Nobody Wants To Know Him

Free As A Bird - Epilogue I

Tuesday 15th February 1977
Liverpool, England
4.37pm

Home, home and dry

Like a homing bird, I fly

"For the love of God, John," I yelled up the stairwell again, "can ye hurry up? We're already running late!"

From where I was stood at the bottom of the stairs, I could hear his voice shout from the master bedroom. "Okay, okay! I'm hurrying, I swear!" It was the same thing he had said not five minutes ago, and he was definitely not hurrying.

Miraculously, a few minutes later, he was making his way down the stairs, dressed in a dapper brown pinstripe suit, collar flipped up, and a cushioned bundle in his arms. He flashed me a large grin, and I stepped forward to fix his upturned collar and readjust his burgundy patterned tie.

"Looking good," I remarked and leaned in to give him a peck on the lips, his long hair which now had gone curly tickling the sides of my face as I did so.

There was a gurgle from between us, and I looked down, widening my eyes comically and making my mouth into an 'O' shape.

"I've remembered to pack the wipes this time," he said with a sheepish grin. "And I've changed her."

Our daughter, Elizabeth (named to honour John's aunt through her middle name), was born last November. The pregnancy wasn't easy, and at times, I couldn't help but wonder why I was putting myself through it, but in the end, it was all worth it. Bringing Lizzy into the world had brought us both so much joy that now she was here, I couldn't imagine her not being there. John was the most attentive to me during the pregnancy, and once she was born, he was the most present and caring father.

There were times when he didn't know what to do or was afraid he was going to hurt her, and he had spoken to me before she was born that he was scared he was going to 'corrupt' her, but he couldn't have been further from the truth. He was so good with her, even if he was a bit awkward at times. He was trying, and I had every bit of faith in him.

John was watching me with affection as I extended a finger to tickle the side of Elizabeth's face. "Thanks," I replied honestly. "Yer good to me."

Fatherhood had changed him - it seemed he had calmed down a bit and made him softer. While I was pregnant, he had flitted about a lot, enveloped in chaos. He was fussing over me months before we neared the due date and was torn between focusing on me or focusing on his novel.

And, oh goodness, his novel. If it wasn't a masterpiece, I wasn't sure what was. The book, named 'Homing Bird', wasn't really anything like his previous two books, no naughty ditties or silly short stories. No, this was a proper novel, and I was surprised John was able to commit to writing something serious that was over two pages long, but I'm glad he was, because I knew it was going to be received extraordinarily.

He was very intent on writing this, and I had read it all for him. The past two and a half years had been spent on it ever since we bought the New York flat. He had spent hours upon hours perfecting every last detail, going through it with his editor, and then all this 'pishy business stuff', which he had called it.

One of these included the book launch, which we were attending today. The book was going to be released a week today, so his PR team suggested an openly public book launch today would be a good idea - they had already been advertising for a while. John, although not the most famous author out there, was not obscure either. Both his books were bestsellers, and the money he had made from them was more than enough to live a luxuriously comfortable life.

So the book launch was going to be held to a large party at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, on the Wirral. John had been nervous about it the entire past week, and I did everything I could to reassure him that it would be fine.