Far from home (A Beatles story)

01 - It's time to leave

The cold Liverpool air blew swiftly through the empty streets, caressing each building as it passed. It was late February and the winter was finally coming to an end after a harsh few months. However, on that particular day, the air was as cold as early January.

For the most part, the streets were empty. Apart from the sailors, who would often start work at the docks long before anyone else was up and about. Some would say Liverpool was a different city in the early hours of the morning. Before anyone was up. The streets were bare and quiet and all shops were locked firmly.

It was at this time in the morning, around 4:30am, that Frank usually awoke. She enjoyed the early mornings and how peaceful they were. She could ignore every other thing that was on her mind and focus on the beauty of the city.

Frank lived in a small house with her mother and father. Unlike their daughter, they didn't enjoy the peaceful mornings and so Frank was always alone while she sat. Under her window stood a stout little stool where Frank would sit in the mornings, looking out at the streets below and the rows of houses on the neighbouring streets. She would sit for hours and think to herself. She was a good thinker and had a bright mind, full of ideas. However, coming from a working class family, Frank was told to restrict her creativity as it would not get her anywhere in life.

This particular day, as mentioned before, was very cold. Frank awoke at about half past four and was overtaken by the chills. Pulling on a thick jersey that she kept by her bed, she got up and made her way over to the window. She was faced with a foggy view of the Merseyside. Many years ago, she had figured that if she was stood at a precise angle to the window, she got a clear view straight through to the harbour where she could see the sailors and dock workers arriving for their early morning shifts. She often sat and imagined she was one of them.

Frank closed her eyes and thought about the harbour, a place she knew all too well. She had fond memories of running around the docks with her friends. She was still in contact with her childhood friends: Charlie, Ronnie and Donna. However, at the age of 15, it was seen as immature to run around the docks and play around in the bombies. Instead, Frank spent most of her time by herself. She went on long walks, sat in the park or browsed around the record shop. Most of her days were spent out of the house in order to escape from her father.

Mr Boone, Frank's father, was a plump man with a purple face from excessive drinking. As Frank put it, he was the reason her life was miserable. Every spare minute he could find was spent critiquing her, reminding her how much he hates her and saying things like "I can't wait until you moves out" and "Your mother and I were much better off without you". He was often drunk and he could be pretty aggressive (and sometimes violent) when under the influence of alcohol. He was, as Frank said, the worst man to ever exist. But that may be an exaggeration.

Anyway, on this cold day in late February Frank was sat, as usual, on her little stool. She hummed a disoriented tune as she wrote and doodled on a spare piece of paper that she had ripped from one of her school jotters. She was finishing a picture of a some trendy flared trousers she had seen in a boutique earlier in the week. Her hand glided across the paper as she went to start another little drawing somewhere else on the page. The sound of the door snapped Frank out of her thoughts and she turned immediately. She was met with the face of her mother. Frank smiled, silently thankful that it wasn't her father. But her smile faded when she saw the expression on her mother's face. Her mother was visibly terrified.

"Ma' what's the matter?" She asked, standing from her stool to meet her mother by the door. But her mother just shook her head and motioned for Frank to sit.  As the young girl took a seat on the hard wood floor, her mother paced back and forth across her room. After a few minutes in silence, her mother finally spoke.