“Arseniy, do you know why your mother left me a list of chores for the entire weekend?” Kira asked the moment her husband answered the phone.
“What list?”
“I’ll send you a picture. Read it.”
She ended the call and looked again at the sheet of paper lying in the middle of the kitchen table.
Friday evening had started out completely normally. Kira got home from work at around seven, changed her clothes, opened the kitchen window, and was about to order food because after a difficult week she had no desire to cook. Arseniy had stopped by a hardware store on his way home and said he would be back later.
At first, Kira assumed the note was a shopping list her husband had left behind.
Then she recognized the handwriting.
“By Saturday, buy meat, vegetables, cheese, herbs, and drinks. Lunch for eight people. Clear the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Everything must be ready by 1:00 p.m. Don’t make any plans for Sunday—we’re going to Polina’s to sort through her things after the move. Better to start early.”
At the bottom, Tamara Sergeyevna had underlined the time and added an exclamation mark.
 
Kira read the note twice.
Then she picked up her phone and took a picture of it.
She had not invited any guests. She was hearing about Polina’s move for the first time. And more importantly, Sunday had already been planned for almost two weeks. Kira and her friend Vera had arranged to drive out of town to a lake. They planned to buy some food in the morning, take folding chairs, and spend the day by the water.
Apparently, someone had now canceled Kira’s plans on her behalf.
Her phone buzzed.
Arseniy had sent a short message.
“Mom’s being ridiculous. I’ll be home soon. We’ll deal with it.”
Kira looked at the note one more time and put it in the kitchen drawer.
She had no intention of buying groceries.
 
And she certainly had no intention of cooking for eight people.
Kira and Arseniy had been married for three years. Before the wedding, they had dated for a little less than a year, so Kira had had plenty of time to meet both Tamara Sergeyevna and Arseniy’s younger sister, Polina.
At first, her relationship with his family had been perfectly normal.
Arseniy worked as an engineer at a manufacturing company, while Kira was an administrator at a large medical center. They both left home in the morning and returned in the evening. Sometimes Arseniy had to work Saturdays, and Kira had several late shifts every month.
Because of that, they divided household responsibilities without any rigid system.
Whoever got home first might make dinner. Arseniy usually handled major grocery shopping, while Kira kept track of what they were running out of. They usually cleaned together on Saturday mornings, and after that each of them spent the weekend however they wanted.
If one of them needed help, the other pitched in.
Kira liked the arrangement.
The problems did not begin between the spouses.
They began when Tamara Sergeyevna decided that, after marrying Arseniy, Kira had become a full participant in every matter concerning his family. In other words, she was expected to be available not only to Arseniy, but also to his mother, his sister, his nephew, and occasionally to distant relatives Kira herself had met only a few times.
At first, it did not even bother her.
 
“Kirochka, are you driving past the pharmacy today?” her mother-in-law might call and ask. “I need to pick up some medicine I ordered.”
If the pharmacy was actually on her way, Kira would collect it.
Another time, Tamara Sergeyevna was waiting for a repairman to fix her washing machine but suddenly got a doctor’s appointment.
“Could you sit at my place for an hour? He said he’d come sometime between four and six.”
Kira happened to have the day off and agreed.
Later, her mother-in-law asked her to help order a new vacuum cleaner online. Tamara Sergeyevna used a smartphone, messaged people regularly, and could easily find whatever website she needed, but she did not like comparing technical specifications.
Kira spent an evening reviewing several models and placing the order for her.
She did not see anything wrong with requests like that.
Tamara Sergeyevna helped them sometimes too. She could receive a delivery if the couple were working, bring good vegetables from the market, and once picked up some documents for Arseniy from a service center.
At that point, everything seemed mutual and natural.
Kira was even relieved that she had not ended up with one of those mothers-in-law who treated their son’s wife like an enemy from day one.
She simply had not noticed the exact moment when requests stopped being requests and turned into assignments.
The first thing that changed was the tone.
 
Tamara Sergeyevna used to ask:
“Would you be able to?”
Then she started saying:
“You need to.”
And several months later, that changed to:
“I’ve arranged it.”
One evening Kira was leaving work when her mother-in-law called.
“Tomorrow after six, you’ll pick me up. I need to go to the shopping center.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. I want to look at shoes.”
“Tamara Sergeyevna, I’m working late tomorrow.”
“Then come after work.”
“I won’t get off until around eight.”
“The stores are open until ten.”
That time, Kira refused.
Her mother-in-law became offended and complained to Arseniy the next day that Kira had become terribly busy lately and apparently no longer cared about her husband’s mother.
 
