Pieces of My Life

Chapter 8

The world was starting to look brighter again despite the nasty weather. Loretta felt warm, even though the wicked wind slapped at her exposed skin when she rushed from and to the hospital. She came in the mornings and left at night and all the while delighted in mothering both Elvis and Lisa Marie.

Loretta and Lisa Marie took their three meals a day together in the hall while Elvis was served low-fat, low-salt diet food in his room. He complained about the food every chance he got.

Loretta brought him the paper and books she picked up at the gift shop downstairs. They read together, watched TV together and played cards together.

Things would never be the way they were again, yet Loretta couldn't tell if they'd be worse, better, or just plain different. All she knew was that they'd all live and they'd be together and maybe that was enough. A mere week ago it was all she would have asked for but already she was getting greedy, wanting more.

She tried not to wonder where they were headed from here. It was too soon. One thing at a time and what they had to focus on now was getting him better and out of the hospital.

Loretta was starting to look at french fries the way she looked at baloney sandwiches in 1960 - once this was all said and done she didn't want to eat another as long as she lived.

Lisa Marie still seemed to have an appetite for them for the most part. Though right now she abandoned them to lean forward, her chin propped in her hand.

"Alright..." Loretta paused. "One, I never heard of your Daddy till I was a singer myself. Two, I married my husband exactly one month after I met him. Three, when I met your daddy at Farm Aid, one of my press-on nails got stuck on my jacket."

Lisa's face went blank. "They're all lies."

"You know that they can't be."

"I guess you did marry your husband one month after you met him but there's no way you coulda not heard of Daddy at all unless your husband locked you up at home and you didn't have a radio. And you don't use press-on nails."

"I might," Loretta said with a small smile.

Lisa chewed on her fingernails as she contemplated. "You did know about Daddy before you were a singer yourself."

"You got it."

A smile lit up Lisa's face. "Was about time, wasn't it?"

"Your turn, honey."

"No way. My life's not interesting enough."

"And mine is?"

Lisa pursed her lips. "You're the first lady of country music, Miss Loretta Lynn."

Loretta smiled at the girl's booming voice. She turned serious again. "Never thought of myself as nothin' special though. At least no more special than anyone else."

Silence hung between them. Then Lisa said, "Me neither. I'm not special either, I mean. But you've actually done something for people to make a big deal about. I was just born. Everyone else who's alive now managed to do that."

"You got a quick wit about you, Lisa Marie. Once things are a little better and your daddy's back home, do you reckon that you might wanna spend some time with my twins?"

Lisa hesitated. "They're older than me, aren't they?"

"They're twenty-one."

"Then why would they wanna hang out with me?"

"Why would I wanna hang out with you then, considering that you're younger than my own kids?"

"You got a point." Lisa lowered her gaze. "That's what I used to think, you know?"