Pieces of My Life

Chapter 3

That day at Farm Aid started an unlikely relationship neither one of them could quite define. They saw each other when they could which, quite unfortunately, wasn't too often. But whenever they did get together, they had a lovely time. Loretta swore that she was (or at least used to be) shy, but to Elvis she appeared to be the exact opposite. Outgoing, outspoken and candid about everything from the naivety of her early years to her current struggles with her changes.

Loretta lived with a housekeeper, Gloria, and at times with her son Ernest Ray (though he was married with a baby). Elvis lived with his seventeen-year-old daughter Lisa Marie, his friend Charlie Hodge, his cousin Billy Smith and his wife Jo who stayed in a trailer on the property, and his sixty-six-year-old aunt Delta Mae.

If they had any common sense, they would have met at her house.

"What do you mean with visit Vester for a bit?" Aunt Delta spat, downing her glass of whiskey.

Here we go, Elvis thought, trying not to roll his eyes at his cantankerous aunt. "I thought you might want to. That it might be fun."

"Yeah, you're gonna hide us all from that woman. I ain't gonna like her, huh?"

"No, I just don't wanna scare her off, Aunt Delta."

"She's the woman who does the commercials for Crisco," Lisa Marie said from her spot by the counter.

Delta harrumphed. "I got no idea what you're talkin' about, girl."

"Yes, you do. She's a singer. On Hee Haw."

"I thought she was in them ads."

"That too."

Aunt Delta and Lisa weren't exactly the best of friends. Delta's brash manner often hurt Lisa Marie's feelings and Elvis found himself mediating between them as one might between two children. This time, however, they found common ground.

"So if you met her, what's she like?"

Lisa considered, her gaze moving toward Elvis.

"Don't mind him," Delta said. "Girl, you got a mind of your own."

"I guess she's... I was downstairs and they came in, her and daddy. She looked at me and said 'Is that your daughter' and I said 'Is that the Crisco lady'-"

Aunt Delta burst into laughter. Elvis was rather certain that Lisa Marie hadn't said what she now claimed to have said, but he didn't interrupt.

"I figured she wasn't gonna like that. So she smiles and acts all happy saying 'Yes, honey. I'm the Crisco lady'."

"That's not how it went," Elvis snapped as Delta continued to chuckle.

"It kinda did," Lisa said. "All of that honey, sweetheart, have a good night stuff... nobody is like that."

"You'd be surprised," Elvis said. His daughter's words irritated him more than he'd like to admit.

"I'm sure."

When he was Lisa's age 'I'm sure' actually meant what one thought it would mean. Nowadays it was apparently the verbal equivalent of an eye roll.

"Don't get fresh," Elvis warned.

"I'm sorry, Daddy. A lot of them would be that way, all nice, when you were standing next to them but the moment you were outta sight they'd be like a different person. That's when they'd look at me like they wanna send me on the first plane to boarding school in Switzerland."

"Who is goin' to boarding school in Switzerland?" Charlie asked as he walked into the room.

"Lisa Marie is if she's not gonna watch herself," Elvis said.