Traveling Light

I Lie Around

If you were a beatlemaniac around this time, it was practically the end of the world.

I had released my first true solo album, McCartney, where I had performed everything myself.

Critics did not take kindly to that, nor to any other albums that would come later on in my life.

John hated me at that time, which really hurt. My best friend for years now wants nothing to do with me. Apparently Yoko was more important to him.

George and Ringo? Well, they had about the same thoughts, just not quite as cruel.

Time felt like it dragged on forever, and nothing interested me anymore.

Until that one fateful night...

I hadn't been out of the house in a while. I simply had no energy or reason to do anything but lie around.

You heard it here, folks, the Paul McCartney, who could have anything he desired, was depressed.

That morning, I awoke to Linda in my arms and Martha on the edge of the bed.

"Morning, Paulie." Linda smiled.

"Morning..." I sighed, looking away.

She frowned. "Listen, I know you're not feeling well. But you need to move on eventually. This is just a new chapter in your life. You know that Martha, Heather, and I will always be here for you."

"They hate me, Linda. They're blaming me for the breakup. They're not even entirely wrong about that."

"Hey, don't say that. It's not your fault. You know that it's a bunch of different things, and you can't take the blame for it all. Honestly, I feel that Yoko is more of the problem than you are."

That got a small laugh out of me. I didn't like that woman a single bit, but at least I wasn't like George. He practically wanted her dead for eating his biscuit.

Martha woke up and licked my hand softly.

"Aw, look, even Martha wants you to be happy."

And be happy I was, for a few seconds. No matter what, that sweet dog always made me smile.

"Is Heather awake?"

"I'll go see. Just stay in here with Martha and once we're all up, I'll make breakfast. I don't want you to be stressed out over anything else, so just play with her. I'm sure she wants attention."

I gave Martha the attention she craved, something that always cheered me up, and that didn't fail this time either. She always seemed to know what I was feeling and how to make any problems better. What I would do to have her back in my life...

Linda had called me down and although what she had cooked had looked appetizing as always, I couldn't eat. I could only pick at it, taking occasional bites to make it look like I was fine. But who am I kidding, I fooled no one.

"Not hungry, dad?"

Linda looked at Heather and signaled to be quiet.

"He's just a little...out of it, that's all. That's why we're all going out for the day as a family to cheer him up. It's supposed to be a really nice day, so we can do basically whatever we want."

Heather cheered and ran up to me with puppy eyes similar to my own.

"It's going to be ok, daddy."

A few hours later, Linda took us to a park so Heather could play and so we could have a picnic. I had more of an appetite this time around, but I still felt empty inside.

We watched Heather play until she got all of her 8-year-old energy out.

Soon, the sun started to set and we ate the remaining food we had left, watching the sunset on top of a flowery hill.

How could I be so sad during a beautiful moment like this?