Then Polina joined in.
She was four years younger than her brother and was raising her six-year-old son, Matvey. She often needed help. Sometimes for perfectly understandable reasons: her child was sick, she got held up at work, or something urgent came up.
At first, Kira helped without any problem.
But before long, Polina also stopped asking in advance.
“Kira, I’ll bring Matvey over tomorrow at five-thirty. He’ll stay with you until nine.”
“Polina, why with us?”
“I have things to do.”
“Will Arseniy be home?”
“I don’t know. You’ll be there.”
Kira agreed that time, even though she had planned to go to the hairdresser after work. She had to reschedule her appointment.
Two weeks later, it happened again.
Then again.
The most revealing moments came during family gatherings.
Tamara Sergeyevna loved inviting relatives over. Everyone sat together at the table: Arseniy, Polina, her son, sometimes Arseniy’s aunt and her husband, and a few cousins.
After the meal, the men usually disappeared into the living room. Polina either took care of her child or sat with her phone. Tamara Sergeyevna announced that she was tired.
And Kira somehow always found herself alone in the kitchen beside a mountain of dirty dishes.
At first, she did not think much of it.
One day she called Arseniy.
“Can you help me?”
“I’ll come in a minute. I just want to finish watching this.”
 
He never came.
The next time, Kira deliberately left everything untouched. Tamara Sergeyevna came into the kitchen and looked surprised.
“What about the dishes?”
“What about them?”
“They need to be cleared.”
“There were seven people at the table.”
Her mother-in-law stared at her as if Kira had suggested that seven people wash the same plate at once.
“Well, you’re already here.”
That was the first time Kira thought that the arrangement had become extremely convenient for everyone except her.
For a long time, Arseniy did not understand why his wife was making an issue of it.
“They asked you to help,” he said. “What’s the big deal?”
“They don’t ask me anymore.”
“What difference does it make?”
“A big one. If someone asks, I can say yes or no. Your mother tells me what I’m supposed to do.”
Arseniy laughed.
“That’s just how Mom talks. Don’t take it literally.”
“Then why doesn’t she talk to you that way?”
“She does.”
 
“When was the last time?”
He thought about it.
And could not remember.
Tamara Sergeyevna was remarkably consistent about protecting her son from inconvenience.
If Arseniy came home late, she would say:
“Kira, make sure he gets a proper meal. The poor man has been working all day.”
Whenever she said that, Kira would look at her and wonder what her mother-in-law imagined Kira herself had been doing all day.
If the family needed to go somewhere, Tamara Sergeyevna might say:
“Don’t bother Arseniy. Let him sleep.”
If the table had to be cleared after a family lunch:
“Let Kolya and Vitya rest. They’ve been working all week.”
For some reason, everyone forgot that Kira had spent that same week working too.
One day she asked her husband directly:
“Have you noticed that your mother treats your job like real work and mine like some sort of hobby?”
“Oh, come on.”
“Last Saturday she told you to rest after your workweek and sent me with Polina to buy a wardrobe.”
“You agreed.”
“Because Polina said the delivery had already been arranged and she urgently needed help.”
“So you helped your sister.”
 
Kira looked at him and did not continue.
Arseniy genuinely did not see the problem.
As long as the problem kept making his life easier, there was little reason for him to notice it.
His relatives became especially comfortable that summer.
June started with Tamara Sergeyevna deciding to celebrate her birthday at home.
“Kira, try to leave work early on Friday,” she announced several days beforehand. “You’ll help prepare everything.”
“I can’t just leave early because I feel like it.”
“Then come after work.”
Kira went.
She helped cut ingredients, prepare the main dishes, and set the table. The next day, she was back in the kitchen while everyone else looked at photographs and drank coffee.
In July, her mother-in-law hosted out-of-town relatives twice. The first time, Kira helped pick them up at the train station because Arseniy was busy. The second time, she bought groceries and spent nearly the entire evening at the stove.
She picked Matvey up from activities several times during those two months.
Every time, Polina promised she would be back quickly.
Once, “quickly” turned into almost three hours.
Kira sat with the boy at a café near the children’s center, then took him home, fed him, put on a cartoon, and waited until Polina finally arrived close to nine.
“Thank you so much!” Polina said, kissing her son on the head. “You saved me.”
Four days later, she called again.
 
