Chapter 59

The Prince Albert was filling up, and twenty minutes after our group had barreled in the door, we were packed shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip in a crowd of thirsty, young Sydney professionals chomping at the bit to get an early start to their weekend. Having started on them at 11:00 A.M., we stuck with vodka crans, and I was in a festive mood indeed when, following a couple other bewigged and bejeweled performers, Brandon sashayed out onto the bar in a red sequined cocktail dress and matching red wig, lip-synching along with Pearl Bailey’s intro to the song “To Keep My Love Alive.” The crowded bar was roaring approval as he worked his way through the song, in which Pearl Bailey recounts the ways in which she murders a string of husbands so she doesn’t have to divorce and break her wedding vow “‘til death do us part.”