TURN BACK THE TIME, BABE. BOOK 8. CHALLENGING THE DOORS OF TIME

THOSE ENDLESS GAMES

PRENTER'S POV

WHO IS THE LITTLE RED-HAIRED GIRL?

I would have prefered the headline "Sex and betrayal in Rio de Janeiro" but I had to admit this headline got the Burgess touch and part of her intriguing skill in storytelling in her short but amazing article. Of course it would be the cover of Daily Mail the next day and I was touching with my hands the sheet of paper that Cheryl had sent me by fax to Auckland, New Zealand. As a delicious starter.

We had just arrived on this new tour around New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Originally they were going to perform two gigs on 11th April at Hawks Bay in Tamoana and 14th April at Queen Elizabeth II Park in Christchurch. But it wasn't sold out in Auckland so they decided not doing two gigs not very crowded and play only one in Mount Smart Stadium instead Western Springs Stadium.

My craving to finish off these two snakes with only one blow who just turn Freddie's life into a mess didn't let me see the likely suffering that Freddie would feel on reading that headline. Sometimes to get your goals inevitably you must hurt your beloved ones.

We were some miles away from the headline. The Daily Mail was selling copies like hotcakes in every kiosk across the country. People talked about nothing else than Freddie Mercury's mysterious redhead lover. I got all the information from Cheryl and Dom by phone but some days would pass by before Freddie could get the paper in his hands. I wouldn't mind if the tour could continue without finding out anything. After all we were so far away from the poisoned fuss in London.

The decision to publish when Freddie was on the other side of the globe was mine. We would take a month to return Great Britain and when we do, the news surely should lose some sort of staying power. It only mattered to me my hated Elideth could know about it and got out of her hiding place, flared up in jealousy, disappointment and the certainty her bitchy best friend was fucking her husband. It was betting on the winning horse.

But there were always collateral damages in each one of our actions. Freddie was informed by someone from the press about our article.

FREDDIE'S POV

I was used to all kind of things from the disgusting British press since such a long time. From picking me about my sexuality to critize my belly. Saying that crap was not affecting me was a lie but throughout the years the rage had become sarcasm. Messing with me was one thing, attacking the people close to me was a different kettle of fish.

I hadn't yet read the article but I got some detailed description about it that there was no need to. However, I wanted to have it in my hands so I told them to send me. It would take a while.

In the press conference nobody talked about it because they were not aware of that  yet and I thanked that. I was not ready to answer those kind of questions, I still had to come to terms with it.

The show day everything started to get really awful. After the soundcheck I met Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet to have a drink at the hotel bar and before we knew we had drunk all the Stolichnaya bottle together. Tony was a delicious company and that day I just needed to skip away all the worries in my head.

- Come to my room, darling. I got a really good port wine bottle -I offered.

Between sips to the tasty wine we decided he could join us on the stage that night. At first Tony was reluctant but I eased his mind telling I would call the rest to talk about it and we would have a laugh. There was no problem with Roger and John but Brian used to put more difficulties to let someone else into our stage act. But my diplomatic manners to persuade him were some kind of art at this stage after so many years together and I eventually persuaded him. We had decided he would join us in Jailhouse Rock but we found out none of us knew the lyrics pretty well. By then we got really drunk. So much that when the show was starting, I was still drunk.