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“Dad! Louder!” Jack shouted from the backseat. Aaron shook his head in protest but turned the radio up a few notches anyway.
From the passenger seat, Dave glanced disapprovingly at Aaron, “I’m sure there something about an explosion? And acoustic trauma? Avoiding loud noises? Am I remembering that right?”
“It’s a car radio, Dave.”
“Plus, someone who thinks he’s playing Madison Square Garden.” Dave gestured to Jack who had gone right back to belting out the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody with impressive accuracy. Aaron laughed. Through the mirror he could see his son swaying dramatically in his seat as he sang along.
“At this rate he’s going to be worn out before we get there.”
“He’s been talking about seeing the elephants for two weeks, trust me, he’ll have plenty of energy.”
The CD carried on playing and with every new track Jack still knew every lyric off by heart. It was only when he reached for, and almost hit, the last high note of Aerosmith’s Dream On that Dave cracked.
“Good god, Aaron, how often has that poor boy been forced to listen to Best of 70s Rock?”
“He likes it.” Aaron protested.
Dave looked back at Jack playing air-drums, “Can’t argue with that. But really – do you have no other CDs? A bit of Sinatra? Some Tony Bennett?” He reached into the glovebox for the rest of the CDs.
“Queen, Queen 2, A Night at The Opera,” he gave up on finding anything he approved of in the stack CDs and returned them to the glovebox defeated. “You know there are other bands.”
“I like Queen.”
“Yeah, I got that from their entire back catalogue here.”
“It’s not all Queen. There’s some Beatles in there too – I think. Admittedly, Jack tends to request this one.”
Rossi grinned, turned down the volume, and peered over the seat at Jack, “Hey kid, tell me the truth, does your dad sing along with you when its just you too in the car?”
Jack looked at Aaron’s face in the rear-view mirror for a sign on how to answer, which was all Dave needed, “I knew it!” He turned back around, smirking.
“Not a word, Dave.” Aaron deadpanned.
“And to think, you never agree to a turn at karaoke.”
“My attempts at the low parts of Bohemian Rhapsody are not for the public.”
He could see a look on Dave’s face that screamed we’ll see about that.
“My first ex-wife used to have a thing for the drummer in Queen. We even saw them live a couple of times.”
“I always had a thing Brian May, the guitarist. “
Dave’s expression immediately transformed into a mischievous grin and Aaron sensed he’d made a mistake with that confession.
“Oh really?” he said in a sing-song voice, “So young Aaron had a crush on the skinny, long-haired, scientist?”
It took Aaron a second to work out what Dave was alluding to then, “- Oh for god, sake not this again.” He lowered his voice, “And not in front of Jack.”
“He isn’t listening,” Dave was undeterred, “I’m just pointing out that you have a type.”
“You’re ridiculous. There is no type. Because I don’t -,”
“Just admit it – you and Reid would be good together.”
Aaron turned up the radio again, letting Freddie Mercury’s voice drown out his friend’s meddling for the rest of the journey.