“So here’s the deal. The riverboat tickets have been canceled, I took the money, and I donated it to the Bright Path community. Tomorrow at six in the morning, their minibus will come pick us up.”
Masha dropped the metal sponge from her hand. Water hissed into the empty sink, splashing soapy foam across the tiles. Slowly, she turned around.
Maxim stood awkwardly in the doorway, picking at a hole in the hem of his old gray T-shirt. Behind his shoulder, his mother peeked in — perfectly groomed as always, every hair in place, the collar of her blouse neatly pressed.
“Are you joking right now?” Masha took a step toward the table. “What tickets? We worked ourselves to the bone for a year and a half for that cruise! I worked double shifts at the register during the New Year holidays! I saved every single coin!”
Tamara Eduardovna folded her arms across her chest.
“Mashenka, don’t shout. I’m thinking about your well-being. On that riverboat, all you would have done is drink and stuff yourselves. It’s vulgar and empty. At the community, we’ll sleep on straw, walk barefoot, and eat clean, proper food. A real reset.”
Masha stared directly at her husband.
“Maxim, tell me you’re an idiot and this is just some stupid prank.”
Maxim kept his eyes fixed on the linoleum.
“Mash, Mom only wants what’s best for us. They had a big discount for families.”
“A discount? With our money?” Masha began to shake. “You gave her the password to our account yourself?”
“I went to the office this morning. I signed the cancellation papers and took the cash.”
Masha pressed her palms hard against the table, barely holding back tears.
“You canceled vouchers worth two hundred thousand behind my back just so we could feed mosquitoes in the forest?”
Tamara Eduardovna began speaking in her usual lecturing tone.
“I told him to do it. You’ve drained him dry. You don’t let him take a single step on his own. Your rudeness has gone too far. In the community, they’ll help Maxim become a real man and make decisions. And they’ll finally teach you to listen to your husband and keep quiet.”
Masha clenched her teeth so hard her jaw began to ache.
“Keep quiet? You spent an entire month eating my brain with a teaspoon! First you lied about infections on ships. Then you shoved printouts in my face about thieves in ports. I told you clearly, in plain Russian: we were going together. Without you. End of story.”
“Mom is just worried about us,” Maxim muttered, still not lifting his eyes. “Her blood pressure will go up again because of your shouting.”
“Your mother is worried that we dared to do something without her permission! Both of you have been sitting on my neck!”
His mother grimaced.
“So much filth. Maxim, get me some water. My head is splitting from her hysteria. It’s impossible to talk to her.”
Masha stepped back and blocked the sink with her body.
“Water? Drink from the tap! Where are the money and the receipts?”
“In a safe place. And don’t make a scene. I arranged all of this for the two of you.”
Masha spun around, yanked her raincoat from the hook, and shoved her feet into her sneakers without even untying them.
Maxim blocked the way.
“Where are you going?”
“To the agency. To get our booking back.”
From the kitchen came Tamara Eduardovna’s voice.
“Masha, don’t embarrass yourself! The money has already been put to good use!”
Masha slammed the front door so hard the walls trembled.
She almost ran down the street, stepping straight into puddles. Her head roared with rage. She remembered working fourteen-hour shifts, enduring difficult customers, coming home in the evenings nearly crying from lower back pain — all for three weeks on the river.
The Volga-Tour office was cool from the air conditioner. A manager named Arthur was sitting behind the desk.
Masha approached and leaned over him.
“Arthur, open your computer. My husband came here this morning.”
The manager began typing.
“Yes, Maria Viktorovna. Maxim Olegovich canceled the contract. We withheld a thirty percent penalty and gave him the remaining amount in cash. Everything was legal. He had his passport with him.”
“Reverse it. Now. I paid half.”
“I can’t. The contract was registered only in his name. His signature is on it. He canceled the deal and took the money. That’s where my authority ends.”
Masha slammed her palm against the counter with all her strength.
“Is our cabin still available? For tomorrow?”
“Your standard cabin is gone. The only one left is a luxury cabin on the upper deck. One hundred and forty thousand.”
“Book it in my name. Right now.”
“But you…”
“Do it, I said.”
Masha pulled a credit card from her wallet — the very one with outrageous interest that she had sworn never to touch. The terminal beeped. Masha tore the receipt from the machine.
She returned home an hour later. In the hallway already stood her mother-in-law’s huge canvas duffel bag. Tamara Eduardovna herself was sitting in the kitchen, picking through a plastic container of herbs.
