Swapping Around

Chapter 4

"Roxanne plays the piano and the guitar," Minnie Mae spoke up after a few moments of silence. The proclamation resulted in a wide grin from Elvis but no reaction from Roxanne.

"You do?" Loretta asked, looking at the little girl. "How long have you been playin?"

"I don't know."

"Of course you do, silly," Elvis said. "You first started piano in the summertime and the guitar after Christmas."

"Last year?" Loretta inquired.

Elvis shook his head. "When she was five. She'd always ask her mama if she could play the piano. It was...we were havin' lunch but Maxine fed her already so I told her to let her go while we were eating. Then once I'm done I start thinking that maybe I'll teach her a little song, so I go in there and she's playing....Yankee Doodle is what she was playing. She told me that she just learned it so I thought someone showed her. But then she starts playing it in a whole different key. When I asked her how she did that, she said," he switched into a high pitched voice, 'I pushed all the keys till it sounded right'."

Elvis and Loretta shared a laugh.

"So you're real good at music?" Loretta asked Roxanne, who shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know."

"Do you love doin' your music?"

Roxanne eyed her skeptically before responding, "Yes."

"Then that's all that should matter now. Just have fun with it."

Roxanne refocused on her food and a few more moments of that strange silence followed.

Then Little Elvis scooped some corn onto his spoon and held it vaguely in Loretta's direction. "Etta, you eat," he said.

"You eat that yourself," Elvis told his son. "She's got hers and you got yours."

Roxanne raised an eyebrow at her father. "Isn't he supposed to call her Miss Loretta?" she inquired, making sure to stress the Miss.

"He can call me whatever he wants," Loretta said.

Roxanne's gaze snapped toward her. "Does that count for me too?"

Elvis sent her a warning look but refrained from giving a verbal reminder to be nice. Loretta however, seemed unfazed. "Just so long as it's not somethin' nasty."

Roxanne considered for a moment, Elvis' eyes on her the entire time. "Does anyone call you Lori?" she then asked.

Elvis let out a brief laugh. "I don't think so, right?"

"No." Loretta confirmed with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, you don't look like a Lori to me," Elvis said.

"Well what about...did anyone ever call you..." Roxanne paused as she went through the possible nicknames for Loretta in her head.

"My daddy would call me Loretty," Loretta told her.

"That's cute," Elvis said, a smile warming his mouth while Roxanne proclaimed, "My daddy calls me Buttercup."

"Why don't -doesn't, he call you that anymore?" Roxanne corrected herself mid sentence, some of the grammar lessons she endured from Priscilla sinking in.

"My daddy's been gone for a long time now. He died a few years ago. Just like your mommy," Loretta said, her expression somber. Roxanne's features twisted into a frown as she lowered her head, making it clear that this was all she was willing to hear on the subject of dying parents.

Elvis reached over to pat her shoulder, then placed a gentle kiss on top of her head. "You can go take your shower and get changed now so we can jam later, alright?"