Yesterday - A Beatles Fanfic

Chapter The Tenth

The intense game of Monopoly was interrupted by the persistent sound of the phone. It rang shrilly, impossible to ignore.

John looked around at the other four, who seemed in no hurry to get up. Paul was organising his wads of money into neat piles while George looked smugly at his vast collection of properties. Poor Ringo was on the verge of becoming bankrupt. Jessie, much to John's annoyance, was catching up to him. She'd even managed to buy the Boardwalk before him!

John was very competitive in Monopoly, particularly over the two most valuable properties. He didn't care if he had lost the game, as long as he had Boardwalk and Park Place in his possession. The girl sat there, smugly tapping the dark blue card on the floor. Had she been an older boy, he'd seriously consider throttling her!

He sighed dramatically and trudged over to the phone in the other room, glaring slightly at his favourite property card.

As it had been John's turn, the others could do nothing but wait... And listen to half of the telephone conversation.

"'Ello?... Oh, Mimi, good to hear from ye'!... Erm, there is?... No, no, it's quite alright... Today?... At twelve?!... Why didn't ye' tell me!... No, no, erm, it's just me. The place is virtually untouched..." He shot a panicked glance at his friends, who were listening curiously. "Yes, everything's going well with the lads... Don't worry, it's honestly fine. Love ye', bye!" He hung up quickly.

"What was that all about?" Paul asked, blinking his doe-like eyes.

"There's some woman comin' 'round at twelve to look at the house." John said, suddenly aware of the clock ticking past eleven thirty-seven. "And she expects the place to be immaculate!" He groaned.

Behind John, Paul could see stacks of dishes on the kitchen bench. The living room was a mess and he knew the bedrooms upstairs weren't much better. "Well..." Paul said. "Shit."

* * *

Jessie had been missing for three nights now, and the staff of Thornleigh were growing concerned. The headmaster had given in and called her Aunt, but all the woman had said was, "Well find her!" She hadn't been upset or worried in the slightest. In fact she almost seemed annoyed, and viewed her niece's disappearance as more of an inconvenience than a serious problem.

Amongst the chaos and worry, Devon had managed to keep his cool. He hadn't been at all surprised at the police's latest report - they hadn't found anything. Not even the smallest clue. Instead, he had been doing more of his own investigating.

Devon had figured the last time he'd used the guitar to time travel had been to 1965. He'd been in Australia, where his family descended from, and had discovered his grandparents. Of course, this didn't mean Jessie hadn't fiddled with the tuning pegs, but he figured it was a good place to start.

He'd been sitting at his desk in his flat for hours, trawling the internet for anything slightly out of the ordinary in Liverpool's history. He took another sip of coffee and rubbed his eyes. Most of the results were overwhelmed by information on the Beatles. I wonder if she's seen them, the teacher thought. Lucky kid if she has.

"Speak of the devil," he muttered. "More Beatles." Out of curiosity he double clicked the link. 'New! Rare photos of the Beatles recording! Never-before-seen footage!' Devon admitted he was actually a pretty big fan of the four Liverpudlian lads.

He scrolled through the gallery, and couldn't help smiling. Then he stopped on one image in particular. The slightly grainy image wouldn't have been of any extra interest to anyone else. But Devon sat there, frozen, staring at the screen. "Is that?..." He zoomed in. "By God, it is!" He whispered.