This house didn't feel like a home. Of course it never really did to begin with. Doolittle was the one who chose it. Loretta knew of the women who came over when she wasn't there. The twins thankfully seemed oblivious but the older kids knew. No one spoke of it though, it was generally accepted that this was what things were like, this was what their father was like.
Somehow it was easier to ignore when she was elsewhere and Doolittle was at home.
She'd pretend that he was waiting for her at home, that his time was devoted to his children rather than another failed business or another woman closer in age to Betty than to Loretta herself.
"Moommmyyy," a little southern accented voice shouted. "There's some man on the phone."
Loretta couldn't tell whether it was Peggy or Patsy. "What man, honey?" she asked, feet carrying her toward the only phone in the home.
"A man." The little girl placed the receiver against her ear. "Who are you?" A few seconds later she said, "Elvis."
Loretta hadn't spoken to Elvis in some time. The last they had heard from each other was through Christmas cards that had been exchanged in mid December. It wasn't as though they had forgotten the promises made; they had simply gotten swept up into their former lives and problems as the weeks wore on.
"You go find your sister," Loretta told her daughter, outstretched hand reaching for the phone.
"Who am I?" The little girl demanded.
"You're Peggy Jean. Now go and find your sister."
Peggy groaned as she handed over the phone. Loretta waited for her to skip out of the room before saying, "Elvis?"
A deep chuckle floated through the line. "Yeah, it's me. I just got to talk to little Patsy."
"Peggy," Loretta corrected.
"She said her name was Patsy."
"They'll do that." Loretta took a seat, eyes darting back and forth to make certain that she was alone. "How have you been, honey?"
"Same old. Shows and family and more shows."
"You tell me about it."
"You know what our management's arguing about right now?"
"Do you?"
"Kinda. They came to me and said that you should come out at one of my shows to promote the movie. Now your people said I should come and be a special guest at your concert instead. Colonel's not gonna have that though."
"My people don't want me in Vegas," Loretta said.
"Vegas ain't the only place I perform at."
"I don't care if...I'll come out at one of your concerts if you want me to. I don't mind."
"I don't care either way myself but they're gonna tear each other apart over it."
"Would be easier if there wasn't none of that stuff, wouldn't it? I ain't never thought that the management side of it was gonna be such a big deal."
"You know what I was thinking?" Elvis paused, waiting for her to ask 'What?'
"What I was thinkin' is that we could just go and do a couple of shows together in a few months, around the time this thing comes out."
"This thing?" Loretta laughed.
"This movie, picture, whatever."
"I see that you're over it still."
"Ain't you?"
Brief silence followed. Loretta could hear Peggy and Patsy arguing in the hall. "You cool it out there!" she screamed, causing Elvis to burst into a fit of laughter.
"Now that sure takes me back."
"Did you get a Christmas card from Clayton and Maybelle too?" Loretta asked.
"Yeah, I sure did. I can't believe that we made it, you know?"
"Yeah, I do. So about that... about us doing a few shows together, that sounds real good but I don't know how that would work and if the Colonel-"
"Forget about the Colonel."
"I'm just sayin' cause I know how he is. He can't stand me so he won't want none of that."
"But I like singing with you. It was great fun."
"I'll talk to my-" Loretta trailed off when Peggy and Patsy stumbled in. "Mommy's on the phone. I'll play with you in a little while."
"That your twins again?"
"Yes. They'll want nothin' to do with me all day but the moment I sit down to talk to someone else..."
"I'm thinkin' about gettin' rid of the Colonel," Elvis blurted out without meaning to.
Loretta exhaled, unsure what she was to say regarding this. "I would do that too."
"Do what?" One of the twins asked.
"You two, go and play," Loretta warned them. "I'm tryin' to talk to Elvis."
"Is he ever gonna come to our house?"
"I don't know."
"What are they asking?" Elvis questioned.
"If you're ever gonna come to our house."
"I already said that I would. I'd wanna bring Lisa but..."
Priscilla wouldn't allow it. Loretta knew that much. "I know, honey."
