“Hello, dear! I have a big surprise for you! Make your signature dish for dinner today!”
“What happened?” Svetlana asked, worried.
“Everything’s great! I’ll tell you in the evening!”
The call ended, and the woman looked uncertainly out the window.
It was a damp October. Her husband’s call didn’t lift her spirits, for in twenty-five years of marriage, he had never made a surprise, let alone a big one.
The doorbell rang just as she was taking her signature meat with secret sauce out of the oven.
“Hello, hostess! It smells delicious!” Nikita spoke enthusiastically, slamming a bottle onto the table. “Set the table! The provider is home!”
“Why are you so heated? The provider, huh?” The woman squinted at her husband.
“I’ll wash my hands and tell you everything over a toast.”
After pouring wine into glasses, Nikita dramatically began, “I raise this glass to the best husband and father in the world!
And also to us and… to two weeks of wonderful rest at the best three-star hotel by the ocean.”
For a moment, Svetlana even felt a flicker of joy, but then her husband continued:
“You don’t know, but Misha can scuba dive.”
“Who?” The woman was confused.
“Are you kidding, mother?! Misha, our beloved daughter Polina’s husband.”
“And what does Misha and Polina have to do with this?”
“What’s wrong with you, Svetlana? Have you stayed home too long? We’re all going together, as one big family.”
The woman put her glass down, not even taking a sip. She looked at her husband tiredly.
“Who paid for the vacation?”
“I did, of course!” Nikita proudly thumped his chest.
“So, you’ve been feeding me promises of a trip to a paradise island for twenty-five years, saving up for it, and now you want us to go with your daughter and her husband?!
I see them every day! They don’t cook at home because they always eat here!
You even buy groceries for them and pay for their rent. Because they don’t understand ‘adult paperwork.’”
“But Polinotchka…” Nikita began.
“What Polinotchka?! I had her when I was eighteen! I comforted myself thinking I’d live later!
And now? I’m forty-five. I’ve seen nothing and been nowhere. I work from home. I don’t leave the stove or sink.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. Resentment suffocated her.
Svetlana loved her daughter, but she was indifferent to her son-in-law.
The woman believed that adults should live independently.
When she got pregnant at eighteen and married, no one helped her.
Her husband, who worked at a research institute, provided little support.
After mastering accounting, she still consulted and managed several businesses.
Often, the responsibility for the family’s well-being lay solely on her shoulders.
“Svetlana!” her husband’s voice sounded stricter. “What’s this dampness? We spend so much time together, and the kids haven’t made it yet; they need help.”
“Have you ever tried thinking about me?”
“Of course! You’re going too! What’s the problem?”
“Apparently, the problem is me…” the woman whispered and stood up from the chair, heading to her room.
The next day, Polina came to visit.
“Hi, mom! And I didn’t come empty-handed,” she waved a box with frozen pizza.
“Hi. The microwave’s over there.” Svetlana pointed toward the kitchen, sitting down in front of her computer.
“What’s wrong, mom? Misha will be here soon, I thought you’d whip up some soup to go with the pizza, and make something for tea.”
“The kitchen’s there,” the woman pointed again without looking up from her work.
“Why are you so angry? Dad complained that you didn’t appreciate his gift.”
“To understand me, you need to be me,” Svetlana quietly answered.
“What are you mumbling under your breath? I came to visit, and you’re acting like I’m invisible!
I thought we’d go through your wardrobe and then grab the stuff for the vacation. I even called Misha to carry the bags!”
Svetlana couldn’t take it anymore and stood up from her chair.
“Listen, daughter, if you can’t see it, I’m working. And I’ve been working for you for twenty-seven years!
So that your father could sit back and relax without prospects or a normal salary. So that my daughter could use me as a cook and a credit card for store purchases.”
She took a deep breath to continue, but then the doorbell rang. Misha arrived. A thirty-year-old guy with a thick beard, mustache, and his ever-present scooter.
“Hello, Aunt Svetlana! I’ve got a gift for you! From the whole team, so to speak.
