Truth Is Like the Sun

Chapter 11

They stayed awake late into the night, talking about whatever came to mind. It was like they were digging down deep into their lives. Occasionally they would find a vein, but instead of a vein of gold it was one of sadness, which made them swiftly change the subject, to talk about something that did not matter as much, something that hurt less.

When Carol Ann wanted to retire, so she could drive them home at noon since somebody would have to, Elvis dismissed her by saying that someone would be coming to get them.

"So you don't trust me to drive back?" Carol Ann concluded.

He rolled his eyes in what could only be described as typical Elvis fashion. "No, I just didn't think that you should have to do that." He looked down, pressing a hand against his forehead before looking directly at her. His eyes were so intensely blue, bottomless depths that peered into hers and touched places in her soul that she wished he couldn't. "And I guess I was hoping that maybe we would be sitting here talking the night away on our last day here. Like we used to."

"A long time ago." She smiled wistfully. "Before babies and all that."

"Babies turned out perfect...though it didn't work out how it was supposed to."

Carol Ann nodded in agreement. "So you're back out on the road when we leave here?"

"Yeah." He sounded tired as the word fluttered past his lips, as though the mere thought of it exhausted him already. "But I got your number now and I'll call you. I get back to Memphis for a concert in two weeks, you wanna go?"

"Well, it's been more than ten years."

Elvis lowered his head in shame and regret. Another promise he had made to her but never kept. Whenever he invited her to a concert, Tom would insist that it wasn't a good idea. "I'm sorry, Carrie, about everything."

"I know. It is what it is now."

"Think the boy will wanna go?"

Carol Ann frowned, caught off guard for a moment. "Go where?"

"The concert."

"Oh right. I don't do so well on that little sleep anymore now. Not since AJ started sleepin' through the night."

"When was that?"

"When he was..." she paused, laughing at the ridiculousness of it before admitting, "When he was eight. He just had himself a real hard time winding down and staying down. Like you..."

Elvis pressed his lips together, silently letting her know that this curse was not something he had meant to pass on to his son.

"I'd have to go in there and sit beside him, rub his back, sing to him-"

Elvis tried to suppress a chuckle. "Sing? Honey, I ain't never heard you sing."

She huffed out a strange sound, half-laugh and half-sigh. "Well, I didn't say that I'm any good at it, did I? Just sang to my baby is all. That's what you do. That's what your mother did, right?"

"Well, my mama could carry a tune. You musta been alright at it if it made him go to sleep is all I'm saying."

A small smile spread over her lips. "I just sang quietly enough."

"Guess you're not gonna do it for me?"

"No," she said, point blank, not wasting even a second of thought on it.

"What did ya sing to him?"

"Why do you care so much about me singing?"

"Cause I love singing."