Nobody Wants To Know Him

XXV - There's A Place

Wednesday 14th February 1973
Hamburg, West Germany
8.36pm (CET*)

"So how long are we going to be in Hamburg, John?" My voice was hushed instinctively due to the dim lights casting shadows down the plane aisle, allowing people to rest at this time in the evening. I was situated next to the window, John next to me, and next to him a thin, young man fast asleep, not much older than myself, with a head of bright orange hair.

"Didn't ye look at the ticket?"

I huffed. "Not the return side, no."

"Well neither did I." That elicited a small giggle from him and earned a smile from me.

"Ya bought the damn things!" Oh, John. Whatever will we do with you?

The small seatbelt light flicked on above us lighting our small area.

A crackly voice sounded through the cabin. "Hello everybody. Thank you for choosing to travel with BOAC. This is your pilot speaking. We are expecting to arrive at our destination within the next twenty minutes. The forecast is rather cloudy, so we can expect to experience a bit of turbulence, so please fasten your seatbelts now until the end of the flight and brace yourselves. Thank you."

With a final crackle, the voice was shut off, and a collective clicking sound resonated through the plane as people followed the pilot's orders.

I looked out the window, pressing my face up against the glass. Below us was West Germany, the nation alive with city lights, illuminating the dark. "Wow," I murmured.

John leaned over me, forearms pressing into my thighs as he craned his neck to look out of the window. "Isn't it great?"

"Have ya been to Hamburg before?"

He withdrew back into his seat, eyes still trained on the window in thought. "Yeah. A long time ago with the band." He had a slight smile on his face as he reminisced. "We did about three stints here, actually. I reckon we coulda got somewhere with the band; I mean, Paul was able to, wasn't he?"

"Why'd you guys... end?"

The smile fell from his face and I instantly feared I'd overstepped. John immediately picked up on my worries and reassured me. "Don't worry, I don't mind ye askin'. But... not now. I don't wanna talk 'bout it right now." I nodded, still chewing at the inside of my cheek.

He took my hand into his. "I will tell ye, y'know. Eventually. Let's just enjoy this for now, though. Or else I might just abandon ye in Hamburg!"

I pulled my hand away from his grasp to punch him on the arm. "Ye wouldn't."

He feigned offence, placing a hand on his heart. "Wow, ______. Ye really don't know me. I truly am just a heartless bastard that would abandon ya on a whim, believe me!"

"Well you're the best heartless bastard I know."

_______

9.07pm

The landing was smooth despite the turbulence and slowly but surely we all filed out of the plane. Once we'd collected our luggage off the conveyer belt, we exited the airport with the rest of the people that were on our flight.

Upon leaving, there were several signs up, all written in German. Directly overhead of the doors as we left the airport was written: 'Willkommen in Hamburg', which I expertly assumed to mean 'welcome to Hamburg'.

When we left, I took a good look at the airport. It didn't look that dissimilar to the airport in Liverpool; both had those same red bricks and orderly white windows lining the walls. The main difference was Speke Airport's tall watch tower right at the forefront of the building.