A Short Story/Playlist by Asher Barzaga
“If
music be the food of love, play on.”
-William
Shakespeare
Every
February 14th Frank Bautista would rent a room at the local karaoke
lounge: Happy Karaoke. He would order the same thing he did every year: Happy
wings, happy dumplings, and maehwasoo plum wine. This year was no different.
Awaiting the food order he had placed, Frank couldn’t quite decide on a song to
sing. Despite doing this every year he struggled to kick it off. Usually he’d
settle on something and eventually cap his entire playlist with Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie
Tyler, but the creative juices weren’t going. Something was missing this time.
As he continued to skim
the song book he began to hear the other room to the left of him. Although the
sound was muffled by the thin walls of the room, it was clear as day that this
girl had a beautiful voice and that she was owning I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston. As
soon as the song was over, she let out an echoing sigh into the microphone.
“Whooo! Yeah!” she said. “You’re
welcome Kansas City!”
Frank waited patiently
for her next song, but it wasn’t happening. Was she struggling to pick a song?
Was her rental time already up?
“Hello?” she asked into
the microphone. Frank just listened. “Happy Valentine’s Day to all those other
lonely hearts out there!”
Frank slowly stepped back
from the wall. He glanced to the song book, then back to the wall. He then
darted to the song book and quickly started searching artist section B. He eventually
found the song that he wanted to kick off his playlist with: song 0816: Treasure by Bruno Mars. He knocked on
the wall 3 times and started the song. Despite not having an audience that
could actually see him, Frank found himself dancing to the tune. Every step,
every slide gave way to an imaginary notion that he was on a stage and that the
girl in the other room was his audience. When the song was over he sat himself
down, short-winded.
“Man… I need to go to the
gym,” Frank said, away from the mic so that no one could hear him.
After a few seconds her
song would start in the other room. It was Heartless
by Kanye West. Her approach to it was less Kanye and more Dia Frampton, similar
to when she performed in The Voice. Frank
sat there quietly and just listened. He’d always heard the song in passing, but
her rendition left him with chills. Upon hitting the final note of the song
there was just the karaoke score tune and then silence. Frank sat there with
the song book which he began skimming through slowly this time.
Frank input the numbers
0799: Back at One by Brian McKnight.
It was the quintessential karaoke song for Filipinos. As soon as Frank put that
mic up to his lips he was like a man possessed. After all, he’d been singing
this song since he was 13. This song was pretty much muscle-memory at this
point. He recalled the moment his dad first showed him the song at a Filipino
party where they had the Sing-A-Long karaoke machine. Frank’s dad told him “I
guarantee you, this will get any girl. Any girl you dream of, trust me boy.”
And just like that, the song was over. Frank put his ear up to the wall.
“Nice…” she said on the
other side through the mic. Then there was a brief pause. Was she going to say
anything else? Was there another song? “But I think you forgot one thing…” she
continued. That was when You Can’t Hurry
Love by the Supremes kicked in. Even though Frank couldn’t see her, he
could tell that she was smirking through all of it. “Back at One didn’t work?” he thought. “That’s crazy!” When her
performance was over she asked “What else you got? I can play this out.” They
just went back and forth within their hour, singing their favorite songs:
L-O-V-E
by Nat King Cole
Billion
Dollar Love by Bright Lights
Wait
for You by Elliot Yamin
If
I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys
And finally, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra.
At this point, Frank had exhausted a good amount of wine and needed to go to
the restroom. He quickly walked out the door and made his way to the bathroom,
but not before passing by her door. He looked at it for a little while before
deciding it would be strange.
When he was done with his
business he made his way to his rented room and found a glass of water brought
in by the server. Next to it was a note. It read:
“Hey, that was fun.
Thanks for that. You should work on your Brian McKnight, but otherwise you
killed it. It was a lovely evening.”
Frank ran out and knocked
on her room’s door.
No response.
He opened it slowly and
saw the Happy Karaoke staff cleaning up. Time was up.
*****************************************************************
About a week later Frank
found himself walking around Town Center listening to Sober by Childish Gambino on his headphones. He looked around store
to store at the discount chocolates and treats. He eventually opted for a
couple of sweet hearts, something he can snack on as he walked around. He then
made his way to his favorite record store: Timeless Tunes. He walked in and
greeted the owner with a wave and made his way to the vinyls. He passed by a
couple of vinyl’s that housed the songs they had sang that night: Nat King Cole,
The Supremes, etc.
That’s when he heard it.
He glanced over and saw a
girl, holding up a Whitney Houston record that was covering her face. She was
singing I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who
Loves Me) to herself. She put the vinyl down after a brief glance at it
And
Suddenly They Were About You.
Thing
Called Love – Above & Beyond
La
Meme Histoire – Feist
Fin.
