Barbara always reminded me that I had bird rights in her apartment and therefore had to eat what she gave me and leave the house so as not to disturb her, since it was “her real estate. My mother-in-law managed to have these uncomfortable conversations when my wife was not home, and I could not complain to her. I am a man, after all, and the restless woman is her mother. There was a good chance she would listen to her mother, not me. So I kept quiet. I knew that my mother-in-law could not stand me, was trying to evict me in every way, and was quietly telling my daughter that I got married only for the living space that we would get later, because my mother-in-law had no other children.
I ignored her behavior until, during one of my arguments with my wife, Maria reproached me with her mother-in-law’s words that I was not living in my apartment and was paying “just the rent. As if that’s not enough and that’s why she and her mother don’t save all the money they earn and get from retirement for vacations, trips to beauty salons, and things. I was not afraid to answer my wife, I dared to speak out, and my mother-in-law collected my things in trash bags and put them in the stairwell. Not only did she throw out my clothes, she threw out my laptop and my bathroom accessories. It was just a miracle no one had time to trash my equipment. My wife wasn’t home at the time, she didn’t know, but that didn’t change the fact that the two women’s attitude toward me was obvious.
I got my stuff in the car and drove to my mother’s house. Not a day later, my wife showed up at my door. She begged me to come back because she loved me, and she did not say the hurtful words out of spite. She didn’t realize how snide my mother was, either, until she evicted me and started brainwashing her daughter with new suitors.
It’s not always good to live cheaper, but with in-laws, it always brings quarrels and displeasure to some of the tenants. That’s why we now rent an apartment together and pay for it equally. It’s more expensive, but no one buzzes over our ears and tries to bump us against each other. And Barbara cries and asks to come back because it’s hard and lonely for her, but we’ve lived with her, we know what it’s like.