“Can you pick Matvey up on Thursday?”
No question about Kira’s plans. No explanation.
At the end of July, Polina decided to prepare her old apartment for renting out. She and her son had recently moved into a larger place, and she planned to lease the old one-bedroom apartment.
Somehow, Kira became involved in the preparations.
First, Polina asked her to come by “just to take a quick look and decide what should be removed.”
An hour later, Kira was sorting clothes in a wardrobe.
Then she helped pack books.
Several days later, she was washing kitchen cabinets with Polina after old jars and packages were discovered inside.
Arseniy was at home the entire time.
“Why didn’t you call your brother?” Kira asked.
Polina looked surprised.
“Why would I? He’s tired.”
Kira laughed.
Polina did not even understand why.
By August, Kira had started refusing more often.
Tamara Sergeyevna’s reaction was predictable.
“Everyone only thinks about themselves these days,” she said over the phone after another refusal. “People used to help relatives without arguing.”
“I help without arguing too, when I can.”
“And what’s stopping you now?”
“I have my own plans.”
 
“What plans could you possibly have on a Wednesday evening?”
Kira actually pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the screen.
Her mother-in-law truly seemed to believe that Kira’s free time automatically belonged to whoever claimed it first.
“My plans, Tamara Sergeyevna.”
“I see.”
That “I see” sounded worse than a thirty-minute lecture.
Afterward, Tamara Sergeyevna would call her son.
“Kira seems very tense today.”
And that evening Arseniy would begin:
“Mom only asked you to stop by…”
“Then why didn’t you stop by?”
“I had things to do.”
“So did I.”
“Okay, why are you getting so worked up?”
And that continued until the Friday when, instead of a phone call, Kira found the note.
Tamara Sergeyevna had left it during the day. She had a spare key because several months earlier the couple had asked her to let a plumber into the apartment. She had simply kept the key afterward.
For the first time, Kira thought it might be time to take it back.
 
One thing was having access in an emergency.
Quite another was entering the apartment while the owners were away and leaving her daughter-in-law a weekend work schedule.
On Saturday morning, Kira woke up at around nine.
She had not bought any groceries the night before.
She had not cleared the refrigerator.
Instead of preparing lunch, she had breakfast, took a shower, and started a load of laundry.
Arseniy went to the store to buy groceries for the two of them.
At around ten, the doorbell rang.
Kira looked through the peephole.
Tamara Sergeyevna.
This time she had to ring because the night before Kira had told Arseniy that she wanted the spare key back. Her husband had been surprised at first, but he did not argue and called his mother. Tamara Sergeyevna complained for ten minutes, but eventually agreed to return it in the morning.
Kira opened the door.
Her mother-in-law entered carrying a large bag and immediately headed toward the kitchen.
A few seconds later, her voice rang out.
 
“Kira!”
“What?”
“Where are the groceries?”
Kira followed her into the kitchen.
Tamara Sergeyevna stood in front of the open refrigerator.
“What groceries?”
“Are you mocking me? I left you a list yesterday.”
“I saw it.”
“Then where is everything?”
“At the store.”
Her mother-in-law slammed the refrigerator door shut.
“The guests will be here in three hours!”
“You still have time.”
“I do?”
“You invited them.”
For several seconds, Tamara Sergeyevna simply stared at her daughter-in-law, clearly expecting Kira to smile and reveal hidden grocery bags.
Kira calmly poured herself a glass of water.
“I didn’t invite anyone today, and I never planned a lunch for eight people.”
“Kira, the relatives are already getting ready to come!”
 
“Then warn them that the food isn’t ready.”
“What do you mean, isn’t ready?”
“Exactly that.”
Her mother-in-law set her bag on a chair and planted her hands on her hips.
“And what were you doing yesterday?”
“After work?”
“Of course.”
“Resting.”
“Instead of buying groceries?”
“Yes.”
Red blotches spread across Tamara Sergeyevna’s face.
“Wonderful. Arseniy works all week, comes home exhausted, and deserves at least one weekend lunch with his family. And you can’t even cook one meal!”
Kira stared at her with growing disbelief.
“And where exactly am I from Monday to Friday?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“That’s actually a very interesting question.”
“Don’t twist my words. Men get tired differently.”
Kira gave a short laugh.
“What a convenient theory.”
Tamara Sergeyevna was already pulling out her phone.
“I’ll call Arseniy. He’ll buy everything on the list. You start cooking now, or you’ll never be done by one.”
“I’m not starting.”
Her mother-in-law froze, phone still in her hand.
“What?”
Kira opened the kitchen drawer, took out the note from the previous day, and placed it in front of her.
“You left this?”
“Yes.”
“Where does it say that you and I discussed any of this beforehand?”
“Kira, don’t make a scene.”
“I’m asking seriously. Show me where I agreed to buy groceries, cook lunch for eight people, clear the refrigerator, and give you my Sunday.”
“Polina needs help tomorrow.”
“I found out about her move from your note.”
“Well, now you know.”
Kira pushed the sheet of paper toward her mother-in-law.
“I’m busy tomorrow.”
“Doing what?”
 
