As it Began

Early August 1974 - London, England

I stood in front of the mirror in my prepaid hotel room in the heart of London- my dream city. I was at a week long orientation at London University, to see what it would be like when I would attend at the first of September. Yes, that's right, I was actually attending university in London! I decided to bring my 25 year old best friend Gabriella Pires to share the experience, though she was attending in Moncton back home. Ah yes, home. Good old Canada- fresh trees and cool air. I knew I would miss home, but I was destined to be here- I knew it.

"Hey, you almost ready?" Gabriella yelled from the bathroom. She came out dressed in a red plaid shirt and ripped up blue jeans, her long dark hair falling around her shoulders.

"Yeah, eventually!" I yelled back. I was dressed in a light pink pirate shirt and white bell bottoms. My unique two toned blonde-brown hair was wavy around my shoulders. If I must say, I was pretty trendy- how could I not be when in London? I took one last look in the mirror then grabbed my purse and we were out the door. We decided to take advantage of the little time we had off to walk around the beautiful city.

We talked and laughed until we ended up in a reserved park with gardens and benches and beautiful lantern lights scattered everywhere. I have to admit, the weather here is not like that of Canada- although the sun was shining, sometimes August isn't necessarily short-and-tshirt weather in England. So we decided to sit on a bench to figure out the map we were given on the tour, when a young man suddenly appeared.

I looked at this man and he looked at me and our eyes instantly met. He was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! That wasn't the only thing though- I could have sworn I had seen him before! Whether it be in a picture or something. He was a tiny man, probably weighing no more than a hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet. He had shoulder length dirty-blonde hair, some ripped jeans, a rock n roll tshirt and a pair of the biggest blue eyes I'd ever seen. He looked so familiar and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. I glanced over at Gabriella who had her face still buried in the map. So I kept staring back at him...awkwardly. Until someone finally spoke.

"Um...excuse me ladies," the young man stuttered. He's British. Okay. His voice is raspy and slightly high pitched. "Would either of you happen to know where the Imperial Hall is located?" He asked with a crooked smile that made me melt inside. Then I snapped out of it as Gabriella spoke.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry but we're not from here..." She said politely and nonchalantly, then went back to deciphering the map. How did she not notice this beauty standing before her?! I thought.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry then," he said in that dreamy accent of his. "Have a nice *ahem* day." He took one last mysterious look at me and nodded his head with a smile as he walked away. I stared back at him in awe. What just happened? Then Gabriella caught on.

"Hey there dreamer, ya okay?" She teased as I kept staring at that oh-so-familiar man who was now quite far away. She nodded towards him "He's cute." How could she be so calm?!

"I know him, Gabi. I swear I know him from somewhere. So...familiar." I said slowly.

"Pfft. Umm yeah, except for the fact that he's obviously from here and we're obviously not..."

"No, I know him!" I snapped, then looked at her apologetically. "I know his face, please believe me!"

"Well in that case why don't you go look for him?" I looked around and noticed he was gone. Long gone. I actually felt a bit of sadness. Gabriella looked back to her map. "Maybe...you saw him on our last trip here?"

"Don't think so...that was nine years ago!" Thinking back to the school trip we took here when we were just 15 and 16. "It's something else..."

-----

The next day, I woke up in our hotel to Gabriella slamming the door and running in. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Dude, what's wrong?" I sleepily asked.

Gabriella came around the corner with a grin."Meg, I got tickets to a concert!"

"A concert?"

"A rock concert!" She corrected me. "They were only cheap and I thought it would just give us something to do. Plus the man at the store highly recommends seeing them. I wonder if you know them." She sat on the edge of the bed. I did know a lot of rock bands thanks to my dad, the record collector. I sat up more to take a look.

"Did you ever hear of the rock band Queen?" She asked.

"Oh my god, yeah! My dad has their records." I said. My dad always had Queen's music on the record player. We weren't major fans, but we genuinely enjoyed their music. Still, live concerts are great so I was pretty excited.

"Awesome! 7:00 tomorrow night, girl!" She exclaimed.

"Sweet!"

So we went on with our days, bus tours and school tours and all. Then it was time for the show and we were getting pumped.