Paul, Paul, Paul....

Paul McCartney and I slung our bodies halfway over the banisters, leaning over the murky Thames. The river was endlessly gray....gray gray gray gray gray gray gray
But no harm ado; Paul is here....
We were cruising, apparently, in this terrible cold afternoon.
And it was Christmas.

"So this is Christmas...." I started, out of the blue.
"And what have you.... done....." Paul followed. "Another year over...."
"....And a new one just begun...."  A huge smile was spread all over my face.
"That's a really nice song, I like it." he said.
"Yeah," I nodded.

And thought:
"The way you say 'year over'....in that special, Paul-ish  way....it's brilliant. Simply, outrageous, BRILLIANT...!"

Paul said nothing much as he looked over the horizons with a muzzly-look on his face. A muzzly-look; as if he were going to sneeze and burst out laughing at the exact same time. There were few people around, as we shared a sense of strangely comforting peace.

"...What's your favourite Beatles' song?" Paul asked me, some while after.
"....my all time.....all time... favourite would be, 'I'm Only Sleeping'...and 'Michelle'...!...and 'For No One'. "
Paul shrugged and nodded somewhat proudly.
"And yes," I continued, "I loved that little session you held once."
"Which one?"
"That....awfully little one. Sorry, it didn't leave much of a mark. It was a bit like Roger....Robert Wyatt."
Paul gave me a terribly puzzled look. "Robert Wyatt?"
"Robert Wyatt. He was popular in the sev----"

Then I realised that this may not even be the 70's. Maybe I was enjoying the multi-dollar pleasure of talking to a 60's-Paul McCartney.  (WOWS....)

I shrugged.
"He's a cool guy with cool music. You'd like him, he's like a living artform of one of those pictures snipped out of 'Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'."
"Psychedelic, I see."
"Like a pantalone....in striped pants, sky-blue and canary yellow. With a stalk on his head."
"Stalk....a carrot." Paul beamed.
We were a funny bunch.

"Merry Christmas Paul," I mumbled. I adored his young and snug face for an eternity of a second. "Paul....."
"Yeah?"
"...Just live? Please, just live."
Paul gave me a huge-sunshine-blazing smile, and sneezed like a hurricane.

Multiple encounters were met between the two sets of corridors, parallel conversations making their way through the walls, beneath the Earth's surface....

In one corridor;
"I rated those too harshly. I was, you know.... out of my mind then."
"Oh yeah, I couldn't bear to release mine either!"


In another;
"Your report. Is it coming?"
"Well, uh.....sort of, I'd say...."
"Don't look at me so sheepishly, just tell me..."


*        *         *         *

I was driving down the left of a three-lane road. The middle lane was a bypass.
It was surely a thrilling nightmare.
I cranked up my seat lever about 6 times before my face could peer out of the dashboard. I didn't remember anything I'd learned in driving school. Cars were zooming by, one actually confronting me from head first----seconds later, I barely managed to swerve two lanes to the right. I'm not doing anything right....   

Some moments later, all is good. I'm on top of everything; my hand is steady, my gaze is held. The car chaos never learns to cease, but it's okay.

Nothing much had changed.
It was just me.


*       *       *        *

My teacher, back two years.
Whatever I said, he averted it.

It nearly spoke to me.
But those words blurted out were still undeciphered by the human age.

I'd unloaded a heap of happiness in midair...