New Hope for the Dead

by Charles Willeford

  I’m pretty rushed right now, getting ready to leave, but I’ll send down their shot records and school records and the rest of their things before I catch my plane. Whatever else you were, you were always responsible, and I know that our girls will be happy and safe with you.

  Sincerely yours,

  Patsy

  Sue Ellen took a package of Lucky Strikes out of her purse, then searched in the clutter for her Bic disposable lighter.

  “Let me have one of your Luckies,” Hoke said. “I left my pack upstairs.”

  Sue Ellen handed him the pack, lit her cigarette, and then Hoke’s. He returned her package.

  “Who’s Curly Peterson?” Hoke said.

  “That’s the man mom’s been living with—you know, the pinch hitter for the Dodgers. Sometimes he plays center field. She met him two years ago when the Dodgers came to Vero for spring training. He just renegotiated his contract, and he’ll get three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year for the next five years.”

  “How much?”

  “Three hundred and twenty-five thousand a year.”

  “That’s what I thought you said. I remember the name vaguely, but I can’t picture anyone named Curly Peterson. I don’t follow baseball much anymore. There’re too many teams anyway.”

  Aileen looked at the floor and made a circle on the carpet with her right foot. “He’s a black man.”

  “He isn’t real black though,” Sue Ellen said. “He’s lighter than a basketball.”

  “Just the same,” Aileen said, “he’s a black man.”

  “He isn’t as dark as Reggie Jackson. They both gave me autographed pictures, so I can prove it.”

  “He’s mean, too,” Aileen said, still looking at the floor.

  “Curly isn’t really mean, he’s just inconsiderate,” Sue Ellen argued, “as Mom said. He’s had a lot on his mind, renegotiating his contract and all.”

  Hoke’s mind was frozen. For a moment, he had difficulty in getting his thoughts together.

  “What’s his batting average?” Hoke said, clearing his throat.

  “Two-ninety, and he’s got a lot of RBI’s.”

  “That’s pretty good for a pinch hitter. He took you to all the games, did he?”

  “We had passes to all the spring-training games in Vero.”

  “Do you like baseball?”

  “Not particularly. And we didn’t like Curly either. But Mom’s gonna marry him, not me.”

  “Why don’t you like him?”

  “Well, one time he was having his lawyer and his agent over to dinner, and he told Mom he wanted everything just so. Me and Aileen helped, cleaning the house and all, and Curly came over early to check everything over. We vacuumed, dusted, and even washed the fingermarks off the doors. Then Curly took out his Zippo lighter, got up on a chair, and flicked his lighter in the corner of the ceiling. When he did that, the spider webs in the corner turned black and you could see them. You couldn’t see ’em before, but the smoke from the lighter turned ’em black, you see. He didn’t say nothing about how nice the rest of the house looked. He just showed us the cobwebs, and said, ‘You call that clean?’ Then he went off with Mom in the kitchen.”

  “It was a mean thing to do,” Aileen said.

  “That wasn’t the only awful thing he did, Daddy,” Sue Ellen said. “That’s just a sample. But I didn’t mind too much because, if you didn’t take it personally, it was kinda funny. I guess I didn’t like Curly because he didn’t like us—me and Aileen, I mean. We were in his way. He was there to see Mom, not us, but there we were, always hanging around. We were just a big nuisance to Curly.”

  “Do you girls know what’s in this letter?”

  Sue Ellen shook her head. “No, but I don’t want to read it. On the bus coming down, me and Aileen agreed that we weren’t going to be played off between you two.”

  Hoke put the letter back into the envelope. “What did she say to you when you left?”

  “Not much. Just that we were to come down here, and not to talk to anyone. That she’d send the rest of our things down later. She was so excited that Curly actually sent for her, she didn’t say much of anything. Mom wouldn’t admit it, but I don’t think she thought Curly’d ever ask her to marry him. But when he did, she couldn’t get out of Vero fast enough.”

