Tired, hungry and drenched with rain, Lainey stumbled into the same red phone box she'd used to arrive in 1963, turned on her iPhone and waited. Nothing. There was a moment of terror spent wondering how she would survive here with no money and no identity. With trembling fingers she opened the voicemail app and held her breath. At the sound of her mother's voice, the spinning sensation began.
Seconds later Lainey stepped out of the phone box into a marvelous, sunny July day in 2012, still dripping with rain from 1963. A wave of emotion swept over her, and she couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. Everyone was already staring at her, so it made no difference really, if she sat down on the curb in front of the Beatles Coffee Shop and wept or laughed hysterically, right underneath the massive poster of Paul McCartney's beautiful stubbled-covered jaw and huge beseeching eyes that followed her everywhere.
She was back at the hotel before her mom and brother had a chance to miss her. While waiting for the elevator, she caught a glimpse of her disheveled appearance in the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel business center. On the other side of the windows a row of desks held computers and printers for guests to use. And then it hit her—now that she was back in 2012, she could find out what happened to George and John. If her visit had an impact on them, they could both still be alive!
Her fingers were shaking and she fat-fingered the keys, needing three attempts to arrive at the Wikipedia page on George Harrison. She read the first line over and over again, her heart breaking with every word.
"George Harrison, MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle"..."
She stared at the screen, not wanting to believe her eyes. How could that hopeful, idealistic, beautiful boy she'd seen last night playing and singing his heart out on stage be no more? Evidently traveling back in time and talking to George hadn't added a single day to his life. Maybe he hadn't been able to stop smoking after all, or maybe he and John both decided Lainey was a quack and ignored everything she'd told them.
Gulping a breath and blinking back tears, she typed "John Lennon" into the search box. She sat there stunned, the words swimming before her eyes:
"On 08 December, 1980, John Lennon was killed when his 14-foot sailboat, the Megan Jaye, ran into rough weather while sailing from Hamilton, Bermuda to Newport, Rhode Island."
Impossible. The date of his death was the same, but he wasn't murdered, and he wasn't in New York at all. Fingers shaking, she surfed back to the entry on George and scrolled down to the cause of death.
"An avid gardener, George died after a three-year battle with melanoma at the age of 58..."
Wait...Skin cancer? "Oh my god..." Lainey's voice echoed off the walls of the tiny office. She'd done it. She had changed the past, but the ultimate outcome for both John and George was the same. And what of Paul's mother? Paul's heart was set on Lainey's ability to time travel and somehow save her life, when clearly that was impossible.
Lainey jumped to her feet, slowly turned in a circle and plopped back down, rubbing her face. This was all so insane, she couldn't make sense of it. Was she the only person on earth who remembered that John Lennon was killed by an obsessed fan with a gun? There was nobody she could talk to about it without sounding completely out of her head. Nobody except Paul. Surely he would remember everything she'd told him about John's fate.
Suddenly she felt an urgent need to talk to him, which was impossible without time traveling. What could she do, contact Paul McCartney's agent in 2012 and say, "Paul probably doesn't remember me, but we spent a night together in 1963 and I have some important information for him..." From what she'd read about Paul's swinging 60s years, she likely wouldn't be the first woman to ever utter those words.
YOU ARE READING
All In Good Time - A Time Travel Beatles Fanfiction
Fiksi Penggemar"The one you love is only a step away." Lainey scoffed at the words of the old gypsy fortuneteller. Then the woman handed her a locket ring revealing her grandmother's deepest secret, and the magical ride began.
