For almost a year, his father had been away, and Buddy had impersonated the King, donning a white vest trimmed with gold brocade and colored beads, singing and gyrating his hips on the front porch for the neighbor girls, Cara and Darlene Knight. Some of the older neighbors, retirees from Hughes Tool up the street, complained about what they called his caterwauling. Buddy wanted to remind them that the King Himself had begun his career singing on street corners in Tupelo, Mississippi, but his mother said sometimes people didn’t care to be persuaded.
“King Elvis,” Night Train, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Fall 2002); Pushcart Prize XXVIII nominee; reprinted in Night Train: The First Ten Years.
