It was Ruby’s idea to turn the saloon’s karaoke night into an October-themed event. Morbid decorations hung from the bar and every available wall space. Brian’s favorite was a half-decomposed skeleton with red eyes that cackled whenever you headed into the bathrooms. The regular menu was supplemented with strange but tasty appetizers like “witch fingers” and “entrails.” Bright, colorful cocktails were at half-price, like the Goblin, which had Bacardi, Midori, coconut, lime and pineapple.
The actual karaoke and filler music between participants? That was rough. There were only so many versions of ‘I Put a Spell on You’ one man could take. The traffic was steady, so Brian helped fill drinks and bus tables during the rush and took a load off when the opportunity presented itself. During a lull, he slid into a chair near the slot machines and scrolled his phone. In his black Lucky’s T-shirt and jeans, it was easy to blend into the background. His knee bounced lightly under the table, his face lit by the phone. One of the bartenders set a mystery drink in front of him and put a devil-horn headband on his head.
Ellie smiled at the bartender. She had come to Lucky’s on a whim; the drawings on the sidewalk outside had been done and kept up as much as possible considering she coordinated with Brian about it a while ago as promised. Trying to keep eventful stuff off of her mind, she escaped to the local bar for a change of pace. Things back home with her mother’s health warranted a visit. She would go back home the week of Halloween but for now would enjoy the festivities here.
Her nose wrinkled as the off-key warble from the stage met her ears. Then Ellie laughed a little bit. Karaoke was fun in the right situation and she admired the courage of the patrons brave enough to belt out old tunes in front of strangers.
She took a sip and then spotted a familiarish face clouded in the blue light from a mobile phone. Brian? Ellie picked up her drink and wandered over, head ducking as she did her best to recognize her friend. Oh yeah, that was him. Who could miss that hair? “Hey!” She hoped he didn’t mind chatting for a minute. “Not a bad rendition of this song, wouldn’t you say?” A thumb over her shoulder at the stage and Ellie took another drink of her beverage.
“This? Nah. The Marilyn Manson version about…” He checked his watch. “Thirty minutes ago? That one was grueling.” He picked up his glass and sniffed it. Whew. Gin, Jägermeister, and Red Bull if his nose wasn’t lying. Were they trying to kill him? Brian moved the drink out of Ellie’s way and used his shoe to push back a chair. “I’m glad you’re here. I want to show you something.”
The werewolf swiped through the icons on his phone and pulled up the bar’s Instagram account. Brian angled the screen for her. “Check this out.” It was a video taken outside Lucky’s. A light went out and a pair of employees stumbled out the front door after a late shift. The bartender in the back shoved a burly cook towards what looked like a pit straight into hell, but was an optical illusion made by chalk. The resulting scream and flail was followed by a louder eruption of laughter and the camera shook as it turned to Brian’s face.
Ellie had settled into the seat. She covered her mouth to stifle a laugh at the video, snorting in spite of her attempts. Her cheeks flushed. “It worked!” Excitement flowed through her like electricity - she was glad to have helped with the prank. “I did a bit of a touch up before I came in.” Her free hand lifted from where it had been at her mouth to let her fingers flutter toward the door where the hole was.
She took a sip from her drink carefully - it was called the Corpse Bride and she wasn’t sure exactly what was in it - then wrinkled her nose at the explosion of flavors. “How are you?” Brian had slowly become a friend and Ellie didn’t like to assume that everyone was always better than okay. She smiled at him.
The audience clapped. Hard to say whether it was for the performer’s good spirit or reaching the end of the journey. Brian followed Ellie’s example and tried his drink. A bar manager knew a hangover-maker when he tasted one and this thing would make his head ring like a bell at a boxing match. He kept swallowing.
“I’m good.” Brian smiled and touched the top of his head. At least it wasn’t eyeballs on springs. He took off the sparkly, horned headband and gently placed it behind the Texan’s ears. “I think this looks better on you,” he said. “Thanks for touching up the drawing. You outdid yourself.” He adjusted the angle of the accessory and picked up his phone. “Smile, Ellie.”
Ellie looked up at the thing as it was placed on, before she crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out for the potential picture. She could only hold that for a second before bursting into a laugh. Maybe it was the shaken egg whites that made the drink come together but she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t drink as much.
“Are you going to sing?” Her eyes narrowed a bit, “I could see you doing a Monster Mash.” The old school Halloween trope songs were the best. Her Spotify playlist was full of them.
Brian smiled at the picture, posted it, then cast his eyes at his friend. “Am I gonna sing Monster Mash? No, because my coworkers would film it and put it on YouTube where it would haunt me for the rest of my life. Along with everything else,” he added, remembering that Tasha spotted an old video of him on the platform. “My little sister converted the family tapes and DVDs to digital and uploaded an arsenal of material to a channel-- wait, why am I telling you about that?”
