"Look at you, then look at me—every one of us is being dragged down by him, rotting slowly in different ways. And Debbie will be next, because her heart is the softest and she's the easiest to fool. She's the easiest to destroy."
Fiona looked at Shane, her eyes reddening, tears accumulating. Shane's words made her chest feel tight.
After a long silence, Fiona spoke again.
"Do you know what the most ironic thing is? Actually, I even hated you a little just now, because you hit him and scared Debbie."
"But you laid everything out in the open. Now a little voice inside me is saying: yes, finally, finally someone did what I dared not do."
As Fiona spoke, two lines of clear tears flowed from her eyes.
"I don't know why, but now I feel terrible about myself. I feel like I'm not a competent big sister... I always..."
"No, no, no, Fiona, my sister, you are not terrible at all."
Shane stood directly next to Fiona, pulling her head onto his shoulder.
"You're just tired: tired of being the only sober person, tired of always having to clean up his mess, tired of seeing through everything yet having to pretend this family is still whole."
"You changed diapers for every one of us, from Lip to me, then to Ian, Debbie, Carl, and Liam."
"When Lip had a high fever, you stayed up all night, holding him on the sofa, cooling him down with a towel; when Ian woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night, you sat by his bed with him until dawn. Of course, there are many other things."
"Are these things a 'incompetent big sister' would do?"
Listening to Shane's rambling comfort, Fiona's tears flowed more and more.
Shane took a pack of tissues from his pocket and handed it to Fiona, looking at her sideways.
"Now you can relax a bit. I can earn the money, I can do the bad things. You just need to continue being Fiona, the big sister who holds up this family, but you don't have to do anything for Frank anymore."
Fiona didn't speak. The hallway quieted down, leaving only the sound of her occasional sniffling and the noise of pots and pans downstairs.
After a long while, Fiona exhaled heavily.
She leaned back against the wall and slid down slowly, sitting on the floor.
"Fck..." she cursed in a low voice, "Really fcking..."
Unknown whether she was cursing Frank or this messed-up life.
Finally, she wiped her tears vigorously with the tissue, took a few breaths, and calmed down.
"Alright, I'm fine now." Fiona stood up supporting herself on her knees. "The competent big sister still has to go down and watch those brats eat."
She walked two steps to the stairs, then looked back at Shane, forcing a smile at the corner of her mouth.
"I heard what you just said about everyone having a Thanksgiving gift. If you fool me, I won't let you off."
Shane smiled and followed.
"Don't worry, I'm counting on bribing you with gifts to make you work a few more days for me."
...
The two went downstairs one after another. Although the food hadn't been served yet, the others were inexplicably already seated at the dining table.
Lip held a fork, poking the plate absentmindedly.
Ian lowered his head, tying a small napkin for Liam.
Carl stretched his neck to look at the door, wanting to know if the shocked Frank would crawl back in.
Debbie had already clipped the new hair clip onto her hair, but her eyes were still red.
Seeing Shane and Fiona come down, the children all looked at them simultaneously, then quickly looked away, pretending nothing happened.
Shane didn't let this strange atmosphere last long. He clapped his hands.
"Alright, alright, don't look like you're attending a funeral. Today is Thanksgiving!"
Shane winked at Fiona again. "Do you guys want to eat first or be shocked (surprised) first?"
Fiona froze for a moment before realizing what he meant. "Shock first, lest they get too full to scream later."
"Okay, then wait." Shane turned and went downstairs to the basement.
Before long, he came back up holding a bulging large cardboard box.
Carl's eyes lit up instantly. He shouted excitedly: "Whoa, loot!"
Lip raised his eyebrows. "Looks like someone in the Gallagher family wants to be Thanksgiving Santa."
Ian just smiled. "Christmas is next month. Why did someone mix up the holiday schedule?"
"Shut up," Shane moved the cardboard box next to the dining table.
"This is a Thanksgiving special, distributing some Christmas gifts in advance. This is a Thanksgiving unique to our Gallagher family."
Debbie leaned forward, looking forward to what Shane would give her, a little light in her eyes.
Fiona leaned back in her chair, looking at the cardboard box. "Don't tell me you spent all the money earned these past few days on gifts?"
Unpacking, Shane replied: "You guys know, I always have special channels."
"Sounds a bit gray," Lip teased from the side, his eyes unable to stop glancing into the cardboard box.
Shane rummaged in the cardboard box first, pulled out a rectangular box printed with the Lenovo logo, and handed it directly to Lip.
"Start with the one in our family who has the most brains and is most likely to escape the South Side."
Lip initially had an "I don't really care" expression, but seeing the logo and product model on the box, he couldn't help being surprised.
"No way, you didn't really..." He started unwrapping before finishing his sentence.
Opening the box, inside was a seemingly ordinary black laptop, the casing looking a bit plain.
Lip checked the model repeatedly under the light. "Holy shit... I can't believe you'd give me this one."
"What's wrong?" Carl leaned over. "Looks similar to the one we have at home."
"You know sht," Lip stroked the body back and forth, looking incredulous. "This is..."
Lip rattled off the model of the machine and a string of parameters others couldn't understand. "Forget it, you guys won't understand. Just know that if I go to college, I can use it until graduation."
As he spoke, the corners of his mouth couldn't help curling up.
"God, I saw a review of this computer in a magazine a few days ago. Seeing the price, I tore out the price page and ate it."
"If you eat this one now, I can give you another one," Shane said.
Lip rolled his eyes. His finger couldn't wait to press the power button. "I really can't believe how you had the money to buy me this machine. Where the hell did you... Forget it, not asking. Asking makes me afraid I'll feel guilty."
Hugging the computer, he talked tough, "Anyway, for a genius like me, having a decent computer is basic dignity."
"If a genius doesn't pay the electricity bill, dignity will be thrown out the door by me." Fiona stabbed Lip at the right time.
Shane chuckled watching Lip's anxious look, fished out another small box from the cardboard box, and threw it to Lip.
"The computer was what I promised you earlier; this is my Thanksgiving gift for you."