Mickey - The View From Here PART TWO - Gallavich

At Least There's Coffee

*WARNING FOR DRUG ABUSE AND SUICIDAL THEMES*

In the living room, Vee, Kev, Tami and the baby, the Gallagher siblings, Franny, and I were assembled in a semicircle around the couch. Most of us watched with curiosity and a sad lack of concern as Ian and Vee checked Frank's vital signs and removed the needle from his arm. Lip had found him there on the couch that morning and claimed he couldn’t feel a pulse.

Ian said it was faint, but present.

Now, most families would call an ambulance for this poor old fuck, right? Well, this was Frank. Even the hospitals were sick of his scams for drugs, new livers given to him only for him to destroy, and general bullshit. Besides, Ian had relayed that the nurse said Frank was in his final stretch. Calling for help seemed pointless.

“How much heroin did he do?” Ian asked no one in particular.

Liam gave the floor a quick scan, then picked up two empty baggies to show the rest of us.

Some of my cousins were into that shit, so I recognized that Frank had injected a fair amount of heroin in what looked like a suicide attempt.

“Wow,” said Kev at the sight of the baggies.

“And he's not dead?” Tami stated, perplexed.

“Yet another disadvantage to decades of copious narcotics use,” Lip told her.

Talk of paramedics came up, but that was quickly shot down.

“He may be trying to kill himself,” said the youngest Gallagher sibling. It seemed like, while the others had written their father off as a waste of time years ago, Liam had been tending to Frank as of late. Ian said it was because Liam was the youngest. Now only 11, he didn’t have as much trauma to consider when it came to Frank. Now that Frank was dying, I supposed the kid just wanted to spend some time with his dad before the opportunity was gone. He was a good kid, I have no idea how that happened.

“He’s been depressed,” Liam confided, worry laden on his face. “The dementia's getting bad.”

Vee stuck a needle in Frank’s hand to wake him, but he didn’t react, didn’t wake up. She reasoned he'd had a stroke or he was brain dead.

For the first time probably ever, I felt bad for Frank. The poor drunk couldn’t even kill himself properly. “I guess it’s up to us to finish him off. Quick shot to the head, dump his body in the lake.” Stuffing my hands into my pockets, i looked up to see the others’ reaction to my suggestion. “I don’t think anybody's gonna miss him.

Everyone was suddenly staring at me as though I had proposed we all jump from a plane without parachutes. But it was Ian’s gaze that spurred me to explain myself.

“What? We’d just be helpin' Mr. Fuckup finish the job,” I reasoned, uncomfortable with so many eyeballs on me.

We all stood around the couch, staring down at Frank’s unconscious body before Carl eventually broke the silence. “I gotta get to work. Is there any coffee?”

Lip told him there was a fresh pot before asking Ian, “so, now what?”

Solemnly shaking his head, my husband replied, “we wait, I guess.”

“For what?” chimed in Debbie.

Ian’s arms were crossed protectively across his chest. He didn’t tear his attention away from Frank as he answered his sister’s question. “See if he dies or not.”

A moment of silence ensued, passing when Ian turned to his brother and with a simple question, eased some of the lingering doom gathering over the couch. “Said there's coffee?”

We adjourned to the kitchen to claim a cup, leaving Franny and some half naked chick that had appeared on the stairs to linger over Frank. Debbie's new friend, this half naked young woman, searched Frank’s pockets in vain. If Debbie had confided in her at all about Frank, she would have known not to bother. All of his meager scroungings were now in his veins.

While fetching our respective cups of coffee, Ian and Vee made small talk over our recent and their impending relocation. The Gallaghers' oldest friends were leaving Chicago for Kentucky. The thing was, Kev and I had some business to take care of before the Ball family fled south. And I needed to get it done without Ian noticing.

Ian stood at the kitchen island between Kev and I. Because he seemed a little vacant in the eye, I tried to quietly get Kev's attention by clearing my throat.

Snapping into action, Kev spoke up, “oh, yeah, everybody should come to The Alibi later. Drinks are gonna be half off. It’s a special thank-you to our customers for their years of loyal alcoholism.”

I took a sip of coffee and nodded in agreement. “Mm. That sounds really great, Kev. What time do you wanna do that?” With Ian’s attention on his own cup of coffee, I held up my fingers to assist Kev with the answer.

Unsure of himself, he counted the fingers I held up twice for good measure. “Seven?”

I gave him two thumbs up, my nerves temporarily easing to know such a major part of my plan was now in motion. My husband was a romantic at heart, good at surprises and remembering what I liked. For our first anniversary, it was my turn to surprise him.