He stopped himself and took another sip. “But I would do Superstitious… People Are Strange… Maybe Bad Moon Rising, but that one’s pushing cheesy for me. What about you?”
“Again with the YouTube,” Ellie teased. She understood. Anyone would have that fear and there wasn’t any blaming him at all. “But I am curious about this channel you mentioned.” Her phone would be drawn out and she pretended to type as if looking for it. “…Brian….Searchlight…YouTube…”
She said, “Mad World isn’t a bad one. Monster Mash is my favorite, probably.” Bad Moon Rising wasn’t a terrible song. It’s only fault was being repetitive on some of the radio stations in Texas and around there locally. “We will have to find a place for you to let your hair down and get loose that doesn’t have YouTube.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m pretty sure by the end of this drink I’ll be loose. It feels like a set-up.” At least he could rest easy knowing that Ellie’s YouTube search could only lead to the last two years of highs and lows. She needed better keywords to uncover the self-filmed rehearsals and karate chops in the Campo family basement. He folded his arms on the table and watched Ellie’s fingers cradling her phone. That made two name-drops of Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett and the Crypt Kickers… this girl really liked that song.
And she was still wearing the horns.
“Tell you what,” Brian said. “I’ll do it if you go up there with me.”
“Yeah? Where’d that being afraid of YouTube go?” She teased. Her gaze would turn to the stage for an assessment. Well if it wasn’t just her getting embarrassed up there, she found that to be a fair bargain. “Okay. What do you want to sing?” Ellie gazed over at Brian again.
She took a sip from her drink, and then another for a bump of courage. “I mean it could be worse, right? We could be in a coffee shop being silently judged by people drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes.”
“That’s a lot worse,” he agreed. It was a bad image. Brian could smell the cinnamon and nutmeg, feel the sobriety, hear the off-and-on grind of coffee beans. He watched Ellie knocking back her drink like a champ and raced to finish his own. It settled warmly in his stomach along with his previous beers. His tolerance was high, but damn. He fanned his t-shirt away from his chest.
“What do you mean, what are we singing? We’re doing your song.” Brian’s chair legs scraped on the wood floor as he got to his feet. He leaned down to ask, “You got the low parts, right?” and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Then he was off to talk to the woman running the karaoke machine.
At least with this type of a crowd you were more likely to get encouragement if you were half-decent. Surrounded by artistic, bougie, pumpkin lovers, the response could be a whole other endeavor. Ellie did like pumpkin but this…yeah, this was better. Her glass would be carefully pushed out of being ‘accidentally nudged by an elbow’ range.
Her face lit up. “I can handle it.” Ellie prayed she didn’t come down with a sudden case of hiccups. Then she followed after Brian to the request person. It was louder there, but she didn’t mind.
“Nikk, this is Ellie,” he said, introducing them. He had to raise his voice over the background music, a pre-recorded punk rock version of Spooky, Scary Skeletons. “Nikk’s been with me at Lucky’s for...” He shook his head, the math failing him.
“Too long!” Nikk answered cheerily.
“Too long,” he agreed.
Ellie waved at Nikk. She smiled, nodding, “That is a long time.” She doubted Nikk could hear what she said over the music but it was there anyway.
“She’s gonna hook us up. Ambience is like, fifty percent of this thing, right?” Brian shrugged. Nikk shrugged back. “Eh, close enough.” As they waited for their turn, Nikk went to a switch on the wall and lowered the house lighting, then changed the settings on the portable stage-lighting stand to alternate between purple and green.
Ellie looked up. “Okay!” She caught most of it.
Brian handed Ellie a wireless mic and took the spare. He put a hand on Ellie’s elbow. “You good?”
When the mic was handed to her she accepted it. Suddenly Ellie felt as if butterflies were flying around in her stomach but she nodded anyway, giving a thumbs up. Now was as good a time as any to be a little bit silly. Plus it kept her mind off of her problems.
“I was kidding about the low parts,” Brian told her, then he led the way onto the small stage. When he got there, a bartender did a wolf whistle, one he did his best to blow off. The good thing about the light stand bathing them in purple and green? It made it hard to see past their own noses. He squinted and found the display with the lyrics. “Definitely gonna need this,” he said into the mic. Monster Mash was one of those songs he heard all the time, but he only knew the chorus. “Do me a favor and say hi to Ellie,” he told the crowd.
A chorus of, ‘Hi, Ellie!’ and ‘Heeeeyyy!’ went up.
Ellie blushed at the greetings. Thank goodness the red hue was drowned out by the purples and greens. Her fingers wiggled in a wave but she smiled in spite of the flood of nerves and being embarrassed. “Hey!” She chewed at her lip and then emitted a soft, short laugh.
“Ellie’s the one who drew the hole on the sidewalk,” Brian said, drawing a mixture of laughs and a couple of good-spirited boos. He grinned and shoved a stool out of the way.
