My parents came from a village, but thanks to my mother’s work in a factory and the fact that they were on the waiting list, they were able to get an apartment in the city, to get to work more convenient. By the time I was born, the family had already fully settled in the apartment.
My older sister and I got along pretty well, though we fought, like all siblings, over little things. While we were growing up, my mother and father were saving up a little bit at a time to eventually make a big renovation to the apartment. They divided one large room that had previously been used as a living room with a wall, creating an extra bedroom in the apartment. All the friends who came to visit my sister and me were always amazed at what a beautiful and fashionable apartment we had – my mother often changed the wallpaper, and my father personally glued it. Mom bought all sorts of small things for the house in antique shops to create a cozy atmosphere, she stood in line for the furniture. In general, our apartment was wonderful – everyone was jealous and wanted the same one.
The four of us lived there till graduation. Then my sister went to technical school, and two years later I joined the army. I already had my high school sweetheart, who promised to wait. But she didn’t wait. When I returned from the army, I found out that she already had a family, a child, and I was gone for less than two years! But my sister found someone for herself, too. She brought him to live with us, but he didn’t get in the way, because he was either at school or at work, or in his room.
During my time in the army, my parents fought a lot and their relationship became strained. Mom often threatened Dad that she was going to leave the family, and he was always waving it off, saying, “Go ahead. He didn’t think Mom would ever make up her mind, and then she had an admirer in the factory. He was ten years younger than her, he worked as a translator for rich people, and he kept asking her to marry him. She begged him to wait, didn’t refuse, and when her father had had enough of her, she filed for divorce and married another man. She moved with him, not only to another city, but also to another country, and my father was left alone in the apartment.
I grew older, also went to school, moved out of my parents’ house, and left my father with my sister and her roommate.
And then, ten years after my mother left, when I was on my feet and had earned my own apartment, so that my children could have their own place, my sister came to see me with her father and her bags. I was frightened, not understanding what happened, and she hysterically announced that since my father had transferred the apartment to me, then let her live with me.
I personally did not ask my father for anything, let alone for an apartment. I have my own apartment, and that apartment is his property, he does what he wants. But my sister didn’t like it. She had been living there for dozens of years and she thought that that apartment was hers, because she obviously needed it more, she did not have her own money and the possibility to buy her own real estate. She told me not to put my father’s foot in his own house, and I will not get the apartment until his death, and she will try to sue him.
I do not understand, when did our relations have time to spoil so? It’s like a family, and she just said goodbye to my father and kicked him out the door…
