Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 8

In another life, one in which Elvis Presley never moved to Kentucky, one in which things had gone just a little different, Loretta Webb might have been Loretta Lynn before she reached the age of sixteen. By next Christmas, she might have been rocking her first child underneath a Christmas tree in Washington. But in this life, it wasn't meant to be. In this life, Loretta continued to go to school. Her friendship with Elvis blossomed and they found that something was missing when spring was in full bloom and they no longer had to arrive early to start a fire.

After school, they often did their homework and studied together. Loretta didn't have time for fun and games during the week, but on some weekends they sat on the porch with Elvis' guitar and sang.

And slowly but surely, Elvis got settled in Kentucky. In fact, it was almost better than it had been in Tupelo. Nobody really made fun of him anymore now that his mother no longer walked him to school. He supposed that Roger and the older boys did sometimes - but then again, they wanted to copy his homework and he wasn't going to allow that if they weren't nice to him.

Time went by without anything out of the ordinary occurring, but they were happy (their teenage mood swings notwithstanding).

Loretta gave Elvis a bag of candy for his birthday. Elvis wanted to buy her jewelry for hers, as she was turning sixteen, which he supposed was rather special. In the end, he didn't manage to get the money and took her out for a special day in town that weekend. Loretta, who didn't get out much, considered it a big treat and was bouncing with excitement the whole way there as well as the whole way back. The fact that Gladys allowed for Vernon to drive them into town and then leave them to do whatever they wanted was a small miracle in itself.

Before they knew it the end of school was rapidly approaching, and with it their final exams. It really mattered for Loretta–if her grades weren't good enough, she wouldn't graduate from the 8th grade. She didn't sleep a wink the day before and wouldn't touch her breakfast in the morning, yet her stomach rumbled with ill-timed hunger in the midst of the test.

She had no idea as to how well she did, but her guess was not very.

"Loretta," her mother's voice bellowed. "Eat your breakfast cause you won't get nothin' till supper."

"Mommy, if I failed am I...does anyone do the eighth grade three times?"

"Roger," Herman said, inserting himself into the conversation.

"That ain't the same," Loretta argued. "He ain't go to school from when he was ten or somethin' to help his daddy and then he come back."

"It's still his second time already."

Donald, who had been busy shoveling food into his mouth, suddenly stopped and asked, "Can you fail the first grade too?"

"No," Loretta said, then actually thought it over and added. "I reckon if you miss a ton of time cause you're sick with rheumatic fever all year you can."

"Loretta," her mother warned. "Eat your breakfast."

"Yes, Mommy," Loretta sighed. She was a few spoon fulls into said breakfast when there was a knock on the door.

"I bet that's Elvis," Jay Lee said. He made kissy faces at Loretta, who glared at him in response.

"You better stop it, you turd."

"Loretta!" Clara exclaimed. "You ain't too old for a whoppin'. You know that, don't ya?"

"Well, he was makin' faces at me. Y'all know that Elvis is just my friend. You even let us go into town and everything." Loretta got to her feet and walked toward the front door, swinging it open to reveal a grinning Elvis.