Mother-in-Law Demands Kneeling Service, I Fix Family

1: 1

My mother-in-law had a bizarre rule. Before anyone ate, a daughter-in-law had to kneel and invite her to the table.

My sister-in-law had knelt for three years.

I only found out after I married in.

The day we signed the marriage papers, my mother-in-law sat in the big carved armchair and spoke down at me from on high.

"Now that you've married in, you're part of the Fox family."

"From here on you and your sister-in-law will split it evenly, half a month each."

I thought she meant splitting the housework, and I opened my mouth to explain.

"Ma, we have a housekeeper. I've never cooked a day in my life"

My husband cut me off just in time.

"It's not cooking, Tessie. It's kneeling to invite her to eat."

I couldn't believe it. "Is your family some feudal relic they forgot to wipe out?"

"I won't kneel."

My father-in-law and Ray Fox hurried over to smooth things over.

"You're new here, you don't understand. What if you upset Ma?"

"She's getting on in years. If she goes hungry, gets worked up, and something happens to her"

"If something happens to her"

I finished the line without changing my expression.

"Then we hold the funeral. I'm happy to give her a grand send-off."

Everyone went quiet.

They looked at me, then at each other.

None of them had seen it coming.

The first time we met I'd been sweet and well-behaved, and here I was, married in and already this much of a handful.

"Tessa Langford, youhow dare you talk to your elders with no respect?"

My father-in-law, Maurice Fox, felt his dignity had been trampled.

He was so angry his hand shook as he jabbed a finger at my nose.

"Whatever you think, you don't get to curse your mother-in-law like that."

"Funeral? Grand send-off?"

"That's just bad luck!"

Ray's face had darkened too.

"Melvin, get your wife under control. What is this?"

Melvin Fox leaned toward me with a frown, and before he could get a word out,

I shook him off, cold.

"An old man, and he really thinks he's some emperor from the history books."

"Putting on this act in front of his own children."

"All bark at home. Out in the world he's a nobody, guaranteed."

"The food's ready. Eat if you want it, don't if you don't."

Spoiled rotten, this bad habit.

"Either way, there's no chance I'm kneeling to invite her to eat."

What a joke. My parents raised me as their treasure, doted on every step of the way.

Pampered for more than twenty years.

I was willing to marry down into the Fox family because I already had the ground to stand on.

Not to come here and be pushed around.

Beryl Pruitt, seeing the standoff, took off her apron.

"I'll go call her, then."

"You just signed the papers today, sis. It'll take time to get used to."

I was about to stop her, but she turned away so fast.

She was already at my mother-in-law's door.

Knocking, careful and light.

"Ma, dinner's ready."

No answer.

Beryl pressed her lips together and raised her voice a little.

"Ma, dinner's ready. I made the chicken soup you love today. Come out and eat."

Still no answer.

She turned and glanced at me, flustered and embarrassed.

Probably because everyone in the living room was watching.

Ill at ease, she knocked a third time.

"Ma, dinner's ready. Come out and eat."

Watching this, I frowned and turned to Melvin.

"Why does she have to call so many times?"

Melvin sighed and murmured in my ear.

"It's Ma's rule. You call until Ma opens the door, and only then can you kneel and invite her properly."

"That's the only way everyone gets to sit down and eat."

"Otherwise you just keep waiting."

I was instantly burning with anger.

I was about to get up and go to Beryl when the door opened.

Pansy Fox came out, one hand braced on the frame.

Hunched over, she strolled past Beryl and settled into the recliner beside her.

Leaned back, unhurried and comfortable.

Beryl sighed and, humiliated, walked over and knelt in front of her.

"Ma, please come and eat."

Pansy didn't open her eyes, still putting on airs.

"Today the invitation came a full ten minutes later than usual."

"So now, you can kneel ten minutes longer."

Ray kicked Beryl in his fury.

"Useless. I told you to time it right. Why were you late?"

