Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12)(79)

“Good!” Momma said. “You know what, Char?”

“What?”

“You’re going to be fabulous. I just know it. The costume alone should cinch it!”

She was only teasing. But can we have a word about her costumes? They were amazing. The gowns Momma made were in various stages of completion. For tonight, Char looked exactly like Cher had looked in her Sonny and Cher days. She wore vertical-striped low-rise bell-bottoms, a white shirt with billowing sleeves, a brown suede vest with long fringes, platform Kork-Ease shoes, and a headband worn Native American style over her long black wig, which was parted in the middle. She had hoop earrings, a long chain with a cross, and bangles on both arms. She wasn’t quite Cher; she was Char.

Momma had never been more supportive of Holly or of me at any moment in our lives than she was of Charlie in that one. But she knew what a chance Charlie was taking. Either Char had the talent or she didn’t. Even if there was no agent present in the audience, the club manager had been around long enough to recognize talent. He would make calls. Suzanne explained that in Las Vegas, just like in Hollywood, everybody’s in the racket for all they can get. So yes, club owners acted as managers and managers acted as agents.

Momma and I found a table and ordered iced tea. The tired waitress looked at us like we were crazy.

“Y’all never heard of iced tea?” Momma said and gave her some side eye.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said.

Finally, Suzanne returned and sat with us. The club began to fill up for the first set and we began to get excited.

“You know, when Charlie arrived in Las Vegas,” Suzanne said, “I thought he was a lost little lamb.”

“Not anymore,” I said.

“Not anymore is right,” Momma said.

Boy, had this family changed with the times, and Momma was all smiles, agreeing with everyone all over the place. Well, that was Suzanne’s fault.

“Your mother is a beautiful woman,” Suzanne whispered to me while the magician was pulling scarves out of audience members’ ears.

“Thanks. Suzanne? What’s your real name?”

“Buster,” she said. “Buster Henry. Retired military.”

“No shit,” I said.

Suzanne smiled like the Mona Lisa and said, “Yeah, no shit. I got sick of uniforms.”

“Okay,” I said. “I can understand that.”

“Costumes are more fun.”

What did it say that in such a short period I’d become accustomed to being with this lifestyle that was so foreign to mine? And what about Momma? Her transformation from an impossible old crank to a woman of a certain age with a reservoir of juice worthy of a squeeze was, well, nothing I ever expected. I wondered what Holly would say if she could have seen all this.

We suffered through the vocalist who tried to kill our love of music in general with her rendition of “Fascinating Rhythm,” with a truly lame tap routine interspersed between lyrics. The poor thing was out of breath and someone finally gave her a glass of water and helped her off the stage.

Then the stage went dark as the sound engineer began to play a medley of Cher’s music, one song leapfrogging to another, growing into a crescendo until, boom! The lights came on and there was Char, back to the audience, and as she turned she looked more like Cher than Cher. People began to clap spontaneously, and Char hadn’t really done a thing. But she had that something, that special something that stars have. Presence. Stage presence.

“Good evening, everyone! I know what you’re thinking. No, I’m not Cher. I’m Char, her identical twin sister! Isn’t that insane? I’ll bet she doesn’t even know she’s got one!”

The whole club was totally mesmerized. Even the club manager leaned against a wall to watch and the bartenders stopped taking drink orders. Char had them right in the palm of her hand.

She explained how her evil twin stole all her music and said that now, she was going to give us the real lyrics to “I Got You Babe.”

She was so damn good, I had tears running down my face. So did Momma, and Suzanne was about to pop out of her cocktail dress, her chest was rising and falling so fast. People were screaming and cheering, and when the song was over there were calls for more.

“Encore! Encore!”

“Oh, darlin’ little precious gems! I didn’t come here with just one story. Do y’all want to know who the real tramp in the family was?” Everyone laughed. “Uh-huh. You heard it from me! And how about the original lyrics to ‘Bang Bang’? Are we ready?” The lights went low and Char lip synced the Cher version but they had cut Char’s changes into the song so that it sounded like Cher singing Char’s song.

“How did they do that?” I asked Suzanne.

“I wouldn’t know, but then, there’s a lot of magic out here. Smoke and mirrors.”

When it was all over, the crowd stood and roared with applause and whistles. We clapped so hard, our hands stung.

Momma said, “Well, y’all, a star is born.”





“Honey never goes bad. Did you know that?” I asked.

Ted said, “I want to hear all about honey bees.”


Chapter Twenty-Seven



Ding-Dong

Ted was picking me up at six. I didn’t have the good sense to be nervous about having a date. I just told myself I was going out with a friend, because in my mind that’s what he was. Nonetheless, I did all the things to prepare that I’d watched Leslie do in our youth. The date ritual. Shower, hair, shave, moisturizer, and a measure of cosmetic enhancement. I wore a simple sundress and flat sandals that were a natural color. I borrowed one of Leslie’s purses and a spritz of her cologne.