The High Notes: A Novel(3)

“Have you had singing lessons?” Harry asked her, still amazed by what he’d heard, and Pearl handed her another Coke.

“No, I’ve just been singing all my life. I sing in church choirs sometimes, when we stay somewhere long enough,” Iris told him. There was no way her father could have paid for singing lessons, but she didn’t say that because it would embarrass him. “I listen to the radio a lot.”

“She knows all the hit songs,” Chip intervened again. “So what do you think?” he asked Harry.

“I think you have a prodigy on your hands.” The contrast between the way she looked and the way she sang was utterly incongruous, and he didn’t know how people would react, particularly since she was so small and looked so young.

“Why don’t you try her for a couple of nights? I guarantee your customers will be begging you to get her back.” It was entirely possible after what he had just heard. Live entertainment was hard to come by. They had to rely on the occasional cowboy band, or a group passing through on their way to somewhere else.

Harry turned to Chip and asked him, “What did you have in mind?” At night there were two waitresses, Pearl and Sally, and Harry tended bar. It was a small operation, but a profitable one. The ranch hands left pretty good tips when they drank. The food was decent and he had a loyal clientele. The cook came in at night. Harry made lunch himself.

“Six nights a week, twenty-five a night.”

“Weeknights are slow. Maybe Thursday through Sunday,” Harry countered.

“Five nights at thirty bucks a night,” Chip said, “and she gets to keep her tips. You won’t be sorry. And weeknights won’t be slow if she’s singing.”

Harry wondered if Chip might be right, and he felt sorry for Iris, with her father dragging her around bars to have her sing, at her age.

“You’ll keep an eye on her so no one hassles her?” He looked at Chip sternly, and he nodded. “We’ll try it for a week and see how it goes. If people love it, she can have the job, five nights at twenty-five a night.” That would give them five hundred dollars a month, which would make a big difference for them. It was easy money, and Harry could afford it.

“And I’ll get her in and out. She can wait for me in the truck.” It sounded like a miserable life for a kid her age, but she didn’t look unhappy. While the men were talking, Pearl offered her a piece of peach pie with vanilla ice cream on top, and Iris stared at it hungrily. She sat down and gobbled it up immediately, and took the plate out to the kitchen. The equipment was old, but the place was clean.

Chip had a beer before they left, and told Iris to wait for him in the truck. She left quietly after thanking Harry and Pearl. After Chip left, Harry turned to Pearl and shook his head.

“That poor kid. He’d have her singing in a coal mine if it made him a buck. But her voice is a gift from God.”

They’d agreed that she would go on at nine o’clock and do a full set. She would be starting in two days, on Wednesday.

“What if they don’t like what I sing?” She looked at her father nervously as they pulled up at the house where they were living for now.

“They’re going to love you. And you’re going to be a big star one day. Don’t forget that. What are you going to wear?”

“My blue dress.” It was the only nice dress she had, and she rarely got a chance to wear it. She had a pair of sandals to go with it. She wore that when she sang in church.

“You’ll make some money on tips too.” Chip was smiling, pleased with himself. They needed the money, and this could be the start of her singing career. The possibilities were endless. He’d been waiting for this moment for years. She had found her voice at six.

“They’re nice,” Iris said, thinking of Harry and Pearl, and the peach pie and Cokes.

“So is the money.” Chip grinned broadly, as they got out of the truck, and Iris went to check that her blue dress looked all right. She was nervous about singing at the bar, but she liked the idea too. As long as she got to sing, everything would be okay. Singing always fixed everything and made her happy.



* * *



—

On Wednesday night, Chip drove Iris to Harry’s at eight-thirty. They got there in ten minutes, and he told Iris to wait in the truck, just as he had told Harry he would. Once inside, he sidled up to the bar, and had a beer with a whiskey chaser. By the time he finished, it was time for her to go on.

Harry told him to bring Iris in through the kitchen. The stage was set up for her with a microphone, and Chip plugged in the boom box for the instrumentals.

When Harry saw her walk in, in her little blue dress the color of her eyes, he wondered what he was doing and if he was crazy. No one saw her arrive. He dimmed the lights, and got up on the stage himself and said that he had a surprise for his customers. They had a special guest with them that night, Iris Cooper.

She hopped onto the stage when Harry stepped down and smiled at the people finishing dinner and standing at the bar. Her father turned on her music. No one knew what to expect, and then she started to sing. She sang a few country songs made famous by well-known singers, moved into ballads, and some show tunes, sang a couple of current hits, and closed with a gospel song that had everyone applauding as soon as she finished. People were stunned by what they’d heard. She bowed and thanked them, and suddenly looked like a girl again. It was as though she morphed into an adult when she sang, and then turned back into a child again when it was over. She grinned from the stage, and said, “See ya’ll soon!” then hopped down and disappeared into the kitchen, where Pearl handed her a plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes to take back to the truck with her.