Woman Like Me | Keith Richards ✅

14

We boarded the flight, sitting in the first class part of the plane. It surprised me that Linda and Paul flew on commercial airlines. I had assumed that they would fly on a private jet or something. I didn't want to be too clingy to them, so I offered to sit in the aisle seat as opposed to the window one. Also, Paul had paid for my ticket, so I didn't want to take liberties.

However, Linda insisted that I sit by the window. I didn't put up much of an argument. It was no sooner than we had sat down and the plane had taken off than a stewardess came over to us. "Excuse me," she said in an odd accent, "is one of you Ms Moskovitz?"

"That's me." I said slowly, looking confused. I sat up straighter in my chair. "Is there a problem?"

The hostess looked at Paul and Linda and then leaned a little more into our seat section, "would you mind accompanying me to the back of the plane, ma'am? I have some... distressing news."

I turned to Linda, a worried expression on my face. Her face echoed something similar. "Lin?" I asked, "would you come with me?" She nodded.

"Of course." She got out first and then I followed her. The stewardess led us to the tail of the plane and closed the curtain between us and the first class passengers.

"I'm afraid, Ms Moskovitz," she hesitated.

"Yes?" Linda pressed.

The stewardess dug round in the pockets of her outfit and produced a square piece of paper - a telegram. She held it out to Linda. Linda took it. "Please excuse me." The stewardess disappeared. Linda scanned through the piece of paper and her face fell.

"Lin?" I asked her, clutching at her arm, "what is it? What's wrong?"

Linda took a deep breath and then turned to me. "Lenny..." she took another deep breath, "it's your mother." I felt as if all of the air had been sucked from my body. I fell to my knees and burst into tears - as if I didn't have enough to deal with at the moment. Linda knelt down beside me and pulled me into her arms. I felt comfortable and safe there - it was so familiar.

"W-what h-happened?" I sobbed.

Linda sighed. "She went into a mine to... to help an injured person..."

"Oh my God..." I wheezed as I realised that I couldn't cry anymore. I felt as though I had cried all of my tears out over Keith - I felt terrible. I wanted to cry for my mother, but I was physically unable.

"The mine... it collapsed on her."

"Mummy!" I called out as Linda held me tightly, rocking back and forth, the telegram discarded on the floor. We heard worried whispers and people asking what was going on behind the curtain, but nobody disturbed us - other than Paul. He slipped through the curtain and then made sure it was completely closed.

He knelt on the floor beside us. "Are you okay? Lenny, what's -"

Linda pushed the telegram to him. Paul read it and looked like he was going to cry himself. He moved a little closer and then put his arms around me as well, though my head stayed pressed against Linda's chest.

"Shush," Paul said as he tried to help Linda to soothe me. "We'll take care of you now, okay, Lennon?"

Paul using my full name meant something. It was serious. It hurt him to use it because of John, but I knew that he was deadly serious because he had used it.

"I never asked her to write down her recipes!" I exclaimed as I continued to hyperventilate.

"We need to get you to sleep." Linda said.

Paul agreed. "There's no pain in sleep."

"Mummy!" I continued to call out. I felt like a lost child. Her name was all I could call out. "Mummy! Mummy!"

A different stewardess from the one before joined us. "Can I get you some water?" She asked, bending down so she was at eye height with us.

Linda shook her head. "No." She paused. "We'll have a bottle of brandy and some Carbitral pills."

"We're not allowed to -"

"Now!" Linda snapped.

"Mrs McCartney," the stewardess said delicately, trying to stop Linda from lashing out again, "I cannot -"

Paul pulled his wallet out from the inside of his tuxedo jacket. "How much?" He asked, "how much for two sleeping pills?"

I hated the thought of being drugged, but I was in so much mental pain right now that I knew it would be best for me to sleep, and that I would never get to sleep with so many emotions whirring around my brain.

"Sir, I cannot accept money for -"

"Two hundred US dollars." Paul pulled them out of his wallet and held them up to her. "All I want is two little pills." The stewardess bit her lip, looked Paul directly in the eyes, and reached out for the money - Paul snatched it away from her. "Pills first."

Twenty minutes later, I was back in my seat, my head against Linda's shoulder as she held me close to her. Linda had cared for me like a mother the past few days, and I trusted her to continue that. I was so close to falling asleep... as I faded in and out, I heard Paul say, "adopt her... she'd fit in with our girls lovely."