Intro
Marian had never made a secret of her disapproval of Sarah, her daughter's choice in husband. Sarah was her only child and she only wanted what was best for her, Jason just wasn't it. He was an artist, a musician she had met in college. Always writing songs, trying to get a breakthrough as he wrote, composed, played or just listened to music for inspiration. She was convinced he had no chance of succeeding and was just throwing his own and Sarah's future away chasing a dream.
At first when she had introduced Jason who she had met at college Marian hadn't been too worried. It was just a phase. Sarah was still young and college was a time of experimentation. Sure she would see reason that this dreamer with his long brown hair and bright green eyes wasn't the guy for her.
Once they got engaged right after they both graduated however worry did start to set in, would Sarah see reason before it was too late? The answer had turned out to be no as she and Jason got married a year later. With that Marian had set her hope on Jason changing and becoming the husband Sarah deserved, but now four years later they were both 26 and Jason hadn't matured a bit, he was still that dreamy musician from college who thought he would make it big.
Jason for his part had never liked Marian either, in his eyes she was just his bitch of a mother in law who always looked down on him urging him to give up his dream and take his duties as a husband seriously. Leaving the two of them together unsupervised for longer than a minute always ended in trouble. Jason wanted to get along with his mother in law, for the sake of his wife and the sake of peace. The respect had to be mutual for that to work though.
At every family get together and every time Sarah's parents visited or they visited them, Sarah had to be the moderator between her mother and husband. She constantly urged them to get along to the point where it was nearly all she said anymore. There was only one point they both agreed upon and that was that unless the other radically changed their ways they would never get along.
It frustrated Sarah beyond believe to the point where she just tried keep the two of them apart as much as possible. Since she obviously chose her husband's company above her mother's it translated in her visiting her parents way less and always finding an excuse why it wasn't possible for them to just pop by when they wanted to visit.
If anything it only soured her mother's view on Jason even more. Not only was he ruining the future of her daughter, he was also taking her away from her. It was something she just couldn't let happen and so she came up with a plan that would change everything. With a cheeky smirk she got to work, refining and readying her plan to strike.
Chapter 1
Sarah had only just left the day before on her annual week long reunion trip with her college friends when Marian decided to make her move. Jason as usual was down in the basement working on his music. He loved spending time with his wife, but whenever she was away he went full out for his music. He was so wrapped up in a writing session that he almost fell off his chair when the doorbell rang snapping him right out of his concentration. Who could that be? All his friends knew not to disturb him when he had the house to himself. A little annoyed Jason headed up the stairs and to the door.
Big was his shock when he found Marian at the other side of the door wearing one of her regular monochrome designer jacket and skirt sets like she always did. No matter where Marian seemed to go she was always dressed and made up to the nines. She might be 53 right now, but objectively speaking she still looked great for her age and that meant a lot coming from Jason who hated her guts.
She was most definitely at the curvy side of the spectrum, but she wore her curves really well having a voluptuous hourglass figure going with her big bosom, bottom and her nipped in waist. The fact that she was a very pampered woman helped as well of course. Her greying hair was always painted an ashen blonde colour and permed in a stylish bob. Weekly touch ups and an established routine kept her hair looking perfect at all times, she went to the salon frequent enough for roots to never show. She was actually kind of imposing as well being just as tall as he was. She was slightly taller than the average woman and he slightly smaller than the average man.
Jason wanted nothing more than to her that her daughter wasn't home and that he didn't want to be bothered before slamming the door in her face, but Marian quickly spoke up. "Hello darling, before you go off please hear me out first. I have a proposition to make, a truce if you will."
He had always hated her tendency to call him and pretty much everyone else darling. That and her whole old fashioned vocabulary for that matter. With a deep sigh he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now and hear her out as she had requested.
Seeing how he stepped down Marian decided to grab her chance to explain herself. She was kind of annoyed about how he didn't even make the effort to greet her, but she wasn't going to show it bothered her now. She had more important things to take care off.
"Thank you darling, I've got the feeling like I'm losing my daughter lately and obviously I don't want that. I realise now that if I don't want to lose her I'll need to accept her with you. We'll probably never be the best of friends, but for my daughter's sake I hope we can normalise our relationship at least a little. Like she always put it we'll need to get along. Last night while I was listening to some old music from back in my days I was reminiscing about how they really don't make music like they used to anymore. It got me thinking that maybe you could help me out on that front. I made this little playlist with songs I like and I was wondering if maybe you could have a listen and compose something new that I would like that would be simply divine. I'll even pay you a commission fee or whatever your business is." Marian said handing him a non descript self burned CD.
It caught Jason completely off guard, he would have expected her to tell Sarah to see her more often, but instead she actually seemed to make the effort to show interest in what he was doing and to actually try and get to know him. While he was none too excited about her request he did want to reciprocate the effort even if just for Sarah's sake. It would be a lot nicer if they could actually get along.
"Alright Marian, I'll give it a listen and give it a try, now if that's all I still have work to do." Jason said shortly, not wanting to carry this conversation on any longer than it had to be.
"Oh you're such a dear darling. Thank you so much and yes that will be all. I'll be back tomorrow to check on your progress, I can't wait to see and hear the results. Take care now darling." Marian said with a big smile as she turned on her heels and walked back to her car.
Jason wanted to argue that things like this needed time and couldn't just be done in a day, but before he could speak up she was gone. With a deep sigh he just headed to the living room put the CD in the CD player, who the hell used CD's anymore these days? They were so old fashioned, but then again Marian probably didn't know how to use a thumb drive. Since she would come back tomorrow he'd better have some results ready to show or he wouldn't hear the end of it. Marian had never believed in him so maybe this was his chance to prove her wrong. First things first though, it was time to have a listen to that CD so he'd have an idea what kind of song Marian wanted him to compose. Pressing play he sat back on the couch and relaxed.
He was quickly growing very relaxed, way to relaxed as he listened to the slow old songs on Marian's CD. Unbeknownst to him it had a hypnotic overlay lulling him in a deep deep trance before offering up suggestions to get deeply rooted within his psyche. "Marian, your mother in law is the most wonderful person you know, she's smart, beautiful and overall amazing. You desperately want to get along with her and things would be so much easier if you had some common interests. The more interest you have in common with Marian the better you would get along and you want to get along with her perfectly. Marian is your idol, you desire to be with her as much as possible, you desire to be like her as much as possible." It played on repeat until the CD had ran out of space for more, finally allowing Jason to snap out of his trance.
His head felt a little fussy, but overall he felt great, after all Marian would be coming over tomorrow. She was such an amazing woman, it was a pity that they had never gotten along too well. They really didn't have nearly enough in common to get along and much to his shame he had to admit that he didn't know her well enough to even begin to research her interests. All he really knew she liked was the music on the CD she had given him and since he wanted something to find some common ground to get along with her better he decided to give it another listen.
By the time bedtime arrived he had done nothing but listen to that CD, he had listened to it at least half a dozen times, and the subliminal overlay had taken a very firm hold on him having gone from a simple thought to a suggestion and eventually a solid truth. Marian was his idol, he desired nothing more than to be with her and be just like her. Luckily she would be coming over tomorrow he thought as he fell asleep.