Ukrainian Lullaby - Gallavich

9 - mothers and cookbooks

I made Debbie and Carl a bit younger here.

Ages:
Mickey: 19
Mandy: 17
Fiona: 22
Lip: 18
Ian: 17
Debbie: 10
Carl: 8
Liam: 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 9 - Mothers and Cookbooks

Ian was gone for the weekend. He had some ROTC training trip to Wisconsin or some shithole.

Mickey thought, that it was probably a good thing. It got harder and harder being around Ian and not being able to kiss him in front of the others - literally, by the way.

Mickey lay on the couch, it was Sunday morning, he used this time of the day to secretly watch cooking shows on the TV. No one else was up until noon, giving Mickey the opportunity to be jealous of skilled children the whole morning. He loved it.

"God, here you are", Fiona's voice startled him. He quickly shut the TV off.
"What do you want?"
"I spend the day with Jimmy and his family and actually Lip was supposed to stay here and watch the kids."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"He had a date with that girl yesterday..."

"And? Dead, jail, hospital?"
"What? No... what does happen on a date in the southside usually?"
"Usually, someone pushes a kid out nine months later. So, what is it?"
"Nothing, he just wants to stay the day with Karen, because her parents come back tomorrow, Jesus."
"Great, thanks for the update."

"No, the point is, you need to watch the kids today."
"I don't need to do shit.", he rolled his eyes.
Fiona walked around the couch and looked at him, "Could you please, watch the kids?"
"What about Frank?"
"Passed out drunk Frank? It's the same as leaving them alone. You don't have to do much, just make sure they don't die and have dinner and go to bed on time."

Mickey sighed and looked up at her, "I'm not your fucking babysitter."
Fiona licked her bottom lip and dug around in her purse. She eventually showed him a bunch of bills.
"Four hundred. No one dies, dinner at six, bed at eight for Liam, nine for Debbie and Carl."
Mickey eyed the money in her hand, she sighed and dug again in her purse.
"Five."
"Deal", he said and snatched the money from her.

"Good, maybe Ian will be home before the kids go to bed, but Lip and me won't be home until really late."
"Yeah, yeah, fuck off. Are they already up?"
"Yeah. Have fun, bye", she quickly left the house.

Mickey only stared after her, that to lazy morning cooking shows.
He slowly got up and walked up the stairs, surprised when he found Debbie and Carl sitting on the last step of the second staircase upstairs.

"What are you doing here?"
"Will you make us breakfast?"
"How old are you again?"

"Ten, Carl is eight."
"And you can't pour cereal into bowls on your own?"
"It's Sunday, we get Pancakes on Sunday.", Carl stated.
Mickey sighed, "You're spoiled", he mumbled, "So I'm supposed to make you Pancakes?"
"You don't have to, but it would be nice."

"And what makes you think I'm nice?", he asked Debbie.
"Liam likes you."
"Babies like everyone."
Debbie rolled her eyes, "Please. Could you please, make us Pancakes?"
Mickey looked down at her, spoiled children... but could he really just say no to this face?

"We can pay you", Carl suddenly said. Mickey looked at him.
"You would pay me, so I make you Pancakes? Hell, you need to learn that you can't buy everything in this world with money. Alright, I make you your fucking pancakes, keep your money. I'll just take a quick shower and get dressed. You try not to die, in the meantime, otherwise no pancakes."