June 28, 1971
"You want to do what?" I asked, taking a drag on my cigarette as I spoke with a friend on the phone. "You want to go see a band at that dark and smelly bar? And it's a band called The Pistols? Are you serious?" I ashed my cigarette, not taking her at all seriously. I wasn't accustomed to going to dark bars with questionable substances on the floors and cheap beer being sold by the pint. "Where did you even hear about this band? Oh god, there's another band on after them?" I inquired, flipping over to my stomach on my sectional sofa in my flat. I laughed because as with any band, she had heard about it naturally, through a friend of a friend or something like that. "Fine. What time? Okay. Oh, I am excited! Can't you hear my enthusiasm?" I said rolling my eyes. Because, Deena! I have a gallery opening on Sunday and I have to return to try on my outfit today. I alterations done and I have to make certain it suits me. I don't have time to be overly enthused about some band you want me to go see with you and James. And they probably won't even be any good!" I said. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy listening to bands. I quite fancied it actually. But I hated being roped into things that became an excuse for my friend Deena to be with her boyfriend James. "Very well. I'll see you at 7:00. I have to go for now. Because. Just...because." I sighed into the phone. "Because I'm going to see Sebastian." I said a bit sheepishly into the phone. It seemed that my plans for the day were made for me.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." Mary Austin said as she smiled at the man whom she had agreed to meet on this Friday afternoon. This 'date' (if you preferred to call it that) was originally set up for Saturday but Freddie, being the impatient soul he was, insisted on Friday.
"Oh! What do you think of this!" Freddie said most excitedly as he disappeared from view. He didn't even have a rebuttal for Mary's comment. She chuckled.
"My god! I think it would certainly cover the floor of my entire flat." She said, staring at the enormous oriental rug that Freddie had successfully been swallowed into.
"Someday, I want at least 3 of these things just like this one....only bigger!" he said, sneaking out of the other side with a cheeky, toothy smile that Mary had become infatuated with in a matter of fifteen minutes. She couldn't help but laugh again at his passion for fine antiques. Freddie gasped and had quickly darted across the store to a gaudy ornamental statue. "Look at this! Would you just look at this!" he exclaimed.
"Hello Freddie! Good to see you. We just received that piece." The store owner greeted him. Mary realized now, that he was a regular here.
"Hi Clive! I love this! It's marvelous...and sadly only three times too big for my flat." Freddie sighed and ran his fingers over the smooth marble. "My god! Clive, this is Mary! Mary Austin. She works at the Kensington Market!" Freddie said, pulling Mary over to him by the arm.
"Hhh, hi! Hi there. Yes, I'm...I'm Mary. It's nice to meet you. This place is like the most elaborate jumble of clutter I've ever seen for sale in one place." She told Clive who couldn't help but agree with her. It was true, Clive's Long Street Antiques was a jumbled mess of estate sale finds and consignments that popped up from off the street. It smelled musty and the water-damaged wood floors creaked under foot. It was difficult to even sort through the wares and nothing had a price tag. But, Freddie adored touching on, holding and cooing over treasures that someone else had so unlovingly discarded in a past life. Had it been up to him, he would go completely bankrupt at Clive's. And then, there was Freddie's favorite part about antiquing on Long Street. Mary let out a surprised yelp at the feeling of something brushing up against her leg.
"Look Mary! Patty loves you!" Freddie said, bending over and picking up the cat that had affectionately walked around Mary.
"Pa...Patty?" she questioned.
"Yes. That's Patty. She wandered in off the street on day when she was much younger. I just kept her around. She loves to perch in the windows on the steamer chests over there." Clive explained. Mary shook her head in agreement as Freddie made a fool over Patty.
"So....do you...like cats?" Mary asked of Freddie, who treated Patty like a little princess.
"Like them!? I love them! Look at her! Look at this little sweet fuzzy girl!" Freddie shoved the cat into Mary's face. She was still trying to figure him out but one thing was certain, she was very charmed by his gentle nature. He most certainly was not a ladies man and he was comfortably himself around Mary. For some reason, he had the same effect on her. While she viewed as more of a play-date than anything, she was positive that this wouldn't be the last time she saw Freddie Bulsara. Their day had barely gotten started and she couldn't imagine where this man would end up taking her. At the rate things were going, she was convinced that she may end up in a feather boa singing in a cabaret before the evening came.
From 'Autumn in Kensington'...
"Lydia?" I head my name. It sounded like he dropped whatever he was doing. "Lydia! Come here! Ciao, Lydia!".....
"Hello, Sebastian. Been a while." I reached my arms out to him and hugged him....
"He is absolutely gorgeous." Veronica whispered to me.... "Alright...how do you know that photographer?" Veronica asked me the moment we were outside of the studio...
"I made out with him a couple times when I was high. I've never fucked him. I swear." I answered her.
