One Verse Multi, page 18
“Can you guys like go out there in the hall?”
They blinked at me in shock.
“Now wait, what about—”
Hugo put his hand on Margo’s shoulder and stopped her. “I think he needs a break from us.”
I nodded and watched the nurse assemble mostly liquid food on the tray thing, then roll it over my bed. I didn’t say anything or move. Margo waited to see if I would verify what Hugo had said. Hugo took my nonresponse as an answer. He stood and Margo reluctantly followed.
“We too shall get some lunch. See you in, say, an hour?” Hugo asked.
“Sure.”
Margo pushed past Hugo and left. Hugo strolled out, and the nurse shut the door behind them. I closed my eyes, relieved to just feel my pain. It was a lot. I reached out for the liquid painkiller on the table, a ripple of pain pouring down my ribs.
“Fuck my life.”
The problem was that I trusted MVP Margo and Hugo, but I didn’t know whether or not to trust these two. This Margo and Hugo were supposed to be the bad guys. Trusting them felt like betraying something. I was suspicious of anyone who trusted a Don from any universe, especially if what they said was true. But even then, I felt my Margo in this Margo. Same with Hugo. And I felt like I was losing sight of the differences.
I guess I trusted them in part because they confirmed what Tamar and I were noticing. But no one else noticed? I wanted to see MVP Margo’s evidence. I believed a Don or even a Josephine capable of hurting people. But the story collapsed with Hugo. I knew Hugo was not a killer.
The painkiller tasted like cherry-flavored ass, but I felt it right away. I crumpled the paper cup it had come in. The Jell-O had the same cherry-ass flavor, but it was sweet. I threw it back like a shot, only slamming one cube into my nose. I let it melt in my mouth before I drank it. There was some sort of mush in a bowl. It was too beige and too lumpy to be distinguishable. Oatmeal, mashed potatoes, grits, pureed shoes. It was a tossup.
Maybe it didn’t matter. The end result would be the same. I mean for the multi-verse, not the mush. If I wanted the multi-verse healed, I needed things to be different. The whole team wouldn’t have far to reach to believe MVP was doing harm. So, to protect the multi-verse we needed to stop MVP. VIP might be a big enough force to change it all. But then what? What would VIP do with the multi-verse?
“What, indeed?” I asked myself.
I used the spoon to scrape the mush from the edges of the bowl. I was hungry and I’d probably eat it if it was anything but grits. But I wasn’t willing to risk a whole mouthful. I put the spoon in my mouth tentatively.
Mashed potatoes.
* * *
VIP Hugo kept Margo away for a few hours somehow. I don’t think they even returned while I took a post-food nap. I was awake and freshly dosed with painkiller by the time they marched back in the room.
“Right, where’d we leave off?” Margo asked as soon as she came in the door.
“Lunch was fine. I feel like shit, though. Thanks for asking.”
“Martin, I’m sorry. I’m glad you’re feeling…a…way,” Margo said with a shrug.
Hugo eyed me. He half grinned as he said, “You don’t look so great.”
I almost laughed, but the pinch in my chest made me stop.
“Look,” I said, “it doesn’t matter where we left off. I’m down to talk to Don.”
Margo blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Y’all want to know where HQ is. I have a few questions to ask before I tell you, but I think I’m on board, solid seventy percent.”
“Really?” Hugo and Margo asked together.
“Yeah.”
“That’s great. Don and the others can be here tomorrow.”
“Why?” Hugo asked. His tone was reserved. He didn’t seem suspicious, but something in his voice made me second-guess myself.
I said it to him, not to Margo. “I’ve been worried for a minute MVP was doing more harm than good. If they’re doing what you say and Don has a plan to right things, I should hear him out.”
“Even after all he’s done to you?” Hugo said.
“Maybe bring a bodyguard. But look, I’m not going to hold a grudge if it gets us somewhere.”
Margo nodded as if she was getting the finer details of the conversation, but I don’t think she was. I could tell Hugo could see through my bluff.
“Now go away. I’m tired.”
“I’ll stay,” Hugo said.
“I’ll go make arrangements.”
“Margo,” I said, stopping her. “Can you please find me clothes other than a hospital gown? I don’t want to talk to Don with my ass hanging out.”
“The booties are very professional,” Hugo said, referring to the hospital socks at the end of my bed.
“Thanks, Hugo. I’ll remember that when I professionally kick your ass.”
He only laughed.
“I’ll find something,” Margo said, nodding goodbye to Hugo.
I knew then they’d agreed someone should be with me as much as possible. They must have been close by when eating lunch, maybe even right outside the door. Margo left and Hugo slumped into his chair. I pressed the button on the remote attached to the bed, and the TV popped on. A western was just starting on an obscure local channel.
“Let’s watch this,” Hugo said, turning his chair.
I turned up the volume.
Section 19
What a waste of time
Hugo and I ended up watching that whole movie and another. And we ate dinner together. He ordered delivery to the hospital and was gone just long enough to pick it up. I had more broth, but this one had bits of stuff in it, maybe chicken, and some sort of mushed vegetable. It was orange, but I wouldn’t put money on it being sweet potatoes or carrots or pumpkin or from earth. I watched Hugo eat Pad Thai.
