Chapter 25

Naturally, I asked Maggie what she meant by Beth needing me and she told me that Beth had gone to Aunt Prudie for advice, believing that Elvis could help her. Apparently, Beth going to my aunt for advice wasn't anything new. She had been doing this since she was a seven and needed to know what to do about getting kissed so that she could turn into a princess.

Maggie didn't know what Beth needed advice for this time, but whatever it had been, Elvis and Aunt Prudie encouraged her to chase after me, which, of course, ended up with her being in the contest Maggie cooked up.

When I told George all this at school the next day, he was as amazed as I'd been the night before and decided he needed to go chat with Elvis himself. I found this to be as sane an idea as everything else I'd heard of late and wished him good luck.

He and Maggie hung together like always, that week, and in spite of knowing what I knew, I was still envious and felt a bit sorry for myself, which I wasn't the least bit pleased with. I mean, I had her all to myself at night and I was the one to whom she gave all of herself. I lectured myself for being silly and tried to focus on doing my thing with Megan, who was so much like her cousin Amy, I was scared to death of what our date would be like.

Feeling as I did, I was relieved when Megan said she just wanted to go out to eat and to a play at the community college on Saturday night. How much trouble could I possibly get into with such an innocent date? You would think I after all I'd been through, I would know better than to assume anything could stay innocent when it came to these girls, wouldn't you?

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and dinner at a somewhat fancy steak place went without any clothes being pulled off or my being pulled into corners for wild kisses and whatever, and I thought I had it made. Again, I've got to learn to stop thinking.

We were almost home, on a stretch of road that wasn't very busy any time, when in the middle of Megan's run-on monologue about her desire to have at least ten of my kids, my truck sputtered and died.

Wondering what else could possibly go wrong in my life, I pulled the flashlight out from under the seat and went to check things out under the hood. When I found nothing wrong, I climbed back in the truck and happened to glance at the gas gage. No gas.

I couldn't believe my eyes and looked three more times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I even turned the key after the last look. My gas gage always works and I knew darn well I had just put gas in that -- I closed my eyes and groaned to myself. I never got to the gas station that morning as planned because Dad had flagged me as I passed our place and got me to help him pick up some things in town and then help him work at the house. With all the craziness that ensued with that, the gas station was pushed from my mind and now I was sitting here with Megan on a stretch of road where the nearest house was at least two miles away.

Speaking of Megan... during the time I was checking things out, she followed my like a puppy, continuing to talk about her plans for our future. She wanted the wedding to be in Hawaii and like, Amy, wasn't bothered by all the expense this would be. "Daddy would pay for everything." I wondered if her daddy and his brother, Amy's daddy, knew of the confidence their daughters had in their ability to provide for the extravaganzas they were planning for the day they said, "I do." She also wanted us to have matching white Corvettes, "which Daddy will give us for a wedding gift."

I really hated to interrupt her at the point where she was describing our house, which sounded like it would give Windsor Castle a run for its money, but she needed to know the situation and that we were going to have to do some walking to get help.