It was a normal day at The Alibi. Svetlana checks her phone, one more hour and then she can go up stairs and be with Yevgeny while Mickey leaves to start his evening shift at the tattoo parlor. Svetlana appreciates how flexible Kev and V are with the schedules. It makes Svetlana feel good to know that Yevgeny is always going to have at least one of his parents home. It’s good for him, she believes. It’s also good that both his parents have legal jobs. It was easy to convince Kev and V to give her the job. They are kind hearted Americans who are easily moved by the tragic story of a young Russian girl being sold into sex slavery. It also turns out that she’s better at the business side than they are too. Svetlana noticed right away that the couple was not accurately tracking the bar’s finances, her Mickey spent a couple late nights untangling that mess. She also came up with theme nights that draw new customers every Wednesday.
Svetlana did demand an increase to her pay with all the hard work she’s put in. She practically saved the bar from closing but V and Kevin are to stupid to admit that’s true. When they kept refusing Mickey had to threaten them with a beat down. V actually laughed in their faces and said that the low rent for the upstairs apartment was compensation enough for the work. Mickey then stabbed Kev in the arm with a pen ending the pay negotiations with higher wage for Svet.
This was great because that means for the first time she could actually save money. Svetlana browses the home listings daily to see the prices. It took some convincing to get Mickey to move out of Terry’s house and he’s too proud to ever say it, but she could tell that he was in fact happier to be out of that awful house too. To have their own home where they can make their own rules and not have to live amongst all his brothers and cousins was good for Yevgeny.
Mickey refused to be on board with the saving money plan. “You make money, you spend money”, is what he told her. “If you keep money around then someone is just going to f*cking steal it.” But then Ian helped her set up a bank account and she promised Mickey that the orange boy could move into the new house with them, his attitude started to change. Getting Mickey to do what she wanted was easy as long as she used the boyfriend as leverage. She has to admit that she’s starting to like Ian again too. He seems like a new person doing his EMT job, she was told by many this is actually more like his true self. The version that she lived with and who stole her son was a sick version of Ian and Svetlana, always being a great observer, is starting to see what everyone is talking about. Plus a family with three incomes will be great for Yevgeny. Maybe they could get a house with a big yard with a big tree where they could build Yevy a treehouse. Smile appears on her face as she imagines her incompetent husband trying to build a treehouse.
“I’m just saying it’s false advertisem*nt,” Frank yells, pulling Svetlana out of her daydream.
“Come one Frank,” Tommy says. “Who cares where the players were born? We need to sign better hitters.”
“Because it’s America’s favorite pastime!” Frank says, throwing his hands in the air. “If all the baseball players keep coming from the Dominican Republic or Cuba then how can we keep claiming it as our sport? Baseball is just another corporation lying to the consumers. Have you seen a McDonald’s commercial? It’s the same thing! They advertise the hamburgers as these big juicy constructions but you get one and it’s just a sad piece of meat. We are told baseball is for Americans but you don’t see Americans playing anymore!”
“Yeah, but McDonald’s is still good,” Tommy defends.
“And it’s the World Series,” Kermit pointed out. “Shouldn’t it be more than just Americans playing?”
“Jesus Frank,” Kev says, returning from cleaning up one of the booths. “If you want me to change the channel all you have to do is ask.”
“Don’t change the channel,” Frank demands. “I have money on this game.”
“Then shut the f*ck up about it,” Tommy tells him.
Svetlana rolls her eyes. Americans are so dramatic about everything. As she was pouring another beer for Kermit a woman entered the bar. She had dark hair and pale skin, cheep giant hoop earrings frame the side of her face. She was probably in her mid thirties Svetlana guessed. She looked nervous just standing at the entrance.
“Leave or sit,” Svetlana calls to her as she hands Kermit his beer. “Don’t block doorway.”
Kev looks up and the three men seated at the bar turn to see who Svetlana was talking to.
“Holy sh*t,” Tommy mumbled.
“Laura!” Frank greets. “Haven’t seen you around in ages. Still looking good if I say so myself.”
“I went to the house but no one was there,” the woman speaks quietly. There’s a hint of an accent in her voice.
“Yeah I think I heard the city is having that place condemned,” Kermit says.
“Come,” Frank pats the stool next to his. “Tell us of your journeys. And share any drugs you might have.”
Laura hesitates but then reluctantly sits down. She has no other place to go.