Back uptown, the morning had faded into late afternoon and then into the early evening. Sabastian Vochielli was absolutely gorgeous. He hailed from Florence, Italy and so he had the dark eyes and shoulder length dark hair to match. His father was a workaholic and a big shot in the shipping and port industry and so he came from family money. Sabastian was two years ahead of me at the University and the one man whom I had fallen madly in love with two years ago. When we got together, when I met this man I knew I would be Mrs. Lydia Vochielli by the time we were finished with school. I couldn't have been more wrong and it changed my outlook on everything. Our relationship...if you could even call it that....had been nothing but dysfunctional for the past year and a half. We were not a couple and we hadn't been a couple for a long time. We were toxically involved in each others' lives. He had me by the throat and I had a strange power over him. I was a figurative dominatrix to Sebastian and he, my imaginary strangler. Honestly, I needed something in my life to break his theoretical choke-hold. And furthermore, he needed to out of his pretend S&M relationship with me.
He was very best photography student at the University and Sebastian was going places. His work was outstanding and simply fantastic. He would photograph anything and he did it with passion. Despite Sebastian being very full of himself, he was beyond talented. His luxury flat was a resume of all he had done at the past three years.
I sat on the leather couch and inhaled the line of power from his glass coffee table. When he wasn't wearing a shirt, he looked like a fucking streamlined Roman gladiator who had just thrown a spear into the heart of a beast. I tilted my head back and watched him unveil his latest project to me. He handed me a glass of wine.
"You've lost weight haven't you?" He said in thick, slightly-slurred accent. I shrugged as he took a line up his nose.
"I don't know. Not much if I have." His dark eyes met mine as he lit a cigarette after snorting up his line. There was almost a sense of sadness in his eyes.
"Your clothes...that you...you chose for the gallery premiere you're hosting. Molto buona." That means very good in his native Italian. I took his lit cigarette from him for myself and noticed he still hadn't yet put his trousers back on. "Please don't lose any more weight. Please...just....just don't." he said to me.
"Are you going to show me your latest work or not?" I asked, eyeing him. He watched me and stood up, pulling a sheet away from a portfolio. He opened it up and placed it on the table before him, careful not to spill the cocaine off the edge.
"This. This could have been you. You have a prettier face. You have a much sexier body. She was not a good lay when the shoot was over. You would have been...because you always are. This shoot would have put you out there. It would have made you! La vostra perdita mio guadagno." He sighed. That meant, your loss...my gain."
"You know what. Fuck you. She's completely naked...Sabastian. Anyone can do that." He laughed at my words.
"Yes, yes...but not everyone can photograph it with this taste." He said. The thing of it was, he was damn right. This was the most classy and tasteful set of nude shots I'd ever seen done. They were perfect. He made this girl look incredible under the right lights. And I knew her! She was far from incredible. Fuck. I hated that Sebastian was talented and gorgeous. I also hated that he never really loved me. He made me hate the word love and everything attached to it. It was okay now though. Our sick relationship had become of contest of who could use who the most. I truly needed to break free of it.
At 7:32 PM later that night, Veronica had been sipping on lager when she looked up to the stage area in the bar. "Mmm! Mmmmm! John! John!" she called, practically choking on her drink. She smiled and waved frantically. John gasped on the stage.
"You got your spot this week!" He said, happily hurrying over to her. He leaned over the stage to kiss her.
"I sure did! No one pushing me out of it this time." She answered. "Want some lager?" John shook his head.
"I need to tell you something. But you can't tell anyone." John said to her quietly. He dearly loved a good gossip and he loved gossiping with Veronica. Mainly, because he could get whatever it was off his chest and he knew she wouldn't tell anyone.
"Okay." She said with shining eyes. She always got so excited when John had some juicy to tell her. By looks in his eyes, something good was coming. He glanced around for a moment on either side of him. The bar wasn't too full yet.
"Freddie had a date today!" he whispered to Veronica. She gasped, partly because the cheap-ass beer already had her a little drunk.
"Nooooo!" was her response. John was shaking his had frantically.
"He took her to that antique place he loves to much and then they went out for corndogs at the street fair that's in town. He said he had and I quote 'the most fantastic day, darling'. You can't tell anyone because I'm not supposed to know!" John said, poking Veronica's shoulder.
"I won't say a word!" Veronica said.
"What did you think of that before us? The Pistols or something?" he questioned.
"They weren't very good. I pity the people who came to see them." Veronica said making a face indicating that they weren't at all very good. Perhaps she was a little biased. "So where is everyone? You're gonna' start soon!" Veronica said.
"I'm never doing something like this with you two again! That band was horrible! Just awful!" I accused my friends who were more interested in each other than that stupid band anyway.
"They weren't that bad!" my friend Deena tried to convince me. I gave her my best headshake as I lit my cigarette. I left Deena to have a moment with her boyfriend and looked up toward the door of the bar. I thought I saw a familiar face and immediately wondered who the hell drug her here.
"Chr...Chrissie!? Chrissie Mullen! Is 'at you? Chrissie?" I waved my hand in the air. Sure enough, it was her and she was hurrying over to me.
"Lydia! Lydia, hi! Hey. What are you doin' here?" she asked.
"No, no...what are you doing here?"
From 'Autumn in Kensington...
