The Night Before

Chapter 54

25 October 1969

We had been in Scotland for a few weeks now. Paul, George and Ringo had decided to a break for a little while, which was both good and bad. Good because I knew they would struggle for a bit without John. Bad because Paul had fallen into a depressed funk. He was beyond anti social. He was constantly drinking. He sometimes lashes out at me. He barely plays with the kids which badly upsets Madelynn. She just started with asking me "Mummy, why Daddy mad at me?" And every time she asks I have to hold back tears.

Other than that I was now half way through my pregnancy. I had managed to find a doctor up here to go to for the time being. He wasn't at all worried about this pregnancy, but felt that I should still take it easy as much as I could...that wasn't going to happen. With Paul in his slump I felt like I was being Supermum. Everything for our family was on me and 'taking it easy' wasn't much of an option.

"Mummy..." Matt tugged on my dress and reached up for me.

"Hi baby. Where's Mady?"

He pointed to the bedroom. I carried him in there and found Madelynn playing with her dolls, Martha laying there with her.

"Hi little darling. Are you having fun?"

She gave an excited nod. "Martha playing dollies with me."

"That's so nice!" I smiled and went to set Matt down by her, but he held tightly onto me.

"He wanna stay with you, Mummy."

"I can see that. It's okay, little man." I kissed his forehead. "Why don't I go get us a snack?"

"Can I have apple juice?" Mady asked.

"Of course. Your brother and I will be right back. Come on, Matty." I smiled and carried him to the kitchen. Passing through the living room I saw Paul on the couch, a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Paul, come on, let's go get some air."

He just grumbled and turned so that his back was facing me.

"James Paul McCartney, it's time to get up. Now." I said sternly.

"Just piss off, Adaline!" He snapped angrily.

Matthew then became fussy from his father's tone, crying as he buried his face in my shoulder. Madelynn tugged on my dress and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"Mummy..."

"Come on kiddos, let's go up to the barn."

"But Mummy, I want Daddy to come..." Madelynn begged.

"Daddy's not feeling good, baby. Let's go." I took her hand as the three of us went up to the barn. I sat the three of us down as I wiped away their tears. "Why don't we play up here, huh? We can play with the animals for a while."

"Mummy...why Daddy no play with us?"

"Daddy's not feeling good, sweetie."

She just looked away sadly. I stood up and took their hands. "Come on, why don't we go play with the lambs?"

"I wanna see Lamby..." Mady said as she looked up at me. (Lamby was our newest lamb who the kids absolutely loved)

"We can see Lamby. Come on, kiddos." I took their hands and went over to the lambs.

The three of us played outside for a few hours. We played with the animals and the kids ran around for a while. After some time little Matt began to get sleepy and very clingy to me.