"So you'll talk to your people about maybe doin' a few shows together around the time the movie comes out?"
"Sure. I do miss you." Loretta did not miss the way Peggy and Patsy exchanged glances at her words. "Girls, how many times do I have to tell you-"
They huffed before stomping out of the room.
"Thank you," Loretta called after them. To Elvis she said, "Well, they're gone for now."
"I miss you too, honey. I miss how we used to talk..."
"And play house."
"And play house," Elvis admitted. "I don't think Mr. and Mrs. Brinkman would be so happy knowing what we did."
"We didn't do anything."
"Well I...you know I don't know if I'd want Lisa being so close to someone I never even met. But I...never mind. What kind of clothes do you perform in?"
Loretta expelled something akin to a laugh. "What?"
"If we wanna go out and do shows together we'd have to coordinate stage clothes. What I usually got on..."
"Jumpsuits," she said, taking advantage of his silence. "I know about your jumpsuits."
"You like em?"
"Does it matter if I do?"
"You don't."
"I ain't never said that. I was just asking if it matters."
"I just wanna know."
"I didn't see that much of em now, honey. I just know you wear jumpsuits cause...everyone knows that."
"And you wear?"
"Me? They're like...evening gowns, I reckon. Long ones."
"Like the dresses the women wear in those movies about the old south?"
Loretta laughed at the comparison. "Some of em, yeah."
Elvis laughed along, albeit for different reasons. "I was just...all I ever saw you in was jeans, a shirt and cowboy boots and the clothes we had to wear."
Loretta huffed. "And why can't you see me in a beautiful evening gown? Cause I'm such a Hillbilly?"
"Don't you call yourself that."
"But that's what I am. That's one thing I don't mind anyone callin' me."
"I sure won't call you that."
"I never saw you in a jumpsuit either. Not in person anyhow."
"I look better in a jumpsuit than I do in those overalls. Those were some nasty old things."
"Well, what do you expect a man to wear back then though? A jumpsuit?"
"Loretta, dear, you're not funny when you try to be."
Brief silence, then Loretta asked, "How is little Lisa doing? She have a good Christmas?"
"Sure did. She liked gettin' her own Christmas card from you guys."
That was until Priscilla disposed of it the same day because she wouldn't have 'that woman' trying to communicate with her child in any shape or form.
"I thought she'd like it," Loretta said, bringing Elvis back to the present. "My twins picked out the card. It was their idea. They didn't want me sending Clayton and Maybelle one though."
"Okay now, what I wanna see is a picture of you in one of them gowns you wear on stage."
"You want me to send one to you?"
"Well, I don't want you to send it to the Colonel. He'd probably throw it out."
"But what would your wife say if she saw?"
Elvis tried not to think of that at all, for he would make sure that Priscilla wouldn't see, though it was completely innocent. Priscilla wouldn't understand, nor would she want to. Unsure how to respond, Elvis finally settled on, "Just don't you mind what she says."
A smile spread over Loretta's lips. "That's what I'd keep saying to the kids about your Colonel."
"My Colonel?" Elvis gasped. "He's not my Colonel."
"You know what I mean."
"I do," he conceded. "But he still ain't my Colonel. That cocksucker-" Elvis trailed off when Loretta laughed.
"You know how you used to not swear around me cause I was a lady?"
"You're not a lady, you're my friend."
"I'm still a lady."
"You sure are, honey. You sure are."
And he could have talked for another few hours, about nothing in particular, the way they used to on the set while two children slumbered in one of their trailers. But it wasn't meant to be, as Priscilla entered the room just as Loretta responded. Elvis didn't quite hear what she'd said, for he was focused on his wife's cool gaze.
"Who are you talking to?" Priscilla asked.
"No one," Elvis snapped.
"What?" A confused Loretta asked from the other end.
"Not you, honey. Look, we gotta call it quits. I'll talk to you soon. And don't forget what I said."
Priscilla crossed her arms and shook her head from side to side. "Why do you lie to me, Elvis? If it's no one then why are you gonna talk to her soon?"
