Blue Christmas

Chapter 3

There wasn't much sleep to be had that night. Of course Elvis wasn't one who went to bed early and rose early in the first place, but he had been making an effort to go to bed earlier so he would be able to get up with Lisa and watch her open her presents. It was Christmas now and not only were they apart this time, they would be apart in many years to come if Priscilla were to really leave him. She never wanted to live in Memphis, not really. She loved going out to California for several weeks while he was filming.

Elvis brought along the gift he'd gotten for Priscilla. She always complained about him buying too many expensive presents for everyone else, so he did not buy her a new car, or countless outfits or anything of that sort. Instead he bought her a jewelery music box. He thought it to be a good gift though, with beautiful, intricate detail to it. It was even animated, with three couples dressed in an old-fashioned way dancing when the music played. Lisa Marie would have liked it better than her mother, but he thought her a little too young for such a gift. After their fight, he grabbed the already wrapped box and took it with him. Elvis didn't exactly have any plans as to what to do with it, but he knew that he didn't want to give it to her anymore.

The box stood on the nightstand, mocking him with its presence. He could have simply gotten up and moved it elsewhere but Elvis knew that it wasn't as easy as out of sight out of mind.

It was a little past ten in the morning when Elvis decided to give up on trying to sleep. There might be a chance that they could brave the journey back to Memphis this afternoon, and an hour or two of actual sleep were worse than none at all. He also didn't take along the medication he usually took to be able to sleep as they had not planned to be staying nearly as long as they did.

Elvis took a shower, though he would be forced to wear the same clothes again, since clothing was another thing they didn't bring. The clothes looked and smelled clean, but he still felt rather dirty putting them on again.

Elvis grabbed Priscilla's present and for the first time in a very long time, left the hotel room all by himself to go down to Loretta's room. She opened the door as soon as he said, "It's Elvis."

Her eyes were red with dark circles underneath, the consequence of lack of sleep and all the crying she must have already done.

"How are you this morning?" Elvis asked gently.

"Missin' my family. But there's nothin' I can do."

"I got somethin' for you." He held out to her the present, which she eyed skeptically.

"How in the world did you get that?"

"You ever heard of not lookin' a gift horse in the mouth?"

Loretta smiled softly while giving a shake of the head. She accepted the gift and turned it over in her hands. "What is it?"

"You gotta open it if you wanna know."

Loretta opened it carefully, trying to keep the wrapping paper as intact as possible. Her eyes grew wide at the gift within. "Is that a music box or a jewelry box?"

"It's both," Elvis said. He took it from her and bounced into the room, where he set it down on the table to show her how it worked. The tiny couples within dance as the music played, and Loretta was charmed.

"That's so beautiful, honey. Thank you so much. I don't got a thing for you."

"I got my present."

Her eyes grew wide. "What do you mean?"

"I got to be a normal guy. This is hard, bein' here, it's not..." Elvis trailed off, unsure what word he was to use. "Well, whatever. What I'm tryin' to say is that as much as I don't wanna be stuck here, yesterday night I got to go down to the restaurant and eat there with everyone else that was staying here. And no one bothered me... well, that family but they woulda been just the same if I wasn't famous. Just right now I walked down here by myself to come see you. No one even knows I'm here. It's been such a long time since I got to make a single move without havin' someone follow me. It's just... you get tired of it sometimes."