It was 7 a.m. when my mom came in to wake me up “ mustn’t waste a beautiful day!” she always said. I slowly rose from bed and like a zombie stumbled to my bathroom to brush my teeth out from the morning breath I tragically struggle with. The rest of my morning continued as usual although a little more lifeless today. While waddling back to my room I stopped in front of a window and stared at the skies, they were too gray and too dark for an August morning. It looked as if the skies were screaming a warning or hoaxing a curse on the day, it gave me a feeling of something crawling in my skin. I shook the feeling off and continued to my room. I struggled to pick out what pieces to wear so I threw on my blue flare jeans and my pink and yellow striped shirt. I fixed my hair and then trotted down the stairs where my lovely mother was waiting for me with a smile and breakfast. I ate my scrambled eggs and drank my orange juice unenthusiastically and just swirling my forks around the eggs every now and then.
An hour later I had hulled myself back up the stairs to my bedroom. There was something so comforting about being in my own room. I had decided I would put a record on, write and possibly draw in my notebook. I pulled out a case filled with my newest records. Casually I flipped through Bruce, Billy, Bob and Elvis. Finally I chose Elvis to be my companion for a few hours of my gloomy day. Elvis’s voice sang beautifully and I couldn’t help but fall in love with him for the millionth time. I wrote a beautiful love story about a boy and a girl. A girl with ambitious dreams and a boy crazy about her. Although the boy got caught up in a bad crowd, neglected the girl and the story ended tragically with the death of the girl in an accidental poisoning. I reread my story as the record spun without sound. I continued to sit in my room in silence when all of a sudden I heard my mother call,
“Donna!”
“ What?” I answered back
“ James is on the phone for you!”
“ James?!” I asked in a fever
“ Yes.”
I got up in a wild thrill. James was my heartthrob, he had beautiful blue eyes that sparked something in me, and a mysterious crooked smile that weakened my knees each time I saw or thought about it. Lately he has been giving me all the attention I had ever wanted and although we have hung out plenty of times, it was always with a crowd of friends. I answered the phone in an over excited voice, and placed my hand on the counter to stabilize myself.
“Hi!” I said chipper
“ Hey, what do you say we go for a little ride?” He said in such a cool way that I got lost in thought for a moment, until I heard “ Hey Donna, you still there?”
“ Huh?”
“Would you want to go for a ride with me?” He asked again
I managed to cough up a few words saying, “ Sure thing, I’ll be ready soon.”
“ Great, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
I hung up the phone and ran to the powder room to check my face. Fifteen minutes! I only had fifteen minutes to make myself look presentable. I added a little blush to add innocents and fixed my hair. As soon as I was done with that I ran to my room and franticly shuffled through all my clothes trying to find something that would make me look appealing. Before I knew it I heard a honk outside. I took one last glance in the mirror to see my final result, I was wearing black jean hot pants with a purple tank top tucked in and a darker purple crop top over. I grabbed my purse and ran out the door. I hopped into James’s brand new black Trans AM. I’m glad I was already sitting because he looked at me and flashed that smile my direction.
“ You look lovely”
Lovely, he thinks I look lovely; I smiled and mumbled a shy “ Thank you.”
He had the radio on and Elvis Presley’s voice serenaded the moment, singing my thoughts, take my hand, take my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you.
My thoughts were spinning and I hadn’t even realized when we arrived to the top of the hill. James took me to a spot where we looked over the entire town, it was a wonderful sight; you could see every house and every road.

I had subconsciously noticed that all the songs that played on the radio on our way there were Elvis songs. All of a sudden another voice came on the radio informing everyone listening that, that was the one-hour commercial free tribute to Elvis. Confused I focused all my attention on the voice, “For those of you just tuning in we are all mourning the death of our beloved Elvis, who was found laying face down on the bathroom floor this afternoon .His staff rushed him to the hospital and after several attempts to revive Elvis he was announced dead at three thirty. There will be an autopsy performed as soon as possible to find the cause of death.”
My skin developed goose bumps all over, and a shiver ran down my spine. James and I both remained in silence for sometime.
“ Wow, that’s so tragic” I said breaking the silence
“ He’s just gone, didn’t think it would happen anytime soon.”
Our admiration for Elvis was clearly on the same level. And if you were looking at a globe and zoomed in way down on us ,way down where there music played, you’d find us , sitting in silence, understanding each others feelings, listening to his voice singing his life. And when the sun set, sparks ran through my body like a hundred magic fingers on a whirling carousel, as if someone else came to hangout and listen with us for a while. He was there in the car with us letting us know, he is more than okay.