Nikita Sergeyevich is also in on it!” He said and pulled a blender from his backpack. “Sorry, no box, it didn’t fit in the backpack, but all the attachments are here.”
“Well, isn’t that wonderful, mom? You love cooking, it’s a perfect gift for a housewife!”
Svetlana just bitterly smirked and walked to her room.
“What’s wrong with her?” Misha heard the puzzled whisper.
“Who knows. Maybe dad messed something up. Let’s go.”
“And what? We’re not eating anything?!”
“Take the pizza. Eat it at home.”
“I hate frozen pizza. Fresh pies are better.”
“Then bake them yourself!” Polina snapped back.
When the door closed behind the guests, Svetlana covered her face with her hands and whispered:
“I must be a bad mother and wife…”
A restless sleep gripped her tense mind.
She dreamed of little Polina with a stomach ache. Then she dreamed of boys bullying her daughter in the yard, and Svetlana protecting her.
Then she dreamed that Nikita got a salary cut, and Svetlana was comforting her husband and taking on extra work.
Then she was running somewhere. Misha was chasing her on his scooter.
And suddenly… It became very peaceful and quiet. She stood on top of a hill.
Below, a river wound its way, and in the distance, a chain of mountains could be seen, with the sunset casting a crimson glow over their peaks.
Waking up, Svetlana knew what to do.
“Hello, dear! I’m home! How are you? Feeling good? Polina said you didn’t want to go to the store and didn’t like the gift.”
“I don’t need anything from the store.”
“What about a swimsuit and a hat, for example? And I need to buy shorts and a T-shirt.”
“Then go and buy them. I’m not going anywhere with you! Not to the store, not to the beach!
I have my own ocean. You take care of the shopping and preparations yourselves. Don’t bother me! I have a lot of work.”
Nikita froze.
“What about the money? I’ve already paid for everything.”
“Consider it payment for my nerves.”
Nikita snorted loudly, which meant his utmost offense, and stopped talking to his wife. Svetlana was perfectly fine with that.
Two days later, she finished her important work and, packing warm clothes and her laptop, called her husband.
“Hello. Changed your mind? I’m not angry anymore.”
“I don’t care about your offenses, Nikita,” Svetlana said calmly.
“I’m calling to say that I’m going on a business trip, for an unknown period. Don’t forget to check your email and pay for the apartment. That’s all.”
After hanging up, the woman felt like she could finally breathe. Smiling at herself in the mirror, she left the apartment.
The long flight didn’t diminish the excitement of meeting something beautiful.
Settling into the hotel, getting familiar with the schedule and services, everything passed like a haze.
And here it was! The moment! Smoky volcanoes on one side! The roaring ocean on the other!
Svetlana took a deep breath and watched in awe as the sunset bathed the majestic Kamchatka beauty in crimson hues!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, on a warm beach, Nikita Sergeyevich and Mikhail had been suffering from diarrhea for four days.
Polina did her best to take care of them, scolding her father for being greedy.
The hotel they stayed in did not resemble the luxurious resort she had imagined.
She said everything she thought to her father, and he accused her of selfishness in return.
Mikhail just suffered. Besides digestive issues, something was really itching in his beard…
“Do I have to shave?!” he moaned, scratching and running to the bathroom. “Please, do something!”
“What?!”
“Give me medicine!”
“I don’t know which one…”
“Call mom! She knows!”
“Mom turned off her phone.”
They all complained many times about Svetlana’s absence and her turned-off phone. The vacation was practically flushed down the toilet, in the most literal sense.
Svetlana returned a month later. She was welcomed home. On the table were rolls and a burnt pie.
“I’m moving to Kamchatka,” Svetlana announced. “If anyone wants to come with me, we’ll discuss it.
Everything else is not up for discussion.”
“No, we’ll visit you, mom…” Her daughter was a little hurt but let Svetlana go.
Nikita tried to talk, threaten, and sulk. But Svetlana no longer lived in the past. Two months later, she divorced her husband.
At the edge of the world, life finally had real taste! The taste of the salty wind in her face… And perhaps, she would meet her true happiness…
