“We’ll Spend the Night at Your Country House. Why Waste Money on a Hotel?” the Niece Said, but the Owner Merely Smirked
“At the country house, you say?” Vera Petrovna carefully placed the phone on the table without even waiting for Alina to finish chattering. She looked at her husband, who was peacefully repairing an old alarm clock at the table. “Kolya, did you hear that? Our niece has already decided everything. She’s coming tomorrow with her new boyfriend—straight to us, where everything will be provided for them.”
Nikolai sighed and set his magnifying glass aside.
“Come on, Vera. She’s young. They’re coming to the city for the weekend and want to have some fun. What’s the harm? Give them the keys and let them stay there. The house is empty anyway. We weren’t planning to go there until next week.”
“It’s not the house I’m worried about, Kolya. It’s the order and cleanliness. Remember last year, when she and her girlfriends ‘just spent the weekend there’? I spent three days scrubbing barbecue soot off the walls and picking shards of glass out of the lawn. Alina thinks that because the country house belongs to relatives, she can turn it into a holiday camp.”
“Well, she’s older now, and she’s bringing her boyfriend to introduce him to us,” her husband tried to reassure her. “They’re family, not strangers.”
“That’s exactly the problem—they’re not strangers. I could simply refuse strangers and forget about it. But with relatives, you can’t say a single word without them taking offense.”
The phone on the table began buzzing again. Vera Petrovna sighed and switched it to speakerphone.
“Aunt Vera, are you there?” Alina’s loud, confident voice came through. “The connection dropped. So, we’ll arrive tomorrow around noon. Bring the keys to the country house to the station, okay? It would be inconvenient for us to come all the way to your apartment and waste time. We’ll go straight there, drop off our things, and then go sightseeing.”
“Hello again, Alina,” Vera Petrovna said firmly. “We’re not going to the station. Kolya’s back is acting up. If you need the keys so badly, come and get them yourselves. Besides, we’re not receiving guests at the country house right now. The refrigerator is unplugged, the bed linens have been packed away, and the grass hasn’t been cut.”
“Oh, come on!” her niece snorted. “We’re not demanding people. We’ll bring our own bedding if necessary. We can turn on the refrigerator. Why are you making a problem out of nothing? Why should we pay strangers for a hotel when my own aunt has an entire house standing empty? Mom agrees with me, by the way. She said you wouldn’t refuse.”
Vera Petrovna felt the familiar anger beginning to boil inside her. Her sister Galina had always been skilled at shifting her responsibilities onto other people’s shoulders, and now she had apparently taught her daughter to do the same.
“All right, Alina. Come and get the keys. But we have an agreement: no smoking inside the house, no inviting strangers, and everything must be cleaned before you leave.”
“We’ll do everything, Aunt Vera. Thank you! Kisses!” Alina said before ending the call.
Nikolai looked at his wife reproachfully.
“There, you see? You were worrying for nothing. You agreed on everything.”
“We’ll see, Kolya. I still have a bad feeling about this.”
Saturday morning began with confusion and commotion. Alina and her companion—a tall young man named Denis wearing a wrinkled T-shirt—appeared at Vera Petrovna’s apartment an hour later than promised.
“Oh, Aunt Vera, the traffic was terrible!” Alina announced from the doorway without even considering taking off her shoes in the hallway. “Meet Denis. Denis, this is my aunt and Uncle Kolya.”
“Hi,” Denis muttered without looking up from his phone. “Can we have the keys? We’re hungry, so we need to stop at a store and get to the house before the whole day is gone.”
Vera Petrovna studied him. The young man did not inspire confidence. His eyes wandered, his hands remained in his pockets, and he displayed not a trace of politeness.
“Here are the keys, Denis,” Vera Petrovna said, holding out the key ring. “There are three of them: one for the gate, one for the veranda, and one for the main room. The electrical panel is on the veranda. Switch on the second breaker from the bottom so the water and refrigerator start working. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, we’ll figure it out. We’re not children,” Denis replied, taking the keys and immediately turning toward the door.
“Alina,” Vera Petrovna called after her niece. “Remember what we agreed on. Take your rubbish to the container at the entrance to the settlement before you leave.”
“I remember, I remember!” the young woman said, waving dismissively. “We have to go. We’re already running late.”
