first question... ~ Paul McCartney (1st book)

•Part 43•

August 23 1966

Amelia barely talked for the rest of the day, she just sat pretending like she was having a splendid time with everyone else knowing it was the right choice to make. She couldn't lie, the girls helped immensely towards the evening when the boys went out for dinner. Pattie and Cynthia made her laugh and cheered her up so much that she went to bed with a smile plastered on her face. Paul felt extremely relieved for her positive well being at that moment in time.

When the next morning fell, the burden of the show everyone was waiting for had finally arrived. It sank in her stomach like a heaven and dense weight that she couldn't shift. Previously Amelia was excited for the upcoming performance, considering its location and size of venue, but now all she could feel was dread. Dread for the fact that she had to emerge into the crowd at some point today. Why did the tour make her feel like this?

However, she wanted to be strong today. So she pushed it to the back of her mind and looked optimistically on everything that was coming her way. Amelia jumped into the shower, got dressed in her special outfit for the occasion and presented herself better than ever before on the tour. When Paul finally came out the shower after, he almost fell over at the new sight.

"You look particularly gorgeous today, Lia!" He said walking up to her and giving her a kiss.

"Why thank you Paul" she said doing a twirl dramatically "now you need to get ready quickly, I need take some good photographs of the arena today" she said walking over to her bag and packing it.

Paul nodded, almost taken off guard by her newly found and rather abrupt optimism, and began to get dressed in his out fit for the stage. They quickly left the hotel, got into car that was pre booked for them as per usual and drove to the arena.

Breath taken was know where near the word to describe the feeling Amelia felt stepping into the venue. It was larger and far greater than anything she had ever seen or stood in. After walking around in a trance, fascinated by the structure and scale, she captured some shots of the mesmerising building. Paul stood, keeping his distance as he let her embrace the moment, and watched as she delicately pressed a button which took the photograph. Paul noticed little things like that that would seem pointless to other people, other than Amelia of course. But he couldn't help but feel as if this new optimism had sprung out of nerves and anxiousness from everything that had built up in the past few months. Amelia pressed on discovering new angles which shifted the whole perspective of the arena.

"I'm not even playing here tonight, that's going to be even more special" she said looking through the view finder at Paul who smiled and her heart fluttered at his beauty.

She loved taking photographs of Paul, he was such a charming and handsome man. She quickly made a mental note to do a photo shoot with him when they get back to England. But now it was time to be professional. Amelia's personality switched to a more serious one so that she could get the job done, for some reason she had a sense that this particular magazine issue was going to be extremely important. Not just for the Beatles' reputation but also Amelia's career. Another sense was dragged along behind her though, as if it was following her every step, and it made her feel nervous. That sort of feeling you receive when you know something terrible was going to happen.

Her focus shook, not just hers but also her camera, as she tried to stable her thoughts. She took a deep breath to try and push the panic down, which worked for the time being, but quickly arrived when crowd started rushing in.

She took a deep breath once again "ok, I'm going out there".

"Stay safe, we have security on standby and just use your radio that gave you just incase" Brian said to her.

"Thank you, right I'll see you later Paul. I'll be watching from the congregation" she said giving Paul a quick kiss.

"Have fun, I'll pull my signature concentration face" he said pouting extremely over top making her burst out with laughter.

After they kissed again, she tried to brace herself for what was about to come and made her way into the chaos.