Heartbreak Hotel

New and Only World

It was a dreary manner, but it was a fitting manner. The funeral was held on a Tuesday, or bluesday as it came to be remembered. The attire was the typical black clothing. The mood, a cascade of tears. 

Priscilla sat in the front, Elvis' parents seated next to her. She had never properly met them before, and it felt rather inappropriate to have to meet them at their son's funeral. Elvis' mother was sobbing into a handkerchief while his father had an arm around her, fighting off his own tears. Priscilla sat there, wordlessly nodding as friends and relatives and strangers gave her flowers and their condolences. Her eyes were focused still on the casket. None of them had truly known Elvis, these strangers who approached her. And none of them truly would. 

She let the tears fall again, drifting from her eyes to her cheeks, landing softly onto her the top of her black dress. She could hear the preacher saying some words, asking the Lord for His blessing upon Elvis' arrival. She knew she was crying, even after she had already said her final goodbyes, but it still did not feel like enough. It felt almost ordinary, and that seemed to be an almost perverted thought. Elvis was and had not been ordinary. He had been special indeed. 

She had loved him.

Had? That was a funny word, she had to think. Had implied the past, no longer, gone. Elvis wasn't any of those things, really. She could still see him, in her heart. He wasn't gone, not really, not truly.

She still cried at the end of it all. Now, it would have been perverted if she had not cried. It was such a simple act, but it meant more than what it was. She loved Elvis. Love, what a strange emotion. It could rip one's heart from his chest but mend it, all the same.

After the funeral, Priscilla found herself sitting on the steps outside of the church. Elvis' parents were somewhere inside the other building where food was being served. She wasn't hungry, just sort of there. Present but not thinking, breathing and living, but a bit numb.

Elvis - sweet, special Elvis. Her groom, her love, gone, dead, remembered.

She shook her head. Her vision had blurred with tears and would not clear any time soon. She could feel someone put their arm around her, and she somehow registered it to be Tom. She did not think of putting her face on Tom's shoulder, but it happened, all the same. She could hear someone crying, knew it was her, knew it was Tom, knew it was many other people all crying the same tears.

She felt awful, but she knew it was what she felt. She could feel Tom's arms around her, could feel her own arms around Tom. The stone of the steps felt cold in the spring sun. Somewhere above them, a few birds chirped, but they were the brave ones. The brave ones did not sit on steps, silent except for their cries, still except to grab tighter onto each other.

There was not a single way to tell how much time had passed and how much hadn't when Priscilla lifted her head from Tom's shoulder. "Tommy," she whispered, though she did not know why. "Elvis would always call you that, not Tom, not Thomas, but Tommy." She smiled a bit. She tried to wipe a few tears away, even as they were replaced instantly. 

"Yeah." Tom's voice was hoarse. "Tommy this Tommy that." He smiled a bit, too. "I love him, that Elvis." 

Priscilla nodded. "I love Elvis."

She rested her head gently on Tom's shoulder, her cheek touching the soft fabric of his suit jacket. She rested her fingers in the ends of his hair. 

"He was something else, entirely," she heard Tom whisper. "But he touched everyone he met. You. Me." He took her hand. "Everyone." 

She sniffled. "Didn't he?" She did not need an answer, but he gave her one, anyway.

"He really did." Tom glanced at her. "And you're going to make him proud. Elvis and little....Elvis Junior?" He laughed a bit, but it was a harsh sound that was not typically present in his laughter.

Priscilla smiled. She was still crying. "Yeah, I better." She ran a hand through her hair. "I love him."

"I know, honey. We all did, we all do." He kissed the top of her head. "But the world is still turning, somehow....I don't know how but it is...and Elvis Junior is still growing...and the world i still turning...Elvis is still with us, yes, he is."

Priscilla was quiet, and Tom almost thought she had not heard him. At last she spoke, a single word,

"Tommy?"

"Yes, Priscilla, I'm still here."

"Thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thank you for...well, for being you."

Tom smiled. "You're welcome."

She cleared her throat. She had not an idea as to what his response would be, but she asked him with a trembling voice, "Will you - will you stay?"

Tom was quiet, and she thought he was, perhaps, deep in some thought. She almost didn't hear him, but he did answer. "Yes, I will." He thought she had a feeling of what she was truly asking. "I'll stay with you and Elvis Junior."

She laughed, somehow, through her tears then. 

Tom smiled. "What else is a best man supposed to do? I would be disappointing him if I don't...and it's the right thing, anyway..." He scratched the back of his neck. 

"You're a great man, Tommy."

"I guess so."

Sometime past, they had stood up and went to eat, despite neither of them being hungry. After, when all the guests had left and after saying goodbye to Elvis' parents, they headed back to Heartbreak to return their room keys. 

"What is this I see?" The clerk asked them. "Is someone actually checking out?"

"Yes sir," Tom said. 

"Well, it's not all too surprising, considering  a red-headed gentleman already checked out this morning, said it was too gloomy or something since that poor man died." The clerk shook his head sadly. "Well, have a good night, to the both of you." He nodded.

Priscilla and Tom walked to the nearest rental store and borrowed a car. They drove a few miles until they reached a small town that was not all too different than the one where Heartbreak Hotel stood, but it was far enough for the pain to leave for a bit while still being close enough for the memories to bond to their hearts. They checked into a hotel, a normal one thankfully, one where there were no gloomy clerks, no gloomy waiters, no gloomy guests. In their room, Priscilla finally spoke.

"There was this song Elvis sang me once." The tears had returned. "And it was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard..."

Tom took her hands in his. "Could you sing me it - if it's not too much, of course!"

She took a deep breath and sang. Each word, from the first to the last, was accompanied with a tear, but she did not seem to take notice. On the second time, Tom had picked up on some of the words, and he sung with her. If she had closed her eyes, it would have been easy to see Elvis, young, hopeful, alive, just before he had proposed to her. The guitar he had played on rested against the wall, nearby. Neither of them made a move to get it. Their voices blended within each note. It was, with a strange silence, that lingered after the last note, but there was also a bit of peace there, too. She let the tears wash away and pulled Tom close for an embrace. She could hear him crying again. She wondered how Elvis would have felt had he known he would have been a father; but Elvis Junior, as Tom had affectionately nicknamed him or her, would not be fatherless. Tom would stay with her, as he had said, and Priscilla would not let go. It would be in their friend's memory that they would stay together until their days ran out, until they would see Elvis again. She knew he would never leave her heart, but she knew she was not alone, either. She had Tom, and Tom had her. They had each other in this strange new world, the only world their feet could rest on, but that was alright. It was all they needed, Priscilla, Tom and Elvis Junior, and they would carry on, just the same. It was alright, this only and new world, different but alright. The world was indeed still turning, somehow, in the old same way it had always. That was alright, too. It was all, somehow, alright. The heartache and heartbreak would pass, and the joy would return, but until then, they held onto each other in this strange new and only world they lived in.

THE END.