Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,29

was as pervasive as it had been on the other side of the bridge, but occasional clumps of cacti and yucca poked from it. The mere presence of greenery brought fresh cheer to Hope, and her spirits lifted.

Once, she even pulled over to get out of The Way and smell a bright red flower sitting atop a barrel cactus. It had a faint, fruity scent that reminded her of body wash. She was becoming aware of her own unwashed odor, and longed for a stream or pond with enough water in it to bathe. She promised herself never to take cleanliness for granted ever again. How long had it actually been? At least several days, she figured—hard ones full of sweat and dirt and strong emotions. She wrinkled her nose at stenches real and imagined as she got back into the car.

"Are you going to keep fiddling around with that thing or are you going to sing me a song?" she asked Undead Elvis, who'd been plucking idle notes on the ukulele for hours.

"My pleasure, Li'l lady." He adjusted a tuning peg. "This here song was always one of my favorites. It's a hymn called How Great Thou Art."

He played simple chords in counterpoint to his soft, crooning voice. Hope could feel tension melting out of her shoulders as he sang for her. He'd just finished a line, "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder," when Hope had to interrupt him.

"God, I'm sorry, Elvis. It's a beautiful song. What is that up ahead? Is that some kind of storm?"

A long, dark cloud hung low over the horizon. It roiled and twisted with unsettled but slow movement. Undead Elvis adjusted his sunglasses and leaned forward to peer through the windshield. Hope suppressed a sudden urge to pull off those glasses so she could see what hid behind them.

"I'm not sure, Li'l lady. You see the way that it curves up on one end and then stretches way out?"

"Yeah."

"I think that's probably smoke."

"That would be a pretty big fire." Hope touched her tummy. "Like that forest Ash told us about."

"Could be."

After another stretch of time that might have been an hour, Hope had to agree with Undead Elvis that the cloud was smoke. She could smell hints of it in the hot air that blew in through the open window. "I hope it isn't too bad," she said. "What if the smoke and ash clogs up the motor?"

"What if it does?"

"You know, it's infuriating that you answer questions with questions all the time." Hope glared across the seat at Undead Elvis.

He shrugged. "Sorry about that, Li'l lady. I just don't have the answers you're looking for."

"Nobody does." Hope growled in irritation.

The road climbed up some hills and the air grew a little cooler but much more smoky. The scent of burnt wood triggered an old memory in Hope.

She said, "You know, my dad was named after you."

"He was?"

"Yeah. When I was really little, before my dad left, I remember we all went camping in… well, somewhere in the mountains. I don't think I was more than two or three. I remember we had a red tent, and my dad said to always look for the red tent if we got lost. Anyway, that night we had a campfire and had hot dogs and s'mores. My mom undercooked the hot dogs but we ate them anyway, and I burned my mouth on the s'mores. I remember afterward I lay on my sleeping bag looking up at the stars while the fire died down and thinking it didn't get any better than that." Hope clenched her jaw. "And I was right. A few months later my dad walked out and never came back. We never saw him again. A real deadbeat. Although…" She smiled. "That night at the campground, he still loved me."

"You don't think he loved you after he left?"

Hope snorted. "That's a hell of a way to show it if he did. Leaving my mom, my brother, and me behind. No calls, no cards. Not even for my goddamn high school graduation. I may not have been the best student, but at least I got the stupid diploma. Didn't do me any good, though. I was dancing and stripping by the summer after and that was it until I walked into that bar in Nowhere." She glanced at Undead Elvis. "That seems like forever ago."

The Way went over the top of a hill and Hope braked to a halt. Before