“We’re packing, Mashenka. Maxim is just putting the rubber boots in. Leather shoes are sinful there.”
Without a word, Masha walked into the bedroom, climbed onto a chair, and pulled a red suitcase down from the storage shelf.
Maxim froze with a sweater in his hands.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, my riverboat leaves.”
“What do you mean? We’re going to Bright Path tomorrow!”
“You can go wherever you want, even to a garbage dump. My ticket is in my bag. I bought it with my own money, on credit. And it’s registered only in my name.”
Tamara Eduardovna looked into the room and smirked crookedly.
“You think you’ve shown some character? Foolish girl. You’ll look like an abandoned woman alone on that cruise. If your husband says you must go together, then you go together.”
Masha calmly threw one item after another into the suitcase and said sharply:
“Let my husband earn his own money first. Then he can give orders.”
Maxim threw the sweater onto the bed.
“How dare you speak to my mother like that? She was trying for us! Are we a family or not? We’re supposed to be together!”
Masha straightened up.
“A family? The two of you make a perfect family. You’re in perfect harmony. And I’m just a milk cow and a free cook to you.”
Tamara Eduardovna gave a mocking snort.
“It’s your own fault, dear. You turned him into a rag. At least I showed the boy that he has the right to speak. I pulled him out from under your heel.”
“You pulled him out? Wonderful. Then take him back completely.”
Maxim jerked forward and grabbed her by the elbow.
“Mash, stop making a circus out of this. You’re not going anywhere. You’ll sit at home and cool down. Mom is right. We need to spend time together.”
Masha pulled her arm free with disgust.
“I’m going to the Volga. You’re going to eat straw. Leave the apartment keys on the nightstand. I’m filing for divorce.”
Her mother-in-law’s face stretched in shock.
“You’re destroying a family over some trip? What an egoist.”
“I’m destroying this madhouse because my husband has his mother’s instructions instead of a brain.”
That night, Masha sat alone in the dark kitchen. Maxim and his mother had left by taxi earlier that evening to stay with relatives, planning to head out to their wilderness retreat from there.
Her phone began buzzing on the table. It was her sister, Valya. The moment Masha answered, shouting burst through the speaker.
“Mashka, are you completely crazy? What divorce? What do you mean, going on a cruise alone? You’re almost forty! Women don’t just throw husbands away these days! So his mother is a nutcase — so what? Endure it for the sake of the family!”
“I endured it for a year and a half. Enough.”
“Even if it were ten years! Are you a woman or what? Your job is to protect your home. Cancel that ticket, hire a car, and go after them to that village of theirs. Ask Maxim for forgiveness on your knees, and he’ll calm down. Mine drinks himself stupid all the time, and I still live with him. I’m not running off to get divorced!”
For a second, those words knocked the air out of Masha. All her life, everyone had told her the same thing: stay silent, be wiser, give in, carry your cross. Outside the window, a street-cleaning truck passed noisily, spraying water over the glass.
“Valya, I’m not carrying anyone on my back anymore.”
“You’re a fool, Mashka. You’ll end up alone with nothing. You’ll disgrace the whole family. Abandoning your husband over a whim!”
“I don’t care anymore.”
Masha ended the call. Her hands were trembling, and fear tightened inside her chest. She wanted badly to retreat, to call her husband, apologize to her mother-in-law, and put everything back the way it had been — familiar, gray, full of arguments, but understandable.
But she forced herself to stand, walk to the mirror, and look herself in the eyes.
Enough.
She would go alone, even if every relative turned away from her. It was time to learn how to live for herself.
A deafening horn echoed over the river. The sun blinded her eyes. Masha stood on the upper deck, letting the wind hit her face. The white riverboat slowly pulled away from the pier.
Her phone chimed briefly in the pocket of her windbreaker. Masha took it out. A message from Maxim flashed on the screen:
“Masha, it’s a nightmare here. They locked us in a barrack, took our phones and passports. I’m secretly writing from a guard’s smartphone while he stepped away. Mom was bitten by a horsefly, her whole face is swollen, there’s no medicine, and they won’t let doctors in. This is some kind of cult. They won’t let us leave. Masha, please call the police and come get me out of here. Please.”
Masha stared at the screen for a long time. The riverboat moved forward, leaving a wide foamy trail behind it on the water.
She pressed “delete,” slipped the phone deep into her pocket, and turned her face toward the river.
Ahead of her were three weeks of vacation.
