So She Killed Her Mother-In-Law

Her only regret about killing her mother-in-law, if one could call it as such, was not killing her earlier. From the beginning, she knew that it was not just to plain kill her, it was a matter of winning, too. The way she would win, she taught, is that she will not give her mother-in-law the satisfaction of conveying the message after her death that she was important enough that someone took the time to plot out her murder. So, when she murdered her if one could count that for murder at all, she did it not thinking of it at all. Nonchalance at its best. It was not murder by intend, but it was no intention of saving the old woman´s life.

Everybody in the family knew about the old woman's addiction to the sedatives prescribed to her for calming her nerves when she needed them, and because she was in constant need of them, they were hiding the pills from her and arguing why they should not give it to her.

In that sense, to kill the old woman, she only needed not to save her. So, she placed the pills next to the glass of water on the old woman´s nightstand and played dumb to forget them there. Of course, that was not enough at all, and she knew that.

Things with this old woman were never laid in such a straightforward way. The old woman was not only physically addicted to the pills if she was at all, but she needed them as a method of being in control and to occupy as much mental space in the heads of every member of their family as possible. People would gather around her and would argue for hours about her and her pills, and the moment she would have felt neglected in any way, she would go for the pills, then everybody would gather around her again. The pills, the pills, the pills. “Ma, you had enough from the pills.”

The daughter-in-law was making sketches of cake decorations for her newly open business when the death of her mother-in-law was announced. Finally, two weeks later since she started her plan she could have claimed her reward, and right on time when the toilet was remade, but not fully so the old woman could take a dump in it. "I won, I won," the daughter-in-law muttered when she heard. With her husband, the old woman's son who found his mother dead, both decided to simplify the explanation of the doctor into the sentence “her heart ceased working,” when explaining to family members what happened. Though the first thought of everybody was Covid - 19, they all got tested negative. The daughter-in-law had to go through it knowing it was not the case. To her, the case was well deserved and easily made, especially the second week, where she danced through life, and with every move of joy, the mother-in-law took a pill. The mother-in-law could as well die from envy, but there was no need to take a chance.

Of course, there were things to be careful with, when she began. For example, “forgetting” the pills on the nightstand would have meant that she did not care for the mother-in-law at all, or worse she was not following the old woman´s rules of the game. It was of crucial importance to incept the idea of stilling the pills in the old woman's brain.

This part of inception was not hard at all, as with years, the old woman had created so much drama and anxiety revolving around her and her fears that she had successfully taught everybody in the family to first consider her before making any decision, even those that did not concern her at all. By the time, the daughter-in-law set the pills by the nightstand, she was trained how to think like her mother-in-law, so she came up with the exactly needed bait. Turned out, the old woman was a kind of autoimmune disease to herself. She could not stand the joy of her daughter-in-law so she needed the pills to numb herself off. 

The crucial course of the events leading the mother-in-law into her self-harm got set on when the daughter-in-law set the pills, then tripped over the couch and moaned in pain for a moment. Knowing that the old woman would not allow anyone to steal her entitlement to feel and express pain, she reached for the pills and slipped them under the duvet. Knowing her mind frame, she knew that she stole them and visualized an event centering around her in a way that everybody looked for the pills in panic and blamed the daughter-in-law for being sloppy when they finally found them emptied, and her almost death. After the staged little “incident” she ignored the old woman, as though she had a brain concussion, or something similar to that. She busied herself around the house, looking for something funny to laugh about, always passing through the old woman´s bed. She had a couple of small joys that through the years had shown irritating to her mother-in-law, so she used those to make her reach for the pills. Said "Hi" to a birth or two, passing by. Kissed herself on her arm. Said "Hello beautiful" and hugged herself. She had so much fun that she also decided to try other interesting things because this all should have not been about the mother-in-law, but about herself. She wondered how the old woman would react if she set the old woman´s favorite song on repeat and danced to it, owning it, loving it. So she did that. At one point, she saw the old woman setting back the pills on the stand knowing that her goal is to raise her awareness that the pills are there, therefore there is a danger coming for the mother-in-law. She danced and hated the fact that she knows, everybody knew what was the favorite song of her mother-in-law, but did not know what is the favorite song of hers.

Yelled in the same lunatic way impregnated with emotions the mother-in-law would over the sound of the nine to five song normally yelled. 

Well, I tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen

Pour myself a cup of ambition

Yawn and stretch and try to come to life.

Waving her body into a wild dance, the daughter-in-law danced towards the mother-in-law and took two of her pills. Held them for few seconds on the tip of her tongue. The old woman pulled her pills back and hid them somewhere behind. Those were her pills, not to this dancing cow. The daughter-in-law for the first time realized that this was an odd song to be a favorite of someone that had not worked a day in their life. 

To the daughter-in-law, it became obvious that no one will take the time to look at the way her mother-in-law died when the pipes in their small apartment leaked and the whole family had to relocate to her own mother’s house. They could have just fixed the pipes, but the plumber strongly suggested that now is the right time to renovate the decaying toilet. So they did that. 

While the fixation lasted they had to ask her sister-in-law to look after her mother, at her place. Bemused the daughter-in-law soon found out that her sister-in-law that was normally complaining about her sick mother being neglected and not taken well care of, ringed back on the seventh day and used the exact words to imply that she does not want to take care of her mother, by that degree of lowering her human status to a “package,” saying “I just wondered if you forget something of yours at mine." asking if they would take the time "to pick up their rotten package?”

At the time being, the daughter-in-law found satisfaction and enough empathy for the old woman unloved by everybody and took her back. Set plastic walls the cement from the toilet renovation to not reach them. She tried to explain, the situation to her, but the mother-in-law blamed her for stocking the pipes in the toilet walls, expelling everyone from home, taking her away from her daughter, so she can keep her in plastic walls, and working on ways to murder her. 

Her husband, the son of the old lady said to his wife to ignore her as she is the way she has always been and that she could not just magically change her. He even asked her why is she trying to change things with her, "doesn´t she know the way she is?" "Just knowing the way somebody is, does not justify their deeds." the wife said to him. "But now is too late for that, she will change her mind when she sees the new fancy toilet. Just give her some time till that." Then he jokingly added to that, "She might die from happiness when she sees it." The daughter-in-law entered the room of the old lady, a taught creeping in her brain "She will not still that happiness from me."