Elvis At Work

The bell on the door rang, as a customer entered. Betsy looked up and saw Young Elvis - alive and well and looking very handsome headed towards the science fiction section. Betsy had seen many strange things at her job, but nothing quite like this. A typical day would include someone with their cat in a stroller, dressed up in ballroom dancewear. Or, a dog that says, “I love you” plain as day when the owner said it to them. But, never had she seen Elvis in the store.

“Ow!” Betsy whispered to herself after she pinched the inside of her elbow to make sure she wasn’t sleeping. She knew, logically, that this could not be THE Elvis, especially Young Elvis. He’d died before she was even born! That didn’t stop her from being a fan, though. She’d seen every movie she could get her hands on and had downloaded every song available. She had a few trinket pieces of Elvis-themed items, too. Atop her dresser was a miniature bust that stood about five inches tall. She used it to hold her bracelets when they were not in use. Sometimes her roommates would complain that she was playing Elvis again. All that to say, she KNEW Elvis well. She knew well that he was indeed dead and not in her shop browsing the science fiction selections. 

Curiosity getting the best of her, she wandered over to the aisle where he was. She inched in, as she pretended to look for a certain selection. When he noticed her he said, “howdy, ma’am” in a perfect Young Elvis voice. Betsy was not often found speechless - and, truth be told she wasn’t at this time, either. But, it did take her a second to catch her breath and respond. “Oh. Hi. Can I help you find something?” “Well, yes, as a matter of fact you could. Where can I find The Time Machine?” 

“The… what, now?” she slightly stammered. He really looked and sounded like Elvis. And, while Betsy definitely had never met Elvis to know, she was convinced he even smelled like Elvis would. “...He’s looking for a time machine, maybe it really could be…” Betsy slapped herself in her brain. “Don’t be a ninny!” Oh, he was saying something, she tuned into his words, “... Wells, you know, The Time Machine by Wells.” Oh! H.G.Wells’ Time Machine, the book, of course! She led him to an area where they had a section for “must read for the 21st century” books and pointed to the H.G.Wells section. Not wanting to hover and make things even more awkward, she returned to the sales counter and waited.

Her inner dialogue went back and forth between arguing why it couldn’t possibly be and telling herself how silly she was to even consider it. 

As she ran through her inner dialog, the bell on the door rang and another customer entered the store. Looking up, not knowing what to expect next, Betsy spotted the dog first - the spitting image of Chewbaca from Star Wars. “What a cute pup…” she started, as she looked up to the human. Only, it wasn’t a human, it was a Pikachu. Startled, Betsy gave a weak smile and asked if she could help them find anything. “No, we’re just browsing, thank you,” the pikachu said without even a single trademark “pika-pika” sound. Betsy found herself a little disappointed.

After that, the place filled up pretty fast. Everyone was in some sort of costume. Betsy had to double check that it wasn’t halloween. She knew it was May, but she still just had to make sure. Most of the people were dressed as science fiction or video game characters. It took a store full of fictional characters, but Betsy caught on that there must be something going on nearby. Being the quirky used bookstore on the corner usually led to having posters hung up for such events. But, she hadn’t seen an advertisement for a comic-con. However, that was the only thing that made any sense to her. 

The characters from many of her favorite things wandered around the store, from section to section. Some picked up books, a few found LPs they wanted, and most didn’t have any luck finding an item to purchase. By the time someone came up to the counter, Betsy had her wits about her and was all smiles. 

“Hello. Did you find everything you were looking for?” she asked. “That is a rather illogical question,” the Spock began, “it goes on the basis that I was looking for something, when really I was looking at everything until I found something I wanted to purchase.” Not the best Spock she’d ever seen, but he tried, so she gave a courteous laugh and made apologies. “What is this, anyway? Scotty beam you onto the wrong planet?” 

The Spock gave her the same level of courteous laugh that she’d given him. “There’s a pop-up con at The Gathering Place this afternoon.” Betsy thought she’d surely have heard of something like that happening. She gave a puzzled look and glanced slightly towards the bulletin board, as she geared up to ask about it the Spock noticed her confusion. 

“Oh, these aren’t planned in advance. No advertising is done. It just goes out through certain groups on social media and we come together spontaneously. It’s wild! We’ve been kicked out of places, even!” This Spock had completely dropped character and Betsy took notice. “I’ve never heard of such! What fun. You guys stay safe, no arrests or anything, ok?” The Spock agreed and left the store with an entourage of other Star Trek characters trailing behind him. 

It must have been about time for their ‘pop-up con’ to start, the other characters came to check out or left without making a purchase pretty quickly after the Star Trek crew parted. The store fell eerily quiet and Betsy gave out a little sigh. 

“Well, that was interesting, wasn’t it?” a voice out of nowhere startled Betsy. She let out a little yelp as she turned to see Elvis still in the store. “Won’t you miss the event?” she asked. “Huh?” he looked at her confused. “The pop-up con… isn’t that why you’re Elvis?”

“No, honey, I’m Elvis because I’m Elvis!” he rotated his hips in the trademark Elvis way.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Betsy suddenly sat up and blinked her eyes repeatedly, trying to figure out what was happening. She was in her bed, alarm clock blaring, fighting being awake. She finally smacked the clock to shut it up. But she still couldn’t shake the dream hangover feeling. She wrestled with herself about curling back in to sleep longer or going to get a cup of coffee and really wake up. She went for the coffee. 

“Wow! You look like you could use two cups,” Midge offered as she poured a cup for Betsy. “You ok?”

“No! Stupid Elvis invaded my dreams again. You know how I hate Elvis! Argh!!!!” and she stomped back to her bedroom, coffee in hand, hoping to shake the Elvis feeling looming over her before she had to leave for work - “and, there’d better not be any pop-up comic cons today, either!”

Betsy about ran dab-smack into John as she stormed down the hall. “What’s up with her this morning?” he asked. Midge gave a devilish grin and laughingly said, “oh, just Elvis in her dreams again.”