Only You - [Lip Gallagher]

Option Four

"Thank you all for coming out in honor of Aunt Ginger," The Gallaghers' cousin, Patrick began while he held the urn of our Jane Doe, "Or as I liked to call her GG." He chuckles and I roll my eyes, "When the guy at the funeral handed me her ashes, I thought, 'What the hell do I do with these?' Put them in a case on my mantle, scatter them in the park or lake?" He explains, "No, I need to put her where she is happiest, on this corner; her corner." He smiles and looks at the ground, "Where she turned tricks in her twenties and thirties." "And sixties." Frank chimes in, "She did magic tricks?" Carl asked, innocently, "No, Carl-" I start before Frank cuts me off, "No, no, son – turning tricks is a euphemism for pros-" "Enough." I cut Frank off shielding Carl from as much as I can before his innocence is stripped away. "Some think Gallaghers don't have a work ethic," Frank chuckled, "But Ginger worked this corner; rain, sleet, snow; her old knees hitting the pavement again and again." Frank gloats, "Jesus Christ." I mutter and wipe my face in distress. "Look, guys, you all knew Ginger so I ain't gonna sugar coat it. She was a mean old bitch but even a mean old bitch deserves a send off." Patrick says and dumps her ashes on the corner, "It's touching." Lip wipes his fake tears, "I'm tearing up." Ian adds on, "Let's go kids." I say guiding Debs and Carl away so Fiona can talk to Patrick; he's trying to steal their house.

++

"You appreciate the irony right?" Frank says as he leans against the fridge, "Senseless arguments about who gets what bedroom, refusing to allow me to stay and now nobody gets to stay!" Frank laughs, "Why's Frank here again?" Ian asks, "Small chance he'll be able to help since he's known Patrick longer than any of us." Fiona explains, "Patrick wants to take our house?" Carl panics, "He's a contractor, gonna flip it." Lip says, "Slap a coat of paint on it, call it a 'cozy, authentic pre-war' and offload it to yuppies." He adds, "Not gonna happen! Let's go over options." Fiona says, "I'll write them down." Debbie says grabbing a pen and paper, "We know the will is bullshit, it was signed a year ago and Ginger's been dead for what, 10?" Ian says as he walks over to the table where we all gather. "More like 15." Fiona scoffs, "Option one; prove the will is a forgery." Debbie says as she scribbles on the paper, "Can't do that, ours is fake too and we have no proof of Ginger being alive recently or proof that Patrick did or did not come here to have it signed." I explain, "Yeah and we can't call the cops because we faked Ginger's death." Lip says as he pours himself coffee. "Plus Frank's been cashing Ginger's social security checks." Fiona adds, "Oh like you didn't share in that bounty." Frank scoffs from behind the counter, "What we could do is argue that Ginger wasn't of sound mind when she signed it, she was never sound of mind anyway." Lip points out, "Option two: say Ginger was crazy." Debbie mutters as she writes, "Or convince Patrick to back off somehow." Jimmy reasons, "Good luck with that." Frank warns, "His nickname used to be pitbull not only because of his smell but once he's got ahold of you he won't let go, you gotta kill him first." "Kill Patrick got it." Debbie says and writes it down, "No, we aren't killing anyone." I mother, "There's gotta be another way." I sigh, "Uh Sade, any legal ways you can think of?" Fiona asks, "I'm sure I can figure something out, the kids will be back in school and I have to wait for this one to finish so we can go to college." I nudged Lip, "All in favor?" Fiona asks and everyone raises their hands, "Great. Sadie will handle the will and the rest of you get ready for the first day of school tomorrow." Fiona says and all the kids scatter, "Better be fast, winter is coming it'll be cold sleeping in a park." Fiona says, tapping my chin and walking away.

++

"How's the research?" Lip asks as he crawls into bed beside me, "Shit." I mutter, "There is no way to press this will without exposing what we did." I groan, "Hey, L, can I talk to you?" Ian knocks on the door, "Yeah, come in." Lip calls, he steps in and looks at both of us, "It's kinda private." Ian looks nervous, Ian tells me everything, what could this possibly be? I begin to panic slightly as Lip stands up and walks out with Ian.