It was great to have him home, or more, it was great to know that he was safe. Ever since he left, I had been worried for his safety. I shared that worry with Gladys. We both prayed that our boy would be alright out there, and it was a happy relief whenever we received a letter from him. Of course, cameras were always on him, so we saw him in the paper all the time, but just getting that personal letter was a bit more personal and special.
The last time I received a letter from him, addressed only to me, it was after my divorce was finalized about a year or so after Gladys passed. It was difficult during that time, mainly since all the Presleys were gone out of the house, cousins and grandparents alike. Sandra, my daughter, was my rock, along with my aging parents and two older brothers who were in the area. That letter to me from Elvis was another comfort, since he expressed sympathy regarding my divorce, and he hoped I would do well. I wrote back and wished him the same.
Yes, Elvis was like a son to me, and had been since I first met him when he was first starting out in his career, a little after he graduated from high school when Gladys and I met in a department store and hit it off. I never had a son, so Elvis seemed like such to me. He and Sandra even acted like brother and sister when they were around each other.
But then he came back from the army. He left a boy and came back a taller, thinner, handsome man with a slightly lower voice. The reaction I received when he hugged me and kissed my hand wasn't a reaction a woman should receive from the young man she sees as a son.
What was that all about?
"Mary, let's bring the fixin's out," said Vernon who had helped me with cutting the vegetables to put into the burgers. I snapped out of my thoughts and turned around to face Vernon who held two plates in his hand, one with tomato slices on it, and the other had cheese, onions and lettuce.
"Yes, let's go ahead. Elvis should be done soon, hopefully."
We walked into the dining room and went back and forth to and from the kitchen to place all the fixings out. I finished with a pitcher of pink lemonade.
"I think that boy's takin' a long shower," Vernon said as we stared at the assortment of colorful hamburger fixings on the table. "I'll go up and grab 'im."
"Oki Doki."
He left, and I went back into the kitchen and opened up the oven to reveal the guitar cake that I made earlier in the day. I hoped that Elvis wouldn't see it after he got back. I didn't know where else to hid itâthe kitchen was pretty small for being in a mansion.
I heard footsteps on the stairs and shut the oven door. Vernon walked into the kitchen, a weary look on his face. "Hey," he said, and concern filled my features.
"What's wrong, Vernon?"
"Elvis isn't doing so well. He really misses his mother."
I put a hand to my heart, over my light-blue collar dress. "Oh no... that poor boy."
"Yeah..." He let out a sigh in exasperation, and maybe trying to control his own emotions. "I came up to his room and heard 'im cryin' on the inside."
My chest ached at knowing what Elvis had been doing this whole time. "Oh dear... Did you talk to 'im?"
I opened the door, and the moment I did, he stopped cryin' and said that he would be down as soon as he could. He went into the bathroom and shut the door."
I came up to Vernon as he wiped his right eye, and I placed a hand on his upper arm gently. "We all miss Gladys." He nodded and cleared his throat. "Maybe we should put the fixin's for dinner away for now. I can re-heat the patties on the stove."
"That's a good idea. I'll put the other things in the Refridgerated."
"Okay."
I rubbed his arm for a moment for further comfort, and then we went to it. I was so close to this family, and whenever they hurt, I hurt as well. They were like my own family. I prayed that Elvis and Vernon, and even myself, would heal from losing Gladys. What a dear woman she was.
~ ~ ~
It was nice of them to put away the dinner fixings, but I felt badly because they had to do it because of me. Mary vacated after the dinner was put back out, even though I tried to get her to join us. She wasn't hungry since she had her own meal before I arrived home.
Daddy and I discussed various things that happened to me in the army as we ate our burgers, and boy, did they taste good! I looked forward to the cake. I wondered what flavor it was. Hopefully chocolate.
Once dinner was cleaned up, we went back into the kitchen, but Mary wasn't in there. "Where did she run off to?" I asked Daddy.