When the door closed behind them, Vera Petrovna turned to her husband.
“Did you see him? He couldn’t even say thank you properly. Nikolai, I feel as though I’ve made a mistake.”
“Stop working yourself up, Vera. He’s an ordinary modern young man. He doesn’t know how to communicate properly, but many young people are like that nowadays. Let’s go to the market and buy some groceries. It’ll take your mind off things.”
Saturday evening passed relatively peacefully, except that Vera Petrovna kept glancing at her phone. Alina had not called, which presumably meant they had arrived and settled in.
The trouble began on Sunday morning. At nine o’clock, Vera Petrovna received a call from Mikhail Ivanovich, the chairman of the country-house cooperative.
“Good morning, Vera Petrovna,” he said in a stern, irritated voice. “Do you know what’s happening on your property?”
Vera Petrovna went cold.
“What’s happening, Mikhail Ivanovich? My niece is staying there with her boyfriend.”
“Your niece brought five more people in two cars. At three in the morning, they turned on music so loudly that the neighbors’ windows were shaking. They ignored every warning. When I approached the fence, one of the young men cursed at me. Do whatever you want, but if that nightclub doesn’t shut down within an hour, I’m calling the police. I’ll also issue a fine against your property for violating the noise regulations.”
“I’ll deal with it immediately, Mikhail Ivanovich. I’m terribly sorry,” Vera Petrovna said, barely keeping her voice from trembling.
She ended the call and immediately dialed Alina. The phone rang for a long time before her niece finally answered in a sleepy, displeased voice.
“Hello, Aunt Vera. Why are you calling so early? We’re still sleeping.”
“What do you mean, sleeping, Alina? The chairman just called me! What kind of crowd did you bring there? Why was music blasting all night? And why are you insulting people?”
“Oh, come on,” Alina said, yawning directly into the phone. “Some guys came over. They’re Denis’s friends. They were passing nearby and decided to stop in. We only sat around for a little while. Your Mikhail Ivanovich is just an old killjoy who made a huge fuss over nothing. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Alina, get out of there,” Vera Petrovna said quietly but distinctly. “I want all of you gone within an hour. Leave the keys under the mat on the veranda.”
“Calm down, Aunt Vera. We’ll leave at three, just as we planned. We still have to finish cooking the barbecue.”
The call ended.
Vera Petrovna looked at her husband, who was already standing in the hallway putting on his jacket.
“Kolya, start the car. We’re going to the country house.”
“You’re right, Vera. This has gone too far. Those young people need to be taught a lesson.”
The journey took forty minutes. Vera Petrovna remained silent the entire way, clenching her fists. She thought about how much work she and Nikolai had put into the little house, the flower beds, and the smooth, carefully maintained lawn.
When Nikolai stopped the car beside the gate, Vera Petrovna’s worst fears were confirmed. Two unfamiliar cars were parked beside the fence, and dull, pounding music blasted from their open windows. The gate had been left wide open.
Chaos ruled the property.
Plastic cups, empty bottles, and potato-chip packets littered the tidy lawn. A barbecue grill had been placed directly in the middle of Vera Petrovna’s beloved peony bed, where two unfamiliar young men in shorts were trampling the flowers. Alina and another young woman sat laughing in the rocking chairs on the veranda. Denis was lying on the garden swing with his eyes closed.
Vera Petrovna marched decisively along the path. Nikolai followed her, his face dark with anger.
“What is going on here?” Vera Petrovna shouted, stopping in the middle of the property.
The music from one of the cars abruptly stopped when the young man behind the wheel noticed the owners. Alina jumped out of her chair, and the smile immediately disappeared from her face.
“Oh, Aunt Vera… Why did you come? We told you we would leave at three.”
“I told you to get out an hour ago!” Vera Petrovna said, pointing at the rubbish scattered everywhere. “What have you done to my property? Why is the barbecue grill standing on my flowers? Who are all these people?”
Denis reluctantly got up from the swing and approached them, spitting onto the path.
“Listen, lady, stop yelling. Some friends came over. What’s the big deal? We’ll clean everything up. Why are you making such a fuss over a little grass?”
Nikolai stepped forward, placing himself between the young man and his wife. He was shorter than Denis, but much broader across the shoulders.
