“Dodger,” he called out. “Look who’s here. It’s little Cilla. She’s come a long way, Dodger, to be with little us.” Using endearing terms like “little us” was his way of being affectionate. His mother had raised him on this sweet talk and Elvis spoke it with those he cherished. Feet, for instance, were “sooties”; milk, “butch”; teeth, “toophies”; love, “yuv”; little, “yittle.” In moments of intimacy he would switch to third-person address: Him yuvs you and her yuvs him.