The music began around her. It was time to sing and Ellie took a deep breath, nudged Brian with an elbow, and belted out the words to her favorite Halloween song. It was not the worst rendition but she was nervous as the flutter in her voice gave away.
Brian noticed. He wasn’t the kind of guy to ham it up on stage, so he sang a relatively straightforward version, making a comical effort to harmonize when Ellie’s nerves knocked her off key. He grabbed her by the free hand and led her through some dance moves to the song in 4/4 time, twirling her under his arm at the bridge, a feat as they were almost the same height.
She laughed through one part, nearly twirling over her own foot. She managed to stay upright, though.
When it was over, Brian handed his mic to the girl on a stool awaiting her turn. “That was good!” he said to Ellie. “Come on!”
When it was done she handed the mic back over, relieved that it was over. But she giggled again. “It was fun!” More than she had in a long time. Ellie climbed down from the stage. She waited for Brian and then headed in the direction of the bar. A few patrons hooted and patted her on the shoulder. “I guess they really liked our song!”
“Oh yeah. That’s it for sure.” Nothing to do with the fact that she was pretty. At some point he’d lost track of being on the clock, so Brian went behind the bar and met Ellie from the other side. At least this way, he could make sure his next drink didn’t have Red Bull in it, or enough alcohol to make him take an impromptu nap on a pool table. He gave Ellie a glass of ice water and flipped a drink menu around so she could see it.
Another smile and she sat down on the stool. A leg would tuck beneath herself, she set an elbow on the counter and leaned in toward the water she’d been gifted. “Thanks!” A quick glance at the menu and then she stirred the straw in her glass, making the ice cubes click together.
“So what’s up?” Brian picked up an unsliced lime and leaned on the bartop. The fruit was passed between his hands. “How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been okay,” she offered, though her expression betrayed her. “I found out that my Mama is sick. Cancer.” The whole week she’d been trying to dodge it - trying to think about it in a rational way made her head hurt - yet it kept swimming back.
“I’m going to see her next week.” Then she made herself smile after a wince, “Sorry. You didn’t want to know all of that.” He probably had enough going on as it was without her problems too.
“Don’t apologize. I didn’t ask so you’d lie to me.” Brian’s thumbs mapped the bumpy peel of the lime. It was a lot; he searched for the right thing to say, or what he’d want someone to say to him, but came up empty. He was staring at the bartop, so he looked at her. “That really sucks. I’m glad you can get home. I think I’d lose it if my mom was sick and I couldn’t get to her.”
He stopped fidgeting and locked his hands together. “Are you two close?”
Ellie nodded. “We are. More when I lived there. I got sisters who are there with her but they’re young and she’s stubborn. Doesn’t always make for a good situation.” They could get on their mother’s nerves the same way she could theirs. They all loved each other but nerves frayed.
“I feel bad for leaving, and that I’m not there right now.” She couldn’t just up and fly out on the next plane. Things needed to be taken care of. “I’m glad your mom is okay.” She was, truly glad Brian didn’t know what this experience was like.
“If your mom’s like mine, she wouldn’t want everybody to make a fuss over her.” Brian pointed. “But… if she’s like my aunt, that’s exactly what she’d want, and she’d have an appointment book out, writing down who called and who dropped by, and who was getting called out at Thanksgiving.” He smiled. A customer came up looking for a refill. Brian stopped to pour another beer and add it to the man’s tab.
“Your Aunt is really like that?” She laughed a little bit. “I think our moms might be the same.” Hers liked to be doted on once in a while but she would never admit to liking the attention. “My sisters drive her a bit crazy.”
“Maybe you could make her something,” he said upon returning. “Something beautiful to look at when she’s going through treatment.”
Brian came up with a spectacular idea. “Oh yeah! I could do that.” Ellie had a few unfinished pieces in her apartment that could be crafted for that very purpose. It was a gift she knew her mother would love and not protest getting.
“I sent my dad a Lucky’s t-shirt and a pint glass. You’d think they were made out of gold.” Brian took a few dirty glasses off a tray and put them aside to be washed. He veered out of the way when a coworker passed an order of loaded nachos to a customer. If he could avoid getting a sliced jalapeno in the eye, that would be good.
“You should stick around. Play some pool. I’ll tell you who the worst players are so you can take their money.” Brian made himself a glass of water. He was buzzed already, no reason to get drunk on the job.
Ellie sipped from her water. It felt cool and refreshing even though she knew it was probably tap. Texas tap and Vegas tap were two entirely different tastes, she found that odd but somehow right. She laughed a little bit at his comment. He was cute, and so funny. Maybe you got that way when you worked in a place like Lucky’s.
“Okay, sure!” Maybe to hanging around, maybe to playing pool, maybe to both. The evening had been eventful and she wondered what twist it would take next. Only time would tell.