"Probably the backyard."
"Why the backyard?"
I saw a twinkle in his aged eye. "Come with me."
We went on to the back, and the moment I opened the door leading outside, I heard people shout, "Welcome home, Elvis!"
My mouth turned into a wide grin when I saw Mary, the Colonel, my cousin Patsy, and a few of my other cousins, relatives and close friends gathered in a bunch on the grass. In the center of the crowd was a cake that was shaped like white guitar. A guitar! Mary out-did herself again. I came up to it and was immediately bombarded with hugs. Now I wished I showered instead of bawling like a baby earlier.
"It's so great to have you home," said Patsy as she hugged me, and her nice perfume filled my nose.
"It's great to be home. Glad to see ya. How's Daniel?"
"Sad that he couldn't make it." She released me. "I promised that I would bring 'im home some cake and a hug from you."
I smiled. "Well, here it is."
I hugged her for her husband Daniel, and after, my other relatives and friends got a turn to hug me if they hadn't yet. My eyes teared up from not sadness, but happiness this time. I loved having people around, especially ones that I cared about.
I noticed a man with a camera standing off to the side, and he snapped pictures. Of course. Daddy instructed me to crouch near the little table with the cake sitting on it. The camera guy came up and snapped a picture of me doing so when I had a finger on the cake.
"Okay, let's dig in!" called one of my male cousins who was around my age and had hair the color of mine. I would dye it back to black very soon. I stood up, and Mary came up with a wide knife. She gave me a smile, that same smile that I thought was pretty before, and it made the corners of her eyes scrunch up.
"I hope you like it," she said and slid the knife into this masterpiece of a cake.
"I'm sure I will. You did a swell job on it. Very, very impressive."
"Thank you. It's just somethin' I whipped up earlier today for your homecomin'."
She smirked at me, and I had to laugh at the playful look in her eyes. We both knew that she most likely spent hours working on the cake. "It's a shame to cut it up."
"How else are you gonna eat it, huh?"
I saw that the inside was brown, and I grinned. It was chocolate. She knew my favorite. She gave me a piece that literally had my name on it, the part that said "Welcome Home Elvis." She gave me the "Elvis" part.
The rest of the cake was cut and distributed, and the only part of it left after everyone took a slice or two was the handle of the guitar. The backyard was a party of people mingling and eating cake, and that photographer was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, he was only supposed to snap a picture of me with the cake and leave. He could have stayed for a piece.
The sky started to become dark, and that was when people started to move inside, and the party took place in there, mainly in the living room. Mary moved the cake from the backyard to the kitchen. It was when my friends and family left that I finally got to go back into the kitchen and steal another piece of the chocolate goodnessâmy third piece, and it wasn't a small one. Mary came into the kitchen with a few plates in her hands, and I noticed that her blonde hair was falling out of her bun a bit, mainly her bangs. I put my plate with the cake on it on the counter and took a pile of four blue and green breakable plates from her left hand.
"Here, let me."
"Thanks, Elvis." We deposited them into the sink. "Wow-wee, what a party. They all were so happy to have you back."
I smiled. "Yeah, and I was happy to see 'em. I can't even say how happy I was to see 'em. I think I'm just gonna let a lot of 'em stay here whenever they want just so I can be around 'em more."
She started on the dishes, and I took up my cake piece and started to eat it. "I think they would be thrilled. I would've loved to have 'em over just so I could have some company."
I chewed and swallowed, then took another large bite. With cake in my cheek, I asked, "Sandra came by now and then, right?"
"Yeah, but not as often as she used to. She just started her first semester at college, and she got herself a boyfriend, so she's pretty darn busy."
I swallowed then placed my fork down, my eyes wide. "Hold on, Sandra's in college?"
"She is. You were gone for two years, remember?"
I whistled. "Wow. I guess I missed a lot, huh? So, she has a boyfriend now? Is it serious?"
