Every time you make a move

The Great Pretender-Pt 1

Around 9pm, Friday 19th December, 1986

King Suite, Hilton Kilmainham, Dublin

"What do you mean there was a clash with your flight?" Monica exclaimed incredulously down her Motorola, donning a bathrobe and towel turban having just stepped out of the shower.

Paula tried to keep her back turned as she unfolded clothes from her small suitcase, shaking her head to herself as her friend continued to bicker down the phone with her should-be fiancé Freddie Mercury.

"Your throat?! I know that your career depends on your throat Freddie, but surely that appointment could've been moved..." her friend trailed off, her tone now soft and sad, and then she argued back with him yet again, "No, I'm not saying that you should die of lymph nodes! I'm saying that on a day like this your own children should be a priority too... I mean, the last time I asked if you were coming to Ireland you got angry at me."

Paula grabbed her packet of cigarettes off of her bedside table, pretending not to listen and rather seem distracted by her newly-dyed and coiffed black and white hair in the reflection of the dressing mirror as she passed it.

"I'll see you sometime later then..." she heard Monica tell Freddie downheartedly, and robotically add, "I love you."

Paula was curious to know if Freddie had said it back to her on the other end, but somehow she wouldn't be surprised if the answer was to be no.

Once Monica was finished, she set the phone down and turned to her friend, "I don't understand, Paula. He insisted that he had the flights booked and everything!"

"Do you know what possibly could've happened?" Paula lifted a cigarette out of the box.

She went to sit down on the hotel bed, "I don't know. Phoebe is usually very careful not to create clashes. That's why Fred has hired him for years"

"Maybe he just made a mistake?" Paula suggested as she put the cigarette back in the box and went to sit down beside her.

"Possibly... but, Johnny's play and Roshni's All-Ireland math competition were going to clash anyway," Monica continued, and explained, "You see, Roshni's team won the semi-final for the 24 Game in Athlone the other week. Freddie and I weren't expecting that, so we both agreed that we would go to either one or the other and take whichever twin we see back with us for the Christmas holidays."

"Well, I'm surprised that you don't see the solution to this problem!" Paula chuffed.

"What?" Monica sounded.

"It's obvious, isn't it? I go to one of them instead of Fred, and you go to the other." She offered.

"Oh would you? You'd go on your own?!" Monica sprang back up off the bed again.

"It means that our lunch out somewhere will have to wait, but yes!" Paula nodded, "Which one would you like me to go to?"

"Perhaps you could go to Roshni's competition, it's easiest for you to reach," Monica pondered aloud, pacing back and forth, "At this point I can get the bus to and from Kells village blindfolded. It's only an hour up the road."

"Mo, I drove across Europe in a camper van with a one hundred and twenty pound dog. I'll definitely be okay!" Paula reminded her.

"I don't doubt that, but I think it's better if I go to Headfort," she sat back down on the mattress again, "Johnny will take it harder than Roshni if at least one of his parents doesn't turn up."

"Is that so?" her friend queried peculiarly.

"Yep," Monica admitted, "Johnny and Freddie haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye this last year"