Ida loved Edward to the point of madness. She believed that she was the happiest woman in the world just because she met such a man.
That day he promised to visit her, so from the very morning she fussed, cleaned, put everything in its place. And then she was getting ready for a very long time. It was necessary to emphasize the natural beauty. She rushed back and forth, forgetting what she was going to do. She scratched her hair, painted her lips, picked up a dress – she grabbed at everything and nothing came out. But she had to hurry.
In fact, Ida is not a naive teenager. She has long had a son. She was even married. But in that marriage she pretended to love rather than really loved. At first she thought that she fell head over heels in love, and then realized that it was not love either. That is probably why she remained a single mother. She lived with her husband in his city for a while, and then divorced and returned to her parents’ house.
Then she found out that she was pregnant. And there was no trace of her husband. She stopped looking for him now. She ran away from him.
Later, the woman gave birth to a boy. But now she had someone to move on for. Loneliness did not consume her from the inside anymore. The child turned out to be so beautiful. Good genes were passed on. Ida is a beauty herself. And her own father did not complain about her beauty. So the girl was lucky with the baby. The baby also had a calm character: he slept all the time, and when he woke up, he would only look at her with black eyes. He would not make a sound until you disturbed him. He was rarely sick, so Ida did not visit hospitals. She enjoyed her Max as much as she could.
It was a wonderful baby. The boy grew up right before her eyes. At first, he just did not interfere with his mother’s household chores. Even when once the woman accidentally noticed that her son got his head stuck between the chairs, she was very scared at first, and then was surprised that he silently tried to get out of there. He just sniffled and kept silent, trying to push the chairs apart with his hands. And when he grew up, he started to help. He could clean up, put toys behind him, and put dirty clothes in the basket – everything his mother asked.
Surprisingly, the problems did not increase with age. The mother was calm about her son. She always let him play in the yard. She only told him to run to the window every 10 minutes and report that everything was fine.
The child did not have a watch. He was guided by intuition. So he ran every three minutes and shouted until his mother responded.
Once Ida answered her son, but he continued to stand at the window.
– What is it? Go and play.
– You didn’t smile at me…
The mother laughed.
And once the son brought home a kitten from a walk.
– My aunt gave it to me. She said his name was Tom. She told me to take care of him.
The woman just shook her head, her arms crossed on her chest. What could she answer the child?
– He must be hungry. Come to dinner, both of you.
Now there were three people in Ida’s family. They lived peacefully until she met Edward.
The man had never been married. Strange, because age and stature should have taken their toll. But still… Ida’s gentleman worked at a furniture factory. He earned good money.
At first they just talked, meeting on neutral territory. And then the man began to stay at his friend’s place for the night.
Edward was not a talkative man, he ate a lot, drank – not very much, earned normally. In the end, Ida liked everything. So every evening she waited for her beloved to come home from work.
That time everything was as usual: work, home, dinner. At the door, the man greeted Ida’s son, as he did every time. He went to the kitchen. He sat down at the table. Ida was just finishing cooking dinner.
They ate and decided that tomorrow they should go for a walk in the park. It was a day off, so why stay at home?
The boy nodded and, grabbing Tom, ran to his room.
Ida was left alone with her man. And perhaps for the first time in all this time Edward started talking about marriage.
– I think it should be legalized at last. We will live with you for now. Then we’ll see. And my apartment can be rented. Only, you know… I don’t like cats. It would be good if we gave Tom away. Then I’d feel better.
– You don’t like cats? – Ida asked again.
– Yes, Tom is yours…
They both fell silent.
Two minutes passed before Edward broke the silence again.
– We’ll send the child to the village. My mother is there. Let the child breathe fresh air. Fresh air. There’s a school there too. Let the child rest. And you and I are still young – we’ll have our own.
Ida was frozen. She kept trying to understand whether she had really imagined everything that her husband was talking about.
Edward looked at the woman, waiting for approval of his proposal. But she was only silent. Then she got up from her seat, walked over to Edward’s things, which he had just brought to her apartment, not even having time to unpack and put them away.
– Take it and go…
– Where should I go? Why?
– To your place or to your mother in the village. It’s up to you. You don’t like cats, but I adore Tom. We’ll live together somehow.
Do you think Ida did the right thing?