  Eddie came down the hall from the dining room, which had been closed for years and served now as a catchall storage room. He was carrying a folding canvas cot by its webbed handle.

  “Emilio’s not in his room,” Eddie said. “I’ll get you some sheets and towels.”

  “That’s okay,” Hoke said. “I’ll get the sheets, and put the cot together when I get upstairs. You’d better stay down here with the switchboard.”

  Hoke got the sheets and a thin cotton blanket from the linen room, as well as bath and face towels. Hoke and the girls took the suitcases, the cot, and the linen upstairs in the elevator.

  “This is an awful big hotel to only have one old man like Mr. Cohen working,” Aileen said.

  “It’s only half full now, but even so, the Eldorado’s got the smallest staff on the beach,” Hoke said. “But the dining’s room closed, and so’s the kitchen. Only permanent residents live here, and if they want any maid service, they have to pay extra. Not many of them can afford to pay extra, so we only have two maids during the daytime. Emilio does all the maintenance, like cleaning the corridors and taking care of the yard. He’s a Cuban, a Marielito, so Mr. Bennett gives him a free room for the work he does, but no salary.”

  “How can he eat with no salary?” Sue Ellen asked.

  “Tips. And he also has some kind of a government refugee allowance, too.”

  Hoke made up the brass bed with clean sheets and gave the bed and the cotton blanket to the girls. He had to move the Victorian chair and two spindly tables in the sitting room to make room for the cot. The girls, who were used to having their own beds, didn’t like the idea of sleeping together. They argued about who would sleep on the outside; neither girl wanted to sleep next to the wall. Hoke realized that they were tired and irritable, as well as excited, but he finally told them to shut up and go to sleep.

  But Hoke couldn’t sleep. There was no mattress, and the canvas cot was stiff and uncomfortable. He was also too worried to sleep. When he moved to that small garage apartment in the Grove ghetto, could he take the girls there, too? He wanted a drink, and considered walking over to Irish Mike’s, where he could drink on his tab, but he decided against it because the girls might wake up, wonder where he was, and get frightened.

  It was a rotten trick for Patsy to send the girls down to him without any warning. If Curly Peterson—Hoke’s mind froze again momentarily—was making $325,000 a year and didn’t want the girls around, why couldn’t the ballplayer cough up enough money to put them into a private school somewhere?

  Unable to sleep, Hoke slipped on his khaki shorts again and took the elevator to the roof. There was a duckboard patio on the roof, and at one time there had been a bar as well, but very few residents came up to the roof now. Hoke looked across the bay at the Miami night skyline, which was beautiful at this distance. A warm wet breeze came from the ocean, and it felt good on his bare back. To his right, Hoke saw the lights on the four small islands that made up the connecting links for the Venetian Causeway. Straight ahead was the dotted yellow line of light bulbs of the MacArthur Causeway. On his left, farther south, Hoke could see the lights of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. He lit a Kool, and remembered the old joke that had circulated after Nixon sold his house on Key Biscayne.

  “What’s the difference between syphilis, gonorrhea, and a condominium on Key Biscayne?”

  “You can get rid of syphilis and gonorrhea.”

  But more to the point, how could he get rid of these two darling but unwanted girls—at least until he got straightened out? In the morning, he would call his father. Frank had four bedrooms in his big house on the inland waterway in Riviera Beach. Maybe the old man would tak
e them for the summer, or even for a month or two until he could work something out. Even two weeks would help a lot. By that time, maybe he would have a decent place to live in Miami. But now, with the two girls, he would need at least a two-bedroom apartment, or maybe a small house in a safe, quiet neighborhood. Next Friday was payday, and his next paycheck was supposed to go to Patsy—then he felt a little better, a swift surge of relief. Now that Patsy had sent him the girls, the agreement was canceled. Finished.

  Feeling a little better, but not much, Hoke butted his cigarette for later, went back to his canvas cot, and fell asleep.

