Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 3

"So is this how it works?" Loretta asked as they sat across from each other, going through their scripts to memorize the lines of the scene they were meant to be filming within the hour.

"Yeah," Elvis said quickly, though it was far from the truth. Each movie was just a little bit different but this process was unlike any of the others. Most of them had been filmed and produced so fast, there was hardly any effort put into them at all. Arthur however seemed to be intend on keeping things as authentic as possible and unfortunately for Elvis that had cost him his sideburns.

"You don't have to say it exactly like it's written there," Elvis spoke up again. "Like..."

"I know what you mean. I can't even remember half my regular songs sometimes and this..."

"Me neither," Elvis said, offering her a smile she returned. "Not yours, my own. So I just sing something else if I don't, make something up, you know?"

"Wouldn't be half as charming if I tried to do that."

"Ah, you never know. Just outta interest do you remember the ones you wrote yourself better than the ones you didn't?"

Loretta hesitated, looking as though she was mulling it over. "I guess so, yes. We better get to practicing."

"Oh, yeah." Elvis looked at the script on his lap, his face contorting in disgust.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothin'. Just...having to carry a bucket of fish and all...I just hope it ain't real fish."

"You don't like fish?"

"No, do you?"

"Yes. We sure didn't get to not like something growing up."

"Do your kids?"

"Well, my twins sure don't like my cooking."

"Is it bad?"

"No," she said pointedly. "Well, I don't think it is. No one else that I feed ever complains. Those over thirty farmhands I fed sure didn't either."

"Aw, honey, they were just starving. After doing certain kind of things, you'd eat just about anything."

"So you'd be eating fish if you was just hungry enough?"

"No."

"That's what you just said, honey."

"Well, I don't know if you know, but I've been in the army. Now after basic training all bets are off cause that food sure is awful."

Loretta gave him a doubtful look. "Now I don't know. My husband sure didn't appreciate my awful cooking even though he served during the war."

"I thought your cooking isn't awful." Elvis turned toward her with a raised brow and a wide grin.

"It isn't. It was when I first got married cause I was so young. I had to learn real fast cause there were babies to feed in no time at all."

"You're making me look like a late bloomer." Elvis chuckled. "By the time I had my first kid, you had your first grandkid already."

"I don't think that it really matters, as long as you're gonna be around to watch em grow. I felt so much younger with the twins that I did when I had the first four."

"You were still younger than I was when Lisa was born when you had the twins. I didn't wanna wait as long as I did to have kids."

"I didn't want em so early," she shot back.

"That's how it goes, huh?"

"Sure does."

They both looked up when someone cleared his throat. That someone of course turned out to be none other than Tom Parker. Elvis noted a shift in Loretta's expression. It was slight, but noticeable to him. He couldn't blame her, considering the way Tom treated her.