“That has nothing to do with Polina’s move.”
“She’s alone with a child!”
“She has a brother. She has friends. Matvey’s father is involved in his life. And she can hire movers.”
“Movers cost money.”
“Then Polina can decide what works better for her—pay someone or ask someone who’s actually available.”
Tamara Sergeyevna inhaled sharply, preparing to respond, but Kira spoke first.
“I married your son. I did not sign up to work for your entire family for free.”
The kitchen fell silent.
Kira touched the note again.
“So show me exactly when we agreed that I was obligated to do everything on this list.”
The front door opened.
Arseniy came back from the store carrying two bags and immediately realized he had walked into the middle of an argument.
“What happened?”
Tamara Sergeyevna turned toward him.
“Ask your wife! I asked her for help one time, and she turned it into a performance.”
Kira actually laughed.
“One time?”
“Don’t nitpick!”
Arseniy put the bags on the kitchen counter.
“Can we all calm down?”
“I’m perfectly calm,” Kira replied. “Your mother invited eight people here and left me a list of what I was supposed to cook. Tomorrow she scheduled me to help Polina move. I said no.”
“Well, the guests are already coming,” Arseniy said cautiously. “Maybe today we could just…”
Kira looked at her husband.
He stopped.
“Just what?”
“Well… since everyone is already on the way.”
“Great. You brought groceries.”
“These are for us.”
“The store is nearby. Go back, buy everything you need, and make lunch for your relatives.”
Arseniy frowned.
“Why me?”
“Why me?”
Tamara Sergeyevna immediately intervened.
“Arseniy needs to rest after his workweek.”
Kira nodded.
 
“Fine. Then tomorrow he can rest at Polina’s. He can sort boxes, move furniture, hang shelves—everything you planned.”
“I was planning to stay home tomorrow,” Arseniy said at once.
Kira looked directly at him.
“And I was planning to go out of town with Vera tomorrow. We arranged it two weeks ago.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Exactly. Because nobody asked what my plans were.”
Arseniy ran a hand through his hair.
“Okay, but Polina’s move…”
“She’s your sister. You’re free. Help her.”
“I’m exhausted after this week.”
Kira opened her hands slightly.
“I also work five days a week. Explain why your weekend is more valuable than mine.”
There was no answer.
Tamara Sergeyevna tried once more to restore the old arrangement.
“All right, enough arguing. Arseniy can go buy the groceries, and Kira can start cooking.”
“No,” Kira said.
“What is wrong with you today?”
“Nothing. Today is simply the first time you heard me say no the first time.”
At eleven-thirty, the first guests arrived—Arseniy’s aunt Lyudmila and her husband.
Polina came shortly afterward with Matvey.
There was still no festive lunch waiting in the kitchen.
Polina looked at the empty counter in surprise.
“Are we early?”
“No,” Kira replied. “Today, everyone who plans to eat is cooking.”
“What do you mean?”
Tamara Sergeyevna waved her hand irritably.
“Don’t ask.”
By then, Arseniy had already gone to the store a second time. He placed meat, vegetables, herbs, cheese, and other ingredients on the table.
Kira picked up an apple, took her book, and went out onto the balcony.
Several minutes later, her husband appeared.
“You’re seriously not going to help?”
“Seriously.”
“Mom is furious.”
“She knows how to use a knife and a stove.”
“Polina has Matvey.”
 