"Now look. Everyone has to wait ten minutes because of you!"

"The food'll be stone cold soon!"

Beryl kept her head down, her eyes already red.

But she said nothing, enduring the humiliation.

I gripped the arm of my chair.

"This is too much!"

I started to stand, and Melvin caught me, quick with his hands and his eyes.

"Tessie, what are you doing? Don't do anything rash."

2: 2

"Don't pick a fight with my mom. I'm begging you."

Melvin's voice was low and pleading in my ear.

The fist I'd clenched loosened again.

I've always hated injustice, and I've never once swallowed being wronged.

But this insufferable old dragon in front of me was, after all, my husband's own mother.

For his sake, I could at least give her some face on the surface.

"Mom, today is the day Melvin and I got our marriage license."

"The ink's barely dry on our certificate, and we just wanted to come home to a warm meal to celebrate."

"If you make Beryl kneel for ten minutes,"

"won't all the food go cold?"

Melvin quickly stepped in to back me up.

"That's right, Mom. We're ten minutes late tonight, and that's on us, not Beryl."

Pansy let out a soft snort.

"Since you two are pleading for her, I'll let it slide this once."

She finally deigned to move her precious backside.

She rose from her lounge chair and strolled unhurriedly to the head of the table and sat down.

Beryl shot me a grateful look.

"Thank you, Tessie."

"If you hadn't spoken up for me, I'd have had to kneel the full ten minutes today."

I hurried to help her up.

"Beryl, we're family. Don't talk about thanking me."

"You've been kneeling like this all along. Doesn't it ever feel wrong to you?"

Beryl gave a bitter smile.

"And what good would it do to feel it's wrong?"

She sighed, and left the rest of what she wanted to say unspoken.

"Go eat. The food's going to get cold again."

Watching Beryl swallow it all just to keep the peace left a bad taste in my mouth.

The second day, the third day.

By the time I dragged myself up with the sun high in the sky, Beryl was still kneeling outside my mother-in-law's bedroom door to invite her to eat.

I held it in, once and then again.

I told myself I'd only just married in, that I shouldn't stir up trouble.

But by the fourth day, I couldn't take it anymore.

I noticed that Beryl was unwell, running a fever.

She'd made the meal half an hour late.

So Pansy made her kneel on the floor as punishment for half an hour.

By the time she got up, her knees were already mottled with bruises.

Fresh injuries layered over old ones, patch after patch.

As a woman myself, I felt both heartache and fury.

I lost my appetite completely.

Everyone had just picked up their chopsticks when Pansy suddenly spoke.

"Beryl."

She'd lifted a piece of pot roast, taken a single bite, then spat it back out.

"The food's too salty today."

Beryl had just sat down. She shot straight back up, flustered.

"Mom, I'll go redo it right now."

I frowned and looked at my husband.

"Redo it? Why?"

It was just a little salty. And that meant redoing the whole thing?

Everyone slips up sometimes. My own family never treated the housekeeper this harshly.

But Melvin only sighed helplessly.

"That's just how our family is."

"If my mom doesn't like it, she won't touch another bite. The whole meal has to be made again."

I was floored. "Beryl has lived like this for three years?"

My husband nodded, and there was more apology in the way he looked at me now.

"I've put you through a lot, Tessie."

"This is just how the rules work in our family."

I let out a cold laugh. Rules. Who made these rules?

Beryl kept her head down and started to rise to redo everything in the kitchen.

I stopped her.

"Beryl, sit down and eat."

"You've worked hard all day putting this whole table together. You're the one who most deserves to sit down and eat properly."

"If someone thinks it's too salty, then they don't have to eat it. They can eat something else."

Every head at the table snapped up to stare at me.

Pansy most of all. She lifted her chin, narrowed her eyes, and studied me for a long moment.

"Tessa Langford, what do you think you're doing?"

"Openly defying me?!"

I burst out laughing.

"One line out of your mouth and I can already tell you're uneducated, Mom."

