Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 25

Elvis couldn't believe it. After all the trouble they had gone through through to write one song, they were told to write another. He should have thought of it himself- what kind of record had only one song on it after all? They all had two. To add insult to injury, it started raining on their way to the camp grounds. Only that raining was an understatement- it was pouring. They found that their tent had collapsed upon itself. Elvis pulled out their soaked sleeping bags and threw everything in the trunk before dragging Loretta back into the car.

"We're gonna stay at a motel," Elvis declared.

Loretta's eyes grew wide underneath her soaked hair. "Can we afford that?"

"We can't sleep in the car when all our things are wet. Don't you worry about it."

"How much money do we got left?"

"I told you not to worry about it, didn't I?"

"Why ain't I supposed to know anything? I'm your wife, you can tell me how much money we got left."

"Enough to spend one damn night at the motel, Loretta. Does that answer your question?"

"No."

Elvis, deciding to let her have the last word in hopes that she would drop it, revved the engine. It took them ten minutes to find the nearest motel, which didn't look too promising but would have to do. The bathroom was in the hall, as it frequently was. Loretta rushed into said bathroom while Elvis unpacked some of their things in their room.

"Elvis!" Loretta's voice shrieked, making Elvis jump. He ran toward the bathroom, almost running into the door she'd locked.

"Open it, Loretta," he demanded. She wasted no time doing so.

"There's a leak in the bathroom and I got hit by some water."

Annoyance settled over Elvis. "And?"

"And nothin' else." Loretta blushed. "I kinda screamed your name before I realized what was happening."

Out of nowhere, Elvis began to sing the tune that popped into his head. "There's a leak in this old building, yes there's a leak in this old building."

Loretta stared at him with wide eyes. "Are you makin' fun of me?"

"I'm makin' fun of the entire thing. I mean, look at our bad luck."

The door flew open and in came a suspicious looking character. Loretta, who was in the process of washing out her blood stained rags, which were still on display in the sink, turned as red as a tomato.

The man paled. "Are y'all... are...." He pointed toward the bloody rags.

"It's alright," Elvis said. "That just happens sometimes."

"Elvis!" Loretta gasped. She grabbed the soaked rags and threw them into the cooler before dragging Elvis out of the room.

Once back in their room, Loretta dumped the cooler on the ground. Catching sight of a crack in the ceiling she grumbled, "Well look at that. There's a crack in the ceilin' in here too."

Elvis once again began to sing. "There's a crack across the ceilin', yes there's a crack across the ceilin'." He stopped upon catching Loretta with her hands on her hips. "Sorry, honey. I know the room ain't great I gotta make fun of it so I don't start getting real mad about it."

Her features softened. "If that's what you wanna do why don't you write that song as the B side."

"That's not a song, Loretta. I'm just messin' around."

"It could be a song though. Where'd you put the pen and paper, honey?"

"It's in that bag." Elvis pointed, kicking the disgusting cooler out of the way. "You're right. We're not gonna put food in that again. Ever."