Long, kilometric queues in front of the dead-street club The Submarine announced to the world - something is going on tonight. There were lots to see : reporters from New Musical Express, Rolling Stone, Spin and Billboard writing like mad people on notebooks. BBC Radio One and X-Fm, with their respective DJs George Hammington and Wills MacAbee transmitting directly from the sidewalk, talking to the fans and gifting the listeners with brand new copies of Beyond the Last Gate and tickets to the show, if they could come on time to catch them up. MTV had just landed, to interview some of the fans a-waiting at the line. To get warm ( and they needed to, it was bloody freezing ), the people shouted out lyrics of their favourite music, like I Remember, Admit Defeat, Liverpool By August 4th, Love Uber Alles, No Longer Seeking Heaven, Be With Me ( Let me Wanderlust ), Day In The Sun ( the only song that Danny Boy ever sang, in a moment of drunken courage ) or the famous covers of It Don’t Come Easy, Instant Karma or Won’t Get Fooled Again. Girls passed by in front of the line with one finger raised, meaning "In need of one ticket", just like in the hippie shows. People exchanged buttons and collector cards at the door. Some young girls were shouting the names of their favourite memebers of the band.
The old patrons of the Submarine, with guaranteed seats, were busy telling the new generation about the days when the Five-Piece used to visit the club. The gossip that was running was that Liam and Noel Gallagher had bought tickets to the show tonight, and that Paul McCartney would come to see the band, that after all was recording under the management of MPL Communications. Going truer, the guys from Radiohead, group that had the Five-Piece opening their gigs in America, just passed thru the principal door, and after them came Elton John, what caused a sudden wave of flashes at the door.
A guy that didn’t get a ticket had brought his acoustic guitar and was winning some bucks by playing songs to the audience that was waiting. A reporter that looked just like Mary O’Connors had some troubles to stay in her place. The arrival of Mohammed Olajuwon, old fellow of the band, followed by his wife Lee,caused another wave of flashes and shouts.
The Five-Piece Band was back in business, back to the stage, and those shows at the ‘shrine’, as the fans used to refer themselves to the club, was something to don’t lose. That was something they could tell their grandchildren in a lost future. The effervescence of those wild nights at the beginning were back. People were still believing in the magic, even after the death of James McAllen. And some people believed that James was watching over them, watching over his band. Blind faith, mind you.
Inside the club, things were getting pretty wild too. Mysteriously, Brittany wasn’t on anything that night. Hari was nearby her, stuck like glue, and she couldn’t get herself any - not even a pill that was. She was getting angry with that, needing bad of a fix but with that Warlock chained on her. Besides, the excitement of playing again at the club she worshipped was, she thought, more than sufficient. "I want to remember this night. No brown sugar on me now.", she thought, thinking she could handle, and, at the same time, daring herself.
Sarah Fade-in and Sparkle were adjusting the last few things before the beginning of the great concert. "You should have seen, guys", Sparkle said, "Things are wild outside. People from everywhere! Elton John on the audience! It’s so shocking!"
"The old team will be back in business!", Mary grinned.
The roars from the audience were audible now. Show time had arrived. Eleanor looked to the empty stage. "How I wish, how I wish you were here, James.", she prayed. "Guide my hand and my eyes, my love. I don’t want to wreck what we created. And, of you, my masters, I ask permission to start!"
Danny Boy elbowed her. It was time. As she stepped on the stage, the audience answered with shouts and whistles and smiles.
"Good evening, people. It’s good to be back home! I only hope you are ready for the show!", she shouted. The audience replied, giving courage to the band, and they proceeded with the over-known cover of It Don’t Come Easy. And then all the old successes. And new songs from the new album. By the end of the night, Eleanor finished the show with a roaring cover of Instant Karma. Hari, at the backstage, felt his heart lift to the song. He wanted to invade the stage and sing along, play with them. After all, that was his song. He had written it, when he was someone called John. That made him forget who he was actually and what he was doing there. He was a human being once again. His hands would give anything to pick up a guitar and shout out those lyrics all again. He'd give anything to have "the gift of life" once again, to be like Eleanor, Danny Boy, Mary, Britty, to be a human being once again. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice the end of the song.
