Blue Like Elvis (8 page)

Chapter 11

We gave Pamela a
sweet send off for her going-away party. We held it in one of the conference
rooms in the administrative suite. We’d ordered a cake with
“Aloha Pamela”
scripted around little palm trees and a much-too-blue beach. We all brought
gifts and she seemed genuinely pleased. Her handsome doctor stopped by toward
the end, wrapping his arm around his beauty queen. I could only imagine the
babies those two would produce. I somehow doubted there would be pointy heads
or scrunched up faces on
those
newborn pictures. Not a chance.

We all said our
goodbyes, promising to stay in touch. Only Chelsea would be making the trip to
Hawaii for the wedding. As a bridesmaid, she’d be flying over with Pamela on
Saturday and staying a full week. Naturally, Mrs. Baker would be making the
trip along with her husband, Reverend Baker. I figured that had more to do with
the famous golf course at Kapalua than the wedding, but I kept that thought to
myself.

After work, Sandra
and I stopped by Brentwood’s to swap the loaner for my Seville. Gotta love
having a dad in the business. The statement was marked
Paid in Full.
I
made a mental note to remember to thank him.

When we got home,
Sandra cooked one of her favorite Puerto Rican dishes. The house smelled
amazing, making my stomach growl as I gathered a load of laundry. I had just
started the washing machine when the phone rang.

“Hey, baby sister!”

“Jimmy! Where are
you?”

“I’m in Guam!” he
yelled over all the static. “But I’m flying out in a couple of hours. I’m
coming home, Sis!”

“Oh Jimmy, that’s great!
When will you be here?”

“What’s that?” he
yelled.

“WHEN WILL YOU BE
HERE?”

“I’m not sure,
exactly. I’m catching a hop to Millington and wondered if you could come pick
me up.”

“Where’s
Millington?”

“WHAT?” he yelled
again. I could hear engines roaring in the background.

“I SAID, WHERE’S
MILLINGTON?”

“It’s the Naval
Air Station just north of Memphis. Easy to find.”

“How’d you get a
Navy hop? You’re Army!”

“WHAT?”

“Never mind. I can’t
wait!” I squealed. “How long can you stay?”

“I don’t know yet.
We’ll see. Mom and Dad are anxious for me to get down to Birmingham, but I
figured with you so close to Millington, that would be my best bet. Hey, I’ve
gotta run. My time’s almost up on the call. I’ll be in touch, okay?”

“Sounds good,
Jimmy. Hurry home!”

Over dinner, I
could hardly contain myself as I told Sandra all about my older brother. It
felt strange, talking about him as a war veteran, especially for someone who’s
only 28. He hadn’t talked much about his experience over in Vietnam, but I knew
he’d lost a lot of friends during the war. I wondered how he would settle back
into civilian life. Would he go to school? Would he live back in Birmingham? I
wished he would move here.

“I can’t wait to
meet him,” Sandra said, taking a sip of tea. “He’s very handsome. At least as
far as I can tell from those pictures you have in your room. How tall is he?”

I looked at her,
trying to imagine the two of them together.
No way.
“Um, he’s 6’2”. Way
too tall for you, girlfriend.”

She scoffed
indignantly. “I beg your pardon? I like my men tall. Besides, it’s the least I
can do for my country, welcoming home the troops.” She laughed at herself.

“Hey, that’s not a
bad idea,” I said.

“That’s more like
it.”

“No, I mean
welcoming him home. We should do something really nice for him.”

“Oh! That would be
great! We could plan a huge welcome home party and have all girls come with us
to the base when he flies in! Get a bunch of red, white, and blue balloons and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Take a breath, Sandra! Jimmy wouldn’t like the fuss. Trust me. He wouldn’t. I
was just thinking we could have a party for him or something. Invite a few
friends. Oh . . . I guess I should invite Tucker, shouldn’t I?”

She looked at me
for a moment then mumbled something in Spanish under her breath. I’d grown used
to these running commentaries, though I was never quite sure what they meant.

“Why not pull out
all the stops and greet him at the base?” she groaned playfully. “Don’t be such
a kill joy.”

“Sorry. It’s just
not something he’d like. But I know he’d enjoy meeting some of my friends.
Tucker would probably know some guys to invite. Some of his old friends.”

