The bus arrived in Feltham and you, Roger, and Freddie stepped off and walked down the road from the Lansbury Avenue stop. It had been awhile since you'd been in Feltham but nothing had really changed. It still was the quiet little home you and Freddie had once known, of course that would quickly change—Freddie and Roger have been belting out song lyrics for the past few miles. At first it had just been Freddie but Roger was quick to join in on a little bit of Beatles and some Cream, even a touch of Zeppelin here and there when Freddie really felt like hollering—he did have quite a knack for that.
It wasn't long before you arrived, you popped a quick hello in next door at the Bulsara home. Kash was home and hanging out with a few girls from school. Although you regularly saw her, it always seemed she was getting so much older. After a bit of afternoon tea, you, Freddie, and Rog headed for the Burgess's.
Mrs. Burgess opened up the door and smiled, "Freddie! y/n! So good to see you! And who might this be?" she gestured to Roger.
"Roger Taylor Ma'am," he shook her hand to which she bashfully chortled.
"Quite the gentleman," regarded Mrs. Burgess, "Here why don't you kids come inside, I'll get the boxes down from the loft".
The three of you walked in the Burgess home, it really was lovely. Although they were connected to the Bulsara house, the interior had a completely different design—perhaps they remodeled. The walls were a very white almost peach color and the carpeting a rather emerald green. All sorts of little knicknacks filled the room and although the Burgesses were rather young, it appeared they had already had a life so well lived. Freddie was remarking upon these different assorted items just as Mr. Burgess came down the stairs.
"Aha, I thought I recognized that voice," said Mr. Burgess as he entered the room.
"How kind of you to remember," said Freddie nodding his head, sort of pleased.
"How could I forget," Mr. Burgess laughed, "All you ever did was shout and holler out there in the garden!" Freddie sort of blushed and you smiled. Mrs. Burgess came down the stairs box in hand, "Hey tell me, have you learned any more chords on the guitar?" Mr. Burgess laughed.
"Derick!" Mrs. Burgess playfully snapped and then smiled at Freddie.
"I'm just teasing the boy, Carole," Mr. Burgess snickered.
"Here you boys go! Take anything you like," said Mrs. Burgess as she placed a few boxes down in the living room.
"Thank you!" you replied.
"It's no problem sweetie," she smiled, "I hope you find something to sell in there, it's been years since I've dug through those boxes, they were my mum's".
Mr. Burgess returned to the upstairs and Mrs. Burgess attended to something in the kitchen while Freddie and Rog began to open up boxes.
"Get a load of this," said Roger pulling out an old woman's buret from seemingly the 1940s.
"Give it here!" Freddie squealed and placed the cap on his head.
"Charming," you laughed.
"Ooh! Look at all this fur!" Freddie said opening up a box entirely comprised of fur coats.
"Those'll sell well," regarded Roger as Freddie draped a large fur coat over his shoulders.
"Y/n, try this one on," said Freddie handing you a smaller fur coat.
"I thought we were selling these," said Roger.
"Oh come on, have a little fun Rog," you said as you adorned your fur outfit with a knit turban and some dark, rose-embroidered gloves. Freddie was busy wrapping himself in a multitude of multicolored, earth-tone scarves.
"Here, give this a go," said Freddie pulling out a woman's floral babushka-esque headscarf.
"Great," said Roger sarcastically as he wrapped it around his head and tied it at his chin, "Happy now?"
"The spitting image of my gran," you laughed, Freddie just burst out laughing and Roger looked rather infuriated but laughing all the same, "Oh fine Rog, your turn to get at us".
Roger was going to have fun with this you could tell, you and Freddie had been razzing him all day about this and that. Roger opened up another box and devilishly dug through it's contents. A sly grin snuck it's way out of the corners of his mouth as he had seemingly achieved his goal of finding an oddity for Freddie and yourself to be adorned with.
"Here, for Fred," said Rog as he tossed Freddie a woman's turban wrapped in satin of a deep magenta color, "And for y/n," he said as he threw you a purple beaded, mustard colored snood.
"Ooh!" squealed Freddie, clearly satisfied more than anything with Roger's choice in item. He swiftly removed his buret and placed the turban atop his head. You laughed and followed suit, fitting the snood snuggly over your hair. Roger burst out laughing and so did the two of you.
It continued like this for a bit, the three of you 'beautifying' yourselves in assorted items. Freddie pulled some long gloves out of the box and pulled them all the way up, almost all the way to his elbows. Roger found a fur coat of his own and soon discovered some costume jewelry, which he decorated himself with—tossing some to you and Freddie. You pulled out some reptile skin pumps and slid them on, they were far too big but that of course further fueled the laughter that was ensuing among the three of you.
"We look absolutely ridiculous!" stated Roger, laughing.
"Look? Darling, we are!" giggled Freddie, who proceeded to fly over to the coffee table and sit down at a well placed crystal ball, "Shall I read your fortune dear?" said Freddie, his hands mystically orbiting the glass orb.
"Great, all he needs is a traveling caravan and he's a right gypsy!" laughed Roger as you ran over to the coffee table with Freddie, and Roger soon followed.
"Oh great mystic, what do you foresee!" you shouted, playing along and giggling yourself. Freddie looked into the ball with a wily grin, hands revolving the sphere.
"Ah yes," began Freddie, entranced in his sphere—so much so that he didn't notice Mrs. Burgess entering into the room just behind him, "I see...hm..I see a ssss—," he started off, Mrs. Burgess stood intrigued, "a slag?"
"Freddie!" you hissed batting at Freddie's arm, he clearly wasn't aware Mrs. Burgess was coming up behind him. He took this swipe as something playful.