“H,” I said when it was getting close to the end of visiting hours.
He grunted more than answered. His eyes were glued to the TV. The western we had finished earlier was playing again, and he was as riveted as he had been the first time.
“Have you seen MVP Margo’s notes?”
He looked at me, but I couldn’t quite figure out his expression. “No.”
I closed my eyes. “What happened? I mean, what was the setback?”
“What do you mean?”
“VIP Margo said your company had a setback, and you had to refocus on the technology.”
“I’m not sure. Josephine and I built the anchor, but Carl and Justin worked with Don and volunteers to test it.”
“And they didn’t explain what the problem was? How could you fix it?”
“I…I can’t talk about this with you,” he said with a small amount of regret.
I looked at him. “Well, it sounds a little sus to me.”
“I can imagine it would.”
“Naw man, I’m serious. You’re important enough to be here and be a part of this, yet you don’t know everything that happened in your organization? Why?”
“Do you know all that happened in yours?”
“No, but they don’t think I’m important.”
He almost laughed.
“Listen, Hugo. I…I know your doppelganger. I know MVP Hugo.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, better than I knew Margo. He wouldn’t kill anyone. Y’all only have a handful of doppelgangers, and he never leaves the lab. If he’s done what they say, if he’s taken over someone’s life, then why have I seen him literally every day for two months? Wouldn’t they notice him missing?”
Hugo considered what I said by pretending to watch TV. I watched too. I watched knowing it was one of MVP Hugo’s favorite movies. He usually had it playing in his room or in the common room when he thought no one was around. I knew it almost word for word.
“There are ways around it, no?” he said softly. “He could’ve told the others he was on a trip.”
“Sounds fake, but I guess.”
He looked at me, half smiling. “You know, you’re surly. The way Margo says the other Margo talked about you, I wouldn’t have thought this.”
“You know, you’re a dummy if you believe VIP. The way Hugo talks about himself, I never would’ve thought this,” I said, mocking his accent.
He really laughed that time. “You remind me of someone I knew in my original verse. He was surly too.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yes, he was a homeless man.”
My own snort caught me by surprise. I knew laughing would hurt, so I tried to ignore it.
“He would be outside the gas station and he would come up and ask for your shoes. He never wore shoes, but he would demand yours. And when you said no, he would say, ‘Why not? You have two, what do you need two for?’ Then you would have to tell him you have two because you have two feet, and he would follow you around the store and tell you all the reasons you don’t need two feet.”
I laughed. It hurt my whole body to laugh, but it felt good. He looked pleased with himself.
“And that’s who I remind you of?”
“Yes, except I think you would tell people they don’t need any feet.”
“They don’t. That’s ableist propaganda.”
Hugo shrugged. “Thank you for proving my point.”
We settled again into silence, watching the town in the movie rally as the female lead explained it would be up to them to protect themselves.
“Is this not your home-verse…er, original verse?” I asked when I thought I might fall asleep.
“No.”
“Why’d you bring me here?”
“It was nearby,” Hugo said. Then a flash seemed to go off behind his eyes. “Do you know where you are?”
“Yeah,” I said.
My eyes closed. And if he asked me a question, I didn’t hear it.
* * *
By noon the next day, I was impatient to hear from Margo. Neither she nor Hugo had been to the hospital, which normally would’ve made me happy. But I had assumed my willingness to participate in their plot to overthrow MVP would’ve been met with some urgency. My bad mood didn’t help. I figured I must have been healed enough for the hospital to want to kick me out since they pulled all their equipment. I was still wearing the hospital clothes and sipping meals, but a nurse had walked me through exercises for both my jaw and my ribs. After that they left me alone with my pain.
Rain like only Florida could produce slammed against the window, and the world was dark. I wondered how far I could get before Margo or Hugo found me. I could have left before, but the hospital seemed safer than being in the world. Don had found me in a universe none of us belonged to, and yet I knew he wouldn’t come to the hospital.
I could walk my happy ass to the heart of Fort Lauderdale and step through a rift that formed every day for three minutes at five forty-five. You had to crawl into some shrubs to get to it, though. I imagined bending over just slightly, and my ribs cried out in pain. Plus, it was raining. Finally, I heard Margo’s knock—three gentle taps then three hard ones.
“Hi, Margo.”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“I listened to a you knock on doors five times a day for four years.”
Margo had been casually crossing the room but hesitated when I referenced the other Margo. She smiled sadly and put a pile of clothes on the bed. “Here, you’re going to need these for your meeting.”
I pulled the stack over. “You bought me new clothes?”
“What did you expect me to do? Just dig something out of my closet?”
“I think I could rock one of your long-ass skirts.”
She laughed and swished her skirt. Then she seemed to correct herself, her smile fading.
“I can manage the pants, but I’ll need help with the shirt,” I said.
“Do you want me to leave?” she asked, backing toward the door.
