And Your Girl Can Sing

Chapter 90: Be Careful What You Wish For

It was just another day at the Cavern Club. A regular Thursday. A gusty, windy day at the very start of November, signifying the winter ahead.

    I had initially woken first to find a chill in the flat. It grew cold sometimes, but we found other ways to keep warm. I felt John's body heat intensify as he rolled over toward me in response to my getting out of bed. I took a glance at the window. Outside it was sunrise, but a later sunrise. I checked my wristwatch—6:57 AM.

    "Whoever you are, it's six in the morning, and—" I stopped myself. What was I saying?

    The boy turned his head towards my digital clock. "You're wrong, love, it's seven actually."

    I turned around, peeved. "You're wrong. It's 6:57."

    "Probably 6:57 and a couple of seconds now. But why quibble at the time? Come lie down," the boy said. I raised my chin at him and thrust a couple of well chosen words at him. "All right, get out, get out before my mum comes, I've got to sleep."

    "Why can't you sleep here, with me?" were the words that came out of his mouth next, in a suggestive sort of voice. "After all, you spent a whole night with me, did you not?"

    The sunrises were certainly getting later and later.

    I made a small breakfast—curry from a tin and potatoes—in a frying pan and opened the window a crack to let the smell out. I heard his sounds getting up, and then a shout, still groggy with sleep: "Cora, have you seen my trousers?"

    "Try under the bed," I called back.

    When I had finished making tea he slumbered into the room and hugged me from behind, one warm hand creeping up the front of my pajama shirt. "Haven't gotten dressed yet, eh?"

    "It's just a cavern day," I said back and turned my head to kiss him. "I can show up in my jammies and no one will say anything."

    "I doubt it." His finger traced my collarbone and then dropped abruptly. "How's Anna liking Liddypool?"

    "Thinks it's a little dreary weather-wise, but I don't blame her." I put the tin of tea back in the cupboard.

    "Fuck what she says. Hamburg is practically the same weather," he chuckled. Anna had returned a couple of days ago and would be starting art school today. She had found a group of art students to collectively rent a flat. All of us had gone out to supper one night and she relayed her experiences, and John had playfully put up a hand and asked her to stop; the whole thing made him feel old even though art school was only a few years ago.

    "We'll have supper again tomorrow night perhaps. Right here in our flat." He turned around and almost banged into his case sitting by the door. "Fuck. This place is always smaller than I think." He caught my look. "I didn't mean that, darling. You always make it so nice."

    "Yes, and the curry isn't making you say nice things either, eh Lennon?" I teased him, swooping the dish in front of him before placing it my seat like Louise had done a few days ago. The Harrisons had been surprised by my decision to move out, which surprised me in return. "Oh, me of little faith," George had shot at me sarcastically when I told him, rolling his eyes back and pretending to faint against the doorjamb.

***

    The line had already grown before the band even arrived.

    We were used to this. Girls screaming out, "George! John! Pete! Paul! I love you!" and occasionally my name and song requests. The teenage girls were really quite something. I was twenty now, but as I glanced at the teenage girls in their outfits and excited expressions I couldn't help but be reminded of when I was that young.