Mary’s relationship with her mother-in-law was not original. Something causes discontent, something she will clean up, something she will say to your face. However, she does not refuse to help with grandchildren. And does not do direct nasty things. But a year ago, in the summer…
Mary inherited from her grandmother a house in the village. The couple used it as a summer house. Mother-in-law also came there. She rested, walked, helped with the garden. Last summer Mary bought sugar and went to the summer house with the children to make blackcurrant jam.
Arriving at the place, she was unpleasantly surprised. The bushes were there, but the berries were gone. She thought that one of the neighbors had picked berries for sale to “improve their health”. She was very upset, but did not call her husband. And in the morning, a neighbor, who brought Mary eggs for breakfast for the children, asked:
– Why did your mother-in-law come alone the other day?
Mary was surprised, but did not show it. After breakfast she called her mother-in-law.
– The neighbor says that you came to the cottage for some reason. Can you tell me why? – she asked.
– Mary, I wanted to visit my daughter and grandchildren, so I picked some berries for the kids. There are a lot of them anyway.
– Plenty? I came to make jam, and there are no berries!
– Come on. Make it with plums. My sister-in-law spared the berries for the children.
Of course, Mary would not have refused, if her mother-in-law had addressed her as a human being. And she would not have picked all the bushes to the last berry. Why should her children be deprived of currant jam? Why are they worse than her husband’s nephews? She did not tell her husband about it for a long time. But with the beginning of the summer season, fearing that last year’s story would not repeat itself, she told her husband everything and asked to talk to her mother. At first, the mother-in-law threw a tantrum, screaming: “I don’t want to set foot there again!” But the closer the summer, the more often she asks her daughter-in-law: “When will we go to the summer house?”