She tilted her
head staring at me. “Tucker, huh?”

“Well, yeah. They
were really good friends when we lived here way back when. I know Jimmy
remembers a lot of the guys from here. He was a teenager by the time we moved
away, and I know he’s kept in touch with some of them.”

“Fine. Plan your
little party,” she smirked, picking up our empty plates and taking them to the
sink.

“Enough with the
pouting. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

She rinsed our
dishes and placed them in the dishwasher. “Speaking of Tucker, what’s with his
girlfriend?”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s not his
type. What’s he see in her?”

“I don’t know,” I
mumbled, clearing the rest of the table.

“What do you mean,
you don’t know? I thought you knew him?”

“Well, I know him,
but not really. We’ve talked a few times, that’s all. He’s Jimmy’s friend, not
mine.”

“Oh, I guess I
thought you all were close too.”

“Me? And Tucker?
No. Not at all. To me he’ll always be the kid who stole my Halloween M&Ms
and stuck them up his nose.”

Sandra threw her
head back and laughed hard. She had the cutest laugh. “No, no, no—don’t tell me
stuff like that! Now I’ll never look at Dr. Thompson again without imagining
those colorful candies in his nose!”

You and me
both.

The next day at
work, I was making my rounds but my mind was preoccupied with Jimmy’s return. I
knew I needed to let Tucker know and get him to help round up some of Jimmy’s
old friends. But I was hesitant. That whole ring thing still bugged me. And it
still bugged me that it bugged me.

I tapped on the
door of my next patient in 907. “Mr. Wilcox?”

“Come in!” a woman
called out.

“Good morning, I’m
Shelby Colter, your hostess.”

A short, rotund
woman stood by the bed, her face expectant. “Well, how nice! Wilbur? Do you see
the nice young hostess? She’s come to visit.”

Mr. Wilcox sat up
in bed, his face equally expectant. “Come in, come in! I’m Wilbur, and this is
my wife, DeeDee.”

“Nice to meet you.”

I gave them my
usual spiel, detailing our services and handing them my card and brochure.
DeeDee took the card, cradling it in her hands as if the White House had sent
it. Wilbur browsed the small brochure.

That would be the
last moment of silence I would know for more than an hour and a half. I’d seen
it before, patients like this and their family members. First timers. Usually
they came from small rural communities outside of Memphis. They’d never
experienced this kind of environment before, having doctors and nurses “wait”
on them, staff taking care of them, bringing them their meals—all by a mere
touch of the call button attached to their bed. Whatever malady may have
brought them here, they actually enjoyed all the fuss and attention. Strange
but true.

Turns out, Wilbur
Wilcox was a railroad man. An engineer. And oh, how he loved trains. By the end
of our long visit, I was fairly sure he loved
talking
about trains even
more. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the whole industry.
DeeDee listened attentively, though I had no doubt she’d heard it all at least
a thousand times before.

“So you see, by
the end of the Industrial Revolution, the train was much more than just a mode
of transportation. We were a pivotal part of the growth of this country, with thousands
of miles of track. Then, after the beginning of the next century—”

“Miss Colter, Miss
Shelby Colter.”

Thank you, thank
you! I’m being paged!

“I’m so sorry, Mr.
Wilcox, they’re paging me. I’ve got to go. But it was such a pleasure meeting
you.” I bit my tongue, resisting the usual reminder that he could reach me by
calling the number on the card. Somehow I was all too afraid he’d figure it
out.

I said another
silent prayer and headed to the nursing station to use the phone. By now I’d
grown used to hearing my name paged several times a day. Beepers were common
among doctors, but the rest of us didn’t have that luxury. I called the
switchboard and was given a number to call. I didn’t recognize it, but that
wasn’t unusual.

“This is Shelby
Colter.”

“Shelby, it’s
Tucker. I’m in the Madison café. Do you have time for a break?”

I felt a wave of
mild panic, not sure I wanted to go. I appreciated him wanting to look out for
the new girl, but I really didn’t want to make a habit of getting together like
this. Then I remembered Jimmy’s call.

“Oh, okay. Sure.”

“I just had a few
minutes and thought I’d check and see how you were doing with the new job.”

