I Learnt To Love In Liverpool | George Harrison ✅

♥ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 ♥

"Does he... I mean, do they live round here?" Kevin sounded heartbroken. If he hadn't lied to me for my whole life, then I might have felt sorry for him - he was about to lose his only child forever, and he knew it.
I replied, "Forthlin Road. I don't know where it is, but this isn't like Cali, Kevin... you can get everywhere here on a bus -"

"And, are you going to go and find them?"
I nodded immediately. "I have two brothers that I want to know, and a dad that I have to get to know. Mum once told me about a man she had fallen in love with, but who had left before they could be anything... I think she was talking about Jim. If mum was in love with him, then I want to at least get to know him, because he must have been something special to hold her heart for all these years -" I cut myself off when I realised what I said. I had basically just told him that his entire relationship with my mother meant nothing, because Jim was the only man who had held her heart...

She had told me that years ago, and I had promised not to tell.

"One day, Emeraude, you'll understand why I stay with your father..."

And now I finally did.

"I-I... I'm sorry..." And I got up from the chair and ran from the room, and the house. As soon as I was out of the driveway, I hurried down the road, not knowing which way was right, but knowing that somehow I would make it to 20 Forthlin Road.

"Watch where yer goin'!" I looked up from the ground in surprise and saw that I had been about to walk smack into two boys. They were almost exactly the same height, both with brown eyes and the same sort of clothes on.

"I-I'm sorry..." I mumbled, not wanting any trouble. "I just, um..."
"Are you crying, luv?" One of the boys asked. He had wide eyes and high cheekbones and looked to be the kindest.

"No, Paul," the boy who had spoken first said, "I think her eyes are leaking, is all -"

"Paul?" I echoed. The boy, Paul, nodded. I sniffled, wiping my tears away, "my brother's called Paul. You don't know him, do you?"
"I might do." Paul replied kindly, "what's his name?"
"McCartney."

The first boy threw his head back, laughing.

"Can it, would ye, John!?" Paul snapped at his friend as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, turning us so that our backs were to John, the first boy, giving us the illusion of privacy. "Now, luv," Paul said in a soft, kindly tone, "I am Paul McCartney... " he trailed off, thinking for a few seconds. I didn't dare disturb him. "You're Emeraude!?"

I nodded, glad that he had said it before I could have.

He pulled me into his arms immediately. John wasn't laughing anymore - instead, he had cocked his head to the side and was looking at the two of us, probably trying to work out whether or not I was lying, and whether or not Paul was being taken for a fool.

Paul turned us back around to face his friend. "John, this is my sister, Emeraude - remember I told you about her?"
"She's having you on, son." John told his friend, my brother. "Your Emeraude's back in... California, ain't it?"
"I sent you a letter a few days back telling you that we were moving to Liverpool." I explained, my tears gone because I had found the person who I was looking for, "I guess it hasn't arrived yet."
"No," Paul replied, "letters from you take about a month to get back here to me."
When Paul turned to look at me, I just beamed, unable to believe that I had found my brother - and that he was everything that I had expected him to be so far, and more.

"So why were you crying, then?" John asked as Paul took my hand in his and John led the way along the street, continuing onto my house.

"I had an argument with my, um, stepdad." I bit my lip, "well, he isn't, really... I don't like him at all because he used to say stuff to my mum -"
"Is your mum here?" Paul asked, "I'd like to meet her -"
"Paul, she, um... she died a few months back."
John and Paul stopped.

They stared at me.

"My mum died, too." John said after a few seconds of silence between the three of us.

Paul hummed in reply. "And mine... I was fourteen."

"Paul, that's... that's horrible, I'm sorry -"

John looked uncomfortable.

He looked like he had a hard exterior and a soft, warm interior.

I suspected that talking about his mother made him upset, so I decided to change the conversation.

"So where are we going, then?"

"Well we were on the way back to mine." John stopped outside of a house. I looked up at it. "251... I live at 249!"
John opened the front gate, "guess we're neighbours then, Emeraude."

Paul and I followed him into the back garden and through the back door, leading into a small outhouse and then a kitchen. There was a woman who looked to be in her fifties, and she was standing over a boiling pot of what smelled like soup.

"Mimi," he said, "this is Paul's sister, Emeraude."
Mimi, the woman, turned and narrowed her eyes at Paul and I. Paul cleared his throat and let go of my hand, taking a few steps away from me.

"Emeraude's from America." Paul informed Mimi, "I'd never met her before today -"

"America?" Mimi breathed out in surprise and curiosity.

I nodded, "yes, ma'am." I answered, trying to be polite. "Born in New York and then onto California from there, ma'am."
"Hmm..." Mimi hummed as she looked me over, going around me completely like I was an attraction. "Well, you look clean enough... unlike that one, over there." She jerked her head over to Paul. "And your clothes are...?"

"Dior and Givenchy most of the time, then plain old mum's the rest of the time."
Mimi smiled. "Oh, I like this one, John... you can bring her round again."

Paul pretended to be annoyed, "you like my sister and not me, Mimi?"

Mimi chuckled. "You know very well why I detest your presence, Paul McCartney, and it's got something to do with Speke." She paused, "now, are the two of you staying for dinner?" She gestured to the soup.

I looked at Paul for permission, but he shook his head. "No, I think we're going to get back to mine - I want to introduce her to my dad."

"Her father?" Mimi asked as she began to get her and John's dinner out. Paul nodded. "I'd expect nothing less from the McCartneys." She sighed, "get her home safe, Paul."
Paul nodded. "My life before my sister's." He promised as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders once more, and we both waved goodbye to John before hurrying out of 251 Menlove Avenue.

♬♩♪♩　　♩♪♩♬