Edu and I were in touch every week. We talked about everything, specially the latest news that came from England. We had heard that the Beatles were recording a programme for the BBC called "Pop Go The Beatles", but unfortunately, it was not available in Spain. I didn’t mind, I still remembered John’s voice singing "Bad to Me" specially for me, and I dreamt of the moment we would finally be together.

My parents were not very happy at the idea of going to England indefinitely. I told him it was not for good, but I wanted to go. I told them about John and that Edu was coming with me, so they could be relaxed, nothing wrong would happen to me.

I knew all my results between the first and the second week of June. I had passed everything alright, so I was free to study at another university. Good!

On my birthday, June the 12^th, I phoned Edu and told her if she could come down to Valencia to spend a couple of days with me. She told me it was not possible, but sent me a beautiful picture of Buddy Holly with his famous thick rimmed glasses and the lyrics to Words of Love framed all together. I couldn’t be happier. Well, I lie, I could, And my total happiness came three days later, on my mum’s birthday. The phone rang and my dad took it. He doesn’t speak a word of English, so he called my name in angry yells to tell me someone with a strange language wanted to talk to me.

• "Hello?"
• "Hello, Vicky, this is Brian. How are you?"
• "Very well, thank you!", I had to make great efforts to hide my happiness, as that meant John had told Brian when we could go to see him.
• "Right! Listen. John wants you and Edu in Liverpool as soon as possible. So I took the liberty of reserving plane tickets for you and Edu. Your plane flies Madrid Liverpool on Monday 17^th. The plane leaves at 12.30 and you get here at 14.30, I mean, with the hour difference, take into account you get here at 13.30. We won’t be in Liverpool until quite late in the afternoon or evening, depending on how the recordings go, OK? Everything alright, Vicky? Questions?"

Yes, I had a couple. Where would be living and if they weren’t in Liverpool, who was going to go for us at the airport?

• "Brian, who’ll be getting us from the airport?"
• "Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ll send my brother Clive for you, and you’ll go directly to my flat. He’ll drive us, don’t worry about that, Ok?"
• "Good! And, oh, Brian... Do you know if... Well... Is John... You know! IS John still living with Cynthia?"

There were a few minutes of silence and that scared the hell out of me, ‘cos I thought they meant a yes.

• "No, she’s moved out".

Good! I almost let a deep sigh go out my mouth. I thought I had avoided it, but I heard Brian let out a weak laughter.

• "So, Vicky, tell Edu and hope to see you soon, OK? Take care!"

And he hang up. So I phoned Edu right after Brian’s call and told her everything. She told me he had told us with little time ,left, and she didn’t know if she could leave the job with so many days left. We had two days to pack things in, leave our respective lives in Valencia and Barcelona and get the tickets to Madrid. And Gosh it was Saturday! Well, it was only 12.00 p.m., so hopefully all the travel agencies would be open this afternoon.

Immediately after having lunch, I went to the first one I saw, and seeing it had tickets available, I decided to buy those, not wanting to risk looking for others at different travel agencies, and finding I finally had nothing.

Edu phoned me on Sunday morning telling me she had worked out everything and that we were finally meeting on Monday at 10.00 am in Madrid.

My parents and my brother went with me to Madrid. They wanted to spend the day there, and I soon as I arrived and spotted Edu, we said our farewells. They trusted me, they knew I was quite responsible so they didn’t have anything to worry about. Edu’s family was also there, but we wanted to be alone, so she did the same and in a couple of minutes we were alone in the station cafe, having a coffee and chatting.

• "Oh, Edu, this is quite exciting, don’t you think?"
• "Yes, Vicky! I’m so glad... I’ve taken all my savings with me since I don’t have a job in England yet, but I hope to find one soon".
• "Oh, yeah, don’t worry. You know? In October I’ll have to move to London, because there’s no way I can study at Liverpool university".

We talked for a long time until 12.00, when we had to go onto the plane. We took two seats near the window and started looking out of it. The take off was terrible. I was so scared that I thought I was to throw up everything I had eaten in the previous week. Some passengers laughed at me, but it didn’t matter much to me. After the take off, everything was quite normal. Edu read and I slept a little. Well, a little, the voice of the captain woke me up saying we had to fasten our belt as we were going to land in five minutes.

When we landed and we fetched our luggage, we started looking for somebody we didn’t know. We were as lost as a bull in a china shop. Everybody seemed so determined as to where they were going, and there we were, Edu and me, looking everywhere. Finally, a very smart guy, very quite Brian, approached us and said:

• "Vicky and Edu?"
• "Oh, yeah!"
• "Welcome to England! My name’s Clive Epstein, I’m Brian’s brother! Please to meet you!"

