Six Miles From Nashville by Elaine Littau Page A

want to pester her if she had started a new life without him. He thought that was what she was implying in the letter.
    Mrs. Barnes was abrupt with him when he went to see Betty at her home in Guymon. He didn’t understand why Betty hadn’t t old her family about him. He had been under the impression they were engaged. Had she changed her mind? He knew he shouldn’t have showed up on their doorstep without calling Betty first. He hated talking on the phone because he never knew what to say. If she was still interested in him, she would have to let him know.
    The questions poked around in his mind while he cleaned up. He stretched out on the bed to sleep. He was more tired than hungry and soon was dead to the world.

 
    Chapter 13
     
    Betty couldn’t believe that it had been a year since the birth of her baby. She thought of that desperate day and the little newborn. I hope he is better off than if I had kept him. She paced the floors of her small apartment. If I had known things would be as good as they are now, I wouldn’t have left him there. She ran to the bathroom and sobbed into a towel. I can never forget him.
    She returned to the kitchen, took a folder containing a sheaf of paper, and ran down the back stairs to meet with Bill before the morning shift began. They were working on their third song together. Some of the up and coming stars were vying for their work. As of yet, their only singing gigs had been doing demos for their songs as well as songs written by others in their group at the studio.
    Bill took the folder before she sat at the back table. He read over the lines and nodded his head. “This one is a good ballad. We needed it to balance with the little jingle-type hype we have been writing.”
    She pulled another piece of paper out of her coat pocket. “This one is a Christmas song. It is rough and could use your touch.”
    He took his guitar and strummed a chord. “Sing it as is. We will fill it in as we go.”
    The words stuck in her throat because they were so close to her heart. She began in her strong low voice,
    “Christmas without you,
    Isn’t Christmas at all.
    I watch for you in the meadow,
    when the snowflakes begin to fall.
    Losing you...”
     
    The song moved smoothly along, with pauses, as Bill adjusted the chords to diminished chords and minor notes in spots along the words that provoked emotion. His contributions to the lyrics polished it to something record-worthy.
    They worked well together and Sweetie watched with appreciation as she filled the salt and pepper shakers. She loved music and the brand Bill and Betty wrote was salve for her aching heart. Having the girl around took her further down the road to healing after the loss of Christiana.
    There was time to do a quick recording of the song with the portable cassette recorder. Bill typed off the lyrics on some typing paper and put it in a large manila envelope with the cassette tape. If Sonny Sawyer, the Country music star who had recorded their other songs, liked this one, it could be out by Christmas. The wheels of the recording industry moved slowly, but the people at the label liked their work and needed a new Christmas song to round out a Christmas album they were working on with Sonny. Surely they would hear from them by the end of the week.
    Betty ducked into the office. The song had brought out so many memories that she had a difficult time containing her emotions. All she could see as she sang the song was the little baby and Johnny. Why is my life full of so much loss?
    She powdered her nose and marched to a table full of her regular customers. “Will it be the usual? How about adding a short stack with those eggs? Miss Sweetie has homemade jam to go with the toast this morning. Want some of that with toast?”
    She took the order and placed water glasses in front of some new customers who bounded through the door and plopped into the nearest table. They took menus from beside the ketchup in the middle of the