In high school, after I acquired the ability to drive and my own vehicle, I would spend many nights and weekends at the Border’s Book store at our local mall. The nice part about this ritual was that I had an assortment of activities I was involved in, such as the insane Chess club where I never won on Tuesdays while on Thursdays I indulged in playing round of Magic the Gathering.
It was the NON-CLUB nights or days that the strange or funny would happen. Thankfully there was always one of two witnesses to these events, whether April or Martin had showed up in time.
On this particular night, I was fortunate to be in both their company. Nothing exciting was going down at the bookstore and I had declared I was hungry. I grabbed them both up and we headed to the closest Bennigan’s. It’s sad that both Border’s and Bennigan’s has been gone for many years, but at least I can still share some funny stories.
We were seated in a booth, far in the back and even here at the restaurant. it seemed dead. Our waiter was a rather buff, athletic black man and we were having a blast chatting with him as he came back to check on us. As usual, I had indulged in sharing a huge appetizer and dessert with my pals but our dinner took an entertaining turn.
The music had stopped over the sound system and we were now hearing the karaoke vocals of the unseen patrons some place else in the restaurant. Needless to say, we were crying in laughter over the shrieks as most had voices that would crack mid-song. Our bartender then revealed that it was so empty, that we were hearing mostly the employees.
April and Martin exchanged evil glares.
Martin smirked as he spoke what the two had conceived, “I’ll pay you $20 to sing Like a Virgin.”
“Oh, no man I ca-” He paused and looked at each of us for a moment before he continued. “You serious? You’ll give me $20 to sing that?”
“YEA.” We had responded in unison.
He disappeared out of our sight and we looked at each other.
“He won’t do it….” Scoffed April.
“I don’t know,” Chuckled Martin. “It is 20 bucks!”
Then, it started.
The sound of bells and then we heard his voice.
He had managed to pitch his voice high enough and was sailing through the song surprisingly well! All I know is he really got into it and we were laughing way too hard. In the end, I think I gave him $20 and I think Martin and April gave him some money too. Sadly, he was the best singer all night!
Best night ever at the Bennigan’s!
Here’s a link to the song: https://youtu.be/s__rX_WL100
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