No More Lonely Nights - A Fan Fiction

No More Lonely Nights - Chapter Thirty-Six

January 17, 1964.

Liverpool, England.

PAUL: Something was in the air today. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but still... something was going to happen before the day was up. Something, I wasn't sure what. Just a sort of premonition on my end, I guess.

We leave in less than three weeks- less than twenty-one days from now, we'll all be on American soil. I'm curious about the reception, how they'll react to actually having us there in the flesh and not just seeing our faces on the album covers and hearing our voices played by a million disc jockeys in a million different towns.

My phone started ringing at that moment, and I set my tea cup down on the kitchen counter and went to the living room to answer it. "Hello?" I said.

I heard quite a bit of shouting on the other end before John's voice spoke. "DID YOU HEAR?" he shouted, his voice overflowing with some sort of ecstatic exhilaration.

"Hear what?" I asked.

"I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND!! IT IS NUMBER ONE IN THE STATES!" John was screaming and there wasn't even much background noise now. "WE HAVE A NUMBER ONE SINGLE IN AMERICA!"

I couldn't find the words to answer John at the moment. We, the Beatles, had a number one single... in America? We did? "You're serious, John?" I finally managed.

"WOULD I LIE ABOUT A THING LIKE THAT?" John shouted into the phone.

"I guess not. And stop shouting, I can hear you fine!"

"All right. Let me repeat that in my normal voice. Brian called earlier and said that I Want To Hold Your Hand is number one in America."

"I can't believe it!" I exclaimed. "And we released it four days ago!"

"Happened fast, I know," John replied. "So we'll be going into this American tour thing with a number one single under our belts. Apparently copies of the single are flying off the shelves over there. They can't seem to get enough of us!"

I sank down on the couch, still processing the words John had spoken. This made me feel much more confident about going over there in a few weeks for an extended amount of time. If Americans were truly that receptive to the music we were sending them, they would hopefully be receptive to us in person. I hoped so, anyway.


ALLIE: With a mere eleven days left until the band heads to America, they released another album for the American market today- Introducing the Beatles. They released Meet the Beatles over there one week ago and it has been a runaway bestseller- as I am fairly certain this album will be as well. Everyone in the States seems to have been suddenly enchanted by the Liverpool lads, but I can understand why. My home country has been going through hell since last November- November 22, to be precise... the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. That day also coincided with the release of With The Beatles over here, and what a blow it had been for us to be celebrating over that album only for me to hear about the tragedy back home. I think the young generation in America feels insecure, feels lost, feels shaken after what my country has been through since that day. Maybe that is why they have latched on to the Beatles so readily, and I truly believe that they will not be a passing fad over there.

I was sitting on my bed writing, writing a letter that I had been wanting to write to someone for a bit now... mainly just to thank him for always being with me, always loving me, always caring about me. We haven't really written each other love letters, per se, and it's about time we started doing so. Little notes reminding one other of dinner dates or other typical couple things didn't count.

January 27, 1964

My Dear Paul,

I know, I know, love letters... the ultimate in cliche is what a lot of people might think, but oh well, that's just what they think. They're not me and they're most certainly not you, so who cares.

I think it might be almost beneficial for us to get into the habit of writing each other, seeing as letter writing is becoming a lost art, what with the telephone and all. There's just something so much more personal about putting pen to paper for feelings as opposed to that little invention called the telephone. I don't know, it's almost more romantic, really (so I say as I use a fountain pen and write this on stationary edged with delicate pink roses- sorry for the overwhelmingly feminine paper, it's all I have). But enough of that...