Catchin' feelings - Roger Taylor

chapter 16

Wembley stadium, 13 July 1985

“Louise, come here. There's someone I want you to meet before we go on stage!” Roger smirked. He wore a white shirt, together with a pair of trousers from adidas. “Freddie can you take Lucy and Elliot for a while?” “Of course darling!” Freddie smiled. I took Roger's warm hand. I corrected the white summer dress and dragged my hand through the tangled hair of mine. I kissed Roger in his neck and he giggled
before he talked. “Let me introduce you to each other.” A familiar man in a suit turned around and I started to shiver. “Louise, this is David Bowie. David, this is my wife, Louise.” He smiled and reached for my hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Louise.” My inner fangirl started to freak out. I let go of his hand and answered. “You too. I like your music very much. You're a musical genius.” He chuckled and thanked. I could feel my cheeks heating, I surely blushed.

Two comedians presented them. Everyone had a part on stage for only twenty minutes, and so did Queen have. The audience screamed and sang as hungry animals and it was amazing, breath-taking. Me, Mary and the kids watched them play but my eyes were on Roger and only him. We had been together for about ten years now but my love for him was the exactly same, I couldn't be more in love.

A couple of days later rang the doorbell. Roger were probably out with some of his friends or something, he didn't said what he was going to do but I trusted him. I opened the door to see Deaky, standing there together with a blonde, tall woman that clearly wasn't Victoria and a child that looked to be maybe one year younger than Elliot who was four. “Hi Louise. Is Roger at home?” “No, can I help you with something?” I said questioning. “Can we come in?” he looked bothered. “Sure.”

We sat down at the dining table and Deaky started to talk. “I'm saying this because I care about you. And I want you to know that both me and Elsie here is on your side. She's been played too.” The woman nodded. My heart started to beat faster. What did they mean? She's been played too? I repeated the sentence in my head. It took a while before the woman named Elsie started to talk. “Maybe three or four years ago I met Roger after one of Queen's concerts. I fell in love. He told me he had a girlfriend, but that he was going to end it soon. I believed him. Everytime we met I asked if he had ended things with you and he said he was about to, that he waited on the right moment. At one point, I stopped to ask. I was in love, desperate. We didn't met many time before I realized that I was pregnant. I trusted him when he said he had ended things with you. Nine months
later was this little guy here born and I was a mum. A week ago I discovered that you and Roger still were a thing and that you two were married.” I couldn't believe what she was saying. “I'm telling you this because I want you to know what he is doing, and not live without the knowledge. I would have wanted to know so I thought it would be the same for you.” The words she said went through one of my ears but out the other immediately. Why would he do such a thing? I sat quiet before I covered my head in my hands, and burst into tears. A child, a bloody child. My body shook. Elsie took the seat next to me and embraced my sobbing body. Strangely she was the only one I wanted a hug from right now. She smelled from that sweet perfume that used to be on sale on the stores, that one that most girls had but never really used. “I can't live here, I can't live with him.” Just when I thought things were as good as they could be was this coming.

About an hour later came Roger in the apartment. “Hey baby I-” he stopped talking when he saw Elsie sitting next to me. My body felt numb when I saw him. Not comfortably numb as in Pink Floyd's song, but numb like I was split into pieces. Without thinking I stood up and neared Roger. Coming so close that I could feel his breath, smell the smell of smoke, the smell of his perfume. Could see how his brown eyelashes move when he blinked, his lips that we're dry from the winter, the hair with a modern haircut filled with wax, could see every little detail in his face. I wanted memorize this moment, wanted to be this close for a last time. He fluttered with his eyes, scared. I could hear Elsie together with Deaky say something and then left but I couldn't hear a thing of what they were saying, I wasn't interested in what they had to say anymore. “I hate you.”