. You and your husband were supposed to be on vacation right now, weren’t you? And then suddenly you show up.”
“Yes, we were supposed to be,” Vera answered. “But we didn’t go. I wasn’t allowed to take time off work. But how exactly does that justify your shameless invasion of our home?”
“Exactly!” Larisa backed her up. “Explain that to us!”
A few minutes later, Vera finally gathered the courage to return to her own yard, taking the spirited Larisa with her for support.
There, everyone sat down together in the gazebo and calmly, without shouting anymore, began to figure out what had happened.
“The thing is, Evgeny, the owner of this house and our cousin, told us something completely different.”
“And what exactly did my husband tell you?” Vera asked, genuinely surprised, because he had not said a single word to her about any guests.
“He told us the house would be empty for the whole week. So we decided to come here with our families and relax. Maybe go to the sea a couple of times too, since it’s only fifty kilometers from here. Very convenient!”
“So, if I understand correctly, Zhenya gave you permission to stay here? And when did he manage to do that?”
“He did give us permission. Do you think we would have just decided on our own to break into someone else’s property? He gave us permission when he came to visit us in Petrovka a couple of months ago.”
“All right, fine, let’s say that’s true,” Vera said. She knew perfectly well her husband had a talent for promising people the moon when he had had a drink. “But where did you get the keys?”
“What do you mean, where? He gave them to me himself. Back then,” the lively stranger replied. “He said, ‘Here you go, Zina, the keys to my house. You’re the only one I can trust with them. You definitely won’t lose them.’ And I didn’t lose them!”
“So that’s where the keys my husband supposedly lost recently went,” Vera thought.
“Well, at least that explains something,” she said aloud. “The only problem is that Evgeny forgot to tell me about this. So now you are going to pack everything back into your car and go to a hotel. You can rent a house nearby if you want. There are plenty of them around here.”
Vera was furious at her husband’s behavior — and at the nerve of these people, who had made themselves at home in someone else’s house.
“Oh, come on. Why be like that? We’ve already settled in! The table is set, the grill is going, the barbecue is cooked. Maybe we could all sit together, huh? And then Zhenya will come later,” her husband’s cousin suggested.
“No, we will not sit together. I wasn’t expecting guests. Especially not guests as rude as you. And certainly not in this number.”
“Verunya, maybe we should still give the police a call?” Larisa asked.
“No. They’ll leave on their own now. But first, they will clean everything up after themselves. Is that understood?” Vera said loudly.
“Don’t you think that’s kind of inhuman? We’re family, even if we’re distant relatives. Besides, we’ve already moved in, unpacked everything, made ourselves comfortable. You could at least meet us halfway,” the uninvited guests complained.
“No, I could not. Now you will quickly load everything back into the car and leave our house,” Vera said, unyielding.
By the time the evening sun had already sunk below the horizon, the car carrying her husband’s relatives finally drove away from the house.
Breathing a sigh of relief and still not fully recovered from everything that had happened, Vera suggested to her neighbor that they have a little drink.
“Maybe we should calm our nerves a bit, Larisa?”
“Let’s. I’m still shaking too. Every time I remember you screaming ‘Help!’ and ‘Save me!’ like that, my heart jumps. I really thought you were done for!”
Twenty minutes later, the two neighbors were laughing loudly as they recalled the events of that very difficult evening.
And the next day, when the master of the house, Evgeny, returned home, a very serious conversation with his wife was waiting for him. Along with a suitable punishment — so that he would never again hand out keys to just anyone or make decisions about their shared home without asking her.
