Inspiration Words: Shimmer and Bonus
“Let’s go to KTV! My family is going next week, and they invited us to join them.” Johnson and Anne sat sharing a bowl of Ma La Xiang Guo (mah lah sseeahng gwoh), a dish of meat and vegetables that had been stir fried together.
Anne stopped eating and started laughing until she looked at Johnson and realized he was serious. “Wait, you actually want to go?”
“Yeah, why not? Don’t you like to sing?”
Anne’s laughter started to turn into panic, and she felt her heart constricting. “Umm . . . ”
“We’re going to take you to KTV!” It was Anne’s first year in China, and she loved hanging out with her students. She was willing to try anything. Last week, they had taken electric bikes to the beach for a Chinese-style barbeque. The week before, it was a traditional opera downtown. Anne’s students were excited to introduce their country and culture to her, and Anne was excited to learn.
Anne agreed to go before she even asked what KTV was. In fact, the most information she got about it was that it had something to do with singing.
“You like singing, right?” Her students asked.
“Sure, singing is great!”
Friday night, Anne and her students met at a KTV just outside campus. Even though it was still early evening, music blared from several of the rooms they passed. The hallways were dark, and for the first time, Anne started to wonder what she had agreed to. Sure, singing was great, but they would be singing together, right—not like a performance or anything?
The worker showed them into a room, turned on a disco light and promised to return soon with the drinks. Drinks? This is a drinking thing? Anne didn’t really enjoy drinking, and the thought of being the only sober person in a group of drunk students sounded less than appealing.
“You can sit here on the couch!” Jane, one of her students, shouted over the music that was already playing. “We’re going to choose some songs! What do you want to sing?”
“Oh, um—” Before Anne could decide, Jane joined her classmates at the side of the room where a computer screen allowed them to see the available songs and choose ones they liked. Someone put on a Jay Chou (choh) song, and one of the guys grabbed a microphone that sat on the table. It was covered in glitter and shimmered in the light.
Anne admired his voice, but nobody else seemed to be paying attention. Everyone was still gathered around the computer adding songs to a playlist.
“What do you want to sing?” Jimmy shouted over to Anne.
“Umm, what are my choices?” Anne joined them at the computer, looking over their shoulders as they searched for and added their favorite songs to the line-up.
“Let Anne choose a song, everyone!” Jimmy made room at the computer and went back to the main page. “Which singer do you like? Maroon 5? Adele? Taylor Swift?”
“Ummm,” Anne rarely listened to pop music and wasn’t sure she could even name a song from one of those singers. “Do they have any Disney songs?”
“What kind of songs?” Jimmy shouted over the music as it built into a crescendo all around them.
“DISNEY!” Anne shouted back.
“DO YOU KNOW THE SINGER?”
Anne searched her brain. Who sang those songs anyway? “No! I only know the name of the songs!”
“WHO?”
“CAN YOU SEARCH THE SONG?”
“OH! OK!” Jimmy clicked around until he found another search page. “WHAT SONG?”
“Ummm . . . A WHOLE NEW WORLD?” Anne had no idea if she could even sing that song, but it was worth a shot.
“NOT HERE!”
Anne wracked her brain for another choice. “How about CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT?” Surely, they would have The Lion King. Everyone loves The Lion King.
Jimmy typed the words into the computer, and a couple of songs popped up. Anne chose one she hoped was the right version and headed back to her seat.
For the next several hours, Anne kept waiting for the song she chose to come up, but it never seemed to come. Her students sang song after song. A couple were in English, but most of them were in Chinese. She was surprised by the beauty of some of her students’ voices and cringed at some of the others. But even though she enjoyed listening to many of them sing, the songs started to blend together since she couldn’t understand any of the Chinese songs.
The students passed drinks around, but she declined. It was beer, and she didn’t care for the taste. Unfortunately, the quality of singing deteriorated as the level of intoxication went up.
Anne had just decided her song would never come up when Jane sat down next to her. “WHAT IS YOUR SONG?” She shouted.
“CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT,” she shouted back.
Jane went back to the computer, and as soon as Angel finished the Cantonese song she had been singing, Anne’s song came on, and Angel handed her the mic. The intro was soft, and the students got quiet. Anne actually felt like she could finally breathe a little.
The lights still danced around them, but Anne closed her eyes, waiting for the dots to signal that it was time for the first words. She managed to get through the song, and the students all cheered. She knew she wasn’t a great singer, and she didn’t enjoy singing in front of others, but by now, her students were so drunk that no one really cared.
“WHAT TIME ARE WE GOING HOME?” she shouted at Jimmy during the next song.
“WE DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE UNTIL 2 A.M.! WHEN WE TOLD THEM YOU ARE OUR FOREIGN TEACHER AND WE WANTED TO SHOW YOU CHINESE CULTURE, THEY SAID WE COULD HAVE A BONUS TWO HOURS! ISN’T THAT GREAT?”
Anne leaned against the back of the couch and glanced at her watch when Jimmy picked up a spare microphone to join in the song that was currently blaring from the speakers. It’s 10 p.m. now, so that’s four more hours. I can’t do this. Anne asked Jane where the bathroom was, and she left the stuffy room. As soon as the door was closed, Anne felt immediately better. She hid in the bathroom until she felt like she could face the noise again.
By 11:30, Anne was fighting to keep her eyes open. “I’M SORRY, JANE, BUT I NEED TO GO HOME. YOU CAN KEEP SINGING WITHOUT ME.”
“BUT THERE ARE STILL SOME SONGS WE WANT YOU TO HEAR! AND YOU ONLY SANG ONE. YOU SHOULD SING ANOTHER ONE!”
Jane begged and cajoled until Anne agreed to sing one more. Anne had to wait another hour for them to put her song at the front of the long playlist, and by the time it was her turn, she was struggling to find her voice and remember the tune. She finished, apologized to her students for leaving early, declined the pleas to stay, and went outside with Jane, who led her back to the entrance. The night air and peace from the empty streets calmed her as she walked back to her apartment.
Anne tried to take a deep breath and push the memory away. She looked at Johnson. I may as well be honest. “Sorry, I really don’t like KTV—too many bad experiences I guess.”
“Oh, ok.” Johnson looked disappointed, and Anne felt terrible.
“Maybe we can try it sometime with just the two of us instead of going with your whole family. I think if I could have at least one good experience, maybe I wouldn’t feel so stressed just thinking about it.”
“Ok, good idea. We can do that instead!” Johnson smiled and gave Anne a piece of chicken that he found in the depths of their shared bowl.