Jelena arrived with one suitcase and a lavender folder. She was thirty-two, waiting to start a new job, and needed a room for a month. Her aunt Nada and uncle Faruk lived in a large apartment, large enough to avoid meeting after dinner. They welcomed her gladly. On the first morning, she stuck a schedule to their refrigerator.
Monday was for cooking together, Tuesday for discussing feelings, Wednesday for a walk without devices. Jelena had just completed an online seminar on communication between partners and saw plenty of room for improvement. Out of politeness, Nada bought new aprons. Faruk said he walked every day. "Together," Jelena reminded him, underlining the word with a purple marker.
The cooking ended with burned rice. The conversation stopped when their niece asked them to name three qualities for which they still chose each other. Faruk mentioned Nada's ability to remember where documents were kept. She named his punctuality. Jelena recorded those answers as a starting point. Both felt like old household appliances someone had decided to repair without instructions.
On Thursday, Jelena arranged a meeting with a divorced neighbor to show Nada that she still attracted attention. Faruk found out because the neighbor asked whether to bring wine. When Nada heard, she looked at her husband for the first time in ages and burst out laughing. They remembered meeting at the wrong wedding, where both had arrived with invitations for the following Saturday. They laughed while Jelena arranged candles in the kitchen.
Later, they sat down with her. They thanked her for noticing their distance, then asked her to stop making arrangements for their lives. Jelena blushed and admitted that she too feared returning to an empty apartment. She had ended a long relationship and told no one because everyone praised her ability to solve other people's problems. Nada brought her tea. They did not ask her to list her feelings immediately.
By the time she left, only the trash-collection schedule remained, the one everyone found useful. One evening, Faruk invited Nada to walk to the cinema. He did not know what was showing. She agreed, but on the way turned toward a pastry shop they had stopped visiting long ago. They sat over two oversized portions of cake and talked about her wish to retire. A purple line remained on the refrigerator where the adhesive had pulled away the paint.