After buying a bunch of stuff at the sale, Sarah went outside and saw their car parked nearby. Her joy at her unexpected good fortune didn’t last long. A swaggering girl got out of the car, and after a little more fiddling with the driver, went about her business. Sara, just in case, looked at the driver to see if Mark had lent the car to anyone. No, he drove it himself. Sarah knew the girl, too. It was Mark’s ex-girlfriend, who had not waited for him from the army.
Sara’s resentment burned and, without further delay, she simply kicked her husband out of the apartment. And then she wondered how she was now alone. But she was not alone, she had a son to raise. She had no one to help her: she was from a dysfunctional family, and her husband’s parents looked down on her.
A phone call distracted her from her sad thoughts. She politely inquired about her health, and then her mother-in-law expressed her desire to talk to her son. And Sarah told her everything, and at the same time allowed herself to be impertinent, which she had never been. This calmed her down a little.
Mark was sitting in her grandmother’s apartment. What a fool he was! Why did he agree to let his ex-wife down, he knew what she was like… For sure, she would like the new car, because now she was in another active search, after a third divorce. He had to get Sarah there, too, and it was like she went off the rails, wouldn’t let him explain anything.
He simply would not answer the phone to his mother, but he had to open the door. His mother calmly entered the house, did not react to his surprise and started rummaging through his bag. They say she brought him a gift from his father and pulled out an old leather belt. Mark remembered that belt well.
His father often told everyone that once upon a time he had discouraged his son from smoking with that very belt. His mother looked at her son, looked at the belt, grabbed it and began to whip Mark, saying that she would also discourage him from walking away from his wife. Mark had to tell his mother how it was. And then it was a matter of technique. My mother-in-law made them both cool down and just listen to each other. Fortunately, the reason for resenting each other spouses simply did not exist. And to this day the belt is still in the drawer. Just in case.
