You Take My Breath Away - Brian May

25. 'On Such a Breathless Night As This...'

"I hope there's no hard feelings between you, Roger, and Tim now."

"No, not really, we're just pretty shocked.  I mean, we'll continue to do the gigs we had planned to do, and now we've got to start rehearsing with Fred and searching for a new bass player. We're going to put an advert out." 

"Sounds like a good plan."

Lettie and Brian stood outside Imperial College. Lettie had gone to meet Brian there after his TA session and he was scheduled to go over to the Evans' house and tutor Chip, so Valerie said she would pick them up at the college. 

"Oh, here comes your Mum." Brian spotted the shop van coming down the road towards them. 

The van came bouncing down the drive, swerving a little along the way.

"That's not Mum..."

For one thing, rock music blasted from the radio and out the open windows.  The van screeched to a bumpy halt in front of them, narrowly missing hitting the curb.  Chip's head peeked out of the window.  "Howdy."

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm driving. I'm your ride home today."

"Oh, okay..."

"Hey, why do you sound so uncertain?"

"Well, we were just expecting Mum, that's all."

"You really doubt my driving skills that much?"

"Do you really want me to answer  that?"

"Just hop in for crying out loud."

"Okay..." The two exchanged a wary glance and climbed into the back seat.

"I hope you're okay with this," Lettie said as she and Brian climbed into the back seat.

"Yeah, how bad can it be?"

"You really want me to answer that?"

"And away we go!" Chip started driving again. 

"Ugh, I can't watch." Lettie buried her face in her hands and squeezed her eyes shut as Chip pulled out onto the road and into the stream of traffic. 

Perhaps by some miracle, they made it home relatively safely, at least in one piece. 

"See, you were worried for nothing."

"Chip!"

SMASH!

Distracted by boasting about his driving skills (if you could even call them skills that is. Whatever they were, they were not worth boasting about) Chip had swerved off the driveway and right towards their mother's potted plants.  The front of the van struck the nearest pot which sat still for a moment before crumbling into a mess of pottery and dirt. A shocked silence followed. 

"Oh shit-"

"Chip Petros Evanos!"

"Uh oh, she's yelling at me in Greek! I'm done for!"

"And we're out of here-" Lettie opened the back door and she and Brian jumped out. 

"No, don't leave me!"

"Sorry, Mate, you're on you're own."

--------------------------------

"I hope your mother wasn't too upset about her potted plant," Brian said after dinner while he helped Lettie wash the dishes.