  11

  Hoke took the girls to Gold’s Deli for breakfast. It was only two blocks away, so they walked. On their way over to Washington Avenue, Hoke pointed out the dilapidated condition of the old apartment houses and small hotels, and explained that there had been a moratorium on new construction for several years because there was supposed to be a master plan for complete redevelopment. But no redevelopment funds came through, so the owners of the buildings made only enough repairs to satisfy the fire marshal. He also told them to notice the population mix; young Latins and old Jews predominated.

  “South Beach is now a slum, and it’s a high-crime area, so I don’t want you girls to leave the hotel by yourselves. If you had a doll, and you left it out overnight on the front porch of the hotel, it would probably be raped when you found it in the morning.”

  Both girls giggled.

  “Maybe that’s stretching it a little, but between First and Fourteenth Street, South Beach is not the real Miami Beach you see in the movies. If you were looking out the window of the cab last night, and paying attention, you’d’ve noticed the difference. North of Sixteenth there are tourists out on the streets, lights, open stores and restaurants, and so on. But as soon as you reach Fifteenth, heading down this way, there are no people anywhere at night. On the corners, you’ll see two or three Latin males, maybe, but none of the old people leave their rooms after the sun goes down. And I don’t want you girls to go out alone at night either.”

  “Why do you live here, then?” Sue Ellen said.

  “We’re moving next Friday. The owner of the hotel had a security problem with Marielitos, so I was just helping him out temporarily, that’s all.”

  In Gold’s, the girls ordered Cokes and toasted bagels with cream cheese. Hoke ordered two soft-boiled eggs and a slice of rye toast.

  “Did your mother give you any money?” Hoke said, while they were waiting to be served.

  “Fifty dollars apiece,” Sue Ellen said, “after she bought our bus tickets.”

  Hoke held out his hand. “Let me have it.”

  Sue Ellen had forty-two dollars, and Aileen had thirty-nine and some change. They handed over the money reluctantly.

  Hoke counted it. “Where’s the rest of it?”

  “We spent some coming down,” Sue Ellen said. “Then we had a pizza and went to a movie.”

  “I played Donkey Kong in the bus station,” Aileen said.

  Hoke gave each girl a dollar bill. “Until you get jobs, and I’ll help you find work when we get back to Miami, I’ll give you both a dollar a week as an allowance. But for a while, money’ll be rather tight.”

  “You can’t do much of anything with a dollar,” Aileen said.

  “I don’t want you doing much of anything. I’ve got to go over to the station after breakfast. You can either go with me, or stay in the hotel, where Mr. Cohen or Emilio can keep an eye on you.”

  “Can we swim in the pool?” Sue Ellen asked. “I noticed the sign in the corridor pointing to the pool.”

  “There’s a pool out back, on the bay side, but Mr. Bennett had it filled with sand. If you have a pool, you see, you have to have maintenance and insurance. The bay’s too polluted for swimming, and I don’t want you girls going over to the ocean by yourselves.”

  “At home, we had our own pool,” Aileen said.

  “Did you girls really choose to live with me, or did your mother send you down here against your will?”

  “We said we’d rather live with you, Daddy,” Sue Ellen said.

  “All right, then. Just remember that I don’t make three hundred and twenty-five thousand a year. But my job’s got other compensations.”

  “Like what?” Sue Ellen said.

  “Well, for one thing”—Hoke smiled—”I’ve got my two daughters back.”

  Apparently it was the right thing to say. Sue Ellen smiled. Aileen covered her golden mouth with her hand, so Hoke knew that she was smiling, too.

  The girls decided to go with Hoke instead of hanging around the hotel. But Hoke made them change from their shorts into dresses before driving across the MacArthur Causeway.

  “Tomorrow afternoon we’ll go up on the roof, and you can watch the cruise ships come in through Government Cut. We’ve got more cruises out of Miami than any other place in the world.”

  “I’ve never been on a cruise,” Sue Ellen said.

  “Me neither,” Aileen said.

  “I went once, for a weekend in Nassau. It isn’t worth the money. A weekend in Nassau’s like a weekend in Liberty City.”