“Who is this woman?” Svetlana asks Kev.
“Laura Milkovich,” Kev answers with a surprised look like she should have known. Her husband has so many relatives it’s hard to keep up. It’s still unclear who is a brother and who is a cousin.
“Another sister?” Svetlana takes a look at the woman. She can see the family resemblance. Her mouth is identical to Mickey’s. Kev’s face didn’t change, he was still wearing the confused look on his face. “Cousin?”
“You seriously don’t know who this is?” Kev asks. Svet shakes her head.
“Let me have the honor,” Frank insists. “Laura, I have the great pleasure of introducing you to your daughter in law, Svetlana.”
“Daughter in law?” Laura stumbles with the words. Did Mickey get married? Maybe they mean one of her step sons.
“This Mickey’s mother?” Svetlana must be having a bad dream. According to her lying son of a bitch of a husband his mother was dead.
“Mickey’s married?” Laura asks to no one in particular. Then she turns to her supposed daughter in law. “Where is he?”
“Upstairs with Yevgeny,” Svetlana says, pointing to the ceiling.
“Who’s Yevgeny?” Laura was becoming overwhelmed. How many new people is she going to be introduced to?
“Um, our son,” Svetlana answers.
“You’re going to love being a grandparent,” Frank interrupts. “It’s the best ever. They love you unconditionally unlike the ungrateful brats we ended up raising.”
“You want to meet him?” Svetlana asks.
“OK,” Laura quietly responds.
Svetlana quickly bounds up the stairs leaving the awkward scene.
Kev slides a beer to Laura and gives a comforting smile. “Mickey’s great, him and Lana have been helping out around here.”
Muffled yelling could be heard from above the bar. The arguing grew louder and suddenly Svetlana reappeared on the stairs dragging Mickey by his left ear and Yevgeny placed on her hip.
“Ow bitch, let go!” Mickey shouts as he’s being pulled down into the bar. “I can’t understand, ow, what you’re f*cking saying!”
When they got to the bottom of the stairs Svetlana gestures to the woman sitting next to Frank.
“Explain,” Svetlana sternly depmands.
Mickey stares at the ghost taking the form of his mother.
“You told me she was dead. Explain.”
“You told her I was dead?” Laura asks with some hurt in her voice.
“That’s what Mandy told me when I got out of Juvie the first time,” Mickey says awkwardly rocking on his feet.
“Why would she say I died?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like you were f*cking around to correct her.” Mickey responds with anger in his voice.
Svetlana composes herself and walks over to Laura.
“Yevgeny, meet your babushka,” Svetlana smiles warmly at her son as she introduces the three year old to the new woman.
“Hi,” Yevgeny says as he gives a small wave.
Laura looks into Yevgeny’s eyes. She’s entranced by the blue eyes staring back at her. Mikhailo’s eyes, her eyes. Has she really been gone so long that her son got married and became a father?
“In Ukrainian we say Babusya,” Laura quietly says.
“Yes of course, Misha said you were from Ukraine, yes?”
Mickey stayed by the stairs. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His bitch of a wife was actually talking to his dead mother. His dead mother who apparently was alive.
“So now what?” Mickey asks. “You magically decide to come back and now we’re going to be some happy f*cking family?”
“I make beef stroganoff!” Svetlana declares. She hands Yevgeny to Mickey before she heads back upstairs. “Call your siblings. We are having family dinner.”
“I can’t do family dinner, I got work,” Mickey yells after Svetlana.
“Tell them it’s family emergency!” She yells back.
Mickey doesn’t know why he’s going along with Svetlana’s family dinner plan. He called his siblings. Iggy and Colin seemed excited to catch up with their step mom. Their mom died shortly after Iggy was born so Laura was the only mom they’ve known. Mandy on the other hand hung up on him as soon as he mentioned Laura’s name. But the one person who Mickey wanted to talk to wasn’t responding. He called and texted Ian to the point it was becoming excessive.
He sat Yevgeny down at an empty booth and gave him coloring supplies. Laura wandered over and sat across from them. Mickey didn’t protest.
“He looks so much like you,” Laura says.
“Yeah, that’s what people tell me,” Mickey deadpans. Laura notices Mickey’s body language is extremely tense. He’s very stiff and seems to be on guard. It reminds her of Terry, always prepared for a fight.
“He likes to draw?”
“I guess.”
