Here is my newest story taking you back to the Hamburg/Early Beatle Days through 1964. While this is mainly a George story, John, Paul, Ringo, Pete, Cynthia, Paul's girlfriend Dot, Astrid and Klaus are major characters because of their closeness dur...
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Happy Day to all my wonderful Beatle people! Hope you are having a lovely Monday--or whatever day you are reading this! Still scorching in Southern California with wildfires everywhere---even close to me. So I watch the local news religiously. Safe for now! But not so for Kate who says goodbye to George and finally confronts Vladimir! And I must thank you for your comments and votes--I truly appreciate all of them! Enjoy. Love, Lara xo
March 26, 1961
It was another train ride to Liverpool for Kate, who spent the 2 hours looking over sheet music of Chopin Etudes, in order to pick out several for Vladimir to present to his students for practice. She loved her job working with Vladimir and Master Elsner and helping the new students. It wasn't that long ago that she was a frightened young woman wondering where to go and what to do when she entered The Conservatory. Now she knew every inch of it. She remembered Vladimir taking her to the secret attic, a place only known by a few, where a small spinet sat and an old sofa.
They had to climb 2 flights of stairs that were tucked next to a large cabinet of books in the library....virtually invisible unless you knew it was there. It sent them to a turret at the very top of the building where there was a small, intimate room, painted the color of the sky. How someone got a piano up there was anyone's guess. Vladimir told Kate he thought it was put there when they first built the tower.
A large window let in the sunlight during the day and the moonlight at night. High up stories in the air, away from the din and dirt of the city, the fresh breeze of London washed through the room in silent bursts. Kate could imagine a pale, wheezing, coughing Frederick Chopin hunched over the keyboard, his girlfriend Georg Sand standing behind him, helping to draw out his genius.
They never ran into anyone coming or going from the attic and Kate envisioned it as a place for her and Vladimir to talk about the mentorship program and for Vlad to help her overcome her strange aversion to the Beethoven Concerto.
"I hate it," she told him, sitting on the piano bench next to him, her face twisted in frustration. "Let me play something I want to play."
"Such as?" Vladimir eyed her.
Kate's fingers began smoothly crossing the keys. "It's called 'At Last'. Etta James sings it."
"Lyrics?"
"'At last, my love has come along; My lonely days are over...'"
Kate continued to play the melody on the piano and when she finished, she turned with a smile to Vladimir. He then placed his strong hand on her cheek and tilted his head to kiss her lovingly on the lips. She was stunned for a moment, she admits that, and let it go on a second too long until she woke up and jumped off the piano bench.
She shook her head and was immediately back in the present, heading to Liverpool to see George before he and the guys left for Hamburg for 4 months. Should she tell him that Vladimir kissed her?