“No. You’ll just knock again, and I hated it the first time. Just turn around.”
She did. The hospital gown tied on the side and wrapped around my body, so it was easy to undo. I did manage the pants. I remembered the tricks I had needed while I healed from top surgery almost ten years ago. I used my first six months’ pay from MVP to have the surgery done. Now I was wondering if MVP needed to exist at all. I have come a long way, I guess.
“These pants seem too big.”
“They have drawstrings, so just…you know.”
I cinched the laces on the forest green denim joggers. They were actually pretty cool clothes. Even though they had an elastic waist, they looked professional. Still felt big, though.
“I know I’m a chub, but what size did you think I was?”
“Martin, shut up.”
“I’m ready now,” I said.
She turned and reached for the light blue short-sleeve button-down. She undid the buttons and helped me get it on the arm I couldn’t lift, then held the other side while I got my other arm in. The whole process made me feel sad.
“Do you know what happened to the other Margo?” I asked, not really knowing why.
“No, only that she’s dead. There is one other Margo I know of.”
“Weird.”
“You’re unique?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“Does it feel lonely?” She blinked and brushed away the question with her hand. “Never mind.”
“Shoes?”
She nodded and pulled some tan flip-flops from her bag.
“Respect the drip! You have taste, lady,” I said, slipping on the shoes. “I wish I had some lotion and deodorant, though.”
She laughed and pulled a grocery bag out of her backpack with all the toiletries I could want and then some.
“Well, damn.”
I went into the bathroom to wrap up getting ready, and she said she would wait down the hall by the nurse’s station. I didn’t look too hard at myself in the mirror, just inspected the black patches where my brown skin was mottled with bruising. I hurried through the bag and tied it closed before I went out into the hall. It felt like all I had in the world, even though I had a lot in a lot of worlds. I wondered for a moment if being universe-unique really was lonely.
“Let’s go,” I said, finger-gunning the nurses behind the desk. They all rolled their eyes.
Margo nodded and led me out of the hospital to a waiting car. She went around to drive.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I felt instantly carsick, but I just put my head back and closed my eyes. I didn’t need to see the rain beat against the windows as we drove.
“We have a meeting with Josephine.”
“Not Don?”
“No. We all thought it was best you meet with Jo.”
I didn’t feel like getting my teeth smashed in again, so I wasn’t going to argue. “Where?”
“We rented an office in a building near a college. Everyone wanted to continue their work”
“What’re you working on?”
“Martin.”
“Right, right. Finding MVP, I get that, but don’t you do anything else? Aren’t you trying to explore the verses or something?”
“We are and do. But we think the damage to the universes is most important. I focus on rift formation triggers.”
“That’s a fun game,” I said, thinking of Luca and Mason staring at longitudes and latitudes and time signatures and other things only they could see in the numbers.
“It was for a while, but we’ve been having trouble lately…we…” I could feel Margo’s eyes on me. She was wondering how much to tell me. I didn’t bother looking at her or reassuring her that I really didn’t care what they were doing save the part about searching for the founders and threatening the people I cared about.
She looked at me for a second too long and had to slam on the brakes as we came up to a badly submerged road and the slow line of cars trying to wade through it. I jolted forward. I was smart enough to have slipped the shoulder strap of the seat belt around my back, but my ribs screamed anyway. My vision swam, and I felt pre-vomit cold sweat form on my face. My instinct was to open the window, but with the downpour of rain I couldn’t crack it more than an inch.
“Fuck me,” I said. “Shit, I might barf in here.”
“I’m so sorry, Martin, I really didn’t—”
“Naw, we’re good. Maybe we should listen to the radio instead.” I turned my face into the AC vent.
“Right.”
Margo must have taken that to mean that I didn’t want to talk at all. We spent the rest of the hour-long drive in silence. The building we came to was a tall complex of offices. The name of the school was listed amongst the names of businesses that also used the building. I followed Margo through the rainy parking lot. The cool water was more refreshing than annoying for once, and at least I could look rain drenched instead of sweaty.
“We should’ve picked up your prescription before we came,” Margo said as we stepped into an elevator.
The pain was rising, but I didn’t want the painkillers. “I’m fine. Someone’s bound to have a pocket of NSAIDs somewhere. Prescription drugs are boring.”
“You just look uncomfortable.”
Margo was watching me. I tried to look in front of me, but the doors of the elevator were reflective enough that I could see my face. So, I looked at the floor. I watched her white sneakers as we walked down the hall. The door she opened led to a bright and slightly crowded room. Boxes lined the walls, and there were several tables with computers on them. People moved around. At the far end of the room, Josephine stood with Hugo.
“This is the temporary lab,” Margo said.
Several people called to Margo. Josephine and Hugo looked up. I scanned some of the items as we walked by. There were bits of mechanical devices I couldn’t begin to reassemble even if I’d known what they were. There were charts that looked like they could have been for any data, hand-drawn diagrams on white boards, circles with arrows flowing through them, and time signatures by each circle. That much I did understand. It was a rift map linking several universes together.
