Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 12

The producer looked around. The uncomfortable looking extras in their old fashioned police uniforms stood back while Elvis held Maybelle on his lap, allowing her to bury her face in his shirt. Meanwhile Loretta struggled with Clayton.

"Keith!" Hillbrook called for his assistant, who wasted no time shuffling over.

"Yes, Mr. Hillbrook?"

"Take Mr. Parker to have some coffee."

"Colonel Parker," Parker protested.

"You're not a real Colonel. Now go-"

"You're never gonna finish the picture at this rate." Parker let out a snort. "Now look at that boy-" He pointed out Clayton. The moisture coating his pupils was considered a sign of weakness worthy of his derision to Tom Parker.

"Colonel!" Elvis growled without thinking. Maybelle jumped in his arms, a whimper escaping her.

Keith placed a hand on the Colonel's arm to lead him away, but Parker wrenched free from the grasp and took off by himself. Keith, always one to follow the rules, raced after him, just as Hillbrook had demanded of him.

"Take five," Hillbrook barked at the actors before walking off the set himself.

"That Colonel," Loretta began, but trailed off. "Clayton, honey, come sit with me," she said gently.

She reached to take him by the hand, but he pulled back and proclaimed, "Mr. Parker and Mr. Hillbrook can go to hell."

Loretta didn't find it within her to scold him, though her expression did contort in shock at the words.

"I wanna go home," Clayton declared.

"Me too," Maybelle cried from Elvis' arms.

"I want my mommy," Clayton said. He began to cry in earnest, once again rejecting Loretta's attempts to comfort him.

"Honey," Loretta addressed Elvis, struggling to keep Clayton from running off all the while. "Do you- what time is it in Kentucky?"

Elvis' forehead wrinkled as he considered. "I have no idea." He shifted Maybelle in his arms to look at his watch. "It's just five thirty now."

Loretta nodded toward Elvis before devoting her full attention to Clayton, "Honey? Clayton? Clayton, just listen to me for one moment. Do you wanna call your mommy?"

His struggles stopped at her words.

"Then you come on and we'll go over to the phones. Maybelle, you come too?"

"No," Maybelle mumbled around the thumb in her mouth.

"She'll stay with me," Elvis said, cradling her little form the same way he would his Lisa Marie.

"You tell em where we are when they get back?" Loretta's voice was apologetic and for a valid reason. Five minutes had long passed but Hillbrook would be back any moment, expecting all of his actors to be present.

"Sure," Elvis said. "You go ahead."

Loretta took Clayton by the hand, leading him first to her trailer to get money, then to the pay phones. "Do you know your phone number, honey?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Clayton, now perfectly calm once again.

"You call your mommy and I'll wait for you over there, okay?" She pressed two coins in his hand before walking just far enough away to give him some privacy. She could still hear the conversation from where she now stood, though she failed to decipher all of the words.