Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 31

They were driving back to Kentucky  for the 4th of July, when it hit Loretta that they had spend the better part of fifteen months on the road.

They left on April 20th, 1956. They came home for four days for the 4th last year, stayed three days over Thanksgiving and finally twenty days over Christmas and the birthdays of Elvis and her two youngest sisters. When her father was fired from the coal mines they came home for two days because Loretta wouldn't stop carrying on and crying until Elvis realized that the only thing there was to do was to take her to Kentucky. Other than that, there was a random week in spring where they went home simply because they had the time and desired to be with their families.

With Elvis fast asleep in the camper and Junior driving, Loretta had no means to occupy herself. She got out a pen, paper and this years calendar as well as last years. She wasn't the greatest at ciphering sums, but figured she would give it a shot.

Out of 439 days, they spend 402 on the road and only 37 at home. They no longer knew what was going on in Paintsville or Butcher Holler. Parents and siblings struggled through life without them there. She no longer knew six-year-old Brenda, or eleven-year-old Betty Ruth, or even fourteen-year-old Peggy Sue who had always been her baby.

Sadness overcame her and she started to cry, thinking of how her Daddy couldn't breathe well most days and how Gladys seemed so unhappy not having Elvis around. If something happened to either one of them, they would be the last ones to find out.

It seemed as though her father was looking sicker every time she came back and Brenda Gail didn't run to her like she used to anymore. Why would she? Loretta was now like that distant relative she saw every once in a while.

Loretta forced herself to swallow down her tears, trying to make not a single sound as her husband slept a few feet away from her.

Be careful what you wish for, they said, and for a reason too. They got what they wanted but like everything, it came with a price.

She gave herself a pep talk in her head- Pull yourself together, Loretta. You don't want your husband to fuss over you when he should be looking forward to going home and seeing his family.

He was such a handsome man, even fast asleep with his mouth hanging open and his hair a mess atop of his head. Much too handsome for someone like her. And other than that, he was kind. She used to think that was a given, that there were only a couple of bad eggs out there. But the time they spend on the road showed her otherwise. They came across women whose husbands were sleeping around on them every chance they got. Some would call their girls the vilest things in public, and strike them too. They fought sometimes, of course, but Elvis never struck her and he never called her anything that wasn't at least close to the truth (as much as she did hate to admit it in the heat of the moment).

All the girls who came to their shows thought that Elvis was handsome too and though Loretta tried to control herself, to not call them names like 'wallerin' sow' and to keep from grabbing them by their perfectly made up hair, it was hard to resist at times.

But she liked it when Elvis said 'Loretta is the only girl for me' and turned them away. One of them started sobbing and carrying on over it; Junior said that she was like Doolittle Lynn, not right in the head.

Loretta pulled back the rags they had hung on the windows to keep out the heat. Time crawled by as the scenery went from unfamiliar to vaguely familiar to looking like home. She wiped her face, straightened her blouse and fluffed her hair before walking over to her husband. She had been hoping that Elvis would wake up by himself but that proved to be rather impossible.

"Elvis, it's time to get up," Loretta whispered. "Come on, honey. We're almost home."

Sometimes rousing him was like rousing a reluctant school child, but it wasn't at all surprising when taking into account how hard he worked. They started doing two shows a day. They'd come into town and first thing they had to figure out was how to wash and fix themselves up. They had it down to a science. If it was windy Elvis had to stay away from it to ascertain that his hair wasn't a big mess when he got onto the stage already. If it was too hot, they couldn't get dressed and ready too soon unless they wanted sweaty clothes and make-up and hair product that was running off.