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 y’all 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.
“You were fantastic!” Pearl whispered to her. “They loved you!”
“It was fun, and thank you for dinner,” she said, before scampering back to the truck with the plate. Harry had left a bowl on the stage for people who wanted to leave a tip for her. Several people got up and dropped a dollar bill or two in the bowl. People talked about her for the rest of the night, and Harry grinned at Chip when the performance was over.
“She’s a winner,” he said to Chip.
“What did I tell you?” Chip said smugly. “She’s going to be big one day.” It seemed like a distinct possibility after listening to her for a whole set. “She can play requests on my guitar if you want her to.”
“They loved it.” Harry was beaming, still surprised.
Chip hung around the bar for an hour, and then went out to the truck where Iris was listening to the radio. She had finished the dinner Pearl had given her and taken the plate back into the kitchen. She’d had fun singing for their customers.
“How was it?” she asked her father when he drove her home.
“Pretty good,” he said. “Don’t forget to hit the high notes. They always love that.”
“I did.”
“You can go higher,” he reminded her, and she grinned.
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” she promised.
“You should bring the guitar too, in case they want you to play requests.” She nodded. This was going to be fun. It already was.
By the end of the week, everyone was talking about the amazing kid singing at Harry’s, and people were coming just to see her. All the tables were filled on Saturday, after her Friday night performance. She had made five dollars in tips the first night, eight on Thursday, ten on Friday, and sixteen on Saturday. Her father said he would keep the money safe for her, so she gave it to him.
On Sunday night, still feeling a little crazy for having a twelve-year-old singer at the bar and restaurant, Harry hired her for five nights a week, at the twenty-five dollars a night they’d agreed on. His customers loved the performance and people were asking him about Iris. He said she was just a very talented kid. They agreed with him.
Iris raked in the money for the rest of the summer. It slowed down a little in the fall, when people stayed home more and the weather cooled, but she still filled the house every weekend, and had increased business on weeknights. Harry asked Chip if it would be a problem on school nights, and he responded that Iris did her homework before she came to work, and could sleep in the truck after she performed.
Pearl had made Iris a new dress by then. It was a plain navy blue dress. Her father had let her use some of her tip money to buy a pair of plain black leather flat shoes. Nothing sexy or too grown up. She looked beautiful in her new dress when she sang with her long blond hair down. She was a pretty little girl and Pearl said she would grow up to be a beauty. Chip had been a handsome man before he’d started looking so dissipated from too much hard living. And she’d seen in an old photograph of her mother that she was beautiful. Chip had thrown the photograph away. Iris had none of her mother.
They stayed in Lake City until Christmas, when Chip decided it was time to move on. He wanted to try their luck in a bigger town, where he thought there would be more opportunities.
Iris was sad to leave. She loved singing at Harry’s, and Pearl and Sally, the other waitress, were so good to her. Harry was nice too. She’d have to go to a new school again when they moved to a new town. But Chip promised her he knew what he was doing. They’d make more money somewhere else.
Pearl made her a black velvet dress before they left. It had a white satin collar, and Sally gave her a headband to go with it, with little pearls she had sewn on it herself. Iris looked like Alice in Wonderland when she was onstage, and she sang like Barbra Streisand, or any of the big stars in Hollywood.
Pearl, Sally, and Harry had tears in their eyes on her last night, and Pearl hugged her tight. Iris had tears running down her cheeks when she left. She knew she’d never forget them.
“You need a bigger audience. More tips,” Chip said, as he drove out of town. “We’re heading for Houston. This was only the beginning. You’re going to be a big star one day . . . just keep hitting those high notes.”
She nodded, but couldn’t speak. She was too sad about leaving. Harry, Pearl, and Sally were the only family she had ever known. But her father had bigger dreams. He had a gold mine in his hands and he knew it. Harry worried about what would happen to her now, with a man like Chip as a father, who wanted only to exploit her. If she were to become a star one day, she had a long, hard road ahead.
Chapter 2
They hung around the Houston area for a few years, far enough outside the city that Chip could always find a bar where they’d let Iris perform. She was an oddity for the bars they found, a curiosity, but once they heard her sing, they would hire her. They’d stay for a few months, and then Chip would get the itch to move on. Iris went to a new school every time they got to a new town. She made a few friends, but not many. She knew they’d be leaving again soon, whenever her father got bored or heard about what he thought would be a better town with a better place for her to perform. He wasn’t particular about where he let her sing, and once they heard her, the bar owners’ objections melted like ice cream in the Texas sun. She was too good to pass up and their customers loved her. She still missed Harry, Sally, and Pearl, and dropped them a postcard from time to time. It reassured them. Harry would look at the cards she sent and shake his head.
“They moved again. That guy can’t stay in one place for six months.”
When she was sixteen, they went to Austin, which Iris loved. Chip didn’t. It was too polished for him, with a university, and too sophisticated. He liked the dusty cowboy towns, which were more familiar. But the money was good in Austin, and Iris was finally looking more grown up, so seeing her perform in a bar wasn’t as shocking. They figured she was a college student. She was still small, but she was starting to look more mature.