“Is that how you speak to a woman old enough to be your mother, you little brat?” Nikolai asked in a low voice. “Shut your mouth, gather your friends, and get out. I don’t want to see any of you here in five minutes.”
One of the young men beside the grill tried to interrupt.
“Come on, old man. We’re not going to pay for anything that got broken, so why are you starting—”
“I’ll push your cars through the gate with my own hands!” Nikolai roared so loudly that the young man immediately fell silent. “Get out of here. Now!”
Alina ran over to Denis and grabbed his arm.
“Denis, forget it. Let’s go. Aunt Vera, you’ve created a huge scandal over nothing. When Mom hears about this, she’ll never forgive you. We’re family! You could have asked us nicely.”
“I asked you nicely yesterday, Alina!” Vera Petrovna said, barely holding back tears as she looked at the trampled flower bed. “I asked you not to invite strangers, not to make noise, and to behave responsibly. You ignored every word I said. You brought this herd of people here, and they destroyed everything I worked for. Give me the keys!”
Angrily, Alina pulled the key ring from the pocket of her shorts and threw it onto the veranda table.
“Here! Choke on your precious country house! We’ll never come here again, and we’ll never ask you for anything! Come on, everyone, let’s pack up. There’s nothing for us here. These people tremble over every blade of grass as though they’re destitute.”
“Thank God you won’t come back,” Vera Petrovna answered, struggling to keep her voice from shaking. “People should raise their children properly instead of allowing them to disgrace themselves in other people’s homes.”
The group began hastily gathering their belongings. Denis and his friends threw bags into the trunks and deliberately slammed the car doors. Alina’s friend muttered something spiteful while glaring at Vera Petrovna.
Five minutes later, both cars turned around on the narrow country road with squealing tires and sped away, covering the gate in dust.
Silence settled over the property. The only sound was the wind rustling through the old apple trees.
Vera Petrovna sat down on the edge of the veranda and covered her face with her hands. Nikolai approached and placed his heavy hand on her shoulder.
“It’s over, Vera. Calm down. They’re gone. We’ll never let them come here again.”
“How can someone behave like that, Kolya?” she asked quietly. “I’ve helped her since she was a child. I bought her clothes and gave them money for a seaside holiday when Galina was unemployed. Now she comes here, destroys everything, and then calls me poor.”
“She’s simply foolish, Vera. Young, foolish, and selfish. Galina spoiled her all her life, and this is the result. Let’s start cleaning up. We’ll need a couple of hours.”
Vera Petrovna stood, wiped away her tears, and firmly picked up a rake.
“No, Kolya. First I’m calling Galina. She should know what kind of person she raised.”
She took out her phone and called her sister. Galina answered almost immediately, and from the tone of her voice, it was obvious that Alina had already complained.
“Vera, what have you done?” her sister attacked at once. “You threw my child out of the house in the middle of the day! She and Denis were so excited about this trip, and you ruined their entire weekend because of your precious flower beds! So the young people sat around and relaxed for a while. They’re young! What harm did it do you?”
Vera Petrovna actually smiled. The heat of her emotions had passed, leaving behind only a cold, unwavering certainty that she was right.
“Galina, listen to me carefully,” Vera Petrovna said calmly. “Your ‘child’ and her boyfriend turned my country house into a den of chaos. They destroyed my flowers, covered the entire property with rubbish, and insulted the chairman so badly that we were nearly fined. If you consider that normal behavior, let them do it in your apartment. As for my home, both you and your daughter can forget the way here.”
“So that’s how it is!” Galina shrieked. “You’re willing to quarrel with your own sister over a piece of land? We don’t need your handouts!”
“Excellent,” Vera Petrovna replied sharply. “Then we understand each other. Don’t call me again.”
She ended the call and blocked her sister’s number.
Suddenly, she felt remarkably light and peaceful. No one would ever take advantage of her again while hiding behind family ties.
“Kolya!” she called to her husband, who was already collecting plastic bottles in a large bag. “Leave that rubbish for now. Let’s have some tea first. It can wait. We’re in no hurry.”
She looked around at the little house, the old apple trees, and the damaged but still beautiful garden.
“We’re the owners here.”