“I remember you always liked to draw. Always hanging your pictures in your room. Do you still draw?” Laura asks.
“I guess,” Mickey responds. “I’m a tattoo artist so I guess I get paid for it now.”
“That’s great,” Laura smiles.
The mother and son pair continue to sit in awkward silence for a moment.
“So your wife is Russian?”
“Yup,” Mickey pops the p at the end of the word. He grabs a red marker and absent mindedly adds some squiggles to Yev’s abstract doodle.
“How did you two meet?”
f*ck. Mickey doesn’t remember his mom being this talkative.
“Uh, Pops introduced us,” Mickey says vaguely.
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Not really.” Mickey takes a deep breath. He doesn’t take his eyes off of Yevgeny’s drawing.“I’m gay.”
“What?” Laura is unsure if she heard correctly. She watches her son shift in his seat. He pulls at his lower lip, a habit she notices he hasn’t grown out of.
“I’m gay,” Mickey then elaborates. It hits him that this is the second time he’s coming out at this sh*tty bar. “Dad found out and called Svet. Now I got a kid and a wife. But it’s not a secret or anything. Everyone knows, about the gay thing. And now you’re caught up.”
“Oh, should I help her with dinner?” Laura asks, unsure on what to say about her son’s sexuality.
“Not if you’d like to keep both of your hands,” Mickey says. “Svet can be very territorial in the kitchen. ‘Specially if she’s making Russian food.”
Then right on cue Svetlana comes down the stairs carrying a stack of plates and putting them on the table.
“What the f*ck are you doing?” Mickey asks.
“Setting table for dinner,” Svetlana answers as she grabs a chair. “Come move that table over.”
“You want us to have dinner in front of everyone?” Mickey gestures to all the people.
“Upstairs is small. Not enough room around kitchen table.”
Mickey groans but obeys his wife and gets up to push a nearby table into the booth as Svetlana placed chairs around so everyone could have a seat.
“You called your siblings, yes?”
“Yeah, Mandy was being a bitch but Colin and Ig said they would bring her. I haven’t heard from Ian though.”
“Don’t worry Misha, I’m sure he’s just busy at work.” Svetlana assures him. “We are going to have family dinner with everyone. It’s going to be very nice. Like in the show your sister watch about the women who like to eat junk food.”
“Who’s Ian?” Laura asks.
“Um, my boyfriend,” Mickey says.
“Didn’t Mandy date a boy named Ian?” Laura asks, thinking the name sounded familiar.
“I have to check on food, bye,” Svetlana hurried back upstairs, not wanting to hear how this conversation was going to go.
“It’s the same guy.” Mickey responds.
“You and Mandy are dating the same person?”
“What? f*ck no, they never actually dated. They just pretended.” Mickey says.
“Oh, I guess I still have a lot to catch up on,” Laura says, trying to lighten the mood. Mickey gives a slight chuckle.
Mickey gets up and goes behind the bar and fills up a pitcher.
“How’s the reunion going man?’ Kev asks.
“f*ck you,” Mickey automatically responses.
“So your mom’s really young huh?” Tommy comments looking over at Laura sitting in the booth trying to show her grandson how to play tic tac toe. “How did Terry ever manage locking that down?”
“f*ck you too,” Mickey says as he takes a healthy gulp of beer from the pitcher and lets out a burp. “He paid for her.”
“Like father like son huh?” Frank quips. “It appears Milkoviches can only get wives through a mail order bride catalog.”
Mickey pinches the bridge of his nose and tops off the pitcher. “Shut up Frank and f*ck you Kermit.”
“I haven’t said anything,” Kermit says defensively.
“That’s because there’s a f*cking waterfall coming out of your large mouth,” Mickey says as he leaves. “Someone’s gonna slip on the pool of drool at your feet.”
Mickey returns and refills his and his mother’s drinks.
“You win little man?” Mickey asks, looking at the piece of paper on the table covered with Xs and Os.
“Yes! Babusya said I win everytime!” Yevgeny says proudly.
“He’s very smart,” Laura admires. Mickey feels his cheeks warm. It’s strange having his mom back all of the sudden. On one hand he missed her and on the other hand he was mad because apparently she abandoned him and Mandy.
“So, does no one live in the house anymore?” Laura asks.
