The Cabana Girl

The 30 year Instrumental

Her name was Lola. She was a showgirl here at my bar, a real head turner. His name was Tony. He was a bartender that I had working from 8-4. Oh my god, were they in love. In flair and fashion, they burned with passion at The Copacabana. Yeah, yeah. It was cute for a while but then it started to get a little messy. You see, Every time Tony decided that he didn't like the attention Lola was getting, he would start causing a commotion. He was costing me business and scaring the lovely patrons of my establishment. What good was having Cabana Girls if no one could watch them dance? On top of that, my benefactors gave me a call saying that he was drawing unwanted attention to the venue. We needed to stay out of the eye of the media and under the radar of the law. They had had enough. They told me that Rico, another of Costello's men, would be on his way. If you don't know who Costello is, good. If you do, keep your mouth shut. So Rico showed up and I made sure that the fixer I was sent received the VIP treatment. The next thing I knew, my guest of honor was getting attacked. Tony broke a chair over this guy. Rico's bodyguard grabbed his gun and fired at Tony. Lola jumped in the way to save her lover but the bullet went clean through, got them both. Blood was everywhere. Somehow she lived but lost severe chunks of memory. Tony on the other hand, had been fixed. The events faded quickly as do most things when mixed with crazy nights out. But then, one day she showed back up. No one had expected to see her ever again. She was shot at work and lost the love of her life. She lived with family for a while after that but returned because she could feel that the missing parts of her memory were tied to this place. She did not recognize me or any of the other employees. As if in a trance, she walked in, entered the dressing room and got in costume. She got up on stage and danced as if she had never left. She was there for the music. After all she wanted to be a star. We all let life go on but after a few months, she started slipping. She'd perform perfectly for one song and then head offstage and lock herself in the bathroom. She would exit a while later and you could clearly tell that she had been crying. I knew why but she didn't. After a few years I finally told her what happened that night. I kept some things to myself. She didn't need to know that Tony was going to die either way. She stopped dancing but continued to come every single night. She would sit at the bar and watch the world continue to party on. I tried to help her stay busy offering her other positions within the company, eventually allowing her to manage the bar. I wanted to give her some kind of control over her life. I felt guilty for what had been done to her lover. Eventually, I had to keep up with the times and she fought me on changing the music, the dancers, and even the sign out front. I could no longer allow her to keep clutching on to what was. This life that she kept spinning needed to come to an end. So, I closed up shop, the Cabana was ready to die. I passed the buck and told them to reopen as a disco joint, yet somehow, she still knew. 30 years later Lola would still show up in her Cabana Girl costume and drink herself half blind. She had lost her lover, her youth, and now her mind.