"So let me, the graduate student, give you a little lesson. Back in the old days, defiance was a serious crime."

"You really shouldn't go slapping such a heavy charge on me so lightly, Mom."

3: 3

I put a piece of pot roast in my mouth and chewed.

"Besides, Beryl isn't the family maid."

"The fact that she can put all this food on the table already deserves everyone's gratitude."

"Anyone who wants to pick and complain can go cook for themselves."

With that, I lifted another bite to my mouth.

The air went dead silent.

"This is an absolute outrage!"

Pansy's temper flared, and she slammed her chopsticks down hard on the table.

Everyone jumped.

"Tessa Langford, maybe your family was rich before, maybe you were some big-shot heiress."

"But now you've married into the Fox family, which makes you a Fox daughter-in-law!"

"So you'll follow the Fox family rules!"

I kept my expression blank and went on eating my own food.

Ray, the eldest son, shot my husband a resentful glare.

"Melvin Fox, look at the wife you married!"

"Who raises a girl this defiant and disrespectful?"

"Can't even eat a meal in peace!"

Melvin frowned too, leaning in to plead with me under his breath, all humbled.

"Tessie, please, I know you've always had a sharp tongue."

"But they're my family. Please, go easy on them"

Beryl was giving me a faint look of admiration.

Still, she coaxed me in her soft, gentle voice.

"Let it go, Tessie. You can't argue back at the elders."

"There's still food in the fridge anyway. If Mom thinks the dish is too salty, I'll just make another one."

Beryl was about to swallow her own grievance again to smooth this storm over.

"This isn't arguing back."

I firmly shielded her behind me and looked at Melvin and Ray.

"You two are her real sons. You're the ones in this family who should be showing respect to your parents."

"Mom isn't satisfied with her meal and wants it redone."

"So what are you two still sitting there for?"

I grabbed the two aprons beside me and tossed one to each of them.

"Go on, get cooking!"

"Cook until your lady mother is satisfied."

Melvin, being careful, snuck a glance up at my face and hurried to tie the apron on.

Ray, the eldest son, looked as if he'd been insulted.

He hurled the apron down hard onto the floor.

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

"A gentleman keeps out of the kitchen. I'm a man!"

"I've never cooked a single meal in my whole life!"

I gave a cold laugh. "So what if you're a man?"

"Are men somehow exempt from eating?"

My words were sharp and gave no quarter.

In an instant Ray had nothing to say.

He jabbed a finger at my face, shaking for a good while, then slammed his chopsticks down.

"I'm not eating this. I've been fed full on rage."

I watched Ray storm back to his room in a fury.

Beryl instinctively started to go after him.

I held her back. "Good thing he's not eating. We'll eat ourselves."

"No sense wasting your good cooking and all these ingredients, Beryl."

Beryl sat back down, uneasy and awkward.

I put the shrimp and ribs into her bowl. "Eat while it's hot."

Pansy saw that this daughter-in-law wasn't one to push around, that I wouldn't coddle anyone.

All she could do was cough awkwardly a couple of times and lower her head to eat.

The whole table went utterly quiet.

Halfway through the meal, Melvin edged over and murmured carefully in my ear.

"Tessie, could you do the serving tomorrow?"

"Serve what?"

"Serve Mom her meal."

Melvin poked at his bowl a couple of times.

"Each wife takes half a month. Beryl does the first half, you do the second Mom did it this way herself, back in the day."

I set down my chopsticks. "Kneeling?"

Melvin's eyes darted away.

"It's the family rule."

I gave a cold laugh. "Do you really think I'd ever kneel?"

There were about two seconds of silence.

Pansy reacted first, slapping her chopsticks on the table.

"What did you say?"

"You're a daughter-in-law too. What gives you the right to be special?"

"If you want to live in this house even one more day, you follow the rules I set!"

"I said I won't kneel."

I looked Pansy straight in the eyes. "If you want to eat, come out and eat. I'll keep the food for you."