“No,” Mickey answered. “Svet didn’t like living there. Said it wasn’t good for the kid so she convinced Kev and V to let us live in the apartment upstairs. Mandy started going to cosmetology school and made a couple friends and they all got an apartment together close to the school. Then Iggy met some girl and moved in with her and when Colin got out of jail he moved in with them. Dad’s been in prison for breaking parole for the past couple years but word around town is that he’ll be out soon. But since the house was empty and no one was paying any bills there I think the city took it or something. Not that we were paying any bills before.”
Iggy and Colin enter the bar and Mickey nods his head in acknowledgement. Laura turns and sees her step sons that she considers her own.
“Where’s Mandy?” Mickey asks her brothers. Iggy and Colin turn around and see that they are missing their sister.
“Just a second,” Iggy says, holding up a finger. The older Milkovich siblings step outside and shortly reemerge, dragging in a kicking and screaming Mandy.
“No!” Mandy shouts. “I don’t want to have a stupid f*cking family dinner with that stupid f*cking c*nt!” Mandy was easily overpowered by her older brothers and they dropped her off at the table.
Mandy was now looking at the eyes of her mother. How can they still hold so much kindness in them? Words could not describe the grudge she holds for her mother. It was supposed to be her job to protect them. Instead she left in the middle of the night a couple years ago. Mandy woke up to a letter that she could only read half of until she burned it with her lighter. She couldn’t finish reading the letter because that meant it was true, that her mother chose her own freedom and left her to survive by herself.
The day after she left was the first time a drunk Terry forced himself into her bedroom. Something that had started to become a regular occurrence until Lip and Ian confronted him. It’s still a secret that she hasn’t shared with her brother out of fear of how they would react. But she knows who’s to blame. Laura Milkovich.
Mandy looks around and notices that everyone in The Alibi was staring at her. Why the f*ck were they having dinner in such a public setting?
Laura gets up and looks at Mandy. “Your hair is blonde?”
“Yeah,” Mandy answers, pulling at the strands of hair that weren’t tied back in a ponytail.
“It looks good,” Laura smiles. “You look very pretty. You’ve always been a pretty girl. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Mandy doesn’t know what's come over her. But when Laura hugged her she actually accepted it and melted into her arms.
Svetlana appears with a pot of the stroganoff and sets it in the middle of the table.
“Good, everyone is here,” Svetlana says she starts to ladle the food onto plates. “Sit, sit.” She motions to the group.
“Ian’s still not here,” Mickey points out.
“He’ll show up. You worry too much. This around time he comes over to help with Yevgeny while you go to work.” Svetlana says as she takes her seat next to Mickey in one of the chairs she brought over.
“I sit between,” Yevgeny declares as he crawls over his dad’s lap so he could sit between his parents. Mickey felt trapped in the booth as he was forced to sit next to the wall.
Then Ian walked in still wearing his uniform and toting his backpack. He was headed straight to the back stairs until he was interrupted by Yevgeny’s voice.
“Een!”
“What’s going - holy sh*t,” Ian says as he notices the not dead Laura Milkovich at the table.
“I’ve been calling you for hours man,” Mickey scolds.
“Sorry,” Ian pulls out his broken phone from his pocket. “A new trainee ran it over with a gurney.”
“Sit,” Svetlana says as she fills another plate with food and places it at the empty seat.
Laura looks over at Mickey and watches her son’s tense shoulders finally relax as he leans back into the booth. She smiles at her son, he’s definitely not like his father.
Frank appears with his own chair in hand. “Smells good, didn’t know Russian whor* could cook. Is it in case a John has some 1950’s wife fetish?”
“Jesus Frank,” Ian rolls his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m here for the family dinner your boyfriend’s wife prepared.”
“You aint part of this f*cking family,” Mickey says.
“I’m not part of this family but my son is?”
“Yes,” Mandy and Mickey answer in unison. Iggy gets up and grabs Frank by the collar and drags him out of the bar while holding a gun to his side.
“Hey you can’t do this!” Frank shouts. “Kev, tell these low lifes they can’t treat a paying customer like this.”
“You’re not a paying customer Frank,” Kev responds.
Iggy returns to his seat, leaving his gun out on the table.
Svetlana looks around the table. She can work with this. Having a grandmother around will be great for Yevgeny. Svetlana recalls how scared when she was pregnant with husband that was avoiding her. She feared about her safety, if she would have a roof over her head for her and her baby. But somehow, along the way, the Milkoviches have become a real family.
“Whole family is here,” Svetlana says. “Time to eat.”
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