Swapping Around

Chapter 4

"Wasn't that the dirtiest story you ever heard? My mom's band said it was." Ernest beamed as he stepped away, his expression and body language displaying how proud he was of what he had just done.

"Did you tell this to your mother?" Priscilla finally managed, unable to fathom such a concept.

"Nah, she says she don't wanna hear it. I told it to her band, to two boys and one girl at school..." He counted on his fingers, pausing to think.

"He told me," Cissie said.

"Oh yeah, you and-"

"You didn't tell me," Jack cut in.

"Why would I tell you anyway?" Ernest snorted.

"Why'd you tell Cissie?"

"Cause I did. You can't make me tell you." Ernest strode back over to his seat and plopped down. Their argument continued, but Priscilla blocked it out for the sake of her sanity.

"Are they always like this?" The words tumbled out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah," Gloria said, as if it were normal for children to behave in such a manner. Apparently it was in this house.

Good thing number two, those children were not Elvis' children.

~*~

"This is quiet," Loretta remarked as they sat around the dining room table for dinner- just her, Elvis, his grandmother and the two children. Little Elvis had taken the seat in between Elvis and Loretta while Roxanne sat next to Minnie Mae.

"They won't eat if we let the Mafia eat at the same time," Minnie Mae said.

"That's a strange thing to call your group of friends," Loretta remarked.

"Guess it is," Elvis admitted. "Maxine- that's the kid's mama- she'd get so mad at me for sayin' it cause Roxy started sayin' it too and she'd worry what people at school would think when her kid shows up talking about the mafia."

"Pro'bly that she's got a real good imagination and gets to watch lots of Mafia pictures at home," Loretta offered.

"Might be right about that." Elvis' lips stretched into a grin.

"Can I leave the table now?" Roxanne piped up.

Elvis' gaze moved to her plate of barely touched food. "You hardly ate nothin'."

"But I'm not hungry."

"Then you stay till the rest of us are done."

Roxanne scowled, swirling her fork around the plate with one hand, her cheek scrunched up underneath the other.

"What grade are you in at school, Roxanne?" Loretta asked.

"Third," Roxanne mumbled. "But I wasn't held back or nothin'. I just had my birthday."

"One of my kids got their birthdays in April and I do too."

Roxanne didn't say anything, but Little Elvis beamed at Loretta from his seat.

"Hey, you." Elvis inclined his head toward his daughter. "If you wash up real quick after your cartoons you can sit with me and Loretta for a bit while we jam."

"I don't know."

"Well earlier you were complaining about how you wanted to jam too, remember that?"

"Yeah, I guess," Roxanne said, obviously hiding the delight she felt over the development.

A satisfied smile made its way onto Elvis' face when she proceeded to shovel food into her mouth after all.