Let It Be, Part One of Two

We were standing in the middle of nowhere, talking to Paul McCartney, my favorite Beatle. I knew Lennon was the visionary, but Paul sang all the beautiful songs and he was so cute. And all these years later, he was still cute. My ears grew hot even as a breeze swept away the heat of the blazing sun. For an instant, time stood still—Patrick, Lily, the dogs, Paul, and his pretty friend, even the birds were quiet, and it crossed my mind that this could be a mirage that might easily disappear before my eyes. Surprisingly, I remained calm and articulate. “I just wanted to tell you that Lily loves your music,” I said. “She listens to the Beatles every single day.”

He looked up again at Lily, “Ah, the Beatles are a good thing,” he said, smiling at her. “What’s your favorite song, Lily?”

“Let It Be.”

“Really?” He took her hands and clapped them together as he began to sing, “let it be, let it be-e, let it be-e-e, let it be … yes Lily, that’s a good song.”

I swallowed hard. Paul McCartney had just sung to my daughter. Okay, it was a croaky morning voice, but it was Paul McCartney’s morning voice.

“She also likes ‘Yellow Submarine’ …”

“And ‘Love, Love Me Do!’” she blurted, before I could finish my sentence.

“Yes, well I wrote that one, too,” he said.

Paul’s girlfriend and Patrick stood by quietly as Lily pointed to a yellow flower Paul held. “Why you got that?” she asked.

“Oh Lily, that’s enough,” I whispered, afraid we were taking up too much time, but Paul gave me a wink.

“I picked this pretty flower because I’m going to take it home and put it in water. Then I’m going to look at it.”

“Oh. I do that, too. You know what? Patrick said a bad word!”

We all laughed as Patrick pointed at himself. “I’m Patrick.”

The air grew hotter as the sun rose higher. Little bugs began to fly up my nose and into my mouth, and Lily restlessly bounced on my tired shoulders. Paul was so pleasant and his girlfriend so patient, I felt as if we could stay there gabbing all day, except I was starting to shake. Meeting a legend was taking its toll.           

“Well,” I said, “we’ll let you get back to your walk.”

We all said good-bye, and as we started to walk away, Lily turned her body around and yelled, “Goodbye, Paul!”

I sneaked a look and saw him wave and then say, “Goodbye, Lily!”