“Oh, it’s fine.
But I’m glad you called. I had a call from Jimmy last night, so I wanted to
talk to you about something.”

“Great! See you
shortly.”

Self-talk can be
good and it can be harmful. I seemed to be doing a lot of it lately. Naturally,
I reminded myself this was all about Jimmy. I also reminded myself Tucker was
by now officially engaged. I further reflected on the knowledge that the girls
in my office never missed a thing. Any one of them could spot me having coffee
with Tucker, and I’d spend the rest of the day convincing them all over again
that we were just friends. My conversation with myself was still going strong
as I walked into the Madison café and spotted Tucker at a table near the back.

“You said Jimmy
called?” he asked a few minutes later as I sat down with my coffee.

“Yes, and he’s
coming home! He was leaving Guam last night when he called.”

“I thought you
said he was in the Philippines.”

“Yeah, I did. I
had no idea he was in Guam. But it doesn’t matter. I’m just glad he’s finally
coming home.”

Tucker reached
over and squeezed my hand. “Shelby, that’s great! You must be so relieved!”

“I am. I just can’t
believe it. And he’s catching a flight to the base in Millington. I guess that’s
not far from here?”

“Not at all—it’s
just up the road. What a relief to get him back in the states, huh? When will
he come in?”

I stirred the
cream in my coffee. “I’m not sure. He had no idea. I get the impression they
catch a flight here, a flight there, just trying to make it home.”

“Well, let me know
when he’s due in. I’d love to see him.”

I tucked my hair
behind my ear. “Actually, I was wondering if you could help me. I’m thinking of
throwing a welcome home party for him and—”

“Count me in! How
can I help?”

“Really? Well,
thanks. I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know, but I was wondering if you could
get in touch with some of the other guys you all used to hang out with. Are any
of them still here in Memphis?”

He yawned then
scratched the day’s growth on his chin. I figured he must have been on a long
shift. “Let’s see. I know Pat Sulley is still in town. Blake Fenton’s around
somewhere. Oh, and Chris Hawley’s back, coaching football over at Briarcrest.
Andrew Mitchell lives in Jackson, but he’d drive over if he knew Jimmy was
coming in. Then there’s Lance and—”

“Okay, I’ll let
you work on that. I don’t remember any of those guys.”

“You don’t?” He
actually looked shocked.

“No, none of them.
You might find this hard to believe, but I tried to avoid you and Jimmy and
your legion of pests.”

“Well, yeah, I
guess I can’t blame you.”

“If you can get in
touch with those guys, then I’ll let you know as soon as I hear when Jimmy will
be here.”

“Shelby! There you
are!”

I looked up just
as my roommate approached the table. “Hey, Sandra. I was just taking a break.
You know Tucker, right? Tucker Thompson?”

Refined gentleman
that he was, he was on his feet, extending his hand to Sandra.

“Sure, I’ve seen
you around,” she responded. “Sandra Garcia. Nice to make an official
acquaintance.” She shot him her biggest smile.

“The pleasure’s
mine. Will you join us?”

She looked at me,
so I waved her to the seat beside me.

“Thanks,” she
said, still smiling and looking back and forth between us.

“Tucker, Sandra is
my new roommate.”

“Oh? Well, that’s
great. So how’s that working out? Any regrets?”

“Aside from some
rather messy finches, it’s fine.”

“Hey, those are my
babies you’re talking about!”

“Her messy, messy
babies,” I told him, rolling my eyes.

She laughed and
chatted like a magpie. It was truly a gift. She was such a natural around men.
I should take lessons. Stop the self-talk and learn to relax. Go with the flow.
Within five minutes, the two of them were like old friends.

“Oh.” Suddenly
Tucker was on his feet again, his attention focused somewhere behind us. Sandra
and I both looked over our shoulders just in time to see Cassie turn on her
heel and go out the door she’d apparently just come in.

He picked up his
empty cup and saucer. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me?”

With that, he was
gone. We finished our break, and left a few minutes later. We should have
waited longer. Just outside the cafeteria, Cassie was giving Tucker a verbal
lashing. We couldn’t help but overhear as we passed—us and everyone else within
a two block area.

“I’m not gonna
have it, Tucker. I’m done. First, you refuse to buy me the ring I want, then
you avoid me for two days without a single phone call—”