My Little Friend

Chapter 5

August 13, 1958, 3:36 P.M.

Elvis couldn't help the guilt that was raging through his body. It wasn't his fault; he knew that but the poor little thing had lost her mother and his would be fine. It wasn't fair. He prayed for both of them. But more so for his own mother. He would be the one to break Lynn Rose's little heart and his whole body protested against the act. But he couldn't just let a total stranger tell her that her mother passed away.

Seconds stretched on, each step taking as much effort as a push up with the sergeants boot rammed onto your back. But Elvis soldiered on and finally made it to the hospital room. Giggles that sounded as though she was trying to hold them back drifted into his ears when he walked in. Lynn Rose was curled up beside Gladys the way Elvis used to when he was little. The way she never would again with her own mother. Her little face was pressed up against Gladys' night gown.

Elvis' heart stuttered inside his chest. There she was, trying to play peek-a-boo with him when he was about to shatter her whole world.

Gladys frowned upon taking in her son's pale face and tense stature. "What's wrong, Elvis?"

Lynn Rose looked up at him, her eyes flashing with confusion. "We go see my mama now?" she asked, the question he didn't want to answer brought up within a matter of seconds.

Elvis held his arms out for her. Lynn Rose crawled over, her little feet covered only by socks as her shoes were discarded beside the bed. His arms felt like they were trembling when he picked her up but he wasn't sure if they really were.

"I'll be right back," Elvis said to Gladys, but she had that look in her eye. He did not want to subject her to watching this scene unfold but neither did he want her to worry about him the entire time he was away.

Deciding the former was the lesser of the two evils, Elvis put Lynn Rose down and dropped to his knees in front of her to establish eye contact.

"We go to see my mama now?" Lynn Rose asked carefully.

Elvis tried to swallow the lump that was stuck in his throat, blocking the words he knew he had to say. "You remember when you told me about your daddy and how he's an angel up in heaven now?"

She gave a solemn nod. "Is he comin' back now?"

Her words knocked the last bit of air he had left out of his lungs, leaving him unable to breathe. "No, darlin'. It's...once people go to heaven they can't come back down to earth anymore. But you'll see them again someday. And we can't go to see your mama 'cause she went up to heaven too."

Lynn Rose whimpered. Tiny pools were forming around her eyes. "But what about me?"

"She still loves you more than anything in the world," Elvis said, trying to talk over the pain in his chest. "God called her to heaven and there was nothin' she could do."

"But I want her," she whispered. The tiny pools now poured down her cheeks. She stood immobile as stone, sniffling all the while. Elvis reached for her, but was greeted by the empty feeling of rejection when she curved out of his reach and took off toward the door. Elvis followed, catching her just before she slipped on account of wearing only socks. He grabbed her, trying to yank her to him but Lynn Rose kicked her legs and flailed her arms about violently. She was so strong, so impossibly strong for someone so small.

"Honey, stop it," Elvis begged. "I'm your friend. Don't you remember that?"

"I want my mama," Lynn Rose screeched. "Let me go. I don't want you. I just want my mama."

He didn't expect that much resistance from a little girl who told him she loved him not too long ago, but he was trying not to take it personally.

"Let her go."