Happiness Is Measured Out In Miles

 

CHAPTER THIRTY

 

         Next day everything was back to normal. Well, or seemed to. The Beatles, or George and Paul, finally realised Edu, George’s ex girlfriend and Paul’s girl of fancy, was back to England. As usual, John slept until quite late in the afternoon, but in the middle of the morning, George phoned:

 

-                     “Hello?”, I said, not knowing what could come next. After finding out that the Beatles were now smoking marijuana, which had never entered my head, me being a normal girl from Spain, anything could happen:

 

-                     “George here, Vicky... God, I can’t believe it was that really Edu? This morning I couldn’t distinguish if it was real or just the effect of the joint we shared before going to Kenwood...”, so, that was it, the confirmation. The Beatles had smoked a grass cigarette before coming and that’s why they acted so weird and were all laughing without apparent reason.

 

-                     “Yes, Edu is here...”, and George, let me tell you she wasn’t very happy with the welcome you gave her...”

 

-                     “God, I’m so sorry, Vicky... Can I speak to her? Is she there?”, well, Edu was still in her room. At least, I hadn’t seen her in the whole morning, but I didn’t think she would be sleeping. I decided to call her.

 

-                     “Alright, George, but give her time. Call back in five minutes, alright? I’ll tell her you phoned and so she can be prepared to talk to you”.

 

-                     “OK”, and we hang up. I rushed upstairs to let her know George was again keen on talking to her. I knocked on her bedroom door. Since I didn’t hear anything, I decided to open the door and enter. Edu was there, crying silently and packing her things.

 

-                     “What are you doing?”, I said, shocked, thinking that she might have felt unwell.

 

-                     “Can’t you see it?”, she told me still crying. “I’m going home”.

 

-                     “What?”, I couldn’t believe it. Well, I understood she had come to find some Beatles that were not the Beatles she remembered when she went away.

 

-                     “I’m going home”, she repeated. “You yourself could see it yesterday. George no longer feels a thing for me, and Paul and John were... I don’t know... too... too strange to even talk to me”. I shook my head. She was right, but she didn't know the latest news.

 

-                     “No, Edu. George has phoned. He can’t believe you are here... You’ll have to forget their behaviour of yesterday. They, John included, had had a joint before coming here and were stoned”, I explained. The same thing that had happened to me when I first heard those words happened to Edu.

 

-                     “A joint? Stoned? Is that English?”, I laughed.

 

-                     “Yeah, a grass cigarette. And its effects are, well, you yourself could see it”, she remained thoughtful. Since she didn’t say anything, I went on. “He’s going to phone you back and this time you’ll pick up the phone”, she shook her head like mad.

 

-                     “No, no! I wouldn’t know what to tell him”.

 

-                     “Yes, you would”, the phone started ringing. We had several phones all over the house. John loved the gadgets and so we had lots of them everywhere. “There you go, Edu. Pick it up”, she obeyed and I decided to leave her so that she could talk to him in private.

 

I went to my room to be with John. I knew he would still be sleeping but I didn’t care. I just wanted to see his lovely face.

 

He was sleeping like a log, with his loveable mop-top in a mess. He was upside down, with his face turned to the window. I kissed his cheek and he made a strange noise. I giggled and kissed him again. He finally opened up his eyes and saw me there, smiling. Again that noise, but he was wide awake now. He turned around to me and grabbing  me by the waist, pushed me onto the bed. He approached his face close to mine, and with his mouth only a few inches from mine, told me:

 

-                     “Me lovely lady, would you mind not waking this poor chap when he’s dreaming of making love to this beautiful lady?”, I giggled again and he kissed me on the mouth. “I’ll ‘ave to bite ‘er as a punishment”, he started and so he bit my neck. Then he went down and bit my right nipple. He moved and bit the left one. I couldn’t stop giggling. He moved down and covered the line of my stomach with little bites. When he reached my navel he stopped: “I think I’ll kiss that one”, he said with his mouth just a few inches from my navel. I kept on giggling. He kissed it and when he was going to keep on biting or kissing under it, we heard  Edu shouting my name:

 

-                     “Vicky! Oh, God! Please, come!”, I sat down on the bed.

 

-                     “Edu needs me”, I informed John.

 

-                     “Ok, I’ll join ya later”, he said. So I tided up my top and went downstairs to join Edu. She was ecstatic, nervous.

 

-                     “Oh, Vicky”, she told me. “George is coming. The old George is back. I love him so, so, so”, as usual, I was the one to bring my friend back to reality.

 

-                     “Yeah, but now we have a girl named Pattie in the way...”, Edu’s face darkened.

 

-                     “He didn't name her this time”, she told me. I found that strange, but somehow I was glad for Edu.

 

-                     “What time is he coming?”

