"I hope you have a great time in London, Paul. Good luck with the audition," I said as I pulled my new coat (a beige camel hair coat my mother sent for an early Christmas gift) tighter around me. It was about noon (and freezing outside of NEMS!) and Paul and his friends were about ready to leave for London. I on the other hand was getting ready to leave for home the next day. By the time Paul returned from London, I would be in the warmth of a South Texas winter.
"It'll be great! I know we'll get that contract. I can feel it," he exclaimed. "I'm going to miss you when I get back. I know you'll be back by mid-January, but it'll be a lifetime."
"I doubt it, Paul. Even though, if you'd like, you can call me at home. My Aunt Dolly will have the number."
"I will. I promise," he smiled, pulling me in for a hug.
I closed my eyes as I took a deep breath of his familiar scent that I had quickly become accustomed to. I was definitely going to miss that while I was gone. As we pulled away from our hug, I noticed Mike and Janet had arrived, like me, to see them off.
"Well, brother, it's almost time for you to go and make it big!," Mike said slapping Paul on the back. "But you'll remember the little people, right?"
"I don't know about you, Mike, but I'll definitely remember everyone else," Paul joked. "You just better be happy you have your car. With a heater. Without five people, instruments, and luggage jammed in it."
"Are we all ready?," John yelled, not allowing Mike to respond.
"Uh, we're missing George," Paul yelled back to John who rolled his eyes.
"I'm coming!," we heard a voice yell. We all turned around to see the "missing George" running with a guitar in one hand and a package of some sort in his other hand. I was sort of worried at the fact he had no luggage until I saw two figures in the distance walking towards all of us. It was Laura and an older lady I figured was George's mother. As George loaded his guitar in the back seat where he would sit, the two finally made it to the waiting car and group.
"Ah, Mrs. Harrison, I see you baked us some wonderful snacks again. We'd be starved if it wasn't for you," Paul told George's mother, who beamed at the compliment.
"You are all getting so scrawny. If you're going to be big rock stars, people need to see you," she said in her motherly way.
"Hi, Laura," I said as John, Paul, George, and Pete were getting a lecture from Mrs. Harrison. "I didn't expect to see you here!"
"I didn't expect to come here, either," she smiled. "In fact, I was surprised George asked me to come. We've only been out once, other than your party."
"Well, I'm glad you came. At least I'm not the only one who's going to be missing someone."
Mrs. Harrison's lecture finally finished and the last piece of Beatle cargo was packed. It was time to say goodbye.
"I'll see you when I get back," I whispered as I laid my head on Paul's chest.
"Happy New Year's," he said as he held me in a loose embrace. "I'm sorry I can't say goodbye to you one more time at Heathrow."
"It's okay. You're going to have more important things on your mind. Plus, you can't be running around from the hotel to Decca to an airport. I'll bring you something American," I joked.
"I'll see you then," he said as he leaned in for a kiss.
As we broke from our kiss, Mike and Janet came up to say their good byes and good luck wishes. In a second, they were all piled in the car and off, leaving behind a faithful group that were crossing fingers for them.
‘Well, Paul. What now?,' Paul thought as he studied the ceiling of the hotel. The other guys had gone out for a night on the town and he decided to stay behind. ‘I can't believe I'm here. I never thought we'd get to this point. We're bound to get the contract.'
He walked over to the window and looked out, watching the people wander from place to place. The trip had wiped him out and he was glad he decided to stay behind. He needed what energy he had for the audition. Though suddenly, he had a feeling of complete loneliness. He missed Martha.
‘I wonder what she's doing right now,' he thought as he cooled his forehead on the glass of the window.
"Clothes and shoes?, check, presents?, check, school documents?, check...," I said as I flopped on my bed, finishing my packing checklist. I had finished getting ready for my trip the next day, but I wasn't ready to go. I knew I was going to be back, but I still didn't like it. Maybe it was because I knew I'd be finalizing graduation plans at home. Or maybe it was because of Paul. Or could it be because I didn't want to go alone?
The thoughts swirling around my head as I lay there were driving me crazy. ‘Maybe I'll go bug Aunt Dolly,' I thought as I headed for the stairs. Halfway down, there was a knock on the door. "I've got it Aunt Dolly!," I shouted as I opened the door. It was Ringo.
"Hi! How are you, Ringo?," I asked, ushering him in.
"I, uh, I came to give you this," he said as he held out a package.
"What's this?"
"A late Christmas gift. With all that's been going on, the Beatles getting that audition and all, I thought you'd be busy during the holidays. So I thought now would be a good time."
