Hope - Levy, Marc (web ebook reader .TXT) 📗

awaited. Among the teddy bears and fake childhood lipsticks, the gaudy costume jewelry and coloring books and pencils, a storybook caught her eye. She laid it on her lap. Full of illustrations, it told the tale of a little monkey who set out to see the bright city lights. As she turned the pages, Hope could hear her mother’s voice reading the words aloud. She lifted the book to her face and breathed in the smell of the pages, hoping to recapture some long-forgotten scent. The barest hint would have sufficed, but the book had nothing to give.

Hope turned over each and every item, before tidying the box away where she had found it, keeping nothing but the book, which she slid into her suitcase.

When the day came for her to leave and head back east, she rose before her father for once. She hadn’t heard from Josh since his minutes had run out two days earlier. She missed his voice. She had tried to contact him through Luke, but to no avail. She had left a message on his voice mail, telling him what time she’d be back.

At the airport, just as security began telling Sam he needed to move his car, Hope assured her father that she’d had a wonderful time, and in turn, he promised her he’d do everything he could to visit her at Christmas.

“Are you sure you don’t mind me leaving you all alone?”

“Amelia will be back soon enough. I’ll give her your love.”

“If you like.”

“By the way—did you find what you were looking for?”

Hope widened her eyes in mock surprise.

“When you were looking through my things? You could have tidied it all up like you’d found it.”

“I stole an old sweater you don’t wear anymore. I plan on wearing it this winter. Just something to remind a daughter of her old dad.”

“You were right to do so. Take care of yourself. I’m going to miss you.”

Hope threw her arms around her father’s neck and told him she loved him. Sam made her promise she’d call when she got home.

“I promise!” she called out, before disappearing inside the terminal.

She strode toward the escalator, then turned and rushed to the window as she watched her father stoop back into his old station wagon.

That night, Sam found an old crayon drawing on his bedside table.

He looked at it for a while, and then fetched a photograph from his office. It was a picture of him being awarded a prize. He slipped it out from underneath the glass and replaced it with the drawing.

“Why did you have to grow up?” he murmured.

7

Hope gazed up at the clouds. She could make out a dog, a camel, a lion and a whale, and she prayed to them to make sure that Josh would be waiting to greet her when she landed. She even prayed to a passing cloud that looked exactly like one of her English professors.

She believed that when a cloud looked like a human being, it was because it contained something of that person’s essence. She had thought this ever since one lonely, maudlin night in South Carolina, when the clouds rearranged themselves into a likeness of her mother’s face, making her wonder if her mom had arrived to rescue her.

Walking through the airport, she decided that the airplane windows must have been too tightly sealed to let wishes past, and felt a stab of disappointment, when suddenly a pair of arms encircled her and lifted her off the ground. She let out a cry, causing two police officers to jump.

“You came!”

“No, you’re looking at a hologram.”

“You smell amazing for a hologram,” she said, burying her face in Josh’s neck.

“I have two major pieces of news,” he said after they’d broken away from a deep kiss.

“You’re pregnant!”

“Very funny.”

Hope led him toward the baggage carousel.

“So? What’s the big news?”

“Flinch has given us a bigger, better lab, with more equipment.”

“What’s the honor?”

“That’s the second bit of news! We’ve made insane progress since you’ve been gone. More complex programs are up and running, but on top of that, I think we might have had a real stroke of genius. I had a genius idea.”

“Somebody call the modesty police.”

Josh assured her he wasn’t exaggerating. He couldn’t wait to take her to the Center to prove it, but Hope didn’t seem thrilled at the idea.

“I never said we had to go tonight,” Josh added.

“Liar. You’re dying to head over there, but I need to find my bag first.”

“No, I’m dying to make love to you!”

The other passengers around the baggage carousel lifted their heads from their phones to stare at them.

“The feeling’s mutual.” Hope winked.

The woman standing next to her eyed her disapprovingly. Or maybe she was just jealous.

Josh had borrowed Luke’s car. Once the pair arrived at the apartment, they raced up the stairs and straight to the bedroom.

Hope’s softness took him aback, as did his own tender touch. He had never before been as gentle as this, as careful, and he told her as much afterward as he lay in bed with an arm slung behind his head, and a joint hanging from the edge of his lip.

“I hope you don’t think you’re going to be smoking that thing in my room.”

“Last time I checked, it was my room.”

“Not when I’m here, Joshy. And that reminds me. Until we move into our own place, I want to start paying some of the rent here.”

“No way.” Josh shook his head. “You really want us to get our own place?”

“Considering our budget, a studio would be a good start.”

Josh got up to inspect the contents of the fridge. His voice carried across the apartment from the kitchenette.

“Let’s go to the Center.”

That late at night, most of the Center’s rooms lay dark. As they walked down the corridor, Hope glanced in on the humanoid robot that seemed to be fast asleep in its cradle. Its latex face