Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

38. Send in the Clowns

Freddie

I woke again to the sound of a heavy downpour. With a slight start I opened my eyes, clearer now than before, to see I lay in an empty bed that wasn't mine. For the briefest moment I wondered where I was, before I saw the four framed Warhol prints, and I relaxed. I didn't remember anything about returning to the little house last night, but it had happened- and I was safe. For now, that was good enough.

I was still dressed in my clothes from the night before- the new ones, which I had bought in a fit of what I've heard some call "retail therapy" (although personally I like the term "spending rampage" better; it sounds more exciting, dangerous even, and less like something right out of a self-help book). My shoes and my jacket were the only things missing- and the top button of my jeans (I slept in my blue jeans; no wonder I felt so constrained) was undone. I had vague recollections of Julia tending to me earlier this morning; it had to have been sooner rather than later, for I could still detect traces of her scent still lingering sweetly about.

Clearly I had passed out at some point last night. Strange, as I hadn't really drunk very much at that club- not enough to knock me out, anyway. I wasn't even hung over, I was just rather woozy, much in the way I was upon first awakening on this side of Time.

Perhaps that eager little Cuban boy spiked my drink, I speculated, thinking back to last night's bout of misconduct. But with what? LSD, perhaps? That would explain a lot.

It certainly would have explained the intense out of body experience I had- and the nightmares which followed. But then again, no. Drugs had never made much of a difference as far as bad dreams were concerned; if anything, they just made them seem more convincing. Might have been something in the water, something in the air, who knows?

(You may be wondering what happened last night when I stormed out on my own, hit the New York club scene- but I'm afraid that's all I'm willing to say about it at present, as it's rather embarrassing. The rest will unfold on its own eventually anyway, for better or for worse. Suffice it to say, I am not proud of what took place. Right, let's get on with it...)

I hadn't even wanted to really go out anywhere yesterday, to be honest. I had been "on" all day, which wasn't anything foreign to me, true- but even supermen like myself need time to recharge the batteries. All I wanted was to just relax and dish with Julia.

Not that I harbored some deeper motive, of course. She and Danny were all I had at the moment- although in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have said that to her face. That was an easy thing to misconstrue- and even in hindsight, the words did indeed sound sort of defeatist and not at all flattering. No doubt she had taken them exactly how I had not intended them.

With a sigh, I flicked on the lamp and squinted at the wall clock (whose battery Julia had apparently replaced, thank God- one less thing for the Modo to monopolize). The hands read a quarter to eleven. If I had to venture a guess, Julia had most likely already gone to work. I hadn't awakened in time to see the dear boy off, he and the red-haired Adams girl had been taken to school hours ago. I shrugged a bit sadly, and lit the day's first cigarette.

Now, of course, I wasn't stuck here. I knew that. Unlike a couple of days before, I had places to be now, and people who needed me; numerous times yesterday, the chaps at the station had all but begged me to come back as soon as I could, even gave me a three thousand dollar cheque in advance for my next radio appearance. Even if I chose not to put in time at the station, whether as a DJ or as a recording artist, Charles was only a phone call away, eternally willing to take me anywhere I wished to go. The world was truly my oyster.

So I started thinking. Well, let's see, it's a thirty or forty minute drive to Princeton. If I hop out of bed now, call Charles, and move quickly, I can be ready at least by eleven-twenty, and assuming he gets here at most round half-past, I can be there in half an hour, give or take a few minutes because of the rain. Either way, I can definitely be there by around noon for the driving les-