"I really hope not. She's only eighteen. If I had it my way, she would marry when she's thirty."
I laughed. "If you had it your way, she would never get married."
She rinsed a plate and put it on a rack on the counter. "You know me too well. Things changed, yes, but not me. I'm still the woman who will always see her beautiful daughter as her baby girl, no matter her age."
"As every mother does with her kids." I ate a few more bites, and soon, the cake was eaten. I collected the crumbs on my plate with my fork, and a somber feeling came over me. I debated on whether I should ask, but I was curious. "So... I'm sorry I wasn't around when you and Randall were goin' through... you know."
Her gaze remained on the plate she was washing it in soapy water, and I ate those chocolate cake crumbs. "It's alright. You were out serving your country."
"Still... it kinda broke my heart when I received that letter from you and found out the news. Hopefully it went smoothly."
She said nothing for a few seconds, and I put my empty plate with the rest of the dirty plates on the counter near the sink. "Not really."
My heart dropped, and I slammed my hands into my black slacks pockets. "I'm so sorry, Mary."
She shook her head, which brought her bangs down. With her wet fingers, she pushed them behind her ears and continued washing. "Don't be. It was inevitable, anyway. You were already aware that Randall and I were havin' some problems for the past few years. It just escalated to 'im goin' behind my back with someone younger than you."
My chest pinched, mainly because I was away when this was going on. If I were home, I would've told Randall what a jerk he was being. Then again, I would've felt like a hypocrite since I was guilty of going behind Anita's back with another girl. A younger one.
"I'm sorry," I said again, "that you went through that. Randall was out of his mind."
She smirked as she still worked on the dishes, and I helped her by putting the clean wet ones on the drying rack. "Thank you, Elvis. That's sweet. Now, I'm curious about somethin'... What's this about you meetin' a teen girl over there in Germany? Vernon told me about it, and I saw somethin' about it in the paper a couple months back."
I had to smile, and heat crept into my cheeks, the same as they did when they mentioned both Nancy Sinatra and Priscilla in that interview. "Yeah... well, the press asked about 'er in that interview I had earlier, and... I admit that I fibbed a bit."
"How so?"
She handed me another clean plate, and I put it on the rack. "Well, I said that there wasn't anything serious, but... there was."
"Vernon told me that you were utterly smitten with 'er. Priscilla, right? I was told that her father is in the air force."
"That's right. I met 'er at a party that took place at my house there in Friedberg, and after first seein' 'er..."
I recalled that moment. She was brought over by one of the party guests, and the moment I looked at her, my heart jumped. She was a sight.
"Your heart was gone," Mary finished. "I know the feelin'. I had it with Randall when I first met 'im way back then. Do you plan on seein' 'er again?"
I watched as she cleaned another plate in soapy water. "After her father is done with his service there in Germany. It could take a few years."
Her brows rose. "Golly, a few years?"
"Yeah. I guess that gives me time to talk to Anita about it all."
She nodded as she rinsed that plate and handed it to me. "That's right. Anita doesn't know about Priscilla, does she?"
"Probably, since my spendin' time with 'er was in the papers, but she will most definitely after that interview comes out. No doubt she's gonna call me about it tomorrow."
"She hasn't contacted you yet? She wasn't at the train station like every other girl who has a boyfriend in the army?"
"No, she wasn't. It's unfortunate that the first contact we'll have after I return home is her askin' about that 'little girl' I met in Germany. I say 'little girl' because that's what I called 'er in the interview."
Mary chuckled. "You are and have always been a ladies' man, Elvis, no matter the age of the girl. And I have to say here, she's not much of a lady, but a young, young woman. How old is she again?"
"Fourteen."
She blew air out of her mouth as she handed me another plate, and I put it on the rack. "Careful, Elvis. That's pretty young."
She sounded like Momma right there. Momma would warn me about the same thing. "Yeah, I know. But sometimes, you can't help who you fall for."
