I’m All Shook Up
This Natchez Trace business has morphed into a series. Today, a character you may recognize, hiding within one you may not. If this is your first visit to the blog, or if you’re catching up, please go back to this post and read forward to digest it whole.
Nashville sure feels like a far piece from Tupelo, Mississippi. Even for a guy like me. Bigger ‘n life. Idn’t that what they say about people like me? Whoever ‘they’ be.
My brother, he’s only eight these days. Stuck in a no-count town in the middle-of-noplace. Tupelo. He takes hisself to school. He runs around outside. Chews some. Dips some. Ma don’t know none of that stuff, or she’d whup him good. To ever body, he’s just a regular kid.
I know better. I kin see things they cain’t, wanderin’ around out here in the wilderness. Like them Israelites. Down hollers and up hills. Back and forth. This-a-way and that-a-way. I don’t never git no rest. Don’t need it, anyways, in the shape I’m in.
It idn’t just that I see what he’s a-doin’ now, though. I’m what they call privileged. I kin see what he’s a-gonna be, kin peek through peep hole of time. That’s what the green leaves and all this open air does to a feller; it makes him see things, even when he don’t want to. When all they’re doin’ is showin’ him who he coulda been if he hadn’t been dead when he was born.
My twin brother, he’s a-gonna be somebody someday. He’s a-gonna git out of that podunk town, that beautiful boy who carries that face. That voice.
My face. My voice.
‘Cept nobody’s around to see. Just me, whistlin’ through the trees in the breeze, partin’ the confounded humidity like a tease, spyin’ on my twin brother Elvis like a whisper on the Trace.
Israelites! Brilliant!
Jim, I used to have a flannel graph set of the Exodus story when I was a little girl. It was cut out pictures that told a story, and their backs stuck to a piece of flannel. Of course, I used the characters and made up other versions of the Exodus story, or other stories all together.
You can do so much with flannel Andra! It is really under-estimated.
I wonder what Oily would do with it…………..
Dread to think!
Quite an interesting perspective.
I hope that’s a good thing……I didn’t start out to write it this way.
Never would have put this thought to paper before, Andra, but I have long believed that maybe those we love, who’ve gone on before us, can “see” our joys and triumphs; probably our slip-ups, too.
Enjoyed this segment of your series . . . a lot!!
It’s a comfort to think and hope they can, isn’t it, Karen? I wrote a post ages ago – I need to rerun it – about a friend of mine who died when I was a little girl. I still talk to him in my head sometimes and imagine he can hear me.
Oh very clever! I never realized Elvis had a twin who died at birth!! Or that the twin was named Jesse!! I liked his perspective on his brother. Too bad he couldn’t see the demise and do something to stop it.
I thought you’d like that tidbit if you didn’t know it.
I had to read and re-read…I got lost in the words which is a good thing…Interesting concept and well written. You are a font of creativity! And did you know that the Mormons did believe that one of the 12 Tribes was wandering around in N. America.
I knew that about the Mormons, though, in this case, I wasn’t thinking of them. I worried that people would be confused by this post, because I am not sure how many people knew Elvis had a twin. Probably lots of people, but I didn’t know it until yesterday.
It’s one of those things I read a long time ago, but takes up no brain cells/memory in my gray matter.
Love it! Can you imagine if the twin had lived – two Elvises! This is a cool series, Andra. I am intrigued by the Natchez Trace and will have to visit if I ever get to Nashville.
Jill, you and Dan would enjoy Nashville and the surrounding area. You like to hike, and the hiking on the Trace isn’t rigorous. You should definitely make a point to go for a weekend.
Andrew is very interested in the college there – Belmont University. I suspect that we’ll make that journey in a couple of years if that’s the way his interests continue. He wants to be a music man!
Keep me posted on that. I can make lots of recommendations for when you go if you want them.
Ha! Andra, I used that same flannel graph with some of my Sunday School teaching. I can picture it now! This was hauntingly beautiful…not really intending to make a pun here, it’s just the best way to describe getting chills! I’ve been to Tupelo…I’ve seen the house…I find Elvis an amazing storyline for someone being chosen for a unique destiny…you captured ALL that! Debra
I meant to write this post as the ghost of Elvis, but the twin thing sort of crowded in and demanded to be done instead. Fiction writing…….that’s the way it rolls for me. I fear MTM sometimes comes in the room and wonders who I am when I write fiction……..which is all I’ve been doing off the blog lately.
That’s why what you write comes through so clearly! I can hear another voice…this was really special!
Loved this post. Idn’t that right, Jesse?
Elvis has left the building.
This one is a favorite of mine. Even with the typo I still haven’t had time to correct today…….
I thought the typos were intentional ~ adding to the character of the character.
It’s your week for taking the breath away, Andra. What a tale. Fabulous. I had no idea he had a twin…
I’m sure a lot of people knew it. I never did until last night.
I see dead people! Or, live people seen by dead people. Or future dead people seen by past live people.
Very interesting mixture of the other side of the veil. Or, if amongst the trees, the vale. Places like this are always haunted – with the ghosts of family, of past civilizations, of fallen warriors, or children lost before their time. Powerful stuff.
Are we still lunching tomorrow? Where would you like to go?
It’s always interesting to weave stories around what the dead really see. That’s a popular concept at the moment, no?
Somewhere with lots and lots of cilantro! Wheeee! Oh, wait, best not.
But yes, lunch is still on. Santis? Or Taco Boy? Or?? You got another idea?
Santi’s. Noon.
Whoever gets there first starts drinking….
You’re just trying to guarantee that I get there at 11, right?
First one there start drinking, ast one to get there pays.
They open at 11………..race you there.
Your on!
My grammar and spelling are failing me this evening. Much as my typing skills are.
I can’t believe I am going to eat lunch at 11am………
Eat lunch?!? I thought we were drinking….
This. Is fabulous!
(as a teenage Elvis nerd, I did know about Jesse, but you’ve made him much more interesting)
Fiona, I wondered what you’d think about this one. I’m glad you liked it.
I mentioned your blog to my nine-year-old ‘niece’ last night. She was educating me about the Titanic, and I told her to go look at the balloon version of it on your blog. She didn’t know it was built in Belfast.
What an interesting perspective to tell Elvis’ story from. I am always intrigued by the voice of ghosts.
Me, too. Obviously. So many opportunities for development of character.
This. Is. Wonderful.
I love finding out something true like this through fictionalized eyes. It becomes magical in the telling.
This piece of the story happened almost by magic. It wasn’t what I intended, but these characters are insistent.
Very nice! I got all surprised.