"Thank you, everybody! That does it! See all the hard-cores tomorrow!", Eleanor shouted at the end of the song. People clapped so much, like they didn’t want to let her go. And they didn’t want to let her go. But she needed. She looked to the band, more specifically to Danny Boy. He was encouraging her to play more one song. Go ahead!, he shouted. Go ahead, give them what they want.
"You don’t want me to leave the stage. And I don’t want to leave too. I have to, but I don’t want to. So, here we go. I want you to sing along this cover.". She lifted her head and saw her ‘boss’ on the audience, and added a comment to mock of the knighted rocker that they had on the show and few people noticed. "Well, Sir McCartney, if you excuse me, I am going to sing one song of your ol’ band. You are not going to charge me, are you?"
She cleared her throat and started: "What would think if I sang out of tune, would you stand or you would walk on me? Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key!"
That was when Hari didn’t hold himself and invaded the stage to sing the chorus. The surprise of the band mates wasn’t bigger than the honour of having one true member of the Five-Piece singing along. It was like he always belonged to the group. He was part of them. That stage was his 'home' as well as it was to Mary, Britty, Dany Boy or Eleanor. And they'd get by their troubles. With a little help from him.
By the end of the song, Eleanor introduced the strange long-haired man to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, Winston Harrison!" They answered with hand claps and whistles, proud of meeting, finally, the Warlock of the songs.
"We gotta leave. Peace, folks!", Mary shouted, and went away with the rest of the group. That was, truly, a night to remember. Eleanor stole another kiss from her Warlock, as they got out of the stage.
"Well, what should I say, Sir?", she laughed, standing up.
"You said it all on the stage. The show was incredible!"
"You should come and see it more times", Mary spoke up. "This is only the beginning of the tour."
Hari, that was helping Sparkle, entered the room and faced Paul. The world could stop in the look they exchanged and the pain that Hari felt in his heart. So many years after his departure, he never thought he’d face the best friend like that, at that time.
"Mr. McCartney, this is the famous and over-quoted Winston Harrison. Hari? Hari, are you okay?", Eleanor asked, seeing Hari’s face.
"Oh, may God be damned, I knew I should had brought my autograph book!", he said in a shocked voice. Everybody laughed and he added. "Anyway, it’s a great pleasure to meet you again."
"Again?", Britty asked. Hari bite his tongue and created a quick story to cover his mistake. "Let me explain. I was at the famous show at Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, 1991 if I am not mistaken. Record of public, or so said the Guinness Book of Records. Obviously, Sir, you didn’t see me, but I did see you! And heard!"
"It was a wonderful show", Paul said. "I have good memories of being there."
"To a homeless Englishman like me, your presence in that stage was like being at home", Hari said heartily. "Every time I listen to ‘Hey Jude’ a shiver runs my spine. How did it feel to have 184 thousand people singing along?"
"Wow, it was all that?", Danny Boy shrieked. "Man, don’t I envy you!"
The conversation floated away in many days and nights, shows lost in the past, and Hari looked up to the sky. In a moment lost in the memory, in the miscellany that the brain of an angel is made of. Looking to Eleanor and trying to guess her thoughts. She wasn’t thinking, just feeling the happiness dripping from above in her arms, erasing the pain and bringing in eternal hope. "I only wish I could tell who I am, Paul. And I wish I could tell Eleanor. But you and her will never believe...and even if you did, that wouldn’t be of any worth.", he sighed. "I am still paying the price of my daring."
"Hari, can you take me home?", Eleanor asked. "I am way too emotionally high to drive."
"Alright, you won.", he said. "Good night everybody."
The night ended like it started - with hope in the future and things to be done. And with Brittany still needing a fix. Badly.
"Eleanor, you arrived."
"Oh...really. Well, good night, Winston Harrison.", she smiled. "The Warlock made his ultimate magic today!"
"Come on, it wasn't all that."
"Oh, it was...Believe me. I never had so much fun in a stage before. You do deserve a reward." she laughed, kissing him on the cheek once again.
"Come on. Is that all I get?", he moaned.
Eleanor suddenly looked to him, serious as never. She leaned over and kissed his lips. Then, without another word, she left the car. Hari was frozen. Suddenly, the facts - love!
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