July 4, 1976
"Welcome, everybody," Andy said through his microphone in his radio tone of voice, "This is Andy Brown."
"And I'm Rain Mathews," I said, "And we're on the air live from Elvis Presley's performance here in Tulsa for America's Bicentennial!"
"That's right! So go outside, have that cliché barbecue and turn your radio up loud if you wanna hear the King of Rock and Roll!"
Yes, we were broadcasting live form an Elvis Presley concert. I had been looking forward to the event ever since it had been announced at the radio station. Once I'd been able to tell everyone about it, they all freaked out when I did. It made it even better that my boss had somehow managed to get passes to actually meet Elvis after the show was over for all of us, even for Eric.
Somehow, Eric had found me a few months previous to the present time. He was my older brother by about three years, and we only had the same father, but different mothers. His mother had been married to my father first, but they got divorced after only a few years, and she moved to Virginia with Eric. Then, my dad married my mom, and the rest is history. Not long after he came to Tulsa, we took some sort of test to prove that we really did have the same dad, proving that he was my half-brother. He decided to move to Bixby not long after, which isn't too far away from Tulsa. He had originally came to Oklahoma for a job he got, then when he found out about me, he found me. While he'd been here he started his new job, had gotten a nice place to live, and even a girlfriend.
It was kinda weird sometimes to have an actual brother. It wasn't the fact that he's my brother that was weird, cause that wasn't it at all. It was more so that I had grown up all with guys around me who I considered "brothers" to me, and now having an actual brother, it was so surreal. It also seemed a bit odd since I'd grown up not knowing him, and he grew up not knowing me, while the case is usually siblings grow up together and that we hadn't met until we were adults.
Not the most normal scenario, really; or should I say not that most normal "Family reunion", in this case? And besides, what is normal, anyway?
Everyone was at the concert. Could you blame people for being excited to see Elvis? I mean, sure, Elvis' popularity wasn't as big as it was in the late fifties or in the sixties, but that didn't seem to make a difference to those in the audience. It sure didn't make a difference to me, at least. And to be honest, I hadn't been so excited for a concert since we'd all driven from Tulsa to New Orleans in Louisiana in 1970 for a Doors concert- one of their last, actually- and we snuck backstage to meet the members of the Doors, or when the radio station sent me and Andy to Tucson in Arizona in 1974 for a David Bowie concert where we then got to meet and interview him… and I was really excited for those.
"The concert'll be starting soon since all the other acts just finished," I said, "So if you're just tuning in, you didn't miss anything yet and you couldn't have chosen a better time to join us here!"
"You're all in for a real treat, folks," Andy said, "Whether you're here at the concert, at home, some sort of celebration or whatever you're doing- if you're listening in, this might be the time for you to hear Elvis Presley live."
"With the exception of Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite from 1973 a few years ago, of course."
The concert had begun not long after that. To say that concert was incredible would be an understatement. He sang the songs that had been released all throughout his singing career, both rock songs and his gospel hymns. Along with those, his patriotic songs were sung as well, which went right in with the holiday and made sense for the current holiday. Then at the song, he said that he loved the people of Tulsa- which made everyone go nuts- and that if we ever wanted him to come back for another concert, "just let us know".
In all honesty, my favorite part of the concert was how he ended it by singing Can't Help Falling in Love from Blue Hawaii.
After the concert ended, we all went to the special hidden area where the performers went. My boss and his friend had convinced his people to let him stay for another ten minutes for those from the radio station and their guests, saying it would be "good publicity". None of us argued, cause they agreed to let us all meet Elvis and that they would take pictures of us all with him for the radio station- and then we'd all get individual copies.
I was shocked when they allowed this, considering there was nearly twenty-five of us there in total. What had been agreed was that there would be six group pictures taken- all those from the radio station, Andy and his "guests", me and my "guests" which was nearly eighteen people, all the guys attending, all the girls attending, then one whole group shot- along with autographs. The pictures would be taken using the radio stations camera, who would then develop all the photos and make copies for all those who attended- which also included KJ, Sky, DT, Mariah, Patrick and Elizabeth, which was pretty cool.