 

-                     “He didn’t tell me”, she said. “Maybe at lunchtime or so”.

 

He came before lunchtime. I was in the kitchen, delivering the food we had ordered in a nearby restaurant into the dishes. John went to open the door. I had to stop everything I was doing and meet George in the hall.

 

-                     “Where’s she?”, he anxiously asked. I pointed out the living room, where she had been helping me lay the table. He nodded and went to it. John and I looked at each other. I held John’s hand and squeezed it.

 

-                     “I hope everything turns out for the best”, I told him.

 

-                     “’ope so, too, luv”, he said. We went to the kitchen, both half waiting for news. I went directly to the plates to keep on delivering food into them. John, with his natural Northern upbringing, just sat down on a chair and observed how I did everything. He didn’t even offer to help me but I understood. I wasn’t angry, I knew John was like that and Mimi had told me many times I shouldn’t expect John’s help too much.

 

-                     “You will ‘ave some ‘elp, luv”, he suddenly said. I thought I had heard wrongly at first. Was it possible that I was wrong and that finally John was going to help me?

 

-                     “Really”, I joked. “It’s gonna be fun seeing you wear a pinafore”, he laughed.

 

-                     “Oh, no, no, no, luv”, he said. “You need some ‘elp with the house, I mean, you’ll have a ‘ousekeeper, and a cook and a gardener and even a chauffeur”.

 

-                     “Ah, no”, I said. I wouldn’t like that. “No, thanks, John, but I’ll drive my lovely car...”, he laughed a lot.

 

-                     “You seem to forget I haven’t got me driving licence yet”.

 

-                     “You already have a chauffeur”, he shook his head.

 

-                     “He works for the Beatles, I want one of me own”, I then heard some giggling coming from the living room.

 

-                     “Shh!”, I said, putting a finger on my lips. “Did you hear that? George and Edu are giggling”.

 

John got up from the chair and holding my hand led me to the living room. George and Edu were then getting up from the sofa and I think I saw them holding hands. John seemed to realise too. At first I thought he would say something sarcastic, as he usually did, but no. Instead he squeezed my hand in awe. John had respect for George and loved Edu.

 

-                     “Fuck it, man!”, he said. “Isn’t it little George and sexy Edu ‘olding ‘ands?”, we all laughed and immediately after that, Edu came to me and George went to John.

 

Edu told me everything. George still loved her. They hadn’t talked about Pattie but she knew they would do it as soon as possible because she was there and nobody could deny that. I was so happy for Edu. We all went out to celebrate it that night.

 

The following days I tried to persuade Edu she had to talk to George about Pattie. They could not continue like that.

 

-                     “But I’m afraid to do it”, she said. I was amazed.

 

-                     “Why?”, Edu always seemed so brave and with fear of nothing.

 

-                     “Because I don’t know how George will react. What if he doesn’t want to leave her?”

 

-                     “Ah, don’t be stupid... One can easily see he’s mad about you”, she smiled although she wasn’t very convinced.

 

-                     “Alright”, she finally said. “I’ll have to tell him. That’ll be better for all of us.”

 

But for some reason, she didn’t tell him and so one day, problems ensued. John and George had invited us over to Abbey Road. Paul had also invited Eli. For what John told me, they were recording songs for their new album, and John in particular was recording some songs he had written with me in mind. I didn’t know the songs until much later, but he thought he would be nice to have me around while he sang.

 

Anyway, we couldn’t enter the studio two. Nobody could, only the Beatles, their producer and the engineers. We were left to wait, first in a room similar to a goldfish bowl where we could see the Beatles recording. There was something like a big glass wall and the Beatles were down. The room we were in was full of machines with thousands of different buttons. Edu, being quite a musician herself, was very interested in all that. Eli and I were very busy looking down at our guys, who seemed very concentrated on what they were recording.

 

After a while, we three started to feel hungry. Eli decided to go down to the cafe to have a break and so we all did. Someone told the Beatles we were there.

 

Everything was going on soothingly. We were laughing and talking, when Eli suddenly noticed someone walking in. Her face changed and she immediately looked at Edu. I was looking the same direction a couple of seconds later. There she was, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She was perfect, all made up, with socks up to her knee and a skirt. Pattie Boyd. I looked at Edu too and she was looking at her.

 

-                     “Fuck!”, I heard myself saying. Edu looked at me and I just didn’t know how to react or what to say. Pattie came over.

 

-                     “Hi, girls! Oh, dear... Two hours at the hairdresser’s and then this wind...” I rolled my eyes. Eli acted normal, she, in fact, didn’t have anything to do with the story. “Oh”, she went on. “Who’s your friend?”, I proceeded to introduce Edu to her.

