phone?’ Sharon said with a smile appearing on her face.
Holly gestured wildly to her behind Daniel’s back.
Daniel cleared his throat nervously. ‘Yes, you called the club last week and I answered – does that ring a bell?’
‘No, sweetie, you’ve got the wrong girl,’ Sharon said politely.
John threw Sharon a dirty look for calling him sweetie; if it was up to him he would have told him where to go.
Daniel brushed his hand through his hair and appeared to be more confused than everyone else. He began to turn round to face Holly.
Holly nodded her head frantically to Sharon.
‘Oh …’ Sharon said, looking as though she finally remembered. ‘Oh – Daniel!’ she yelled a bit over enthusiastically. ‘God, I am so sorry, my brain cells seem to be going a bit dead.’ She laughed like a mad woman. ‘Must be too much of this,’ she chortled, picking up her drink.
Relief washed over Daniel’s face. ‘Good, I thought it was me going mad there for a minute! OK, so you remember us having that conversation on the phone?’
‘Oh, that conversation we had on the phone. Listen, don’t worry about it,’ she said, waving her hand dismissively.
‘It’s just that I only took over the place a few weeks ago and I wasn’t too sure of the exact arrangements for tonight.’
‘Don’t worry … we all need our time … to adjust … to things … you know?’ Sharon looked at Holly to see if she had said the right thing or not.
‘OK then. Well, it’s nice to finally meet you in person,’ Daniel laughed. ‘Can I get you a stool or anything?’ he joked.
Sharon and John sat on their stools and stared back at him in silence, not knowing what to say to this strange man.
John watched with suspicion as Daniel walked away.
‘What was that all about?’ Sharon screamed at Holly as soon as he was out of earshot.
‘Oh, I’ll explain it to you later,’ said Holly. She turned to face the stage as their karaoke host stepped on stage.
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!’ he announced.
‘Good evening!’ shouted Richard, looking excited. Holly rolled her eyes to heaven.
‘We have an exciting night ahead of us …’ he went on and on and on in his DJ voice while Holly danced nervously from foot to foot. She desperately needed the toilet again.
‘So first up tonight we have Margaret from Tallaght who is going to sing the theme to Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. Please put your hands together for the wonderful Margaret!’ The crowd went wild. Holly’s heart raced. The hardest song in the world to sing – typical.
When Margaret started to sing, the room became so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. Holly watched everyone’s faces. They were all staring at Margaret in amazement, including Holly’s family, the traitors. Margaret’s eyes were closed and she sang with such passion, as though she had lived every line of the song. Holly hated her and contemplated tripping her up on her way back to her seat.
‘Wasn’t that incredible?’ the DJ announced. The crowd cheered again; Holly prepared herself not to hear that sound after she sang. ‘Next up we have Keith. You may remember him as last year’s winner and he’s singing “America” by Neil Diamond. Give it up for Keith!’ Holly didn’t need to hear any more and rushed to the toilet.
She paced up and down and tried to calm herself, but her knees were knocking, her stomach was twisted in knots and she felt the beginnings of vomit rising to her mouth. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to take big deep breaths. It didn’t work, as it only made her feel dizzy. The crowd applauded outside and Holly froze. She was next.
‘Wasn’t Keith terrific, ladies and gentlemen?’
Lots of cheers again.
‘Perhaps Keith is going for the record of winning two years in a row. Well, it doesn’t get any better than that!’
It was about to get a lot worse.
‘Next we have a newcomer to the competition and her name is Holly and she’s singing …’
Holly ran to the toilet and locked herself in. There was no way in this world they were getting her out of there.
‘So, ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Holly!’
There was a huge applause.
Chapter Fourteen
It was three years ago that Holly had taken to the stage for her debut karaoke performance.
Not coincidentally, it was three years since Holly had taken to the stage to do karaoke.
A huge crowd of her friends had gone to their local pub in Swords to celebrate one of the lad’s thirtieth birthdays. Holly had been extremely tired as she had been working overtime for the past two weeks and she really wasn’t in the mood to go out partying. All she wanted was to go home, have a nice long bath, put on the most unsexy pair of pyjamas she owned, eats lots of chocolate and snuggle up on the couch in front of the TV with Gerry.
After standing on an overcrowded Dart all the way from Blackrock to Sutton Station, Holly was definitely not in the mood to stand all night in a packed stuffy pub. On the train, half her face had been squashed up against the window and the other half lodged underneath the sweaty armpit of a very unhygienic man. Right behind her a man was breathing alcoholic fumes rather loudly down her neck. It didn’t help matters that every time the train swayed he ‘accidentally’ pressed his big beer belly up against her back. She had suffered through this ordeal everyday going to work and coming home for two weeks and she could take it no longer. She wanted her pyjamas.
Finally she arrived at Sutton Station and the very clever people there thought it was a great idea to all get on the train while passengers tried to get off. It took her so long to fight her way through the crowd to get off the train that by the time she reached the platform she saw her feeder bus drive off, packed with happy little people smiling out the window at her. And because it was after six o’clock, the coffee shop had closed and she was left standing in the freezing cold waiting for another half-hour till the next bus arrived. On top of everything else, this strengthened her desire to cuddle up in front of the fire.
But a good evening at home was not to be. Her beloved husband had other plans. She arrived home tired and extremely pissed off to a crowded house and thumping music. People she didn’t even know were wandering around her living room with cans of beer in their hands and slumping themselves on the couch she had intended to inhabit for the next few hours. Gerry stood at the CD player acting DJ and trying to look cool. At that moment in time she had never seen him look so uncool in her life.
‘What is wrong with you?’ Gerry asked her after seeing her storming upstairs to the bedroom.
‘Gerry, I am tired, I am pissed off, I am not in the mood to go out tonight