"I-"
"I know who that was, Elvis. I'm not as stupid as you seem to think I am."
"So what if it was her?"
"Admit that it was," Priscilla demanded.
Elvis scoffed. "I'm not gonna play that damn game. I got nothin' to hide."
"If you don't why don't you just admit it? Did she call or did you call her?"
"Why exactly does it matter?"
"Because it does to me. What does her husband say about you calling each other?"
"I called her once," Elvis burst out, on the verge of exploding. "Once. Today."
"So you called!" Priscilla exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "There we go. Ann-Margret all over again."
"Sure," Elvis muttered, turning to exit the room.
Priscilla rushed after him. "Don't you walk away from me!"
"Well, watch me," Elvis screamed, quickening his steps. "I'm not gonna do that with you today."
Elvis went into his bedroom. Unfortunately, Priscilla followed. "How do you think I feel?"
"I don't care," Elvis said bluntly.
He half expected Priscilla to gasp, but instead she said, "I see that you don't. If you did-"
"If I did I'd stop being friends with Loretta cause you don't like her? Let you run my whole life while we're at it?"
"Oh, don't you act like that. You're the one who runs my life. You don't even treat me like a person half the time."
"You didn't treat Loretta like a person either."
"And why do you care so much about that? I'm starting to think that you care about her more than you do about me."
"She doesn't interrogate me."
Priscilla let out a snort. "Not her place, is it? The other woman usually doesn't."
"Because me and her got so much time to be seeing each other when we perform in completely different places. Stop and think, Cilla."
"You spent nine weeks together."
"You try bein' the star in Arthur Hillbrook's next picture and tell me whether or not you got the time and the nerve to have an affair cause I can tell you-"
"Somehow you found the time with Ann-Margret."
"If I hear that name one more time...."
"Maybe you should have thought of that before you did what you did."
"We weren't together then."
"Yes, we were."
Technically she was right. As much as he did hate to admit it (and never would to her) he had in fact been with Priscilla when he was seeing Ann-Margret. But Ann-Margret had been young and single and quite frankly throwing herself at him the way any fan off the street would. Ann-Margret was everything Loretta was not.
After a marriage that began when he wasn't even yet in high school (though she couldn't be much older than him) and six children along the way, Loretta still held on to a certain innocence, an innocence he did not wish to take from her in favor of a few stolen moments.
"But this is not like that," Elvis insisted, speaking through gritted teeth.
"And why would I trust you now? Give me one reason."
Elvis threw his hands up in the air instead. "You know what? Then leave me. How about that?"
Priscilla was temporarily rendered speechless. "Don't tempt me," she then bit out.
"Go and leave me the hell alone, will you?"
"What if I called her back right now?"
Elvis reached out, grabbing her by the wrist faster than she could blink. "You wouldn't dare."
"Oh wouldn't I?"
"You're already makin' my life a livin' hell. Keep Loretta out of it. You can't stop us from bein' friends. If you tried-"
"Let go of me," Priscilla demanded.
Elvis dropped her wrist as if it was on fire. "Now leave me alone," he repeated.
"So you can call her back on your private phone?" Priscilla snorted before sauntering out of the room. As if on cue, the door to Lisa Marie's room opened and she came stumbling out, hair sticking up in all directions.
"Daddy?" Lisa screamed at the top of her lungs. "Daddy? Where are you?"
Elvis went to exit his bedroom to find the little girl standing there with her hands on her hips. "You're gonna be trouble one day," he muttered under his breath before picking her up. "Have a good nap?"
"Yesss," Lisa said while fiddling with the collar of his shirt. Words could not express his love for that little girl. He would have to make it work with Priscilla, no matter how hard it got. It was the price to pay for being able to see Lisa Marie grow up, to ensure that she would consider Graceland her home rather than just a place she went to a few times a year.
Elvis pressed a lingering kiss to Lisa's head before placing her on the floor.
~*~
I know, I know, another transitional chapter. Any thoughts on their possible plans of doing shows together? Yes or no? Don't think Priscilla would like that much...