 

-                     “Oh, she is Edu... Edu, Pattie”,  hell! What was I doing? The two rivals shaking hands. I didn’t notice Pattie's face had changed until I heard her say:

 

-                     “George told me about an Edu some time ago...”, oh, oh, danger. I looked at Eli for help, but what could she do? Then, hopefully, and thankfully (I think my inner prayers were heard) we heard some voices coming over. We turned around and saw the four Beatles, Brian, George Martin and some more people coming over. George and John were talking cheerfully and George didn’t realise what was going on till he and John came over. Everything was in silence for a while after George had seen Edu and Pattie face to face. John, as usual, finally broke the ice:

 

-                     “Oh, oh, George, luv, look who we’ve got ‘ere”, he smiled, I tried to squeeze John’s arm but couldn't. He was faster. “I guess you will need some ‘elp but ‘ere our Paulie is too busy with his little Eli bird, Ringo is the drummer and I ‘ave to tell Vicky a couple of timportant things”, he put one of his lovely smiles and took me away.

 

-                     “John”, I told him once we were quite away from George, Edu and Pattie’s ears. “Why did you do that? Poor George is in a mess".

 

-                     “Oh, bloody ‘ell, luv, he went into it himself. I told him to fuckin’ choose”.

 

-                     “I thought he had chosen”, I told him.

 

-                     “I fuckin’ thought that too but little George hadn’t, as it is”, we both remained silent for a while, observing the scene. I then turned to Paul and Eli. I observed Paul... God, he was sexy! But not as sexy as John, of course. I was lucky to have John. I had never realised before how lucky I was. I turned to John and kissed him. He was so sexy... Then I turned to Paul again and caught him looking at me. He immediately diverted his eyes but it was too late. I had caught him. John realised. “What’s going on ‘ere?”, he shouted. I panicked. As though the Edu thing wasn’t enough, he wanted to add more problems to the already existing ones.

 

-                     “Nothing”, I said, scared.

 

-                     “I’ll ‘ave to ‘ave a word or two with Macca”, well John knew it. I was sure he knew it. He rushed towards him and I embraced myself for the worst knowing how aggressive he could be and also knwing his agresiveness was increasing lately. But he didn’t stop to talk to Paul. He walked past him and started going up the stairs towards the recording studio. Paul looked at me not wanting Eli to notice anything but she did.

 

-                     “Hey, what’s going on here?”, the same words John had uttered. I tried to solve the situation pretending John and I had just had a fall out and wanted Paul to work things for us.

 

-                     “Oh, paul, please, go talk to John”, he understood immediately, thank Goodness, so he just nodded and went after him. Eli came to me.

 

-                     “Vicky, please, what’s going on?”, I tried to think quickly of an answer that wouldn’t make Eli more suspicious.

 

-                     “John is angry at me wanting Edu and George going back together”, I forced a smile but somehow it worked because she looked at me.

 

-                     “We all want that, don’t we? Edu is so nice and she and George are such a matching coupke...”, just at that very moment we saw George walking away from Edu and Pattie. When he walked past me he directed me a glance that I couldn’t tell what it meant: was he sorry? Angry? Happy? When I saw Pattie going out of the building I thought that meant good news but when we came close to Edu, we saw everythng was wrong.

 

-                     “Edu...”, I muttered. She looked at me with her eyes full of tears and I understood.

 

-                     “Let’s go home”, she said. I nodded. Eli didn’t want to come with us. I guess she wanted to work things out with Paul so she stayed. Edu and I took my ferrari and went home.

 

The ride was full of silence, only her sobs were heard. I didn’t dare asking her what had happned because somehow that was clear. But she finally spoke up:

 

-                     “George couldn’t deicde. I’d have done anything for him, you hear me, Vicky? ANYTHING! Like coming all the way from Spain to be with him and now he suddenly can’t decide...”, she broke down again. I could feel the tears coming to my eyes and nobody said a word not even when we arrived at Kenwood. She went straight to her room and I guess she started packing. I didn’t dare interrumpting what she might be doing.

 

When I woke up the next day, John was sound asleep at my side. I didn’t hear him come. But suddenly, all the thoughts and feelings from the previous day came suddenly to my head. I started panicking, thingking that maybe Edu had gone without telling us but then I despised that idea as useless. But I wanted to know what George thought about that and the only way I could know was talking to John.

 

John...

 

There he was, with his lovely mop-top in a mess and fully asleep. When he slept, he was peaceful and looked almost harmelss. But I suddenly remembered how angry he walked away from me the day before when he suspected Paul and I had something. He made a noise and turned around. I didn’t move. I didn’t want to wake him up. But to no avail, he opened his lovely eyes.

 

-                     “Good morning”, I muttered. John was not an early riser and the Beatles were now working till late at night so I doubted John would be up at... 12 oclock!!! Hell!! “Oh, dear! 12 o’clock!”, John made a strange noise.

