Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 9

Though they did not make it into Paintsville or even Van Lear again during the summer of 48, Elvis and Loretta enjoyed their vacation. Often, they went to the woods to flee from the heat, the welcoming dark trees inviting them to forget their worldly cares among their tangled boughs.

Donald, now seven, was allowed to play with his friends and cousins in the holler without supervision by an older sibling and even put in charge of taking five-year-old Peggy Sue. Two-year-old Betty Ruth, however, was still Loretta's responsibility. They'd let her run through the fields while taking turns on Elvis' guitar, music providing them with leaps and bounds of entertainment when there was no money for radio batteries or trips to the coal miner's theater.

As for the theater, they went exactly twice. When the summer drew to an end, Elvis and his family prepared for his eighth grade year while Loretta went looking for a job. Sadly, her search around Van Lear was rather fruitless.

One day, a few days before he would return to school, Loretta told Elvis that there were only three options in the hollers. Coal mine, moonshine or move down the line- and none for her because girls didn't go into coal mines or moonshine, and her parents wouldn't let her move away before she was married or of age, whichever came first.

These days were melancholy for them. Neither one was ready to move on from what they had for only such a short time. Walking to school together, doing homework and studying together after.

They would be busy with different things now, with their own lives that would no longer intersect outside of  church. Of course they would spend time together on the weekends, sneak away after church and meet on Saturday to sing or play the guitar together. But it wouldn't be the same.

Elvis would lay awake and wonder what would happen next. Loretta wanted a husband, and she was old enough to marry too. If she found one, would he take her far away from the mountains? Or at the very least, keep her so busy taking care of him that she wouldn't have time for Elvis anymore?

He wasn't nowhere near ready to not have Loretta in his life anymore.

But time could not be stopped, no matter how much two teenagers from Kentucky wanted it to. The first day of school came all too soon, and their lives went on. Loretta's younger brothers still went to school with him. They had a group of new first graders who required more assistance than Miss Bessie was able to give. With the old 8th graders gone, the new eighth grade class was required to step up. E

When winter came, he thought about offering to take over Loretta's old job of coming early to start the fire, but eventually decided against it. It wouldn't be any fun without Loretta.

Meanwhile, Loretta she was busy at home, taking care of housework and her younger siblings. She worked hard, scrubbing clothes until her fingers were raw and her nails peeled off. Yet she was still glad to pick up a guitar and play out a tone when she met with Elvis after church.

They both remembered and observed each others birthday despite it all.

And just like that, the 48/49 school year ended.

Elvis had changed a lot in that year. When Elvis and Loretta first met, there wasn't much of a height difference between them, but Elvis was growing fast. He would be a tall man one day, and at fourteen, one could already tell that he would be handsome as well.

On the last day of school, Elvis ran all the way to Loretta's cabin. He knocked on the door, shuffling nervously on his feet until Mrs. Webb pushed it open.

Her eyebrows rose at his sight. "Yes, Elvis?"

"Is Loretta here?"

"Yes." Clara Webb turned to call her. "Loretty, Elvis Presley is here."