The Colonel's Daughter [Elvis]

Chapter 2 - Years Apart Produced Some Strain

The whole flight back to the states, I was trying to work out how I would face my father after years of estrangement. I planned to be stoic and hold in my emotions in his presence. Well, I tried. Seeing him and his soulful eyes struck several heartstrings, and I had to leave as soon as possible back down to my suite. I couldn't lose face in front of him and Elvis. It was so embarrassing.

"Yes, I got to California safely," I told Mom on the phone after lunch, a meal that I didn't finish after calling room service. It sat there on a tray, the thick sandwich only half-eaten. My stomach was still twisting into knots. "It was a long flight with one layover, but it was fine. I'm used to travel. I do it all the time for school."

"Well, that's wonderful, dear. I was so worried about you traveling so far. I worry for you all the time."

I smiled into the phone. "Yeah, I know, Mom. And I'm always okay. I love living in Germany, and I love traveling to the countries around when I have breaks from school or when I need to travel for a class. My favorite would have to be the semester I spent in Paris while in the third year of undergrad. Wow, doing homework on a hill viewing the Eiffel Tower at sunset..."

I would give anything to go back there. Mom said, "It sounds so enchanting. I didn't know that you were in Paris. Or maybe I just forgot."

Something else plucked a heartstring. Mom, according to her doctor, was showing the earliest signs of a neurological disease called Alzheimer's disease. Mom was losing her memory and getting confused more often. "It's okay, Mom. Yeah, I've traveled everywhere, so this is nothing."

I twirled the black phone cord with my fingers as I pressed my lips together, but as usual, it seemed as if my mother could read my thoughts. "I think you should go talk to your father. You're there for three weeks. You can't spend that time in your hotel suite."

"What if that's exactly what I want to do?" I snapped, my chest pinching. "I'm sorry, I just... seeing him again... It's just so hard. I'm tempted to just go warn Elvis about Dad and leave back to Germany. This is too painful."

"That sounds like you giving up, which isn't like you. If you inherited anything from your father, it's your hard head and fiery determination. That is how you finished your bachelor's degree--you were determined to do it. Heck, that's how you got over to Germany in the first place. It's not in your nature to just back down."

She had a solid point, but... "My heart feels like it's breaking, Mom. Yeah, he looked sorry, and he even said so, but knowing that he intentionally wasn't speaking with me, that he even told you not to tell Elvis about me, it just hurts so much."

She was silent for a moment, then, "I'm so sorry, dear. But you know why he has to keep many things quiet."

Yes, I did. "But his true identity shouldn't be revealed by the fact that he has a daughter."

"I think it's because you never contacted him, so he never contacted you."

She was forgetting again, something that wasn't her fault. "I wrote to him often, Mom. He just never wrote back. It could be since he's always by Elvis's side."

"Maybe he just didn't want Elvis to know about his beautiful, accomplished daughter. Rainie, he's told me that he read every single letter of yours, he just never responded because... well, you know how that famous boy is around girls."

She had another point. "I don't know. But he could still write to me and not tell Elvis about me. Plus, if Elvis ever tries anything with me, I'll throw him over the other ocean to Japan."

Mom giggled. "Oh, you really never let yourself fond all over that boy like every other girl in the country does."

"And for a good reason, aside from his association with a man who shouldn't be his manager. I don't want to be affiliated with Elvis Presley. While I'm here, I'm going to explore the city since I've never been here before, I'm going to warn Elvis, and maybe hopefully make up with Dad, and then I'm gone."