Beatle

Chapter 5 (Continued)

Here's that ending I promised. Sorry...I'm bad at keeping promises :( But better than late than never, am I right? Love you all!

Anne closed the front door with a snap and straightened the green, flowery sunhat sitting on her head. “Got everything?” she asked me.

“I’m all set,” I replied. “Ready whenever you are."

“More like whenever Mimi is,” she said, glancing over at Mendips as she rummaged through her small handbag. “I promised her we’d walk with her over to the church, but I realize now we probably should have set a time…”

“That may have helped,” I said, mildly sarcastic. Anne raised her eyebrows at me, and I realized that I’d been spending just enough time with John to interchange my “normal” way of speaking with my new flippancy. However, Anne was out of the loop on this score, so my quickness surprised her.

“Well then! John has helped you then. See, I told you.” Ignoring my shocked look at her response she waved over at Mimi as the front door of the house next door opened. “Mimi! You all ready to go?”

Mimi did not reply, choosing instead to make her way over to Anne’s gate, nose slightly in the air. Only once we drew even with her did she say, “So sorry, it’s just that I prefer not to shout halfway across Menlove. Yes, I am quite ready to set off Anne.”

With this she began walking down the street, Anne following her after shooting me a look that clearly said, “Well then!”

Giggling slightly I trailed after the two adults, not paying any particular attention to the direction we were going. All I knew was that it took about twenty minutes to reach St. Peters, and by that time it was about two in the afternoon and warmer than it had been during the previous days I’d spent in Liverpool.

The fête was in full swing by the time we arrived in the early afternoon on that warm July day. Children were running every which way, laughing and shouting gaily. There was a marching band coming through the crowd, and multiple white tents had been set up to shield people from the sun and to serve tea under.  

No sooner had we entered the park than we were greeted by a flurry of red hair and chiffon. It was Julia, white wide-brimmed hat sat upon the bright copper tones of her hair, a flowing flowered dress billowing slightly in the breeze. “Hello ladies!” she beamed, heartily bestowing a hug and kiss on the cheek to each of us. I was rather embarrassed to be in the same boat with Mimi, as we both were very much surprised and somewhat startled by Julia’s outright affection, though Anne, without hesitation, returned the actions with matching enthusiasm.

“Hello Julia!” Anne said cheerily. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh I’ve been quite alright thanks!” Julia replied cheerfully. “I had a lovely visit from Lizzie and John a few days ago. You really must come and visit me again soon,” she said to me. “I love having noise and music in the house, and John is so good at helping me make it. And if he has you he’ll have more of an excuse to come see me.”

“Wouldn’t it be the other way around?” I asked.

“Not if you tell him how much you loved visiting me,” she said, winking at me.

“Julia,” Mimi said suddenly, “I’ve been meaning to ask you-”

“Oh can we walk and talk Mimi?” Julia put in. “I’ve left the girls across the way, they were looking at the horses, but I really should be getting back to them.”

“You left them all by themselves!” Mimi exclaimed. She looked positively mortified. “Julia you can’t do that! Oh whatever am I going to do with you?” She turned and bustled off before we could say another word, and Julia threw a sheepish look our way before hurrying off after her.