My Little Friend

Chapter 2

August 13, 1958, 8:30 A.M.

"Elvis! Elvis, wake up! Elvis!"

Elvis was only vaguely aware of the disembodied voice calling his name. He drifted in and out of consciousness. The whole world was spinning. There was a warm weight he couldn't account for in his lap and a strange tightness in his chest.

It came back in a flash. His mother was very sick, he was at the hospital, Lynn Rose...

A wave of overwhelming emotion hit him as his eyes popped open to meet his father's red-rimmed ones.

"Mama?" Elvis croaked.

Vernon's despair was palpable as well as contagious. Elvis wished to just pass out again, to drift off into a dreamland free of pain and sorrow.

"They put her in an oxygen tent while you were asleep... "

Elvis wanted to jump up and demand why he hadn't been told about this sooner, but Lynn Rose was still fast asleep in his arms. Did nobody check this room all night? Or if they did, did they simply assume that she belonged there?

"Is she still in the oxygen tent now?" Elvis asked in a low tone.

His father didn't answer right away. And when he did, his answer of 'no' was high pitched. All breath was knocked out of Elvis. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"You should go home for a while. Wash up and eat a good meal to—"

"No," Elvis cut his father off sharply.

"Elvis, son—"

"I said no. You didn't tell me that they put her in the damn oxygen tent when I was right here. If I leave—"

"She wants you to. I told her that you went home because she didn't like the idea of you sitting here all night. If you come back wearing the same clothes and lookin' like you slept here, she'll have my head on the stick."

"And what business do you got tellin' her these lies?"

"I didn't want to worry her. She's got enough to worry about now. Didn't you say that you were gonna call your girl too?"

Did he? If he did, then he didn't remember. Maybe it had seemed important once. Now Georgia might as well not exist. His world revolved around his mother.

Elvis frowned. His glance lingered on little Lynn Rose. He didn't want her to wake up and get scared when she found him gone. "Stay with her?" he asked hesitantly.

Vernon gave a solemn nod of the head. "Your cousins are here. They'll take you over to Graceland."

"So you had it all planned out," Elvis growled. He carefully deposited the little girl in his arms on the lumpy couch. Lynn Rose shifted and let out a small whimper but did not wake.

It still felt like he was abandoning her along with his mother. He wondered how old she was. Three? Four maybe? Or five? Either way, she was too young to deal with what he couldn't even handle at twenty-three. And he still had his father there with him, as well as his friends and his family. Right now, he was all Lynn Rose had and they just met. Memories faded in time and if her mother did not make it, Lynn Rose wouldn't remember her by the time she was his age.

His cousins Gene and Billy were waiting outside the door, both shifting on their feet in their impatience.

"Come on," Gene said, throwing an arm over Elvis' shoulder. Elvis moved out of the way, not wanting to be pacified now. Billy did not say or do anything and Elvis couldn't blame him. The boy was only fifteen and even more ill-equipped to deal with this than the rest of them.