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Elvis waited minutes, listening for even the slightest noise. He began to hear voices in the distance. He called out again, this time with more hope and renewed energy. In response, the voices got closer calling back to him. Elvis began trudging toward where they were coming from. Soon he was close enough to tell that is was Nick and Lance calling back to him. He met them stumbling towards him through the snow.
“Where you been, man?” Lance asked. “We’ve been looking all over for you,” Nick chimed in. “Thought you tried to run away.”
“I almost died! Where the hell y'all been?!” Elvis yelled. “Nearly died of hypothermia, and passed out cold on some lady’s doorstep. Have her to thank for saving my life, I would have died if I hadn’t run up on that town down there.”
“We figured you’d be back by dark, and when it got dark and you weren’t back we packed up to go looking for you. When we realized how bad the blizzard was though, we couldn’t risk getting out in that. Figured if you had run away, then we would just have to hunt you down this morning, cause there would have been no way we could’ve found you last night.” Nick reasoned as the group began walking back towards the cabin. “Neil will be happy to see you. He was freaking out over having to tell Bradley that you ran away.”
“The thought crossed my mind more than once, let me tell ya,” Elvis growled. “I could’ve been back in Memphis by now, or dead. You boys just best count your lucky ass stars!”
“Well, good thing you’re not,” Lance retorted. “Let’s just hurry up and get back to the cabin. It’s cold out here.”
~~~~~~~~~
“Aaron! If we can’t trust you to leave the cabin without running off back to your old life, some serious restrictions are going to be put in place!” Neil shouted as soon as the trio had tromped through the front door. “Did you honestly think that you could make it all the way through these mountains telling people you were Elvis Presley, looking like that!? Where DID you go?”
Shocked by Neil’s sudden outburst, Elvis’ quick temper gripped his body. “I didn’t run off nowhere! You gotta be f*ckin' kiddin’ me man! I almost DIED!”
Neil stepped back, surprised by Elvis’ fueled response.
“Did you really think I’m that stupid!?” Elvis stormed across the room towards Neil and slammed his fists on the side table. Neil jumped and stared at Elvis with a ‘deer in the headlights’ expression on his face. “YOU! Y-y-you left me out there! I-In that storm!” Elvis’ stuttering began to stem from his anger making him even more frustrated. “I-I-I….I almost died! I WOULD HAVE DIED! Some lady in that town down there pulled me outa the storm and SAVED MY LIFE! N-no t-thanks to YOU!”
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry. I just assumed—”
“You damn right, you assumed! Your stupid ass could've been returning a cold body to the paparazzi! How does life in prison for the death of world famous celebrity sound?” Elvis spun around shooting Nick and Lance a glare. “Something to think about before y'all go leavin’ me to die again.” He strode away from them to retreat to his room.
Neil looked over at Nick and Lance who gave him an apologetic look. “Celebrities these days,” Neil breathed.
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Ana’s POV
Having been awake most of the night rescuing strange men from dangerous snow storms, Ana was exhausted having to wake up the next morning and tromp through the thick snow to work. She had only gotten a few hours of sleep and had woken up extra early to leave the stranger in her living room a plate of breakfast to eat when he awoke. ‘I wonder if he’ll be there when I get back home,’ she thought as she made her way to work. ‘Audrey will be shocked.’
Arriving at work, Ana rushed through the doors to get out of the cold as fast as she could. She quickly turned on the lights and fired up the big oven in the back room. Obviously, Audrey and Bill were getting a late start this morning. She ran up the stairwell towards the couple’s room and knocked loudly on the door. “Aud! Bill! You guys up?” she called.
“Yeah Ana, we’re up,” Bill called as Audrey opened the door tying her apron.
Yawning loudly Audrey shuffled down the stairs and into the diner. “Sorry, Ana, just tired this morning I guess. All this cold weather’s affecting me.”
Ana followed her down stairs. “Boy have I got something to tell you about!”
“Really, what is it honey?”
“You’ll never believe what happened to me last night!”
“Well tell me!”
“So I got home last night and just went to bed early, you know, I was tired. So around midnight I hear this loud banging on the front door! I thought ‘for sure that’s not a person’ I mean who is going to come to my house in the middle of the night?”
“Yeah?” Audrey questioned, more interested in Ana’s story.
“Yeah! So I just went out to check. I opened the front door and didn’t see anyone. I was about to go back to bed when I happened to look down and on my front porch was this man, collapsed and unconscious!”
“No way! Who was he?” Audrey questioned excitedly.
“I have no idea!” Ana responded as she began her morning duties. “I dragged him into the house, took off his frozen clothes and put some of my dad’s old ones on him. Because the man was practically frozen solid.”
“Oh my gosh! Anastasia!” Audrey gasped. “He never woke up? He didn’t have any identification? Where is he now?”
“I know! No, no drivers license or anything! When I woke up this morning he was still sound asleep. I left him a note and a plate of eggs I made this morning in case he wakes up while I’m not home. I was hoping you’d let me go home early so that I could be there maybe when he does wake up?”
“Wow.. Yeah! Of course!” Audrey exclaimed beginning her chores as well. “You can go home around lunch if you’d like. I don’t think there will be anyone in today, I’ll just need your help with a bit of cleaning this morning.”
“That sounds great!” Ana smiled excitedly. “I’m so curious to know who he is or where he came from I can’t even stand it!”
“I’m sure you are! I am too now! You’ll have to let me know as soon as you find out!”
“For sure!”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Morning duties were easy enough. Wipe down this, Sweep that. By lunch time Ana was so ready to get home she could hardly wait much longer.
Practically running out of the diner, she sped walked as fast as she could through the snow. When she arrived home, she jumped up the front steps and opened the front door to find an empty living room. She looked around and found the palette that she had made the night before all folded nicely and laying across the back of the couch.
Disappointment coursed through her body. She knew she couldn’t expect the man to just wait around for her or to sleep through the entire day.
Ana stepped into the house and closed the front door behind her. She noticed the man’s clothes that she had hung beside the door were not there anymore. The plate of food she had left for him this morning was gone and placed neatly in the drying wrack by the kitchen sink where the rest of the morning dirty dishes had been washed. ‘Wow,’ she thought. ‘He washed the rest of my dishes.’
She noticed a yellow paper on the counter and walked over to it. Scanning through it, she felt herself smiling stupidly at the note. Her eyes caught on where he signed— ‘E’— ‘what a strange way to leave a signature’ she thought to herself.
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YOU ARE READING
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Romantik** In the process of major editing and finishing ** Small town girl Anastasia Laine is stuck waiting tables in her hometown of Brokenfold, Wyoming to keep herself and her mom afloat. On the other side of the world, Elvis Presley is KIDNAPPED and ta...
