Every time the son brought a girl home to introduce her to his mother, the woman would pour a bucket of venomous snakes over the future daughter-in-law’s head to test her; but no one could have imagined how one of those encounters would end.
Michael was twenty-seven years old, and over the past few years, he had brought three different girls home with whom he intended to build a serious relationship. But none of them stayed by his side for long.
The reason was his mother, Margaret.
After her husband’s death, the woman lived alone in a large old house and was incredibly attached to her only son. She constantly repeated that there had to be a special woman by Michael’s side.
But an ordinary introduction was not enough for Margaret.
She had kept snakes for many years. She knew their behavior perfectly and had even set up a separate room for them. Some of her pets were dangerous species, so Michael had been accustomed since childhood to never entering that room without his mother’s permission.
One day, Margaret came up with her own way of testing her son’s girlfriends.
When Michael first brought his fiancée home, everything started completely normally. Margaret prepared dinner, smiled, and asked questions about work and family. Then, unexpectedly, she left the room and returned with a large plastic basin filled with writhing snakes.
She approached from behind and suddenly dumped them directly onto the girl.
She screamed so loudly that the neighbors heard her. A few seconds later, she ran out of the house and never answered Michael’s calls again.
Margaret simply shrugged.
— She only thinks about herself. She didn’t even check whether you were all right.
Almost the same thing happened with the second girl. She froze in horror and then began to cry. The third tried to fight the snakes off with her hands and accidentally almost stepped on one of them.
After that, Michael demanded that his mother stop her strange tests.
But Margaret was convinced that she was doing the right thing.
A few months later, Michael met Anna.
She was very different from his previous girlfriends. Anna was calm, a little shy, and never tried to impress anyone. When Michael told her about his mother’s difficult personality, the girl simply smiled and said she would try to become friends with her.
On Sunday, they went to Margaret’s house.
For the first half hour, everything went surprisingly well.
Anna helped set the table, praised the pie, and listened attentively to stories about Michael’s childhood. Even Margaret smiled several times.
Michael had already decided that his mother had finally given up her crazy habit.
But then Margaret silently stood up and went into another room.
A minute later, she returned with a large basin.
Several snakes were moving inside.
Michael immediately understood what was happening.
— Mom, don’t.
But Margaret seemed not to hear him.
She slowly approached the sofa and stopped directly behind Anna.
The girl still hadn’t seen what was inside the basin. Margaret raised it, and then… something unexpected happened. The continuation of the story can be found in the first comment.
Margaret raised it even higher and was already about to turn it over when Anna suddenly said:
— Please, don’t do this.
