What did it say that in such a short period I’d become accustomed to being with this lifestyle that was so foreign to mine? And what about Momma? Her transformation from an impossible old crank to a woman of a certain age with a reservoir of juice worthy of a squeeze was, well, nothing I ever expected. I wondered what Holly would say if she could have seen all this.

We suffered through the vocalist who tried to kill our love of music in general with her rendition of “Fascinating Rhythm,” with a truly lame tap routine interspersed between lyrics. The poor thing was out of breath and someone finally gave her a glass of water and helped her off the stage.

Then the stage went dark as the sound engineer began to play a medley of Cher’s music, one song leapfrogging to another, growing into a crescendo until, boom! The lights came on and there was Char, back to the audience, and as she turned she looked more like Cher than Cher. People began to clap spontaneously, and Char hadn’t really done a thing. But she had that something, that special something that stars have. Presence. Stage presence.

“Good evening, everyone! I know what you’re thinking. No, I’m not Cher. I’m Char, her identical twin sister! Isn’t that insane? I’ll bet she doesn’t even know she’s got one!”

The whole club was totally mesmerized. Even the club manager leaned against a wall to watch and the bartenders stopped taking drink orders. Char had them right in the palm of her hand.

She explained how her evil twin stole all her music and said that now, she was going to give us the real lyrics to “I Got You Babe.”

She was so damn good, I had tears running down my face. So did Momma, and Suzanne was about to pop out of her cocktail dress, her chest was rising and falling so fast. People were screaming and cheering, and when the song was over there were calls for more.

“Encore! Encore!”

“Oh, darlin’ little precious gems! I didn’t come here with just one story. Do y’all want to know who the real tramp in the family was?” Everyone laughed. “Uh-huh. You heard it from me! And how about the original lyrics to ‘Bang Bang’? Are we ready?” The lights went low and Char lip synced the Cher version but they had cut Char’s changes into the song so that it sounded like Cher singing Char’s song.

“How did they do that?” I asked Suzanne.

“I wouldn’t know, but then, there’s a lot of magic out here. Smoke and mirrors.”

When it was all over, the crowd stood and roared with applause and whistles. We clapped so hard, our hands stung.

Momma said, “Well, y’all, a star is born.”

“Honey never goes bad. Did you know that?” I asked.