Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

55. That's That

Freddie

I had never been to Danny's school before, and I hadn't the faintest idea where it was even supposed to be in relation to Princeton.  What was more, I failed to see how Charles could know the route so confidently when he himself stated he had never driven to this place before.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" I asked Charles.

A little smirk curved his lips, eyes centered on the icy road.  "Don't you trust me?"

"I mean, um- I suppose, it's just you're not using any sort of map or anything to get there."

"Oh, but I am!"

I looked around. "Where?"

"Right in front of my eyes," he said.

My brow arched. "What, have you got the directions etched into your glasses?"  When Charles laughed lightly, I explained, "It's like you've got mini-maps on the lenses or something.  I mean, that would certainly make sense, you know.  You never take those things off, that I've seen anyway."

"Oh, there's a reason why I don't," he hummed.   "That just isn't it."

"Mm."  I flipped through the pages of my notes and lyrics.

"But you were very close about the other part, I will give you that."

"Other part?" I repeated absently.

"As in, where I keep the maps." 

I nodded, then I took a bit of a double take. I faced him again. "Wait, you- do have maps before your eyes?"

"Sometimes.  Yes."  He nodded.

"How?"

"E-contacts."

"What?"

"E-contacts," he repeated. 

"What are they?"

Charles cleared his throat, and explained in that somewhat patronizing tone he used the other day when he had to explain to me what is meant by the "Cloud," "They're these special contact lenses that I wear, with microscopic computers embedded within them that are connected to my organization's servers-"

"Never mind," I sighed, waving my hand.  "I'm sorry I asked."

He turned a corner; we both slid a little to the right in our seats.  "Why?"

"Well, I just know it might seem I still am not current on the latest sort of, um- advancements in technology that have happened."

And I tell you, I was getting better. You could ask anyone. Even Julia would have had to admit I was slowly but surely growing more, shall we say, future-savvy. Not perfect, of course, as my use of "throw shade" earlier perhaps might have made painfully clear- but I had come a long way from being completely inept at using the Internet, for instance. Only minutes before now, in fact, I had taken Charles's phone in hand and touched the Google app thing, used it to look up the boutique that Roxie owned, then dialed the phone number provided on the place's web-page(?) to ask her not to bother coming to pick Danny up from school, as I would gladly do the honors. Charles sort of had to walk me through a spot or two in the process, true- but I did it all myself. It was a lovely shot in the arm, a small yet much-needed boost of confidence.

"It's all right, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to be curious," Charles assured me.

I shrugged.  "Perhaps, it's just- I'd never heard of- can't even imagine, really, um, people putting computers in their eyes, but I mean- God knows how long those things have probably been on the market up till now, so-"