"But I didn't get you anything! I feel awful about it," I said, embarrassed that I hadn't even thought of getting him something.
"It's okay. You didn't know I was going to get you something anyway," he smiled. "Open it!"
I carefully peeled apart the wrapping and opened the box. In it was a beautifully colored sweater. It was gorgeous!
"Ringo! You shouldn't have. It's beautiful!"
"I thought you might like it. I saw it in a shop window and thought of you. Unique and pretty all rolled into one."
"Well, now I have to bring you something from home," I said giving him a hug.
"You're going home? I thought you were staying here."
"Well, I have to go and finalize some things at home. Plus, it gives me time to spend with my family at our farm. I haven't seen them since September," I answered, suddenly wanting to be home really bad, despite my earlier thoughts. I really missed my family.
"Wow. You have a farm?! You know, once, I was going to leave here and go to Texas. Thought I could be a cowboy."
"What made you change your mind?"
"It would have been to much trouble! Too much money, too much paper work, and too much hassle."
Suddenly an idea formed in my mind.....
"Ringo, I have a proposition for you. Do you have a passport?"
"Yes, I do. Why? I'm not understanding what's going on here."
"Well, I'm having qualms about traveling by myself. It's your Christmas gift. I'm going to make you a cowboy. What I need to know is, do you want to go to Texas with me?"
"‘Ey, Paulie. It's time to wake up. We've got to get moving. We have about an hour before we have to be at Decca. We still have to go over who's going to sing what," John said nudging Paul who was bundled up to his moptop in blankets.
"Bugger off, John. I wasn't able to sleep to well last night because I had a lot on my mind," Paul mumbled, turning away from John.
"And you think that because you couldn't sleep last night that the people at Decca are going to wait for us? Think again. Rise and shine, pretty boy," John laughed, grabbing the side of one of the blankets.
He gave a huge pull and Paul flew to the floor with a thud.
"You, bastard! You didn't have to do that," Paul yelled playfully, lunging at John across the bed.
They play wrestled for a few minutes until George, who appeared at the doorway that adjoined his and Pete's room with Paul and John's, whistled.
"Hey! Do you realize we have forty-five minutes before we have to be at Decca? Here you are wrestling. Get up and Paul, you get dressed. Be out here in ten minutes," George told them as walked back to his and Pete's room.
"Sheesh. You'd think that because he's younger that he'd be a little more fun," John said, rolling his eyes.
"I heard, that!," George yelled through the doorway.
"Good you, old nag!," John yelled back as he pounded on the wall. "So, Paul, who's singin' what when we do this audition? Should we put the pressure on Mr. Uptight in there and make him sing the majority?"
"I don't know," Paul said as he started dressing for the day. "It's a pretty important audition. This could be it you know. Do you feel he's up to it?"
"I think he is. He's been doing pretty good on those songs we've been practicing him on. Besides, if we fuck up, we know who to blame and it wouldn't be us," John said as he lit a cigarette.
"Well," Paul started as he put the finishing touches on his hair, "let's go make our mark."
"Hurry, Ringo! We're going to miss the plane!," I shouted as we ran across the terminal. Traffic was bad on the way to the airport and I was scared that we'd miss the plane. We still had to go pick up Ringo's ticket and check in our baggage! Good thing I had called ahead for the ticket! The only problem was that because the later flight was booked, we had to take the earlier flight to San Antonio.
Fifteen minutes later we were seated comfortably in our seats. Well, I was seated comfortably in my seat. Ringo on the other hand looked as if he wanted to get off as soon as possible.
"Ringo, are you okay? Do you want to stay?," I asked.
"No. I want to go. I've always wanted to see Texas. I've just never flown before. It's all new to me! Really, I'm thrilled to be going. Do we get to ride horses and shoot guns like in the movies?"
"Not really. I think it's like any other place. There are drive-ins, restaurants, you know, ordinary everyday, everyplace things. But you'll get to ride horses on the family farm. We will get to stay in the city, though, so you won't feel to out of place."
"You live in two places? Are you rich or something?"
"I guess you could say that. Corpus is a very, well, different place. The majority of the population is Hispanic, but there are still some racial restrictions. You'll see what I mean when we get there. But, yes, by my family's place in the community, we're well off."
With that, Ringo started to feel more at ease. As the plane lifted off and we headed on our way to Texas, I filled Ringo in on things he needed to know on the farm and a bit about my family. We had called home the night before and informed them about Ringo joining me on my trip home, so he knew a little about what to expect. He told me about his childhood fantasies of Texas and that he was glad he was going to finally be able to see it. This was going to be a great trip home.