  “Where’s Liberty City?” Aileen asked.

  “It’s just a black ghetto in Miami—one of the biggest.”

  When they got to the station, Hoke took the girls into the interrogation room, and then got them some typing paper and pens from his office.

  “I’ll be working in my office, doing some paperwork, but you girls can draw pictures to pass the time. I know you like to draw.”

  Sue Ellen laughed. “I’m sixteen years old, Daddy.”

  “You used to like to draw.”

  “That was a long time ago. I remember. I also remember the time you handcuffed me to the table in the patio.”

  “I never did that.”

  “Yes you did, too. I remember. And I cried.”

  “You were only six when you left Miami. My handcuffs wouldn’t close around your little wrists. They were only about this big around.” Hoke made a circle with his thumb and forefinger.

  “That’s why you put the cuff around my ankle instead. I remember lots of things. You’d be surprised.”

  “All right, then, if you don’t want to draw, write letters to your mother. I’ll get some envelopes later.”

  Hoke returned to his office and telephoned his father in Riviera Beach. On Saturdays, the hardware store was only open until noon, but Frank Moseley rarely went in until ten, so Hoke knew he could still catch the old man at home.

  “It’s Hoke, Dad,” he said, when Frank answered.

  “How are you, son? Did the girls get there all right?”

  “Sure. They’re with me now, I’m at the police station. Did Patsy tell you she was sending them down to me?”

  “Yes, she called me, and she said she’d call you.”

  “She didn’t. The girls arrived last night, and I didn’t have a clue.”

  “That’s funny. She told me she’d call you and explain.”

  “Well, she didn’t. Things are a little awkward for me right now, Dad, and I was wondering if you and Helen could take the girls for a couple of weeks.”

  “We aren’t going to be here, son. If you hadn’t called me, I would’ve called you on Monday. But in ten days, Helen and me are taking a round-the-world cruise on the Q. E. II. Twelve thousand dollars apiece for an inside stateroom, but the boat goes everywhere. I’ve never had a real vacation, except for the week of our honeymoon, when Helen and I went to St. Thomas. And Helen wanted to go on the Q.E. II, so that’s that.”

  “I think that’s great, Dad. In ten days, you say.”

  “That’s right. The boat leaves from New York, but it stops in Fort Lauderdale. You can bring the girls up to Port Everglades to see us off, and we’ll have a little going-away party in the stateroom. They say it’s quite a ship, and I know the girls would like to see it. My tickets are in the mail, and when I get them I’ll leave boarding passes for you, with the stateroom number and
so on. You can meet us on the ship.”

  “If I can make it, I’d like to see it. How’s Helen, by the way?”

  “Excited. She’s got a wardrobe trunk and two suitcases packed already, more than enough stuff for three months. She made me buy a tuxedo. On the ship, you wear a tux every night.”

  “Not on the first night, Dad. The first night out, as I understand it, is informal.”

  “I know that much from watching ‘Love Boat.’ But Helen says it won’t be the first night out for us because the first night out will be from New York, so I’ll have to wear mine. But I don’t mind. I look pretty good in it for an old man. Something like that DeLorean fellow, only I’m a lot better-looking.” The old man laughed.

  “I’d like to see you in it.”

  “I’ll show it to you on the boat. I don’t like the suspenders though. They hurt my shoulders.”

  “Don’t wear ’em then. With the jacket on, nobody’ll know.”

  “Helen will. She said if you don’t wear suspenders, the pants don’t hang right. But I’ll be okay. You give the girls love from Grandpa, and I’ll see you all on the boat.”

  “If I can’t make it, I’ll let you know.”

  “Try and make it. I think you’d like to see the boat, but I also know how busy you are. If you send me your size, Hoke, I’ll get a suit made for you in Hong Kong.”

  “I don’t need a suit, Dad.”

  “Send me your measurements. I’ll get you one anyway. A man can always use a new suit, and in Hong Kong they’re dirt cheap. Helen’ll get presents for the girls.”