”The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is so culturally engrained now that starting it is just a whim away, a whim away, a whim away…
Open Mic Night at the Tunnel Cafe…
It was where many a young performer honed their act before taking it further out into the open. People came here to steal other people’s jokes. People came here with dreams of stardom. And Shayde came here, apparently, to hold a guitar and tell jokes.
Having done some research into Terran history, Rael halfway expected her to finish with “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall,” before she actually played.
But that didn’t happen.
She strummed her guitar. A prelude to another joke. The audience was getting used to the pattern and issued forth a pre-emptive giggle. “Ye ever notice that there’s some songs that get right into yer head? There’s a few, ye ken, that are so universally known that they’re just a whim away, a whim away, a whim away…” The guitar came into play, strumming a backing to her chant.
Humans scattered through the audience joined in.
Shayde nodded many other cogniscents into joining the chorus. Once the rhythm was established, she sang, “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight…”
Applause, though the audience kept singing.
It was hypnotic. It was incredible. She had the whole room singing along before the first chorus. Even him.
Now he could believe that she used to busk for extra money. She had all the subtle ways to play a crowd while her hands were full of guitar and her mouth was full of song.
Shayde moved from The Lion Sleeps Tonight to Ob La Di Ob La Da, to She Loves You, and a song Rael recognised from the Consortium of Steam. Something she couldn’t have heard here and now because the Consortium were still on their home planet and she owed the Station too much to access the Galactic Info-net.
She finished with It’s a Small World After All, and got cheered off the stage. Rael watched her gather her warning card and bounce to her seat beside him.
“Eee, that’s better'n five cups o’ coffee,” she giggled.
Rael finished his last dish. He’d timed it well. “Your debt to the station is being adjusted,” he said. “And Sherlock demands you return to your cell as soon as possible.”
“Woh? I cannae stay t’ watch the puir bastard who has tae follow me?”
Shayde groaned. “Tha’s half the fun…”
Rael glared at her. “Fun is not the object of incarceration, Cogniscent Shayde.”
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