The Rags and The Riches

Twenty

We need a plan it's as straightforward as that, he thought. It was early morning now, maybe five, six or seven. Even though John was lying here on his old bed in his aunt's house, the house in which his uncle died. It wasnt his main concern - at least he didn't want it to be.

His feet lightly danced on the floor as he went downstairs hoping not to wake his grieving aunt. First he'd call Ringo, poor guy finished work real late yesterday, but he'd buy him a coffee to make it up to him.

The then he'd call his telephone to speak to Paul. Then he'd call George, things were a little tense between them still, John wasn't sure why but it was probably because he was protecting Paul. It was understandble they had been friends for years, so they would obviously have that kind of bond.

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John and Ringo sat waiting for George and Paul to join them. They could already see the two of them walking towards the bench. But as they waited there was only silence between them, Ringo too tired and John too nervous.

"Mornin' lads, I thought it would be nice to meet in the park y'know, weather's good." John tried lightening the mood, everybody was exhausted and had their own worries.

"Yeah but the news isn't." Ringo added yawning despite the coffee John bought him half an hour ago. "Stuart is behind everything." The oldest of the four said bluntly, John made it clear that they were meeting to brief themselves on everything going on, beating around the bush wasn't going to help.

"What Stu? Jesus, fuck!" He exclaimed. The pair who arrived later on, were a little bit confused. "John's best mate." Ringo informed them. He ran a hand through his auburn quite surprised by this. It wasn't a plot directly against him but the McCartney family, so John couldn't necessarily feel offended. But he was confused as to why, Stuart had never mentioned them in a bad way before.

"He's also getting some employers to help him, I dunno how though." The yawning one added, too sleepy to care about anything he was saying.The late pair didn't care about who Stuart was or anything, all they wanted to do was to fix things. His father had worked hard and started from the bottom to get where he was and he wasn't going to let that go because of one person.

"I suppose we should find someone to help us then."

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Finally the boys, after a day, had got together and formed something that resembled a plan. Somehow during that time they'd found out about the death of John's uncle, the man not wanting the others to know let what happened, accidentally let it slip last night.

"John you sure that you wanna, y'know...." George said carefully as if he was treading past sleeping lions.
"Don't worry mate, I'm ready for anything." The older one smiled at him appreciating the thought. They were both stood outside John's flat and for summer the weather had taken a dull turn. The rain was spewing down uncontrollably and the two boys were protected, only just, with the small umbrella between them. Liverpool had was now its usual grey appearence, but John didn't care he was excited he couldn't see nothing but colour. He had lost another person dear to him, but this phone conversation he had the night before, had ignited the hope in him.

A car, shortly, pulled up and out came a young man who couldn't be more than thirty rushed out, thanked his driver and rushed to shelter. "Careful," The man said grabbing John and George away from the roadside, his driver had recklessly sped off almost splashing the three of them. "Fred's getting old, but he means well." He said, meaning his driver. "Brian, lad, nice to see ya." John patted him on the back. "Geo this is Brian Epstein - he's a rich Jew." Brian smiled in amusement, not really seeing what that had to with anything, but he still found that to be quite funny. "Well we going in or not? 'M freezing." George whined, losing interest as quickly as a toddler.

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George figured, as he sat on John's couch gratefully chomping on some biscuits, that Brian had an idea of what he was talking about. He had previously been shy and a little awkward around them, but after a few drinks he eased up, and didn't stop talking. And George had grown to quite like him, he had a flamboyant way of expressing himself, he was kind of loud and laughed quite alot.

He also spoke a lot of music, he liked all sorts, he spoke about classical, with John trying to tell him about all the music his aunt played. It was quite funny to watch because he didn't know the names of it so he had to guess from John's terrible humming. And after that he told them about this interesting music type he'd heard when he was in New York.

"Ooh New York, fancy," George humoured. "Must have met quite a few American pretty boys." Brian's blush confirmed the suspicion the youngest had that Bri was a queer.

"No, actually," He said quite calmly. "It's a new style of music, I heard." He whispered in a drunken yet serious manner, as if someone was gonna steal his idea. He lifted his smallish suitcase onto his lap, unzipped it and revealed it was full of records, all of them foreign to the other two boys. "You got a record player?" John nodded silently, showing he was just as much as intrigued  George was by the records, and grabbed one from the suitcase. When he lowered the needle on vinyl at first there wasn't much static noise, until an American boy began belting out some lyrics.

"Well, that's all right, mama. That's all right for you..."

For a bit the boys were sat in silence getting their ears adjusted to this new sound. "I never heard that one," Brian commented, after the song was over. "But I think it was by a boy called Elvis."

"Well then call me Mrs Elvis, for all I care, this shit is amazing!" John beamed over the next song that begun to play. To Brian's delight, they liked it! He was relieved as this was his only plan. After enjoying one more Elvis song, George decided to play another record of his choice. "This new music boys, it is all part of my plan," Brian said. "You called at the right time." He said

"Let's forget about that opera trash, and focus on this music, Rock n Roll. Instead of focusing on what all of Britain are listening to, lets listen to this." Brian knew that idea of American glamour would definitely appeal to Britain, especially the younger generation. Especially, after the war that, a decade on, still left a bleak sheet of cloud over the country, and other countries too.

"Yeah but I don't think this will appeal to the old bunch, who frequent the shows." John input in sadly, most of the audience that attended were middle aged, elderly and rich. "Just imagine trying to sing to this they're false teeth will be falling out." George almost choked on his biscuit at the weird thought.

"Precisely my point," Brian began, as a matter of factly, "Our new target audience is young people. Kids in the States love this music, so why won't kids like it here?"

George and John thought about it, and quickly warmed up even more to the idea. "How we gonna get the Americans up 'ere?" George moaned. "That's our only problem." The older record shop worker, sank lower into his chair, realising the plot hole. That's what they needed to figure out.

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Today was a new day and Brian's plan was in full swing Paul was nervous but Brian's reassurance helped him. He swung the door to the entrance of Penns, and although he felt like he was going throw up his heart, he still went in normally. "Morning Pattie." He waved making her blue eyes practically pop out of its sockets, not expecting him to be here.

After John's and George's meeting with Brian, the two boys spread the plan to the rest of the boys, and a day later (now that the rain had cleared up) they were putting it into motion. Following behind the apprehensive boss was a bundle of electricians and engineers carrying in boxes of equipment in a line. Making her even more perplexed. Strolling after in was a handsome man with shining eyes and neatly gelled brown hair, who she thought to be one of the Epsteins' children from the record shop.

Luckily, Stuart wasn't working until evening and Cynthia wasn't in sight, so nothing could intervene whatever they were planning. Pattie simply didn't care anymore, she didn't want to be involved. Firstly, as it was wrong, also because she decided she could find another way to solve her money problem.
She didn't want to conspire against her friend, Paul was the sweetest and he didn't deserved to be deprived of his family business. She was out.

Shitty chapter, but I tried to get something out there. And I'm getting sad as this story is coming to and end soon, and I don't know what I'm gonna do after this 😂😣