Dear Diary,
What a garden, what a whisper? What garden? What are you murmuring about? I asked, rolling my eyes dramatically. You told me my arms grow from the same place as my legs! I retorted. And honestly, Id rather have neither! After Im done, youll have to roll that garden in concrete!
Alright then, muttered Mabel Whitaker, my motherinlaw. You dont have to pull any strings! With a spade youll manage just fine.
You flatter me to death! I shook my head. Youve praised me to a rosy blush!
Last time I ask, will you help me in the garden? Mabel raised her voice.
Like the last time? I exclaimed. And then what? Will you fall silent?
You have the tongue of a dog without a bone! If youd swing that spade like you swing your tongue, wed be done! she snapped. Come on, lets go to the garden. Ill show you what needs doing!
How can I? I recoiled. You told me last time not to let your eyes see me!
Now, for the sake of my son, you tolerate me at the end of your rope, yet on your sacred plot Im not about to blister your eyes! I must look after my dear motherinlaw somehow!
Youre such a pest! Mabel shouted. Ill try to survive! Ill show you what to do and I wont get in your way. My eyes will be fine!
Is that so? No clever tricks here! You asked for help and now its a mess! I said with a smirk. So you asked for help after all!
When my hands join yours, Im not even sure I saw you in the picture! If were nosetonose on the same row, I might think about it, but I wont plough your whole farm unattended, without guidance, without a kind word. I wont consent to that!
If I do something wrong, youll simply eat me alive! And why should I, when theres no love between us?
Better I sit by the stove while Jack steams in the sauna!
Whats that you say, cant be stopped? Mabel snapped. You should have got it done ages ago! Young, healthy, strong!
Oh! Cheers for the compliment! I beamed. My motherinlaw still has plenty of vigour and energy! She scales hills, performs feats! A month ago she shouted at me, and Ive still got a hard ear to that day!
What a powerful voice! Jealousy strikes! Yes, pure as snow! Dont worry! Im sincere, from the bottom of my heart!
Ill tell Jack you refused to go to the garden! That you refused to help me! Mabel warned. Do you think hell just forgive and forget?
Where did I refuse? I cried. Im ready with all my zeal, just tell me! Ill be a marvel of a helper! Ill match my motherinlaw!
When my motherinlaw rushes to help, Ill pay back in kind, and even top it off, because I care for my dear motherinlaw! Does that bother you?
Whats that youre worried about? Mabel asked, bewildered.
Last summer Jack and I bent our backs on your farm all season, and you rewarded us with a string of curses instead of a harvest! I snapped. Your gratitude is huge for the weight we lost and the muscles we built, but wed love a proper meal too!
If memory serves, youve been pining for our aching backs and arms, begging us not to haul jars on the bus! This time well drive. The boots empty! Will you unload the gardens bounty if we keep sowing and reaping here? Or, as last year, just send us away? My enthusiasm has vanished!
Youre holding a grudge! Mabel snapped.
Not a thought of it! Not a drop! I have plenty to do without your garden! My husband disappears without a kiss, my son sighs without his mother! Should I keep turning the soil for another garden? Answer me! I dont know what to say!
Youre a mother yourself! You ought to understand! Mabel chided. Clara needs help! I prepared her harvest and canned the produce! She raises two daughters on her own! And youwhat about your husband?
What if we push Clara and her girls onto your garden? They come for the harvest, theyll work, and we wont be in the way! All for your pleasure! I replied, meeting Mabels gaze.
Oh, Jack chose! Oh, what a curse! Mabel muttered. Either a spell or something worse.
Again you pamper me with sweet words! I smiled. Why not call me a snake? It feels more natural, more calming.
Or have you fallen in love with me? Then Ill go confess! Perhaps youll escort me to the guesthouse! Mabel snarled.
Spit! she shouted.
Whats that about? I feigned surprise. Didnt you just predict Jack would become a widower just to be rid of me?
***
I married Jack, not his whole clan. I loved him, respected him, wanted to spend my life with him, to watch our grandchildren on the sunset of our days. His sprawling relatives existed only in my imagination.
In reality, they were therejust not in overwhelming numbers. A motherinlaw, an elder sister whod married into another family, an aunt whose name I cant quite place, and a few cousins with sisters, each with their own drama.
That happy bunch celebrated me like manna from heaven.
My parents were welloff. Not dripping in gold as the gossipers thought, but they gifted me a flat for the wedding! Their modest livestock business gave them a steady income. Yet they worked the land so hard that you wouldnt want the money if it cost that much sweat.
You can move mountains with others hands, but money earned without your own toil always feels light. Thats why the hands reached for it!
If Jack extended his hand, Id instantly become a former wife with all the consequences. But Jack loved me, not my parents money. He only heard of their wealth at the wedding. The wedding itself we funded together.
Jacks attitude didnt change after learning about the money. He simply asked:
Emma, if we really need cash, lets earn it ourselves first. If that fails, well ask for help, but only then.
