3 Chapter 3 – Zack – Iteration 144 (2/2)
”No way. You just want to delete the evidence. You're too late, anyway. I sent it to like a hundred people. My friend Jess knows people. She's going to get it on the news for me.”
She must really hate Lacey. And my spooky revival did nothing to endear me to her. How did I miss the fact that she was so cold-blooded? Zack resisted the curiosity that rose up within him. He needed to perform damage control right now. There was no time to study Maggie's psychology. Maybe he could remind her of the reason she was still alive. ”Did Kelly have anything to say to you this morning?”
”I don't know what that was about. When I got to her office, I told her that if she tried getting me fired she would be sorry, then she got up in my face asking what I did. After that, you went and got your brains blown out.”
No good deed goes unpunished, Zack thought. That kind of perverse incentive seemed a flaw in any sane world, but who was he to judge the Creator?
”Did you ever think that you were supposed to be on that register?”
Maggie nodded towards the door. ”Your wifey just showed up.”
Lacey stood there, mascara running down her face, frizzy straw-colored hair a ragged mess from raking her fingers through it as she did when nervous, one hand cradling a protruding abdomen wrapped in stretchy maternity clothes, staring at him in shock. Then she had the worst reaction Zack thought possible. Lacey ran forward and seized him with both arms, burying her face in his chest.
”I thought you were dead!”
Zack looked down at the mess of Lacey's hair and pondered the impulse that made this woman love him. They barely spoke except to argue. Physical chemistry was nonexistent. There wasn't even respect between them. Lacey's previous boyfriend knocked her up right before a judge sent him to jail for burning down a co-worker's house. Lacey hooked up with Zack at a bar and claimed to be pregnant with his child two days later. All these months later, Lacey still continued the charade. After every checkup, she dropped hints that her baby was growing fast and might come early. Lacey believed him to be an idiot, which he thought only fair as he had the same opinion of her. The only reason he could imagine for her devotion to him was desperation.
Zack patted Lacey's back and cleared his throat. ”Let's talk outside.” Where Maggie couldn't contradict his story.
”There's video of it all,” Maggie volunteered. ”Want to see it?”
”Stop this,” Zack said.
”Zack got his brains blown out, then ten minutes later they grew back. When he started moving, I freaked out. I think Kelly might have shit in her Depends.”
Lacey released him. ”I want to see it.”
”You don't want to watch the video.” A flash of inspiration struck Zack. ”Too much excitement isn't good for the baby. We should get you home to rest.”
Lacey's eyes narrowed in suspicion. ”I need to know what happened.”
”I thought the guy was bluffing and he shot at me, but he missed.”
While less than intelligent, Lacey's limited powers of deduction were bolstered by intimate familiarity. ”You were asking for it. You wanted to die.”
”Come on, Lacey, you don't believe that.”
Her skin began to flush bright red until Zack could imagine steam shooting from her ears like a cartoon character. ”I am pregnant with your baby! How dare you do something like this? You're an asshole, Zack, a fucking asshole! What would I do if you died? Move back into my mom's place? You know I can't stand her.”
”You could move into section eight housing. There are programs to help people in your situation. It wouldn't be the end of the world.”
Lacey threw up her hands. ”I ain't living in some welfare apartment so my neighbors can give my kid drugs.”
”Actually, they drug screen applicants for the housing assistance program, so your neighbors would be clean. But go ahead and assume people you never met are going to slip crack into your baby's bottle.”
”Oh, I forgot how damn smart you are. Well guess what. You just admitted you were trying to get yourself killed!”
Zack glared at her. ”I never said that. I just want you to stop the drama.”
”Drama? You don't know shit about drama, honey. I lived with drama for eighteen years so don't talk to me about drama.”
”So screaming at me in public doesn't count as drama?”
Lacey folded her arms. ”We'll talk about it later. I need to go back to work now because we can't live on your paycheck. Just do me a favor and don't kill yourself when I'm eight months pregnant.”
”I thought you were only at seven months.” Zack regretted the words the moment he said them. Lacey's face went white. ”Seven months and change. I'm just rounding up,” she said. As she waddled past the door, Lacey raised both hands to her face.
Proposing to her had been a mistake. Not because of the frustration it caused him – Zack suspected he somehow deserved that. It had been a mistake because Lacey expected things from a husband he couldn't provide. She wanted love and Zack wasn't even sure such a thing existed. The best he could offer was pity.
”You should've stayed dead, Zack,” Maggie said.
I wish it was that easy, he thought. Aloud he said, ”I'm on break. You handle the register.” Zack went outside to the employee break pavilion and sat on a picnic table, watching his wife cry in her car and wondering why the Creator needed an Observer. He did nothing about the former and came to no conclusion on the latter.