The Sound of Silence | Paul McCartney ✅

28

11th June 1963

"Paul," John said for the umpteenth time as I dialled the now-familiar number, "you won't get an answer - it's been weeks. She isn't coming back."

"Shut up, John!" Paul yelled at his friend. "I'll find 'er!"

"How many times have you tried her phone?" John asked. "And how many times has she answered?"

"I'm not calling her phone." I answered, ignoring the nagging questions in my head and what John had just said. "I'm trying her agent -"

"Again -"

"Yer not helping." I said to Ringo, who was smoking on a cigarette beside George.

"Hello?" At the sound of a voice on the other end of the phone, my heart skipped a beat. "Hello...?"

I realised with a start that I hadn't answered. "Um, yes... hello? Is that Tom Sanders...?"

"Speaking."

"Tom, it's Paul McCartney."

"Ah..." Tom trailed off, wondering how best to deal with this situation.

"'ave yer spoken ter Adaline?"

"...Yes..."

"Is she alright?" I asked, hardly able to believe that I was about to get some news about my love, my life.

"As can be expected, Paul." Tom answered.

"What der yer mean?"

"Sorry, Paul," Tom answered simply, "I can't tell you - her wishes, I'm afraid."

"But I've tried everything!" I complained, aware that my three friends were watching me, and that I was sounding like a child who had been told by his parents that he wasn't allowed ice-cream before dinner. "She's moved house, changed her number. She's not in any magazines, I... where is she, Tom? Please tell me."

Tom sighed. "I can't. But she wants you to know that she doesn't want to see you anymore, and you should stop trying to get in contact."

"So she knows that I'm trying then?" I asked desperately.

Tom sighed once again and then hung up the phone. Desperately, I called into the phone for him again before finally accepting that he was gone. I put the phone down and turned to John, George and Ringo, who were watching.

"You alright...?" George asked, unsure of what else to say.

"'course 'e's not, Geo." Ringo answered. "'e's 'eartbroken. 'e's lost the only girl 'e's ever properly cared 'bout."

Paul sighed and left the room, unsure of what else to do with himself.

"He's not doing so well." George said quietly, worried that his friend might overhear him.

"No." Ringo and John agreed in chorus.

"I think 'e's on the verge of a breakdown -"

"Stupid bitch broke 'im!" John exclaimed angrily, cutting off Ringo.

"Shush!" Ringo and George hissed.

"'e'll 'ear!"

"What should we do?" George asked.

"What can we do?" John corrected. "'e's not gonna be okay as long as 'e's pining over 'er. 'e 'as to get o'er it."

"'e won't." Ringo said. "'e's 'ung up on Adaline."

"We know." George sighed. "Wish there was some way we could get in contact with 'er."

"Well there's not!" John said. "We're stuck with a depressed Macca until 'e finds another girl ter shag!"

"I don't think there will be another girl fer our Macca."

John glared at Ringo. "Well one of us 'as ter talk some sense into 'im!" John stood up and strode out of the dressing room, looking for his friend.

He found him, lying down on the floor of John's dressing room, crying. "Wha's wrong, Macca? Huh?" John laid on the floor beside his best friend. "I've never see yer like this o'er a bird before, I -"

"She's more than just a bird, John."

"She's gone now, Paulie -"

"Don't yer think I know that?" Paul exclaimed angrily. "I know she's gone! I've been tryin', 'aven't I?"

"Yer need to pick yerself up, Paul... we need yer."

"I need 'er." Paul sighed. "She was everythin' ter me, and now I don't know how ter go on... imagine if Cyn left, John -"

"Probably be peaceful -"

"You'd be 'eartbroken." The bassist interrupted. "Yer wouldn't know what ter do with yerself... I feel like that. I don't have a purpose no more -"

"What about music?" John asked in a desperate tone of voice. "Is that 'nough of a purpose?"

"Not when every song I write is 'bout 'er. Adaline..."

"What made 'er so special anyway?" John asked, deciding to do for a different tactic. Maybe if he got Paul to speak about Adaline, then he could convince him that she wasn't so perfect and wonderful afterall, and that there were plenty of other fish in the sea.

"I 'aven't felt like this before - not ever. Addy makes me feel in a way that I didn't know was possible." He paused. "And now she's gone, n'er ter be seen again."

John sighed. What could he say in reply to that?