He was right. Who believes empty words? Jack proved it. Three years after the wedding, we knocked on my parents door for everything a baby needscot, pram, bathtub
Jack insisted on a written agreement. The solicitor shrugged, and Jack honestly repaid the debt.
So how did Jack grow up in such mercenary surroundings? Perhaps a neighbour? Mabel gave birth out of wedlock, swearing his father was the same as his older sisters. Thats a story only Mabel can own. No matter how hard she tried, she couldnt ruin Jack.
When the secret of his parents state surfaced, greedy hands reached for my kitten. They wouldnt even come to Jack. He handed them this:
Before the wedding Ill help, after the wedding I have my own family, my own budget. If my wife gives me a hand, Ill toss a penny; otherwise, Ill keep it clean.
I saw through the scheme. Following my husbands example, I didnt send them to fields, meadows, hills, or swamps. I brought them to my parents pig farm.
Gentlefolk! Plenty of work herewellpaid! You can combine it with your main job! The pigs eat, but the endless cleaning of their waste never ends!
Cousins and aunt withdrew, though they still held a low opinion of Jacks wife.
Excuse me! Ill take the money myself! I said.
When we hinted at the sisterinlaw where shed be sent if she begged for the two children shed had without a husband, Clara cut all contact with me and Jack in an instant. She had enough adventures alreadyfinding a father for two angels, not pigfarming.
Mabel, ever the clever one, decided to act smarter, more cunning.
The girls still young, so shes cheeky! She just got married! No big deallife will chew her up, shell bite back, and therell be no trace of her fee. Then well start squeezing juice from her!
Mabels patience was endless. She waited for the youngsters to settle, for the child to be born, for the endless circles of care to complete. All the while she kept a genial neutrality.
Grandson Andy turned five when Mabel finally decided to intervene.
She already knew I had no access to my parents money, and that pulling me with Jacks son wouldnt work.
Where you cant get cash, you can count on nature!
She lived in a private house in a small hamlet soon to be swallowed by a growing town. The point, however, was her impressive garden. She intended to enlist my help there.
I, too, grew up in a similar hamlet where my parents ran a modest pig farm. So the earth never frightened me. Though I worked as an accountant in the city, I could wield a spade or play with a rake.
When Mabel asked for help, Jack and I answered gladly. We took two weeks off to plant everything, then another two weeks to tidy up, spending weekends weeding and hilling.
It was unclear who got the most dirt under their nails when Mabel harvested.
Youre two, a family, both working! Why need you? But Clara, she raises children alone! She needs help!
A direct clash would have been easy, but no one shouted or sent loud messages. The neighbours hung the talk on their fences, soaking up the richness of the English tongue.
I decided not to inflame the situation.
Jack, you can understand her
No! Jack screamed.
Im not saying Ill forgive her, I halted my husbands outburst, but I can understand her. Thats a whole different beast. Your mother cant be changed. Yet staying enemies with someone close feels worse. To avoid repeats, we must simply not let them ride us.
Emma, shell keep pestering you! Im the son, the beloved! And youre the daughterinlaw! Theres a law that says a daughterinlaw must be built up! Jack sighed heavily. I must protect you from this.
Jack, Im not a fool! I laughed. Believe me, Ill find a reply!
I answered Mabel in a way that made her eyes pop. The worst part was that I didnt insult her, yet it felt as if wed been dragged through a heap of manure.
Mabels style was blunt. She poured everything out without holding back, and I turned it around, refusing to be her garden servant, cook, canner, or housekeeper.
She thought Id never come back, yet I arrived with Jack, as proper. She expected me to bend, but I gave another rebuff, another excuse, another outburstyet said nothing truly hurtful.
Enough of this! Mabel erupted. Do I really wish my own son ill? I try with all my might to please him!
Weve cut the language! I laughed. Im giving all my strength to make Jack happy! What if I tire on your garden? What if I run out of steam?
How then will I tend to Jack? How will I love him? How will I feed him, water him, tuck him in? How will I not neglect my dear Jack? Hell be displeased, and hell take his grievances to his mother, claiming you dont love, feed, or care for him!
And will you stay silent? No, of course not! Youll argue! Why ruin my relationship with my motherinlaw even more? She already doesnt favour me! So, no garden! Ill conserve my energy for Jack!
Emma, Mabel said, stunned.
Dont try to convince me! I answered firmly. Im needed by my husband! Hell be lost without me! I cant trade myself for chores in your garden. Only my own home, only for Jack!
Mabel wasnt foolish. She realised Id outwitted her on every point, and there was no point in fighting my son.
When Mabel finally calmed down, her curses ceased, and she sipped her homemade brew, she thought soberly:
Jack is sensible enough, but with such a backing Im at peace with him.
That acknowledgment didnt stop her from testing my mettle. Perhaps shed finally bend.