He continued, "Hmm no that couldn't be it...hm, oh a shag! a good shaggi—". You smacked his arm again and he gave an audible "Ow!" before turning around to see Mrs. Burgess behind him, "Oh, hello Mrs. Burgess," he blushed.
She only laughed, "What are you three up to?"
"Divination at the moment," Roger quipped, making Mrs. Burgess laugh.
"Anyway, I've got to pop over to the Tesco in a bit, how much longer do you kids need?" she smiled, she clearly knew we were goofing off, but she seemed to be pleased we were getting so much joy out of the boxes.
"Actually, I think we're pretty much done here," you answered, laughing as Freddie slipped off his turban and slid of his rings.
"Would it be alright if we took the whole lot?" asked Roger kindly.
"Of course!" she replied with much enthusiasm, "Better to get some use out of those old things then leave them sitting around". Freddie and Roger began to put some of the items back into the boxes and clean up a bit. Freddie then walked over and gave Mrs. Burgess a bit hug rather unexpectedly, "Oh!" she cried out and laughed.
"I'll be sure to give you a cut of the profits," stated Freddie with a respectful nod.
"Oh don't even worry about that love," said Mrs. Burgess, "These are yours now".
"Thank you so much," you replied as the boys finally got the rest of the boxes together.
"You're welcome," smiled Mrs. Burgess.
The three of you each picked up a box or two and headed out the door. Even between the three of you, it was quite a load—how Mrs. Burgess was able to carry it all down the stairs herself, you'll never know.
The day was seemingly getting hotter and hotter, as temperatures rose it seemed the distance between you and the bus stop grew longer and longer. You hadn't been walking that long, only a block or two in reality. Truthfully at most, it was maybe only 30°C out, but it sure felt like more.
"It's so fucking hot out here!" Freddie finally snapped, exhaustedly dropping the box.
"Freddie it's not too much farther," you replied, "Come on now". Freddie groaned and picked up the box once more, only to set it down again. Drama queen. Well it was indeed hot, "Here, I've got an idea," you said opening up your box. You remembered seeing some sunglasses somewhere in one of the boxes, "Try these on for size". You handed him a pair of round circle sunglasses, "And this," you said handing him a sunhat, "Better?"
"I guess," he muttered, looking absolutely ridiculous but also in a way ridiculously adorable.
"I'll take a pair," said Roger, succumbing to the heat.
"Really?" you answered surprised, "You? Mr. Don't-mistake-me-for a woman?"
"It's just so damn hot," said Roger as you handed him a different pair of sunglasses and a hat.
You yourself grabbed a pair and the three of you set off, boxes in hand, looking like some real characters. You continued on a bit and it wasn't long before you reached the bus stop. The whole way you kept slightly giggling under your breath, but to Freddie and Roger this heat was no laughing matter.
The bus would be another few minutes and so the three of you sat on the bench in silence a moment, the heat overtaking you all. You'd almost expect to be hearing the sounds of cicadas singing in the sweltering heat, but instead there was silence. Maybe the sound of a door opening down the road every now and then, but still simply silence.
"Do you really think these'll sell?" asked Roger, staring straight ahead. Freddie paused.
"Probably not," answered Freddie, returning to the silence. The three of you looked laughable.
You sat in silence a long while before some random bloke walked up to wait, "Ladies," he greeted you as he leaned against the pole. Neither of you answered, but you just sat smiling to yourself.
The four of you sat and waited for the bus a long while and then finally, salvation. The bus arrived.
"Finally!" shouted Roger as the bus pulled up. The man to the side of you looked rather taken aback, had you more energy you would've laughed.
Freddie, you, and Rog climbed on to the bus and took your seats at the back, opening the windows and taking off your guise. You opened up your box to collect their items, "Ladies?" you tittered as you held our your hand.
"Quit it, you" said Roger, handing you his sunglasses.
The three of you sunk into your seats and let the time fly by as the bus drove on. At first you were rather quiet as you were still cooling down, but soon enough you were back to your rather boisterous antics and very vocal conversations. Freddie had a lot of fun with messing with you and Roger with very childlike games he'd play with you as you talked, it always made things much more interesting. By the time you made it back to London you had broken out into full song, the usual activity at the end of a long ride for you three—most especially Freddie.
You had decided that for the rest of the day you'd work on setting up the booth and pricing things and then afterwards you'd join some of the Smile and Ibex boys for drinks at the pub. Now you'd just have to get back to the flat and the adventure would continue.
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I went a bit off in this chapter I know 😂😂😂 I just like to have a bit of fun. Creativity tempts me when I see an opportunity to further the stereotype of Bri originally thinking Freddie was a gypsy. I won't make anymore Roger getting upset about looking like a woman jokes, there comes a point where it's too far. He just needs a good reason to grow a beard like he did then (in my notes for writing this time period I wrote "Roger grows a fucking beard because he isn't confident in his masculinity, 1969" so I gotta stick with that 😂). Anyway, I feel like this is the kind of chapter you could either be unopinionated on or opinionated on. I will say, the Burgesses were in fact neighbors with Freddie and their house did look like that and in almost every article I found on them talking about Freddie, they always mentioned how loud he was 😂😂😂 I think that's just lovely. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, sorry this update is so late, I just haven't been confident in my writing as of late and the research portion of this section in particular took sooooooo long lmao...it took me two hours just to find out if there was a Tesco in Feltham in 1969 😂 turns out I already had a photo of it being there in 1965 on my computer and didn't look until I had given up on research. Oh the other cool thing, all those items they're trying on are things I used to mess with from the 1940s in a few assorted hatboxes given to me by my grandmother, I couldn't stop picturing Freddie in them 😂Oh how I wish Freddie would've had his name changed to Freddie Mercury in this time period, I could've called him The Mystic Mercury without any consequences. Oh well, at least the chapter title gets to be called that. Thanks for reading!