She giggled, and I momentarily thought how cute it was. Since when did Mary's laughter become cute? She looked over at me, that smile still on her face, and she giggled again.
What?" I asked, snickering too.
"You have some frosting on the corner of your mouth. Quite a bit of it, actually."
My heart lurched in embarrassment. We had that whole conversation, and my face had frosting on it? I quickly went to get it with the side of my hand, but it came back clean.
"Other side," Mary said, and I wiped the other side, and I got quite a bit of frosting on my hand. She laughed again.
"You got most of it, but now it's smeared farther. Here."
She retrieved a clean white cloth near the sink and came up close to me, and the top of her head was at my lips, and she looked up so she could see what she was doing. Before I could take control of it, my heart went speeding away as I took in her flowery scent as she was wiping the frosting from my left cheek. My gaze roamed all over her face, eyeing her skin that had faint age lines near the eyes and mouth and her green eyes that were literally the color of an emerald. I stood there, frozen and transfixed.
Her gaze met mine. She said nothing as she stared at me, and her fair cheeks turned pink.
"Elvis, you in there?!"
That jolted both of us out of whatever trance we were in, and Mary quickly stepped away and started on the dishes again. I stood there, bewildered by what just happened.
"There you are," the Colonel said as he entered the kitchen. "Didn't you hear us calling for you from the living room?"
They, meaning him and Daddy? How come I didn't hear them? "No, sorry, Colonel. I was just talkin' with Mary and helpin' 'er with the dishes."
Mary worked rapidly on the remaining plates, faster than her pace while we were talking. The Colonel said, "Okay, well, we need to talk in the living room about what's going to happen this next week. C'mon."
"Okay. Just give me a second."
"Alright. And the cake was delicious, Mary. Your cooking and baking are never a disappointment."
She turned her head to face him, and she smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Colonel. You're welcome to have another piece."
"No, I don't need any more cake, but thank you."
He left the kitchen, and Mary promptly got back to the dishes. The pink in her cheeks was still there. I noticed the frosting still on my hand and took that white cloth and wiped it off. I placed the soiled cloth near the sink. I stood right next to her. "Mary..."
"Go on and talk with your daddy and manager. I can finish these."
I pressed my lips together and nodded. The atmosphere suddenly became incredibly awkward. "Okay. And... thanks again for the cake."
"You're welcome."
She rinsed a plate off, not saying anything more. I nodded, accepting that it was the end of our conversation, and I left the kitchen, my nerves rattled, and shockingly, in the same way they were after I met Priscilla. Why the heck was that? I had thought older women attractive before, but never had they given me that type of reaction. Mary was like my second mother, or at least like my aunt. She had always been around, ever since I started my career. Plus, older women weren't my type, younger women were.
My own words came back to me... You can't help who you fall for.
"I think the army made me go crazy," I muttered under my breath as I entered the living room.
~ ~ ~
My mind whirled as I stared up at the dark ceiling as I tried to fall asleep. It had been a wild day with Elvis coming home. I was busy cleaning the whole house, especially his room and his laundry, and I made that cake and dinner as well. I was bushed, and honestly, very, very confused. Maybe the divorce was still fresh in my mind, with the idea of a person my age going after someone far younger than them, like what Randall did. But why Elvis?
Maybe that very guy was right. A person can't help who they fall for, no matter if they are younger or older than them. Elvis was eighteen years my junior and seven years my daughter's senior.
It was insanity!
"I think the craziness of the day did a number on me," I said to myself in the darkness, trying to convince myself of another excuse. "All the jitters I felt when I hugged him as I stared into those blue eyes..."
Were what? Phony? Or a natural reaction to a handsome man gazing at my face in a way a man had not done in years?
I groaned and pulled my rose-printed comforter over my head. I had to force myself not to think about it at all. Never again, even.
But I would see Elvis the next day... and the next. And the next.