Page 78 of Mercury Rising

“Yeah. He spent most of his waking hours studying the ratings for his movies. So boring.”

Nick turned from the cooker and took Mercury in his hands. “At least you were bored in luxury. My parents worked most of the time. Me and my three brothers were hungry.”

Mercury frowned. “Who cared for you?”

“Drink?” Nick asked clearly deflecting Mercury’s question.

“I shamelessly stole a bottle of fizz right out of my mother’s hand. Let me. Finish your story.”

Nick sat at the kitchen table. “It’s a bit heavy, I’ll warn you.”

Mercury grabbed two glasses from the drainer. “I can handle it. I’ve been typing up logbooks for weeks.”

Nick laid his hands out on the table. “When I was about eight, we lived in a ground floor flat. The whole building had been a house before they converted. There was barely enough room to swing a cat.”

Mercury sat opposite Nick. “Five of you?”

“Yeah, me and my brothers had one bedroom. Mum and Dad had the other. Two guys lived above us.”

“Oh yeah?” Mercury said, raising an eyebrow.

“Correct, they were a couple. George and Wayne. George made costumes for the West End and Wayne worked in computers or something like that.”

Mercury popped the cork.

“George worked at home most of the time,” Nick continued. “All we heard was that sewing machine going. When they found out that Mum and Dad were struggling with childcare, he became our unofficial nanny.”

Mercury poured them both generous glasses of champagne. “I bet that made things easier when you came out,” Mercury said.

“Not exactly,” he explained. “Two years later, Wayne got sick.”

There were no prizes for guessing what was coming next. “AIDS?” Mercury asked.

With tears in his eyes, Nick nodded. “Yeah. They were making massive progress with medication. It was still a death sentence, though. He didn’t last the year.”

Mercury reached across and took Nick’s hand. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. And George?”

“He hung on another six months. It was awful. The weight he lost. Mum cared for him. Well, we all did.”

Several of Madeline’s friends had died from AIDS-related complications. It had mainly happened before Mercury was born. They were photographs and stories rather than actual people.

“I had already figured out I was the same as them,” Nick said. “It terrified me. So, I pushed it deep down. I couldn’t put my mother through that.”

Mercury frowned. “What did you do?”

“You know what I did. I played the hardman instead. Fat lot of good it did me. The night before I was in court, I told my parents and guess what?”

“They already suspected.”

Nick nodded. “What a fucking waste of time.”

They sat in silence for a second. The pan bubbling away.

“Seems a bit inappropriate to have champagne,” Mercury said.

“No way,” Nick replied, grabbing his glass. “Let’s drink to Wayne and George.”

“Wayne and George,” Mercury repeated, taking hold of his own.