Pieces of My Life

Chapter 1

Champaign, Illinois, September 22, 1985

It all started because Elvis was invited to perform at the first Farm Aid concert and said yes. Of course part of it would have happened regardless, but they never would have ended up together. And without her...well, he didn't even dare to imagine what it might have been like without her.

Farm Aid was also a twelve-hour concert and they placed his set smack dab in the middle. There were plenty of good reasons not to go.

His guys didn't want to go. "Champaign?" Joe Esposito had exclaimed. "Where the hell is Champaign? Who holds and event like that in a place named Champaign."

They did come with a tour bus, which meant that they could at least watch TV and play cards in relative peace. The guys, like always, talked smack. Though they were his friends and cousins, and for close to thirty years he didn't step foot outside his house without one or two of them by his side, he sometimes found it hard to breathe when too many of them were in a small space together. He tried to focus on the news flickering across the small television screen rather than their chatter, but still caught that they were playing some kind of game that involved writing the names of all the female performers on scraps of paper.

Each one of them pulled one out of Lamar's hat before Billy shuffled over and held it out to Elvis.

"Take one, E," Lamar said.

"What is this all about?"

"Well, it's a little game. Whoever gets closest to the woman he gets wins."

"And gets what?"

"The satisfaction that he won," Joe said.

"Wait a minute, you bastards are sayin' that you're gonna try to sleep with those women?"

Lamar shrugged. "Not necessarily. The one that gets closest wins. You might just flirt and if the rest of us didn't even get to talk to our gal, you'd win. Now take one."

Billy thrust the hat at Elvis once again. He took one so they would shut up. The expression that formed on his face swayed between amused and annoyed as he read the note. "Loretta Lynn."

A few of the guys hooted with laughter.

"E is gonna lose," Charlie declared.

"Why?" asked Marty. "I bet she's been doin' all kinds of things with Conway for the last fifteen years. And she left her husband. Moody or somethin' like that"

"Moody." Lamar chuckled. "I'd be moody if I had that woman as a wife. Who wants to shack up with a chick who drags ya through the mud the way she did? She made a regular fool out of him."

"The fool seemed to like it," Elvis said. He thought of the few times he had seen Loretta Lynn's husband. Doolittle "Mooney" (not Moody) Lynn would smile like a jack-o-lantern, wearing the label of lying, cheating, woman chaser as if it was something to be proud of. He met him twice, at two seperate events, and each time he wondered how exactly he and Loretta ended up together. If there ever was a couple this mismatched, then Elvis would like to meet them.

"How about we make the girls pick one of the guys?" Lamar suggested, referring to the Sweet Inspirations and Kathy Westmoreland.

The women immediately broke out in protest.

"I don't wanna sleep with Willie Nelson," said Kathy Westmoreland.

Lamar rolled his eyes. "I know, I know, you're taken. But you could have some fun, is all I'm sayin'."

"Who said that it would be Willie Nelson?" Joe added. "It could be Bon Jovi."

"I don't want to sleep with him either. I'm not interested in your stupid game," Kathy said. "You act like you're in high school."