We were a little bit embarrassed. We didn’t know what to say to this man who we hardly knew. He had the car parked outside the station and we jumped on it. He drove us to a little flat.

• "Well, here it is. This is Brian’s flat. He never uses, so you can live here freely. This was the flat John and Cynthia used immediately after getting married".

I felt my heart jump. Edu looked at me. I was in pain, I didn’t want to live there, but if there was any other choice... Clive realised and told me:

• "What’s wrong?"
• "OH, it’s nothing! I feel a bit dizzy due to the flight. I’ll be alright in some minutes".

We get out of the car and Clive took our luggage. I had five bags and Edu four, so Clive had to go back to the car three times to have everything. The flat was quite right, and as it was daylight, everything was beautiful. It had two bedrooms, so we could have one each. Edu and I went looking at every room in detail. Clive found us in he kitchen:

• "All right, young ladies. Brian and the boys come from London this evening. I’ll tell them you’re here".
• "Are they in London?"

I couldn’t believe it! London sounded like something out of the movies for me. Little did we know that we would be like the kings and queens of the London scene in less than a year! But I’m speaking too much. Right back on the 17^th of June of 1963, Edu and I started unpacking as soon as Clive had left. We organised everything and decided to wait for Brian and John watching TV.

There was nothing interesting on it, so Edu started scanning the records collection Brian had.

• "Look at this!", she told me.

I went over and she had a record called "My bonnie" by some Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. We put it on, and there was a song that the voice of the singer seemed so familiar to me.

• "Sounds very much like John", she said. Yeah, I agreed. The song was called "Ain’t she sweet" and the guy had a very very similar voice to John’s. Then we listened to the next one and it was an instrumental one called "Cry for a shadow". "And this one reminds me very much of the Shadows".

We suddenly heard the bell rang. We stopped short and decided to go to open it. Oh, God!! There was John and Brian. John had something in his hands, and was smiling so happily that I couldn’t resist the impulse of rushing towards him and kissing him.

He kissed me passionately and then handed me a beautiful red rose.

• "For the sweetest thing", he told me. I took the rose and smelled it. Then he went to Edu, kissed her on the cheek and gave her a box of chocolates.
• "Thank you, John. You’re so nice", she said kissing him on the cheek. Brian talked to us for a while and asked us about the flight and if we liked the flat. Of course we did, and best of all was that we had it for ourselves! He seemed happy again (had John stopped teasing him?) and after a while, he excused himself and left. John sat with Edu on the sofa. There was plenty of food in the fridge so Edu decided to prepare something to eat. So John and I were alone.
• "Girl, I’ve missed you terribly! How ‘r ya?"
• "I’m fine, John, I wanted so much to see you", he kissed me. "Where have you been?"
• "Ah, touring England, baby, with Roy Orbison. And today, we’ve been to London to record another programme of "Pop Go the Beatles". We don’t stop, baby"
• "Oh, but that’s a good sign, isn’t it?"
• "Oh, yeah, it is!"

Then I suddenly felt like talking about Cynthia. I wanted to know what he had done and if they were still seeing each other.

• "John...", he looked at me. "Cynthia?..."
• "Oh, she’s gone back to the Wirral, you see. She’s taken Julian with her, but I can see him any time I like. Would you like to meet him?"
• "Julian! Of course! But will Cynthia...?"
• "Oh, I don’t care, you know. He’s my son too!"

Edu came with the dinner at that moment. We ate in silence. We were really hungry so we ate a lot. Brian couldn’t have been much nicer. Not only had he lent us his flat, but he had also supplied us with a lot of food!.

John and I couldn’t stop looking at each other. Edu realised and after getting everything out from the table, she said she was going to bed. John smiled at her ingratitude but before he told us:

• "Hey, girls, it’s Paul’s birthday tomorrow. He’s having a party at his aunt’s and I would like you two to go. You’ll meet all my friends there, Ok? So I’ll come for you tomorrow afternoon".

Edu said goodnight and left. Once again John and I were all alone. He kissed me softly on the lips. Then he stood up and told me to do the same. I obeyed. He then directed me to the bedroom (well, he obviously knew the way quite right. How many things would he have done that to Cynthia? I didn’t want to think of that, so I followed him). There he closed the door softly as to not wake up Edu and started undressing me. I was very much in the mood. I really wanted to make love to John, so I let him do. He undressed me and then undressed himself. He kissed me and pushed me towards the bed. I lied on my back, and then he started the routine of kissing me all over. But this time I wanted to kiss John. I wanted to make him as happy as he made me, so I stopped him and got over him. Now it was him who lied on his back. I started kissing his bare chest (he had no hair on it, good!) and when I went to his most private part, I felt quite embarrassed. I stopped and then he realised:

• "It’s alright, luv, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to", but I did want, the only thing was that I didn’t know even how to start. I had never done that, in my life. I had to tell him:
• "John, I do want, it’s just that...", well he didn’t need any further explanation, he understood immediately. He taught me. He told me how to do it and following his instructions, I could feel John breathing hard, sighing:
• "Oh, yeah, baby, yeah, oohhhhh!!!", I was quite happy doing those things to him. And I wouldn’t have stopped, but John grabbed me and pushed me upwards, towards his mouth. He kissed me and made me sit down over him. Then he made love to me with me sat on top of him. It hurt that time too, but less than the first time, so I enjoyed it a bit more. John caressed my nude breasts, my belly, my hair... I felt like riding a horse or something, the position reminded me very much of that. When John was about to come I leaned to kiss him and so we both came at the same time. Oh, God! It had been marvellous. I lied at his side and closed my eyes. He turned to kiss me. "My baby, I’ll never forget this, never!", I smiled at him. I knew right then that I loved that man, but didn’t dare tell him, so I just smiled and relaxed.
• "Why don’t you spend the night here, John?"
• "Oh, no, I can’t, Vicky. Mimi wouldn’t let me!"
• "Mimi?"
• "Yeah, my auntie. She may be waiting for me and anyroad I didn’t tell her anything. Don’t worry, we’ll have more chances. And remember that tomorrow I’ll come for you to go to Paul’s party!"
• "Oh, yeah, how old is he?"
• "He turns 21"
• "Oh, we’re the same age, then! I turned 21 just five days ago!"
• "Bloody hell! Why didn’t you tell me? I would have bought you the most gorgeous thing on earth!"

I just laughed, that was not necessary, I had him, that was the best present I could have had. John kissed me and got up.

• "Ok, luv, I must be going, I don’t want another fighting with Mimi.", he started dressing. I saw him put on his knickers, trousers, shirt, tie and jacket. Absolutely gorgeous!! He approached to me for the first time, kissed me and whispered: "Good night, baby! See you tomorrow", he went towards the door and went out.

The sun shining through the window pane woke me up the next morning. It took me a few seconds to know where I was, but I quickly remembered the effect of the night before, John’s kisses and the wonderful way of making love to me. I looked at the watch, it was ten o’clock. I wondered if Edu would be awake. I got up and went to the bathroom. After having a shower, and washing my hair, I proceeded to get dressed and made up. Then I went to the kitchen and found Edu preparing breakfast.

• "Good morning!"

• "Good morning! You had a wonderful night, yesterday, didn’t you?", I looked at her with the corner of my eye. What did she mean? She went on: "Yeah, don’t look at me like that, you know. I heard you".

• "Hey, it’s ok", she told me. "I’m happy for you, dear, John is really nice. I wonder if his friends are like him"
• "I don’t see why not", I told her. But I knew what she meant. We had breakfast together and decided to go to visit Liverpool. We went out to the street and asked where the shopping centre was. They told us there were lots of shops in Penny Lane, so there we went. We window shopped for quite a while. We didn’t want to spend more money than necessary. We went out of Penny Lane to other parts of the city. We suddenly found a record store called NEMS, and much to out surprise, Clive was there, behind the counter.
• "Clive! What are you doing here?", Edu said.
• "Well, this is the family business, you know. It was run by Brian, but since she went to manage the Beatles, well, here I am".

We couldn’t believe it. Brian owned a records store. We loved music very very much, so we went through all the records available in the shop. There were some good records, including Beatles singles and their first L.P. Edu found it when she suddenly came face to face to John leaned over a baranda or something.

• "Hey, look here! Isn’t this John?"

Yes, it was. And there were three more guys on the cover. Well, they were quite gorgeous too.

• "How much is it?"
• "Oh, tell Brian, he’ll give us one each for nothing. Don’t buy it". Well, we didn’t want to buy it. We were just asking for the price. We wanted to know if the Beatles would be rich and famous one day. Something that was very unlikely.

We went home to have lunch and get changed for Paul’s birthday party. Our garments were driving us crazy. We wanted to be smashing. We wanted to show all English people what Spanish women were made of, It was summer, so we decided on tops and some skirts Brigitte Bardotte type. We were making up when the buzzer rang. Edu opened it and there were John and Brian waiting for us. John kissed me and gave a peck to Edu.

• "Are you ready, my little birds?", we were, so we locked the door and followed John and Brian. "Sorry I had to bring Brian along but I have no driving licence, and Paul is already there. I could have asked George but I think he was going with Ringo, so..."
• "Oh, it’s OK! Brian is a nice guy!", I think that would please Brian. So we all packed in Brian’s car and off we went towards the party that would become a terrible nightmare.