 

-                     “’ave you got to go somewhere?”, he said. “To meet Paul, maybe?”, I gulped and felt that uncomfortable lump in my throat.

 

-                     “John, plase, stop that. I haven’t got anything with him. I love you madly, John, why don't you believe me?”, tears were starting to form in my eyes. The image of John was becoming blurrer and blurrer any time. And I finally cound’t stop it and started crying loudly.

 

-                     “Oh, ‘ell, sorry about that”, I heard him say. I felt his arms holding my waist and how he pushed me towards him. I couldn’t stop crying. “C’me on, Vicky. I said I was fucking sorry”, why did he have to use that rude vocabulary even when I needed love and understanding? John was changing a lot and I knew it. I rested my head on his chest and he started kissing me on top of it. As usual, I felt weak in the knee. I lifted my head and saw him there, so sexy and lovely. I couldn’t resist it and I kissed him. John kissed me back and the passion started. My night gown was soon on the floor and John was biting my nipples passionately. He soon put me lying on the bed and started working down on my stomach. But I wanted to let John know that he meant the word to me and that I didn’t have anything with Paul. So I rolled on top of him and I started kissing his stomach. John moaned, I worked my way down his blinding belly, kissing every part of him and sliding my tongue around it. Then I couldn’t wait any more and I licked and sucked his dick as though it were a lollipop. John moaned and moaned and I had to touch my cunt because I was very aroused. John was about to come but then, suddenly, the doorbell rang. I looked at John, but he was still moaning so I thought he hadn’t realised. But he had because when the doorbell rang again he shouted: “Fucking ‘ell! I told ya we should ‘ave someone working ‘ere fer us!!”, I was shocked at his yelling but then I understood he was right. I smiled absolutely determined to have everything he wanted. But definitely, that was not the moment:

 

-                     “Ok, John, you’re right...  But sure this is not the moment”, he smiled too but then the doorbell rang again and the smile faded from John’s face. But we suddenly heard someone opening the door. Probably Edu. But the magic was broken and John got out of me. I lied on my back on the bed, sad, because John was getting up.

 

-                     “I’m gonna see what the ‘ell is going on down there”.

 

We suddenly heard some yells and Edu’s voice shouting. I couldn’t understand what she was saying but John and I looked at each other and John started running downstairs. I hurriedly put some clothes on and followed him. When we got there we stopped to see George trying to reason with Edu:

 

-                     “Fuck, George”, said John. “You cheated on her. Why the hell should she go back to ya?” I looked at John.

 

-                     “John, this is none of your business”, he looked at me.

 

-                     “How come can ya say that? What were we doin’ when he started ringing the doorbell like mad?”; I felt my face go red like a hot chilli pepper. I couldn’t look at anybody, not even at Edu. I can’t imagine what face I could have had but they all started laughing and after a while I was glad that I had brought some fun to the tension. John and I went to the kitchen and left the couple to sort out their own problems.

 

Thankfully, everything turned out fine. They made it up and George left Pattie to go back to his only love: Edu. I suggested celebrating it with a big party, maybe on the same day as John’s birthday but that was impossoble: they were going on tour.

 

-                     “Once again?”, I asked. Yes, once again, they told me. I was really getting fed up with being home alone but maybe this time it wasn’t that bad because I had Edu and we both (with Eli sometimes) had a lot of fun looking for a gardener and a chauffeur and a butler and a maid for Kenwood. It was getting so difficult that once John phoned to see how I was, I told him: “Look, my love, I’ve tried to find someone to help me home but, you know, it's getting very diffcult so I’ve decided to leave it until you come back”.

 

-                     “What are ya talking ‘bout? Ye only have to contact the previous owners. The same staff thay had we will have. At least that’s what they told me when I bought the ‘ouse”.

 

That’s what I did, so we finally had Leslie Anthony, the chauffeur, who was more than pleased to be with John. And we also had Dorothy Jarlett (Dot) and her husband as housekeppers. So when John came home from the tour, he found that everything was alright. The staff was obviosly delighted to serve John Lennon, of the Beatles. I wanted to celebrate his birthday, no matter how belated it was. He kissed the tip of my nose.

 

-                     “Yer crazy, my babe”, he smiled. Oh, how I loved his smile. “Anyroad, Ringo and Mo want to see Georgie Fame at the Soho. Wanna is to join?”, I jumped for joy. After having been so long wihtout John, the only thing I wanted was to go out with them. I was so glad to have John with me, that I hadn't realised George and Edu and Paul and Eli were not coming with us.

 

You can not be happy and not regret it because what I thought could be a wonderful night, turned into a nightmare.

 

GO TO CHAPTER THIRTY ONE