“Matvey is six years old, not six months old. Polina is also perfectly capable of cooking.”
Arseniy stood there for several seconds before returning to the kitchen.
Soon, Kira heard voices from inside.
“Mom, where’s the big bowl?”
“How should I know? This isn’t my kitchen.”
Kira could not help smiling.
Five minutes later, Polina asked:
“Arseniy, should I peel all the potatoes?”
“How should I know?”
“How many does Kira usually make?”
“Ask Kira.”
“Don’t ask Kira!” Tamara Sergeyevna suddenly shouted.
After that, there were fewer questions.
Lunch happened after all.
The difference was that six adults prepared it.
Arseniy handled the meat. Polina chopped vegetables. Lyudmila arranged appetizers. Her husband carried extra packages onto the balcony and brought in additional chairs. Tamara Sergeyevna tried several times to direct everyone at once, but quickly discovered that giving orders was much harder when she also had to work.
Kira sat down at the table when everything was ready.
Nobody died because she had not spent the morning standing over the stove.
The food turned out perfectly fine.
After lunch, Kira calmly took her own plate to the kitchen and placed her utensils in the sink.
The others remained seated for a while.
Then Arseniy was the first to start clearing the table.
Lyudmila joined him.
Within ten minutes, the kitchen had been cleaned by several people working together.
Kira did not interfere.
Meanwhile, Polina walked over to her holding her phone.
“You definitely can’t help tomorrow?”
“Definitely.”
“There are just a lot of boxes.”
“Then call Arseniy.”
Her brother immediately turned his head.
“Polina…”
She looked at him and laughed.
“Got it.”
 
A few minutes later, Polina went into another room and called someone. It turned out that two male acquaintances agreed to come in the morning and help move the heavy things. For everything else, she decided to hire a small van with movers for two hours.
The problem that supposedly required Kira’s mandatory presence the day before was solved in about fifteen minutes.
On Sunday morning, Kira left town with Vera.
Arseniy stayed home.
He did not carry a single box because Polina actually managed perfectly well without either of them.
By evening, Kira came home slightly sunburned, pleasantly tired from a long walk, and happy with how she had spent her day.
Arseniy greeted her without complaints.
But by Monday, the newly established boundaries were already being tested again.
At around five in the afternoon, Tamara Sergeyevna called Kira.
“I need to go pick up an order tomorrow. Can you drive me after work?”
“I can’t.”
“When can you?”
“Call Arseniy. Maybe he’s free.”
Her mother-in-law was silent for a moment.
“Can’t you tell him yourself?”
“You’re the one who needs the ride.”
The conversation ended quickly.
A few minutes later, Arseniy’s phone rang.
He was standing nearby and looked at his wife in surprise.
“Mom wants me to drive her.”
“Great.”
“I was planning to come straight home after work tomorrow.”
Kira said nothing.
Arseniy stood there for a moment, then walked into another room to continue the conversation.
On Tuesday, he really did pick up his mother.
He came home later than usual.
“First we picked up the order, then she needed to stop at a hardware store, then she wanted to visit a friend,” he said while taking off his shoes.
“That happens.”
“Two and a half hours.”
Kira simply nodded.
Previously, errands exactly like that had somehow been described as “just stopping somewhere for a minute.”
A few days later, Polina called.
“Hey, Kira. Are you free Thursday evening?”
Kira did not answer immediately.
The question itself sounded unfamiliar.
 
“I’m free after seven. Why?”
“I need someone to watch Matvey for about two hours. If you can’t, I’ll ask Mom.”
“I can after seven.”
“Perfect. I’ll bring him at seven-ten and pick him up by nine.”
“Deal.”
This time, Kira did not feel irritated at all.
She knew the timing in advance. She had been asked. She had had the option to refuse.
On Thursday, Matvey arrived with a construction set. He and Kira ordered pizza, built half of some kind of spaceship, and at exactly nine Polina came to pick him up.
“Thank you,” she said. “You really helped me out.”
“You’re welcome.”
No lectures about family duty had been necessary.
Tamara Sergeyevna had a harder time adjusting.
Several times, she tried to use the old approach.
“On Saturday, you need to…”
Kira immediately interrupted.
“That doesn’t work for me.”
Or:
“Ask first whether I’m free.”
Her mother-in-law became irritated, but gradually she understood that if she truly wanted help, she would have to speak differently.
Some requests stopped being directed at Kira altogether.
Surprisingly, Arseniy turned out to be available for them.
Two weeks later, he no longer seemed quite so pleased with the new arrangement.
On Wednesday, Tamara Sergeyevna needed a heavy box taken to a friend’s country house.
Her son went.
On Friday, she asked him to help her figure out her banking app.
Arseniy spent almost an hour at her place after work.
On Saturday, it turned out that a small cabinet needed to be picked up from a store.
“Why does Mom keep calling me all the time?” he finally asked Kira.
She looked up from her phone.
“Because she’s your mother.”
“She used to deal with half of this through you.”
“I know.”
“Don’t you think she’s deliberately dumping everything on me now?”
Kira raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting.”
Arseniy immediately realized where she was going with that.
“Okay.”
“No, tell me. When she called me several times a week, it was called helping family. Now that she’s calling you, she’s ‘dumping everything’ on you?”
Her husband sat down next to her.
“I get it.”
 
