Truth Is Like the Sun

Prologue

If you asked those involved just when it all began, you would receive many different answers.

As Elvis Presley's popularity skyrocketed first in the South, then country wide and finally world wide, young Carol Ann Riley, living on a farm without electricity, didn't even know that he existed. They didn't own a television nor did they go to the movies, and though they owned a battery operated radio, her parents were in charge of it. She'd beg and beg to listen to Baby Snooks like her classmates, but her mother declared it—and anything else Carol Ann and her brothers might have wanted to listen to—nonsense.

Hard work was instilled in her as long as she could remember. Her mother might as well have invented the proverb 'Idle hands do the devil's work'. By Kindergarten, Carol Ann, a clumsy child who didn't know left from right, was put in charge of the dishes. The following year she had to help bale the hay along with the rest of her family. She and her two brothers were left with blisters, sunburn, and scratches all over their limbs from the hours spent helping on the family farm.

Young Carol Ann had been naive in every sense of the word. She wanted the husband, the two kids, and the white picket fence. She graduated from high school and immediately took on two jobs, a full-time job at a factory and a part-time job at the skating rink.

She'd always remember that fateful day on which Elvis Presley rented the whole skating rink.

The closer they got the weaker her knees felt. Elvis Presley gave her his usual disarming smile. "What's your name, honey?"

Carol Ann found herself unable to summon the power of speech.

"Oh." Sally squealed, latching onto the poor man. "That's Carol Ann. You see?" She pointed at Carol Ann's name tag.

She might as well have said 'She's a square' because that was what it sounded like.

Another smile spread over Elvis' carved features. He looked even better than he did on photographs and in the pictures. His group of friends was engaging in animated conversation in the background, but Carol Ann was hardly aware of them. She was too busy staring into those impossibly blue eyes. They seemed to hold all the secrets of the world.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Presley," she squeaked. It was possibly the biggest understatement in the history of the spoken word.

"I appreciate that you're workin' overtime so we can have some fun here."

"Oh, don't you worry about it. I am gettin' paid."

Elvis offered Carol Ann his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Carol Ann."

Sally screeched in the background. Elvis' friends, who didn't bother introducing themselves, chuckled and whispered at one another. Elvis and his friends stayed long, but Carol Ann no longer minded as she mesmerized by his mere presence. Elvis sighed an autograph for her before he left and when Carol Ann got into her truck, she still felt like she was floating.

When they met, the year was 1961. When they parted ways, the year was still 1961. And unbeknownst to both of them, Carol Ann was already carrying their child.

Aaron Jesse, she had named him. What exactly had driven her to she didn't know. They called him AJ. He had been a beautiful baby, big and sturdy with a head full of shiny blond hair that never fell out.

He asked about his daddy more than once in the last ten years, but Carol Ann always told him that it was complicated. That he wasn't quite old enough to know yet. But one day that wouldn't do anymore. One day she'd have to tell him the truth.

"Mama!" Carol Ann found herself jarred out of the distant stream of memories when AJ bounced into the kitchen.

The boy clambered into one of the chairs, facing her. "Mama, you ever been to Graceland?"

"Graceland?" Carol Ann swallowed, her face turning pale. Truth be told, she had been to Graceland. If she closed her eyes and tried to picture it, she could still see the outline of the building and its rooms. But it would all be different now. Redecorated. Rich people didn't hang on to the same furniture for ten years.

"Yeah," AJ said softly, bewildered by her reaction. "It used to be a church or somethin', right? Timmy Wilson says there's a water slide in there and a real circus and everything."

"Timmy Wilson is tellin' tall tales again. You know he does that."

"Guess so." AJ looked somewhat disappointed. "Would have been neat. It sounds like a real amusement park. What's for supper?"

Carol Ann tried to hide her relief. "I don't know. Ask your grandma when she gets home from the market."

"I hope it's somethin' good," AJ grumbled before skirting off again. Carol Ann smiled after her boy, knowing that she would do it all over again just to have him. All the heartache, the disappointment, the pain. He was worth it.

They didn't need Elvis Presley or his money. Never did and never would. 

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

Author's Note: I know, I know. I have three stories already. One is just getting intense, the other is just getting past the introduction and the third has only one chapter. But I will still be working on all of them and will update one or two or three of my other books tomorrow. I was going to wait with new ideas but this one kept nagging me to write the prologue and I finally figured out a good way to do it so I just couldn't help it.

So please do tell me what you think of this so far and I want to totally hear your speculations too. Elvis will find out about AJ in the first/next chapter. I have been wanting to do an early 70's Elvis book for a while so I think this will be fun.