Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 12

"So," Loretta said, "by now we're about more than halfway through, right?"

Elvis' face twisted into a frown. "Tryin' to cheer me up?"

"What if I was?"

"Well, I'm supposed to be miserable today."

They were going to be filming a couple of scenes that revolved around his character getting arrested for stealing shoes for the children.

"My mommy stole me shoes once," Loretta spoke up. She propped her face up on one hand.

Elvis managed a small smile, surprising himself. "She got caught?"

"No. Mommy put em on me - they was little red shoes, the prettiest things I ever saw- and then Daddy grabbed me and started runnin' all the way back to Butcher Holler."

"Too bad that they gotta get caught. These folks can't get no break."

Not unlike Elvis himself.

"You know how the Colonel wanted the movie to end back in the day?" Elvis asked as the thought entered his mind.

Loretta looked up at him, unrestrained interest obvious by her features. "Are you gonna tell me?"

"He wanted Sam to become a famous singer."

Loretta frowned. "In a movie about the Depression? I thought the entire point of it is how difficult things was for people."

"You ever seen one of my pictures?"

"A couple."

"Well, the Colonel thinks that they always gotta have a happy ending. Everything's gotta be wrapped up neat and clean and-" he trailed off to sigh, waving his hand to dismiss what he had been starting to say.

"The ending we got now, that's more real," Loretta said, as if it somehow mattered in their real lives.

"It's an alright picture," Elvis acknowledged. "It's not the picture that's the problem."

Loretta cocked her head to the side. "And I hope it ain't me."

"Oh honey." His voice was full of fondness. He reached across the table to pat her hand. "You should know by now that it ain't you. And you should know who it is too."

Loretta merely nodded, not wanting to go there any more than Elvis did.

The only goal now was to get through the day. He couldn't think further ahead without finding himself in a vicious cycle he couldn't break free from.

But as it turned out, getting through the day was especially hard today. It was a difficult scene for all of them- of course they should have expected that much. Children weren't robots who could feign terror and tears at the snap of one Arthur Hillbrook's fingers. And neither were Elvis and Loretta, for that matter.

Everyone's irritation increased with each take that got them nowhere.

Tom Parker sat on his chair, observing their work with a scowl on his face, as he was known to do. The customary cigar was stuck in the corner of his mouth.

"Is it really so hard?" Parker scoffed, gesturing at Elvis, Loretta, the children and the two unfortunate extras who were playing police officers. "You-" He zeroed in on Maybelle. "You have two lines."

"She don't remember sometimes," Clayton said, eyes ablaze with anger.

The Colonel grasped his cigar between two fingers to remove it from his mouth. "Is that how you talk to a grown up, boy?"

Loretta rushed forward to grabbed Clayton and get him out of the Colonel's way while Elvis lifted Maybelle onto his lap.

"Parker," Hillbrook snapped. "Stay out of it or I'm gonna ban you."