The First & the Last in Line

Chapter 1: Winnie

"Y'sure?" Pete tried once more bumping his shoulder to John's with a grin. John sighed trying to hide it, but Pete noticed and looked at John with 'just tell me the fucking thing' -expression on his face.

John pinched his nose bridge sighing again and said simply, "Just thinking of me mum, Julia," not meeting Pete's eyes, embarrassed by this whole 'sharing and caring' -thing, but Pete's eyebrows shot up and mouth fell open. He tried to say something, but the words seemed to get caught in his throat.

"So... What, you've met her?" Pete finally got out. "Yes... or no. Not really. I saw her at the funeral. First I didn't know it was her, but the way she was looking at me... It was almost like... sad. Couple of days after the funeral I talked to her a bit and I realized I don't really know her, but I wanna get to know her," John said and sighed. "Well... Then you should just go see her," Pete said. "I don't know where she lives," John frowned.

He threw the bottle from the roof and they heard it smash to the ground, but they also heard someone yell. "Oh shit, John, I think you hit someone!" Pete lowered his voice to hear if the man John hit was still conscious. It was quiet, even the other boys had heard the yell and were now looking at John and Pete with a questioning look. Everybody was still, but then John and Pete stretched slowly over the edge to look down where the John had thrown the bottle.

They saw a big Teddy boy who had just got out of the pub and was holding his bleeding head looking up to John and Pete. For a moment he just stared at them trying to understand what had just happened. Then the realization hit him and he started shouting, "You two sons of a bitches! 'M gonna fucking get you, you fuckers! 'M gonna rip you two cunts to fucking pieces! You just watch, you dicks!" And as he went on John started laughing and first Pete was looking at him like he'd gone mad, but then he had to laugh and the others joined. "Yeah, lads, we should probably sod off before that stupid twat finds his way up here," John said through his laugh and grabbed his jacket making his way to the ladders. "C'mon, fellas!"

When they got down they started running away to the different directions from the harbour still laughing while the big Teddy tried to catch them with his mob. But there was no way that the Teddy boys would catch them, because they were so much older, bigger and clumsier than John and the others.

John and Pete had hid to the first shop they saw.

When they stopped laughing they gazed around and saw that they had come to some kind of a music store. There were instruments, but mostly there were records.

"Hey, John, let's see what kind of a music kids these days listen to," Pete imitated an old lady, laughed a bit and started to browse the LPs one after another. John did the same and just walked around the store, but then he saw something that caught his attention:

"Rock 'N' Roll"

It was written to one of the tables. He walked to the table and started to browse the LPs. Suddenly something hit his eye: a pink 'E'. It was corner of an LP cover, sticking from between the other LPs. Why it caught his attention? He couldn't tell, but he took it to his hand and read: "ELVIS" in pink letters and "PRESLEY" in green ones. There was this black haired man on the cover with a guitar, John couldn't really see more, because he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Hey, Pete, c'mere, will ya?" He said and flipped the cover around in his hands reading the song names. "What is it, John?" Pete asked and looked at the LP cover. "Elvis Presley. Have you ever heard of him?" John asked and passed the LP to Pete. "Umm, 'm not sure... Sounds somewhat familiar," Pete looked at the picture in the cover.

At the background started a new song and it drew John's attention from the LP which Pete was flipping around. John tried to listen to the words of the song: