The Daughter-in-Law

(Monday morning in the grocery store, I hear two women talking in front of the tomatoes).

"Yesterday he brought her home!"

"Really? And how was she?"

"Pregnant! That’s how! Oh my poor son, what mess he's gotten into. She got pregnant so he'll marry her. My boy, so young to be married."

(I was curious to hear her son’s age).

"He is very young. A man should get married after he's 35."

"And my boy is only 34. He has to live his life first and then get married."

(A 34 year-old-baby who still hasn’t lived his life?)

"I know women like her. She is also older than him."

"Is she?"

"She is 37!"

"It's the end of the world!"

"Exactly! Is it right? Is it proper?"

"Of course not! My son got married in his 40s and she was 22."

(Oh my God!)

"That’s right! I was fifteen years younger than my husband. There has to be an age difference between the couple. Why didn’t he bring me a 22-year-old girl? What can he have in common with a woman older than him who desperately wanted a child before it was too late for her? She found my innocent boy and now look."

"Is she pretty at least?"

"She is tall and skinny. A real woman should have breasts and curves! She has none of those. From where will the baby come out?"

(So, now, after such a description, I am sure her daughter-in-law is a real looker.)

"What does she do?"

"She is a trainer and works in a gym. That’s where she met my son! I was always telling him, but he never listened to mama. What did he want with the gym? Only homosexuals go to the gyms!"

(Are there, really, people still thinking that way?)

"But, she makes good money?"

"My son has his own business and makes enough money for both of them! I won’t permit her to work after they marry. She should stay home; take care of my son’s baby, like we did."

"Naturally."

"Yeah…will she listen though?"

"Why? Is she disobedient?"

"Don’t get me started. She came to my house and began calling me 'Eleni.' Yia sou Eleni, yes Eleni, no Eleni."

"No Mrs.? That’s awful!"

"It is indeed! She talked to me on a first name basis. I should be Mrs. Eleni to her, not Eleni."

"Panagia mou! And your son didn’t say anything?"

"Nothing! I took him in the kitchen: Tell her to call me 'Madame,' I said, but nothing! She has a spell on him. Then I got so angry, that I told her not to call me by my first name again and that she is too old for my son."

"You didn’t?"

"Yes, I did!"

"And what did she say?"

(The mother in law started to cry)

"She laughed and said that she can be familiar because there isn't much age difference between us."

(I left in a hurry, so I wouldn't laugh out loud. The daughter-in-law was indeed a worthy opponent to that mother-in-law.)