Gold Dust Woman- Lip Gallagher

steve's back

With summer wrapping up, Diana and I stepped up and helped Debbie with the final weeks of daycare before school started. 

One day, while Diana helped Debbie with pickup, I looked out the window and saw a truck outside lowering someone out on a wheelchair. Debbie and I went outside, and I immediately recognized the old woman as Grammy Gallagher. It looks like they released her from prison.

"You're looking for the Sunshine adult daycare?" Debbie said, "It's up at the church."

"Honey, the only time I wanna go to church is when I feel like getting molested," she said, getting up and looking at me, "You, I remember you. Your- what's it called- mustard?"

"Mayo, but close," I said. 

"Ah yes," she said, "How are the boys?"

I scoffed, "Ian's trying to get into the army, and Lip's still a dickhead."

She turned around to face Ethel and Malik, some kid that she'd been hanging out with. He seemed like a nice guy, but he had a kid who was Jonah's age, and boys like that don't hang out with girls platonically. So, I kept an extra eye out for Ethel... and V. I know V didn't really like Malik. 

"Who are you two supposed to be?"

"I'm Ethel, and this is my son, Jonah."

"You look a little crispy to be Liam."

"Oh, I'm Malik."

"Malik?" Grammy said in disbelief, "Jesus, enough with the fake African spice rack crap! Word of advice? Some people are racist. Change your name so people won't know you're black."

"Gonna have to do a lot more than that," I mumbled, laughing to myself. 

"Honey, is that hot water heater working?"

Debbie nodded.

"Get me a towel. I gotta have a bath."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Debbie said. I forgot she'd never met Frank's mom. She had to be just a baby when Grammy got arrested.

"I'm your grandmother, sweetheart."

_____________________________________________________________

It turns out Grammy was sick, so that's why they let her out. A medical furlough, they said. 

One of the kids accidentally spilled juice all over my shirt, so I had to go outside and wring it out. As I wrung it out on the porch where Fiona was, I noticed Lip talking to someone familiar. The guy turned his head, and it was Steve.

"Holy shit, you're back?!" I said, my mouth open as I covered my chest with my still-wet shirt.

"Hey, good to see you, Mayo!" Steve said, waving to me.

"Where have you been?"

"Brazil."

"Whoaaaa."

Brazil sounded pretty sweet. I left pretty quickly after that because I wanted to give Fiona and Steve privacy. I changed my shirt and splashed water on my face when Fiona came upstairs. 

"Hey."

"Hey," she said, "So, what's going on with Lip and Ian?"

I knew I couldn't tell Fiona the real reason because if she knew Ian was trying to get into West Point, she'd go ballistic, so I just shrugged.

"Lip's being an asshole, and Ian's calling him out on his bullshit, and he got mad because he knows Ian's right but won't admit it," I said.

"What? About Karen?" she said.