"Worst case I'll carry it to your door, but I won't kneel to serve it."

"And Mom, my parents taught me from the time I was little."

"A woman has gold beneath her knees. In this life she kneels to heaven, to earth, to her own parents, and one more"

"To the dead."

I tilted my head and looked at Pansy with a grin.

"So, Mom, which of those are you?"

4: 4

Pansy's face went red, the vein at her temple jumping with every beat.

"You've lost your mind! Melvin, is this the fine wife you brought home?"

Melvin tugged at my sleeve, his voice all pleading.

"Tessie, sit down and talk."

I shook his hand off.

"I can say it just as well standing. Beryl knelt for three years, until her knees were ruined."

"This rule makes no sense. It's time it went."

Beryl kept her head down, shoveling rice, her chopsticks giving one small tremble.

My father-in-law, Maurice, opened his mouth as if to argue back.

But one look at my face and he thought better of it and shut it again.

"No sense?"

Pansy shot to her feet.

"What do you mean, no sense? In this house what I say goes, and that makes it sense!"

"Ask Beryl, ask your father, which of them didn't come up this way?"

Maurice set down his bowl, lowered his head, and said nothing.

I caught something flicker deep in his eyes, but he dropped his lids again just as fast.

"You knelt your way through it too, Mom?"

Maurice let out a sigh. "Ah."

"The homely bride's finally worn her way into being the mother-in-law. Tessie, just do as your mom says."

The resistance I'd felt before gave way, bit by bit, to a pang of pity.

I drew a deep breath and looked straight at Pansy.

"Mom, don't you love playing the cultured one?"

"Then surely you've heard the line the reformers wrote."

Pansy blinked.

"What line?"

"Just because it's always been so, does that make it right?"

I said it word by word, steady and firm.

"Maybe this backward custom passed for normal before, but now I, Tessa Langford, have married into this family."

"And I will never let a custom like this get passed down another day!"

Pansy slammed a hand flat on the table, the bowls and chopsticks jumping.

"Don't you stand there stirring up trouble!"

"Get one thing straight, I am your mother-in-law!"

"I'll ask you once: from now on, will you kneel to serve the meal or not? If you won't, then don't ever sit at this table again!"

"Then I won't sit at the table."

I stood up with a cold smile.

"Not only will I not sit at the table, I'll move out."

My family had long since set up a bridal villa for me.

I'd only come to stay a few days, and only to show respect to my in-laws.

Since they didn't care for that courtesy.

Then I couldn't be bothered to keep it up either.

I turned and headed for the door.

"Stop right there!"

I paid no attention, didn't so much as break stride.

At the kitchen doorway, I heard my mother-in-law behind me, breathing hard.

"The world's turned upside down. What kind of thing did we marry into this house?"

And my father-in-law, murmuring to soothe her: "Now, dear, don't get yourself worked up, you'll make yourself ill"

Melvin hurried after me and caught me by the wrist.

"Tessie, is it worth falling out with my parents like this?"

"If you don't like it here, we'll move out."

"Out of sight, out of mind, all right?"

Looking at the plea on Melvin's face, something in me softened again.

At least there was one person here with sense, willing to stand on my side.

"Move out. Yes, we're going to move out."

"But not now."

Half my anger drained away in an instant.

"Melvin, since I've married into this family, that makes us all one family."

"Your mother is muddleheaded and a bully."

"Beryl has swallowed no small amount of grief in the years since she married in."

"And since we're all one family, there's no way I'm going to stand by and watch it happen."

Melvin's eyelid twitched, and he asked, testing the waters.

"Tessie, what are you going to do?"

I smiled.

"Nothing at all. I'm a new bride just married in, what could I possibly do?"

"You know me. Tessa Langford has always played by the rules."

Melvin took two wary steps back and looked up at me.

"Whenever you get that look and start saying you play by the rules."

"Somebody's guaranteed to end up in trouble."