Wildfire ~ George Harrison

Chapter 30: Bring me back to the start

It was touch and go but also very good, having George back in my life. There was no way he could walk the streets of London in daylight, without getting recognised and stormed by his loving fans, but we spent a fair bit of time in my flat. Ever since George and his bandmates moved out two months ago, peace and quiet had returned to Green Street. No more fans congregated in front of the building, which, George decided, made it the perfect hide-out. I didn't mind at all, though. It was surprisingly soothing to know he was waiting for me at home. It made it a lot easier to get through the day at work, that was for sure.

Poor Kathleen, however, was less amused. She had always been very free-going and not-at-all judgemental and she wasn't. She was happy for me being with George and happy for him to be able to escape the crazy for a little bit. However, she wasn't fully committed to having George camp out in her home at all hours.

That was why we found ourselves walking the streets of London in the middle of the night, once again. Opting to give Kathleen some space of mind in a flat that wasn't crowded by more people, we decided to move over to George's place for the weekend. Of course we could've taken a taxi, or have George call some of his connections to get a driver, but the idea of being able to walk the street on his own, was something that appealed to George right away and he wanted nothing more than to do that.

It was freezing cold, but there wasn't any snow and with two jumpers and a woollen scarf on, it was survivable. It still wasn't pleasant, but when we set out on foot with our hands wrapped around paper cups of hot cocoa, there was almost somewhat of a satisfaction in it.

'You know, I don't think I've actually walked around on my own since we last did,' he said as we strolled through the dark, snow-covered streets. We were linked together, one gloved hand laid into another gloved hand.

We weren't in a hurry and did not pretend we were. Tonight was about getting to know each other again. I knew George, but I knew the George of last November and December. I didn't know this new George, the George who had just captured the hearts of millions of teenage girls across America.

'You haven't? What have you done then?' I asked surprised and I took a sip from my hot chocolate.

'Well, we always take the car, don't we? It's just that it's so cold now, or I wouldn't be able to walk around with all the girls following us and all. Not that we've had time to walk around. It's been so on all the time that there was just no way,' he grinned.

'That makes sense,' I agreed. I remembered him rarely being home from as early as November, when the Beatles circus really took off. They were all over the place. 'So just because it's cold you can walk with me?' I grinned, knowing that it was probably the actual reason, but that he would never admit that there were things holding him back.

'No, obviously I want to walk with you. That's how we started, didn't we?' he chuckled and he gave my hand a squeeze. I looked over and saw that a hint of a blush was spreading across his cheeks, or was that the cold? He always gave me slack whenever I reddened, but I couldn't put myself to return the favour.

'It is, yeah. Back in November, or was it October? I don't even know anymore,' I grinned. I couldn't, but I remembered our positions were identical to last year. That time we had walked to central London, when the weather was still nice and nice and warm and we still had sunlight past six in the evening.

That was completely different now, but what was the same was our hands linked together, the closeness of one another and the ease at which we talked. It was still easy, or it was easy again. There was no restrain in our words, no holding back information. No, the words flowed out in a steady stream of easy conversation.

'Too long. We've been on the move ever since. I'm happy we'll be home for a little,' he answered.

'How long will you be home? Do you have time off?' I didn't know why I asked him, because I didn't actually have time. I had had a couple of days off over Christmas, but aside from that, my boss didn't give me many days off. It wasn't as if I could spend his days off with him anyways.