Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

26. Say 'Cheese'

 Julia

Despite my lingering raw feelings, I couldn't help smiling. 

Ah, what an eternally smooth operator, I thought to myself, as I watched Freddie kiss Cousin Roxie under the mistletoe.  Perhaps my senses were over-heightened, but it seemed to me his movements were a tad rigid as they leaned in to her, almost reluctant. 

Then again, I'd been wrong about him before. Many times.  For example, I never expected him to apologize that night.  Granted, it didn't assuage everything I'd been feeling all day thanks to what he had said to me in the car earlier -no, not by a long shot- but it helped.  If nothing else, however, this afternoon's events made me worry just a tad more, how Freddie would take the news Stuart had just relayed about Speck's status.

I didn't immediately get it over with, however.  As soon as the door shut behind Roxie, Danny ran back into the front room, talking a mile a minute.  "Mom, Mom, you gotta check this out!"

"Hello to you too, sweetie," I managed, laughing as he grabbed my hand and all but dragged me out of the front room while Freddie looked on and smiled, poking his finger in between the bars of Farnsie's cage. 

"Has Fry eaten?" I asked.

He shook his head, "No, ma'am, I'll do that after this."

Once we reached my son's room, I said, "Danny, dinner's going to get cold, can you show me afterward?"

He ignored the question.  "Look!  Freddie's band!"  So exclaiming, he put a gold Queen Greatest Hits Compilation into my hands. 

I frowned.  "Where'd you get this?"  I thought I got rid of all my Queen paraphernalia years ago. And I had.  Books, records, CDs, drawings, you name it- I had disposed of them about the time Danny turned four years old.  The only remaining vestiges of "Freddie's band" were our hall pictures of the Deacons which I had packed away as a precaution, as well as everything I kept tucked away in that metal box in my closet.

"Lauren's letting me borrow it," he announced.  "Have you heard all this stuff?  It's amazing!  'Bohemian Rhapsody', especially- I listened to that three times already and it's so much fun!  Did Freddie actually write that whole thing?"

"He did," I nodded, maintaining a straight face as best as I could when his jaw dropped in complete awe.  I knew exactly what he was feeling, for I too was only nine when I heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the very first time.  And it was that selfsame occasion, as a matter of fact, in which I first became acquainted with the name of Freddie Mercury, so I suppose you could say "Bo Rhap" served as quite the milestone in my funny little life.

"Did he write all these songs?" Danny asked, moving his finger across both track lists.

"No, but he wrote a lot of them," I replied, then added silently with a smile, He wrote all the good ones.

"Did he write this one?" The boy pointed at a track.

"Danny, your finger is covering the- oh, 'Crazy Little Thing,' yes, that's Freddie's song."

"What about this one?  'Another One Bites the Dust'."

"No, that was J- uh, the bass player's song.  He wrote that."  I clutched at my chest, took a deep breath.  Whew, that had been a close one. 

But not close enough.  "What was his name?"

"It should say in the booklet," I hummed.  Clearly either there wasn't a booklet, or Danny simply hadn't looked- for it would have answered all these and more questions. I hoped for the former."There should be pictures, and info-"