“What exactly?”
“What you were trying to tell me.”
Kira waited.
Arseniy did not make excuses.
“I really didn’t notice how much you were doing. It always looked small when I saw each thing separately. You stopped somewhere, watched Matvey for a bit, helped Mom with something.”
“And then all those little things swallow entire evenings and weekends.”
“Yeah.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“Yesterday Mom asked me to stop by for literally ten minutes after work. I got away an hour and a half later.”
Kira laughed.
“Welcome.”
Arseniy smiled too.
“I deserved that.”
After that, he stopped automatically defending his mother.
Whenever Tamara Sergeyevna called Kira with another assignment and later complained to her son that Kira had refused, Arseniy no longer came home demanding to know why his wife had not helped.
Instead, he asked his mother:
“Did you arrange it with Kira in advance?”
Usually the answer turned out to be no.
Polina adjusted to the new arrangement much faster.
She began by texting:
“Are you free Friday?”
Only after receiving an answer would she explain what kind of help she needed.
Sometimes Kira agreed.
Sometimes she refused.
Nothing terrible happened.
 
Matvey was never left alone outside. Polina did not miss important appointments. Tamara Sergeyevna was not abandoned without medicine or groceries.
Adults simply had to plan ahead.
One day at the end of August, Tamara Sergeyevna decided to invite the family over again.
This time, she called on Wednesday.
“Kira, I want everyone to come over on Saturday. Will you and Arseniy come?”
“Yes.”
Her mother-in-law paused.
“Could you make that appetizer you prepared last time?”
“I can. But just one dish.”
“All right.”
Kira was about to end the conversation when Tamara Sergeyevna added:
“Polina and I will make the rest.”
“Perfect.”
That was the entire conversation.
No lists.
No scheduling someone else’s weekend for them.
No remarks about how a woman should somehow know in advance whose hands were going to be needed and when.
At Saturday’s lunch, Tamara Sergeyevna tried out of habit to send Kira into the kitchen several times.
“Kirochka, go check…”
Then she stopped herself and went instead.
After the meal, Arseniy began collecting plates. Polina brought containers for the leftover food. Lyudmila’s husband cleared away bottles and glasses.
Kira helped too, but no more than anyone else.
When everything was finished, Tamara Sergeyevna sat down in an armchair and looked thoughtfully at her daughter-in-law.
“Things used to be easier somehow.”
Kira knew exactly what she meant.
“For whom?”
Her mother-in-law was silent for several seconds.
Then she waved a hand.
 
“Never mind.”
Kira smiled and continued talking to Polina.
She had no intention of proving to Tamara Sergeyevna what a good daughter-in-law was supposed to be. And she certainly had no intention of fitting into an imaginary family position that somehow came with neither weekends nor the right to say no.
On the drive home, Arseniy brought up the subject himself.
“Did you notice Mom barely ordered anyone around today?”
“I noticed.”
“And everything still got done quickly.”
“Because there were plenty of people.”
Arseniy nodded.
“It’s strange I never saw that before.”
“You didn’t have to. You always went to rest after meals.”
He grimaced.
“You don’t have to remind me.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
And that was the end of the conversation.
Tamara Sergeyevna never completely changed her views. She still believed relatives should help one another and that a daughter-in-law could show more initiative.
But now nobody tried to assign that initiative in advance.
If something needed to be delivered somewhere, she called her son first.
If Polina needed someone to watch Matvey, she asked Kira about her plans.
If there was going to be a family gathering, everyone either brought something or helped once they arrived.
And no more lists appeared.
Kira kept that particular sheet of paper in the kitchen drawer for a while. Not deliberately—she simply forgot to throw it away.
Several weeks later, she found it while looking for batteries.
“Buy groceries. Prepare lunch. Clear the refrigerator. Help Polina on Sunday.”
 
Kira read the lines and smiled to herself.
Then she tore the sheet in half and threw it away.
It turned out she had never been doing anything irreplaceable for her husband’s relatives.
Tamara Sergeyevna was perfectly capable of running her errands with her son or by herself. Polina knew how to ask friends for help, hire movers, and arrange childcare in advance. Arseniy knew how to shop for groceries, cook, and help his mother. Even a family lunch for eight adults could be organized perfectly well without assigning one person to serve everyone else.
It had simply been more convenient when Kira did everything.
And one Saturday in August put an end to that convenience.
