GUESS WHO I SAW TODAY – Essay

     Guess who I say today?  I saw Elvis at the shopping mall.  He was walking through the automotive section of Sears in a sequined jumpsuit.  I decided to follow him and see where he went.

     He seemed to wander aimlessly through all the aisles of the store until he saw the empty shoe department.  Once he saw that it was empty he immediately tried to jump up on a shoe platform only to find that since he had gained approximately 300 lbs. He could not jump high enough to get his feet off the ground.

     Once on top he started singing “Blue Suede Shoes”.  Instantly everybody's grandmother who was in the mall came screaming over to the Sears show department.  They started throwing money at the surprised sales clerk.  After his show concert ended Elvis left the store.

     I almost lost him after that as I was so engrossed in watching the sales clerk count all the money he had made, and all of the security people who had somehow shown up in the middle of the shoe concert and started carrying out grandmothers who had passed out from their excitement.

     However, at this point I took a guess at where Elvis would be.  I headed over to the food court.  Sure enough Elvis was in Taco Bell singing his order to the clerk.  The clerk was only about sixteen years old and didn't seem to recognize Elvis.  This really seemed to upset Elvis.  So he ate quickly and headed to McDonald's where the counter clerk was an older lady and once he was inside and she saw who he was she fainted.  That seemed to lift his spirits, so he ordered more food and ate happily.

     I ordered a light snack and sat down in a booth where I could watch the King eat.  When I finished my snack Elvis called med over to him.  I was shocked to find out that he noticed I was following him.  He told me it was all right and he knew the question I wanted to ask and he would tell me the answer, but first we had to go to the Baskin Robbins for some ice cream.

     In Baskin Robbins he said to me, “Son, I know what you are thinking.  You are asking yourself, “Why?”  So I'll tell you.  Being King was great but I just didn't have my freedom.  That's why I gave it all up for--freedom.  Now that is what I have--complete freedom.

     “King”, I said.  “You mean going through shopping malls all over the country is freedom?”  He said, “No, I've been going to shopping malls because the country-wide shopping mall tour was in my movie contract.  After all, even a completely free King has to make a living somehow.  After the King had finished he said, “Thank you.  Thank you very much.” and left.

     From somewhere I heard a voice come over the loud speaker in the mall say, “Elvis has left the building.” and I knew it was time to go home and marvel at my new wisdom.