King of Her Desire

11

Everything they looked at, Elliott bought them. I mean everything.

I didn't approve. But then, who was I to begrudge them? They did nothing, went nowhere, like I've told you. And this fairy godmother was letting them load up on all kinds of junk that they used to watch other kids buy at fairs and things, wondering why they couldn't.

How do you say "No" to that?

But then people started to recognize Elliott. Blew my mind. Even young people knew her.

Like this girl with blue hair ran up and begged her to sign this clapboard thing she'd bought from one of the shops on "Main Street." You know, those boards they clap down when they say, "CUT" on a movie set. They have real ones, little keychain and necklace ones...all kinds.

But she goes, "God, you were, like, my vocal coach back when I was starting out. I wanted to sound just like you. But nobody else does..."

Elliott did the "humble servant" thing—thanked her, signed the clapboard, asked her about her "career." Very gracious.

But all these people started doing double takes. Probably wondering if they were shooting some kind of movie or TV show there.

Old Tucson used to be a movie set. Still is, actually. Shot some famous westerns there. It's like a little frontier town. With all these shops on the boardwalks that sell Hollywood memorabilia.

So pretty soon Elliott was signing the backs of pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor and John Wayne. Even one of those life-sized James Dean cut outs that scare the shit out of people when they walk into the room it's in at home. Whatever they offered, she signed.

And then this manager guy even came rushing up to make sure we got a good view of the big gunfight they did at the end of the block. Gave the kids these t-shirts and things.

They have these stunt guys who shoot each other and fall off of balconies and staircases and things. The kids went nuts. Carli even got kind of scared when one of them fell over the railing 'way up top of one of the buildings and plummeted down onto these hay bales below.

But Elliott kissed her and hugged her up against her chest and said, "It's not real, sweetheart. He knows just how to fall, all right?"

And for a moment I realized that there was more to all this kid stuff than just that they were cute or something. There'd been a "kid," Tommy said. But I remembered not to say anything.

I just let the sibs squeal and run. And they got to where they'd grab Elliott's hands and take her with them.

They also made me buy Elliott ice cream later, too. Carli was very adamant that it had to be a waffle cone with all the chocolate and nuts and sprinkles.

But Kevin thought I should buy her "a beer or something. She's not some little snot nosed kid."

So, we went into this "saloon" and had gigantic burgers along with Elliott's beer. And right in the middle of the meal, this hokey little country band played some song she'd made years ago after apologizing for even trying. But they did it justice, actually.

But that's also when Carli set down her root beer float to tell me, "Waylon cut off one of his fingers yesterday."

The other kids didn't bat an eye. Kevin just shoved a couple of big steak fries into his mouth and said, "He didn't. Bryce did it. With that sword thing."