One Verse Multi by Sander Santiago

Author:Sander Santiago [Santiago, Sander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636790701
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2022-01-01T22:49:41+00:00

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.

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