Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 3

"You are supposed to be learning your lines, not having your private conversations," Tom snapped. "They're gonna be bringing the kids in here in ten minutes and all you did was chat about...I don't even know what you chatted about nor do I want to. Boy-"

"Yes, Colonel, I understand," Elvis forced out.

"Maybe you should be calling him Daddy," Loretta muttered once the Colonel took off in a huff.

"Funny you should say that. I heard your guys call you mom."

"You think I don't know? They say it to my face. I guess it's cause I gotta straighten em out sometimes."

"Maybe he just feels like he's gotta straighten me out sometimes," Elvis sighed.

They went over their lines for the next ten minutes, never stopping to mock each others mishaps or tease each other in a good natured way as they did when they were recording. Time passed in a flash, and next thing they knew one of the countless crew members they couldn't keep track off, a cheerful young blonde, approached them with a child on each hand.

The boy looked to be about eight, but considering that producers preferred to cast older children who could pass for younger, he could have been as old as twelve. The little girl looked about two years younger. There was something so strange about looking at two children who without a doubt looked as though they were theirs. The fact that they had been pouring over pictures of each others children ever since they met didn't help matters at all.

They were both blue eyed and dirty blonde, but the tips of the little girls long hair must have bleached out during the summer. Had those children really been born of a union between Elvis and Loretta, one would say that the boy inherited her high cheekbones while the little girl inherited Elvis' full lips as well as his pout.

"Well I'll be..." Loretta began, then trailed off, letting Elvis know that she was thinking the same thing. "Hi guys."

"Hey. How are ya doin'?" Elvis asked.

"You go on," the crew member (Elvis belatedly realized that her name was Karen) chirped. "There you got two very famous people you can tell your friends you worked with when you get back home."

Their young faces didn't show any comprehension of Karen's words. In a way, that was why Elvis loved children so much. They weren't yet obsessed with the fame the way adults were. They treated him as they would any other adult who approached them in a similar manner.

"Well come over here," Elvis urged, waving the children over to one of the tree stumps that had been brought in to accurately create a background for the scene they would be filming soon.

The boy grabbed his little sister by the hand before shuffling over.

"Are you guys a little bashful?" Loretta asked.

The boy promptly shook his head. "No, ma'am. But my mama said to be real polite to Mr. Presley and Miss Lynn and I ain't real good at that but I know you gotta wait to talk till an adult asks you a question."

Elvis and Loretta exchanged smiles at his words.

"I like you, kid," Elvis then declared. "Now what's your name?"

"Clayton Brinkmann, sir."

"And the little lady?"

"That's just Maybelle," Clayton said dismissively.

"I got twin girls about your age, Maybelle," Loretta said. "How old are you? About six?"

Maybelle silently nodded her head.