"Believe what you want, honey, but it's the truth, so help me.”

Sue Belle shook her head, "I swear it's hard to believe. Why do you stay with her if she's so hard?”

"The pay is good, and as I said, she lets me sing one once in a while. Hell, I'll make a name for myself and go out on my own one of these days.”

"What's your name?" Sue Belle asked, still appearing to be dazed by what the picker had said.

"Oh, excuse the dickens outta me. I'm Bill. Most folks call me Billy. Billy Earle.”

"Why, my goodness," Sue Belle exclaimed, "I remember hearing you sing. Didn't you sing last month on the Grand Old Opry?”

"Yep, Bonnie let me do a solo.”

"Wasn't that nice of her.”

"Well, I reckon. But, the truth is she stole one of my songs and recorded it as her own, and she made a deal with me, when I found out, that if I let her have the song, she'd give me a solo on the Opry. Simple as that.”

They talked a while longer, then Billy suggested they go to his motel so he could clean up a bit before taking her out on the town. "Hell, honey; I've been drinking all night. Gotta refresh myself.”

Sue Belle rolled her eyes at him and replied, "Is that all you have in mind?”

"Well now, I could be coerced into something else, if you know what I mean.”

Sue Belle giggled. Why not? Why the hell not? She had to eat, didn't she? She had to have a place to sleep so what the shit, she admitted, she would pay for it with the only thing she had left to pay with, BUT, she wished Billy was older. As old as her father at least!

Out on the sidewalk, the heat that had welled from down Mississippi way smothered them. Billy pushed his black Stetson to the back of his head. "She-it! Ain't it a doozer out here." He motioned with his head, "Around the corner. My caddie's got air.”

Once inside the 1972 Cadillac, Billy turned the air to high before pulling away from the curb. When the temperature inside the car was comfortable, he squealed around the corner onto Broadway and headed west.