The Housekeeper's Daughter [Elvis]

Chapter 5 - A Helpin' Hand

Tak tak tak tak tak tak...

I sat there in front of my father's work desk in the house outside of the mansion, but still on the property. He typed and typed on his typewriter. I chuckled when he hadn't looked up for five minutes straight.

"Dad, I think you forgot that I'm sittin' here."

"I'm well aware of it, son, I just want to get this typed up. That manager of yours wants this by tomorrow."

Not only was Colonel Tom Parker working me something hard, he was working my father, too. According to Dad, he would rather be my manager than the Colonel. Dad was the manager of Elvis Enterprises, so he more helped the Colonel with the menial things, such as letters to studios, reports, things like that. After the wake-up call that Megan made the week before, I was leaning towards agreeing with Dad, and having my own father as a manager, but that was frowned upon. It was a conflict of interest.

"Do ya think the Colonel's too hard on me?"

He stopped typing and looked up at me with his blue eyes with small crow's feet in the corners of them. "Hard on you?"

"Yeah, I mean... listen. You know Megan, right? Mrs. Brighten's daughter?"

He started typing again. "How could I forget the girl who comes in here every other day to clean this mess of a house, and the girl who has impressed us all with her own renditions of a few of your songs? I'm kinda sad that we haven't heard from her since that time last week since you've been so busy."

"Yeah, I know. Dad, the day after Megan arrived, the Colonel showed up to talk to me. Megan was there off in the dinin' room, and I knew that she was listenin' to the discussion between me and the Colonel. That discussion reduced that poor girl to tears."

"Tears?" he asked, and the typing stopped again. "How did a discussion between you and your manager reduce her to tears?"

"He slandered her somethin' horrible, sayin' that she has no business here and she wanted the job here only because she's a fan."

"Well, she is most definitely a fan."

"I know, but... she's not like my other fans. She's different. She's mellow and doesn't scream whenever she sees me. She's really appreciates my music and learns from it and uses it to improve her own musical talents, and..." I took a pen off his desk and started fiddling with it with both my hands. I said as I had my eyes on the pen, "She was really upset when she saw just how the Colonel treats me, bein' demandin' and such. She was genuinely worried for me and my happiness. Honestly, the only people who really care about that are you and Momma. Well, Momma did. Even she mentioned at times that the Colonel is a tad overbearing."

Dad nodded a couple times. "The Colonel got his name for a reason. I don't know what it is, but he got it from somewhere."

"I know. I never really minded the way he does things, but now, after Megan told me how she felt, with tears in her eyes, my own eyes were opened."

"So, what are you sayin', son?"

I shrugged as I still handled the pen, my eyes on it as I leaned back in the leather cushion chair. "I donno. I mean, I need a strict manager to keep me on my feet. He has since he became my manager. And then I went off to Germany, and I became used to the drilling and the demands from my superiors. That made things easier with the Colonel after I came back, but maybe now, after what Megan said..."

"Do you want a different manager?"

A clock in the spacious offices ticked a few times. "I donno."

"Well, you better know. Changing managers is a big deal. You've done it once before."