A Life Lived Twice || Lip Gallagher

Life Goes On.

  At the age of four Noreen Flannigan's life changed in ways that seemed impossible. Little Noreen was walking towards a run down park. A street down from where she lived when a drunk stumble into her knocking her down. As she fell her head just happened to hit the light pole and knocked her out.
  The drunk realizing what he had done started to freak but as he looked at the little girl he smiled. The drunk recognize the toddler and so picked her up and walked to the childs house. Not out of the kindness of his heart but in pure greed. For you see he recognized the girl as the only child of Deanna and Wayne Flannigan, the two biggest crack dealers in all of Canaryville, Chicago.     Frank Gallagher just knew it was his lucky day. He was coming home after a night of drunken escapades at the Alibi and was fresh out of money meaning no drugs for his bitch of a bi-polar wife Monica. But things were looking up. The girl would be the ticket for a free eight ball with his dearest darlings name on it and of course his as well. Frank whistled a little toon as he walked up the steps of a house that looked like all the houses on the Southside. Run down and dirty. The door opened before Frank could even knock. A short woman with golden brown eyes and shoulder length dark brown hair looked shocked to see Frank standing there and then she looked down and saw her little bit in his arms. She went from shocked to a raging bi polar bear in zero point one second. Deanna Flannigan suffered the same as Monica. She had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder along with PTSD from when she was in Desert Storm. She was once Sgt. Deanna Sue French or Sgt.Frenchy before she met her husband Wayne Flannigan. Her husband often called her a bi-polar bear because the anger she sometimes got into caused her to act like a raging rabid bear before sucking her into a self destructive depression. Frank really didn't know how lucky he got it with Monica's disorder. Monica could be calmed but Deanna would kill you before she calmed down. Wayne had many emergency room visits over the years.
  "Fucking Frank Gallagher if you did anything to my puppy I'm gonna kill you." As she yanked the unconscious child from the drunks arms causing him to stumble a little.
"No no I didn't do anything. I swear." Frank raised his hands and backed away from the raging woman.
"I found her knocked out on the sidewalk. I think she may have tripped and bumped her head." He nervously laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Kids are accident prone. My own kids have accidents all the time!" He exclaimed loudly as he waved his hands in an obnoxious way.
  Deanna Flannigan just stared at him with eyes that went so black you would have thought death it's self was staring back at Frank. "You have three seconds to tell me what you want Gallagher before my fist finds a nice resting spot in your face." She growled
" Well since I brought your uhh..puppy?" Frank paused to gauge Deanna's expression only to see it was still flat and unreadable so he kept going. "Right... your puppy back so that nothing horrible would happened to the young thing. I just thought there might be a small reward I could claim for my good deed." He smiled charmingly thinking he was about to get a nice little bag of drugs.
Deanna moved her child to her left arm and pulled back her right fist and shoved it right into Frank's smarmy face.
"Here's your reward dipshit." She said sarcasticly as he fell down the porch steps and into the front yard. "If you thought I believed the crock of shit you just spewed you must believe I was born last night." She laughed as he cussed and spit out the blood in his mouth. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a little baggie of xanax and threw it at him.
"Here keep it fucktard. Don't say I never gave you nothing!" She yelled as he got up and stumbled off.
Deanna refocused her attention to her little puppy and yes she calls her daughter her puppy. Taking care of a puppy is easier than taking care of a child and she had never wanted a child but she did want a puppy. So her little Noreen was her puppy. In her head it made perfect sense so she just went with it. No one ever said that Deanna was sane. Probably a good thing she had an emergency hysterectomy after Noreen was born.
  The twenty eight year old woman looked down at her little puppy and let out a sigh as she went back into the house, up the stairs and into the smallest bedroom in the house. She place the toddler on the bed and went back to what she was doing in the first place. Going to the Kash and Grab for some smokes and new lighters to sale with her product. Kash always gave her deal when she bought in bulk. She left without a single thought for the little girl with a bump on her head who was now tossing and turning in her red car bed.
  Noreen was deep into lala land as she saw a girl with chocolate brown hair and leaf green eyes so similar to her own grow up. The little girl one Nicole Ryanne Freeman had a similar face and similar parents and so far similar lives but as Noreen watched and begin to understand she noticed the differences. Nicole's parents Diana and Wade Freeman looked similar to her own though there were key differences. Deanna was skinny with no boobs and huge booty while Diana was a c-cup with a huge booty and heavier body. Diana also had a gap in her front two teeth where as Deanna just had an overbite. Wade had dark brown hair and Wayne had brownish red hair. Both had green eyes but Wade's were leaf green and Wayne's was a bright emerald color. Wayne had tribal tats down his arm and Wade had a cross with the names of his children over his heart. Wayne also only had one child in the form of Noreen but Wade had four boys and one girl, three of whom by a woman other than Diana.
  Noreen saw that Nicole's parents sold drugs and drunk alcohol but never let their habit get in the way of paying bills and feeding their kids. They were disciplined in a way Noreen's parents weren't. Diana and Wade did the best they could with the habits they had and we're damn proud of their children all the way up to their deaths. Both had died to liver disease as most do when living a life of drugs and booze. Diana had went first when her youngest Alexander graduated high school and enlisted into the army. It was as if she was holding out to make sure all of her children including her step kids could make it as adults. Seven years and one day after her death Wade Freeman passed away surrounded by his loved ones. He lasted long enough to see his oldest Johnny beat his addiction and live a normal life. Sadly he also saw his second child Brendan loose his battle with pain medication and overdose. The pain of watching his child die oddly enough kept him alive long enough to make sure his three youngest came out on the winning side of life. Nathaniel met the country bride of his dreams and settled down in a triple wide with eight acres of land and hillbilly living. Weed and socially drinking kept him happy for the rest of his days along with his redneck wife Mandy. Nicole went to college off and on never knowing what she wanted to do in life but she did manage to finally finish nursing school and had a good job. She traveled state to state, hospital to hospital never settling down in one place. She wasn't happy but she was comfortable which is more than most could say. Alexander stayed in the army for the rest of his life. Married and divorced three different times and never any children with any of his wives. He took a bullet to the groin in Iraq. They saved his penis but his balls were gone.
  Noreen was fascinated as she watched the lives of people she had never met. The more she watched the more she learned. It was as if everything Nicole had ever learned flew into her brain. All of Nicole's experiences, memories and feelings started to intergrated with four year old Noreen's.
  Suddenly the influx of information stopped and Noreen witness one of the most horrific things she had ever saw. Nicole was in a hospital in what looked like the emergency room attending to a patient with a high fever when a crazed man in the waiting room pulled out a gun and started shooting. Noreen watched as Nicole hid the patient, a teenage pregnant girl in a supply closet. Only one could fit. Noreen then watched as Nicole tried to reason with the crazed man only to be shot in the chest two times before the crazed man used his last bullet to shoot himself in the head. Nicole died before any could help her.
  With Nicole's last breathe Noreen woke up screaming. The little girl immediatly checked her chest for gun shot wounds. When she saw none she let out the breath she was holding only to notice her small little hands and began to hyperventilate. She didn't hear someone running up the steps. She didn't hear her door open and she didn't hear someone call her name. All she saw was her too small hands and the blurry vision of her too small legs as tears streamed down her face.
  "NOREEN!" A man shouted when he couldn't get the little girls attention
Noreen finally looked up and said, "Daddy?" Right before everything went black and the little girl passed out for the second time that day.