A Night at the Phoenix

I Have Been Changed

"Quick, c'mon!" Izumi held the front door of the Phoenix open, pulling a woman in a long black dress into the room. As the near-capacity crowd roared halfway through Ranko's rendition of Abracadabra, she led the woman to the closest booth to the stage, seating her facing the stage. The lightbulb above the table was either burned out or loosened, because the table sat in near-total darkness. The guest did not mind, and Izumi never asked her for her order.

Izumi looked herself over in the mirror behind the bar, smiling. The silver sequined mini dress she wore shone in the house lighting. It had been the first time she'd worn it since her second pregnancy, and it was one of her favorites. She looked over to the audio table, receiving a thumbs-up from Mei.

Walking over to the bar, she waited for Yui to finish pouring a Thunderclap for a young male patron, knocking twice on the bar. "I think we're ready, sis."

Yui nodded, and Izumi walked over to one of her tables near the stage. She leaned over the table, making small talk with the customers as they enjoyed their pizza. It wasn't the customers she needed, just their placement.

Securing her cash register, Yui smoothed the long-sleeved olive cotton dress she wore, slipping through the blue saloon door and knocking on the closed door to her right. "Hey, mama? Got a second?"

"Sure, Yui-chan, c'mon in," came the reply, and Yui pushed the door open to find Hana hunched over her desk, somehow focusing on one paper despite the hundreds of others piled up around her. She wore a black Metallica tee shirt over black jeans, her hair pulled back in a salt-and-pepper ponytail.

"Mama, I'm having some trouble with the register. Could you give me a hand for a second?" Yui hid her face as if she was blushing, trying not to betray her smile.

"Sure, baby, what's it doing?" Hana stood, grabbing her black leather jacket and slinging it over her shoulder. She was almost never seen without it in the public area of the bar while customers were in the room.

"Oh, you know, it just won't open." Yui shrugged. "Never seen it do this before."

Yui pushed through the swinging blue door, her mother in tow, just as the applause was dying down from Ranko's performance.

Hana looked down at the register. "Yui! Goofball, of course it's not working. You turned the damn thing off."

Yui giggled, smirking. "Oh, silly me." She stood between her mother and the blue door, trapping her behind the bar.

Without the backing of music, Ranko spoke into her handheld microphone from the stage. "Hey, everybody. How we doing tonight? We having a good time?"

The crowd roared in response, and Hana didn't pay it much mind, still laughing at her second-eldest daughter.

"Well," Ranko continued. "If you love this place, there's really only one person you need to thank, and she's standing right over there at the bar. Let's hear it for Hana, everybody!"

The bar's proprietor looked up as the crowd roared and turned to face her. She blushed, trying to duck back into the back room, but Yui blocked her path.

"So funny thing about Hana. She doesn't like anybody to know this. I'm sorry, mama, but I'm going to let out one of your secrets. See, today, July the seventh, is miss Hana's birthday." Ranko grinned as the crowd roared in appreciation.

"Yui, what is she up to?" Hana's eyes were wide as saucers. She wasn't used to the patrons' eyes on her, especially not since Ranko had come to join their family.

"Oh, no good, I'm sure. You know our girl." Yui smirked, taking Hana's hand and pulling her to the VIP table at the right side of the stage, the one usually reserved for Akane, pulling out a chair for her.