Mickey - The View From Here PART TWO - Gallavich

Rainbow Sprinkles

The symphony of Debbie and Sandy’s reunion sounded from our bedroom, drilling painfully into my ears. I glanced at Ian next to me on the couch, wondering how much he already regretted letting Debbie stay with us.

Lips pursed, Ian held one hand over one ear and pretended to be focus on the cartoon,  Toopy and Binoo playing on the TV for Franny.

Doing my best to ignore the sounds of Sandy and Debbie’s reconciliation, I turned the television up a bit  more.

Growing bored of the show, Franny turned away from the TV and wondered, “can we go to the park?”

Before Ian could answer, I was already grabbing Franny’s jacket. “Fuck, please, yes, let’s go to the park.”

The women in our bedroom only seemed to get louder, prompting Ian to agree before we made a quick escape. Once we were down on the street, he seemed unsure.

“We should’ve left a note if we’re taking Franny somewhere,” he thought out loud.

“Fuck that,” I scoffed, holding my niece’s hand as we started toward the park. “She didn’t leave us a note when she took off. We’ll probably be back before she even notices.”

When we reached the park, Franny tore off to play on the jungle gym, leaving Ian and I behind in the dust. On the street nearby was an ice-cream truck.

“Franny, what flavor you want?” I shouted after our niece, spurring her little legs to stop their storm on the playground.

“Rainbow!” she called giddily before she continued on to the playground, where a few other kids greeted her.

I clicked my tongue. “Rainbow ain’t a flavor,” I grumbled, approaching  the ice cream truck with cash ready in my hand. “Vanilla,” told the vendor, “and a fuck-ton of rainbow sprinkles. Like, all the sprinkles, understand?”

The vendor nodded and took my money before preparing Franny’s colorful treat.

Feeling my husband’s gaze, I turned to him, brows furrowed at the soft smile on his face. “The fuck are you smiling about?”

Ian placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed with reassurance. “Just thinkin’ about what a good dad you’ll be. You’re great with Franny.”

I teased, “that your way of tellin’ me you’re knocked up?”

Ian faked a laugh, ruffling my hair. “You never took sex-ed, did you?”

“Nope. Unless you count us,” I smirked, caught off-guard when he kissed me. When he pulled away, I tried to hide my smirk. “What’s that for?”

Ian shrugged, his eyes lingering on my lips. “I just love you, that’s all.”

A wide smile spread across my face. “Oh. Kiss away then.”

We shared a laugh as Franny played with a few of her friends from the west side neighborhood. It sucked that Debbie was living with us, but aside from that, everything seemed right in my world.

Then I saw them, and all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole a hide.

Svetlana stood by the playground, her arms crossed and a content expression on her face as she watched Yevgeny and Franny play together.