"Mama?" KJ started, "Is this the man you said sings Mama's Song?"
Whenever KJ would get really upset or couldn't fall asleep, he'd ask me to sing Can't Help Falling in Love to him, which he would called Mama's Song. I smiled at him and answered, "Yes he is. I heard from him a few years ago."
"Is Daddy and Sky gonna meet him too?"
"Yes, they are. And so is Aunty Kay, Uncle Eric, and everyone else. Are you excited?"
KJ smiled eagerly and nodded, making me chuckle. We walked up to everyone where they were standing, waiting to take the pictures. I walked over to Keith who was holding SKY with KJ and waited with everyone. "You have no idea how excited Keilah is," Keith told me with a chuckle, "This is like a dream come true for her."
"I'm just happy she could make it," I said with a slight shrug, "I was afraid she wouldn't be able to."
"You kiddin' me? She wouldn't miss the concert for the world. Even if she had something to do today, she would've dropped it in a heartbeat just to come. You 'member how excited she got when you told her, right?"
I laughed. "I don't think I'll ever forget. If I ever get pregnant again, remind me not to let her hug me ever again. She lost that right in January."
He then laughed. "You know she ain't gonna listen. Htat girl can't go ten minutes without hugging someone, and you know it."
"I know, I know. Remember when she first officially welcomed Eric to the family?"
"I was afraid she was gonna kill him."
I laughed again. "Well, somehow she didn't," I chuckled.
Not long after that, we took the pictures with Elvis. To say I was overjoyed would a complete understatement, but of course I had to act cool. That was a perk of working at the top radio station in the whole state of Oklahoma and doing the morning show: you get to meet awesome singers and members of bands. Honestly, I loved working at the station as a DJ, but that was my favorite part of the job and I'd be a dirty liar if I said otherwise.
It took ten minutes exactly to take all six pictures and do all the autorgraphs. The whole time, I held in my excitement and tried to act professional, and I think it went well. Everyone stood talking while Elvis and the group with him got ready to leave. While I talked with Candy, I held Sky in my arms and KJ stood nearby playing with Mariah and DT. Candy and I gave weird looks as KJ stopped playing with Mariah and DT and walked over toward Elvis.
I followed KJ to them as he tugged on the sleeve of one of the men, gaining the man's attention- and Elvis' attention. "My Mama said he's the man who sings Mama's Song," KJ informed.
The man turned and looked oddly at Elvis, who had an amused smile on his face. I was intently as Elvis got down on his knee to be eye level with KJ. "What song is that, son?" he asked with a smile on his face.
I got Keith and the two of us walked up not too far behind KJ. "The one 'bout wise men," KJ answered.
Elvis chuckled again before looking up at me and Keith, smiling. "I'm guessing you two are his parents?"
The two of us chuckled out of nervousness. "Yeah," Kieth chuckled, "This is our son, KJ."
"Can I ask what Mama's Song about wise men is?"
"It's Can't Help Falling in Love from Blue Hawaii," I chuckled, "He loves to hear it, especially when I sing it to him when he's upset."
Elvis smiled again. "What're your names?"
"I'm Rain, this is my husband Keith, our daughter Sky, and you've already met KJ. And the majority of the people here are our family, too."
"You're with the radio station right?" When I nodded, he continued, "Well, Rain from the radio station, you've got yourself a wonderful family. Treasure them and don't let them go." He smiled one more time before he left with the group with him.
I looked over at Keith with a look of awe on my face, and he had the same look. "If I wake up and this was all a dream," I started, "I swear I will scream my head off."
Yes I had a celebrity appearance (technically) by Elvis. I have been planning this for months, and I really hope it worked so please please please PLEASE tell me if it worked out.
I'm almost done with two of my stories here on fanfiction. Net so YAY! No offense but yay, cause I write five chapters every two weeks for five stories, and it's actually really tiring. Not to mention I started doing experimentation with certain short stories for this site so yeah, I need a break. Like seriously, I do need a break, my wrist aches all the time from writing.
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Peace from all the hippies of the world =^-^=