"I met her two years ago...I simply hated her when I met her. I was so very jealous...I didn't even take the opportunity to get to know her. One day, I was cryin' in the hallway...and there she was. That day, Lydia looked at me and said 'it's either a grade or a guy, ya' wanna talk about it?"..."We've been dear friends ever since.
Chrissie let out a frustrated sigh. "I got stood up! I've been here for twenty minutes. I promised I wasn't goin' out for nothin' this weekend and wouldn't you know it...I do and I get stood up! And at this rotter of a place no less!" she poured out to me.
"Oh, that's quite shitty. Come back to my place! We're gonna' open wine and drink all night! Oh come on, it will be fun and you'll get your mind of this! Deena's right over there. You remember her and her boyfriend? They're comin' too! Besides, if you come over they are less likely to leave an unwanted stain on my couch.
"LYDIA! You make references like that in public!" Chrissie scolded me under her breath.
"Whatever. Listen, I need to go put this cigarette out soon. Deena's gonna' get a cab for us, Go wait with her and her Mr. Dreamboat." I told Chrissie sarcastically. Chrissie Mullen did as I instructed her and made her way to the corner on the sidewalk. The bar was starting to fill up and I couldn't figure out why the hell it would. I walked along side the brick wall, leaning back against it and looking to my left.
From 'Underneath Your Clothes'...
He had been standin' with a group of guys and came over to me to bum a cigarette... He persuaded me to stay that night and watch his band play. I politely declined, though it was partly a lie. I could have easily stayed but my friends and I were leavin' soon to have some wine at my flat... I couldn't help but notice how beautiful his smile was...He asked me for my telephone number that night...Said he'd like to get to know me better.
I noticed someone in the near distance walkin' my way but the streetlight was out so I couldn't tell if it were someone I knew or not.
"Hey, S'cuse me. You got a cigarette?" I didn't answer immediately because I was still processing the fact that this was a guy and from a distance he kinda' looked like a girl. His hair was barely below his neck and well...ya' know."
"Um. Oh! Yeah, yeah sure. Sure....here ya' go." I pulled one out of my pack and handed it over, extending my hand with my lighter."
"Thanks. I bloody needed this. I'm settin' up soon. I play set in the band that's about to go on. Did you come to hear us?" he asked. Oh great, another band. It was probably as horrible as the first one. Since when did my life suddenly become consumed with bands? In the light of the marquee at the bar, I could see his every feature: tawny blonde hair that was obviously in an awkward not-short-but not-long phase, a little scrawny, and not much taller than I, if at all. Two things were evident, he had very soft features and a beautiful...beautiful smile. He wasn't handsome at all. Instead he was very pretty, with these eyelashes that touched the moon and big, round blue eyes. I'd never seen a guy that was...pretty...but he was.
I shook my head at him as I continued to burn down my cigarette. "No. No, I came earlier with some friends of mine." I answered. I could feel this guy's eyes on me.
"You should stay and hear my band then. We're pretty good." He said. "Oh, I'm Roger by the way. Not that...you asked or anything." He said.
"Ugh...I'm so sure." I thought to myself. "Lydia. Nice to meet you." I answered politely.
"Do you come around here a lot? We play here every other Saturday but lately we've been getting booked more regularly." He explained.
"No. I don't...hang here. I think I've been here perhaps one other time." I said truthfully.
"Well, you should stay tonight. We only play for an hour. We don't have a lot of material. If you stay then maybe you'll have a drink with me when I'm done." He persuaded me. I had to admit that his smile was sucking me in a bit.
"Thank you for the offer but no. I'm leavin' with friends tonight." I said, finishing my cigarette. He shook his head at me.
"Well, I need to get set up soon for the show and all. Can I have your number? I'd like to know you a little better. I'll call you." He said with that alluring smile. I looked down to the concrete feeling a little vulnerable. I rolled my eyes a little. I'd give him my number but there was no way in hell this guy would ever call me.
"Fine. You got something to write on?" I asked laughing a little.
"What's so funny?" he asked, pulling a wadded piece of paper from his pocket.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." I said, smashing my cigarette into the cement and rattling off my number for him.
At exactly 8:22PM that night at the bar, Mary Austin walked into the bar that Freddie had given her instructions as to where his band was playing. She looked around the crowded bar, noticing there was no way she would get any closer than the bar, as the area in front of the stage was quite full. She wanted to make Freddie aware that she had taken him up on his offer to come hear his band. She awkwardly propped herself onto a bar stool so she could see. It appeared that the band was in between songs since she didn't hear anything of particular interest. Mary ordered a vodka tonic and waited on the bartender to return to her. It was so very crowded that she feared Freddie wouldn't see her at all. She didn't want him to think that she didn't care enough to come see him.
The bartender handed over Mary's drink. She had barely taken a sip when the next song in their set had begun. It startled her a bit as she shifted her focus to the stage. She sat there on the barstool motionless, drink in her hand and mouth agape. Not once during their time together had he once mentioned that he could sing. And it wasn't that he could sing...he could sing.
Hey everyone! My deepest apologies for going so very long without an update! Have been very busy as of late but I hope to have things more under control and it shouldn't be so long until my next update. thank you for putting up with my slow work lately!