Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,89

calm down, it would lead to the exact circumstance she wanted to avoid: having the baby under Mr. Duce's watchful eyes.

She gulped and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she said to the men. "I'll cooperate. Just please don't hurt him."

"Hurt him?" Chris laughed in an unkind way. "He ain't alive, far as we can tell. He ain't stopped walkin' that generator for months. We wouldn't have any power at all if not for him."

"We're takin' you to Shades," said the other man, as-yet-unnamed. "He runs things down here. He's The Deuce's man. He'll decide what to do with you."

"Might be a fine." Chris licked his lips. "Might get to take it outta your ass."

The other guard shoved him. "Hey, be nice. She's gonna have a kid!"

Charlie was unmoved. "So?"

They came to a door with the words Shades Office hand-painted upon them, missing apostrophe and all. Charlie knocked. "Shades, man, you in there? We got us a troublemaker."

"Come in," said a masculine voice.

The other man opened the door into a small room with a large desk that was dominated by a huge ledger. Bare overhead bulbs cast the room in a dingy yellow.

The man behind the desk stabbed out his cigarette and stood up. The smell of his tobacco mixed with Old Spice wafted across the room and made Hope gasp in shock. Twenty years had put more lines in his face but the features hadn't changed, even with the leather-edged sunglasses hiding his eyes.

Hope managed to say, "D-Daddy?" And then she burst into tears.

The man called Shades leaned on his desk for support, mouth open in surprise. "Hope? Is that you?"

Hope couldn't answer; she was bawling like she was five again.

"She was messing around with that one guy," said Chris. "Wanted us to let him go."

"Out," said Shades. "Now."

"But—"

"Get out of my office. This is my daughter, for God's sake."

Chris and the other man looked at each other, and then left.

Shades sat down. "Jesus. What are you doing here, Hope?"

Hope sniffled, her chest hitching as she tried to calm herself down. Her heart ached. He hadn't hugged her, or apologized, or even been the slightest bit joyful. What was wrong with him? "I was l-looking for someone." She felt her baby kick and it gave her strength.

"And you're pregnant? Does The Deuce know?"

"Yes. Daddy, aren't you going to say anything? I mean, I haven't seen you in forever."

"Forever's a long time, Li'l lady."

Hope gasped. She'd forgotten that was her father's pet name for her as a toddler. No wonder she loved when Undead Elvis used it. "You shouldn't be here. It's not safe for you. Or for your baby."

"Jesus, he's not just any baby, he's your grandson." Hope felt her temper rise. How dare he be like this? Why wasn't he down on his knees apologizing for his twenty-year absence? "Why did you go away? Why didn't you ever call, or write? Or even send me a goddamned birthday card, Daddy?"

Shades bowed his head. "Because I'm weak. And I'm a bad person."

"No, don't say that!"

He looked up. Hope could see herself reflected in his sunglasses. Why was he wearing them indoors, in a dimly-lit room? It made her uncomfortable. "I've done bad things, Li'l lady. I hurt people." He rummaged through his desk. "I still do. It's my job." He found what he had been seeking. He leaned back in his chair, tipped his head back, moved his sunglasses aside, and dropped some fluid from a bottle into his eyes. Then he readjusted his glasses and sat up straight, regarding Hope as the droplets coursed down the lines in his cheeks.

"Why?"

He shrugged. "You do what you have to to survive. Even working for a man like The Deuce."

"He scares me."

"He scares me too."

"W-why do you wear those?" she asked.

"You know why The Deuce scares me? I'll tell you why. When I first came here, right after the world went to shit, he put me in charge of getting his power system up and running. No big deal. I've been an electrician forever. Problem was we didn't have any way to run generators. I was joking when I said we ought to just use the goddamn treadmills and stationary bikes and have people do it, but he thought that was a brilliant idea. And he put me in charge of that. Long as the power was flowing, The Deuce was happy. And when he was happy, so was everyone else." Shades shuddered. "But one day I let him down. Had