Truth Is Like the Sun

Chapter 13

"I can't believe that we're gonna go to Graceland," AJ gushed, bouncing in his seat due to the overwhelming excitement he was feeling.

"Well, darlin', you better believe it," Carol Ann said, turning toward him briefly to offer him a smile.

"Even though there's gonna be no water slide," AJ added. "Did ya go there before?"

"I did but that was a long time ago. It's probably all different now. But he's got horses there and a pool and lots of land for you to ride and run around and all that."

The grin on AJ's face widened. As much as Carol Ann had hated doing it, she'd had a talk with AJ on the way back from the concert. They had agreed not to tell Louann where they were going on Saturday. It had been hard for AJ to keep his mouth shut and even harder for Carol Ann to sneak around. Somehow she had managed to talk to Elvis on the phone twice without arousing Louann's suspicion. She knew that they couldn't do this forever but for now it worked and that was good enough as far as Carol Ann was concerned.

"What kind of cake is he gonna have?" AJ piped up again. "Cause he said that he's gonna have cake on the phone, right?"

"He'll probably have coconut cake or pound cake. Or maybe both."

"Think it's gonna be good?"

"Was there ever a cake you didn't think was good?"

"The one you made for my birthday when I was eight." AJ wrinkled his nose. "You done burned it all up cause Mrs. Jackson came and started talkin' to you at the door."

"Well, I told you not to try it cause it's burned but you wouldn't believe me."

AJ lowered his gaze momentarily, then continued to stare out the window the rest of the way. Graceland still looked the same, at least the front gate did. Somehow the masses of fans crowding around seemed to intimidate her even more than they used to. It had been bad when they dated- nobody ever knew that she was his girlfriend but that didn't stop the fans from screaming obscenities at her. Whore. Slut. Things she wouldn't dare repeat because she had been raised better than that. The first time she had been to Graceland almost ended up being the last.

They don't mean anything by it, Elvis would say. He'd always make excuses for them because they were young. But as far as Carol Ann could tell, they were old enough to know right from wrong, at least to a point. She swore that she would never let a child of hers speak to another person like that and she kept to her word.

But still, she found herself repeating the words Elvis had said to her all those years ago to their son, "Darlin' those people...the fans, they might say some things that ain't right but I want you to not listen to what they're sayin', alright?"

AJ's face was the picture of confusion. "Like what?"

"The types of things I'd whoop you for if you ever thought about sayin' them."

"Oooooh," AJ breathed, intrigued. Carol Ann silently cursed herself for the way she had chosen to approach this as she had clearly piqued her son's curiosity. She turned up the radio despite the crackling and echo that followed and caused AJ to snap his hands over his ears. Somehow it was enough to block out not their screaming, but their words.

Carol Ann was hit by a wave of deja vu when her feet hit the ground, feeling as though they weighted nothing at all. The same car in the same spot, the same beautiful house looming in front of them.

"Woooow," AJ drew out, beginning to jump up and down with childlike enthusiasm that was teetering on the edge of extinction with every passing day. His excitement was dimmed when he took in all the cars surrounding theirs. "Is there gonna be a lot of people there?"