Prologue:
Liverpool, England.
Prudence Laura Lennon could best be described as a quiet person who enjoys reading and especially writing. She is also very ambitious and wants to become a best-seller writer. Her self-esteem could not be portrayed as low but, although she didn’t show it, as nearly every girl her age, she is also quite insecure. She is rarely seen without her little notebook and pen, in which she writes every interesting fact or any special ideas that come to her unexpectedly. However, even though Prudence leads a quite sheltered childhood until the age of sixteen, everything changes when her parents allow her to hang around with her long-time friend, George Harrison.
She met George when she was eight, through his sister Louise. Louise dated her brother William Sean for about two years and Prudence became very close to the Harrisons even after they split up. George, being nearly a year younger than Prudence, worshipped her at the beginning and became her most excellent friend as years went by. The fact of him joining her cousin John Lennon’s rock and roll band was completely appealing to her, and even surprising. George was barely fifteen and John, in that time, was three years older!
John and Prudence had always been close, despite the fact that he couldn’t stand the sight of her brother. They usually had many chats when he was not busy with the band, and she was a regular visitor at Menlove Avenue, where he lived with his Aunt Mimi. Mimi had always been fond of Prudence and encouraged him to have more friends like her and not like his band mates. Little did Mimi know that Prudence was also friends with the other lads and that she went to the same places she was so appalled at!
Prudence has a good friend in her brother Will. He always protected her and encouraged her to become a writer and later on to start a career in the journalism area. He criticized her work, wanting nothing more than for her to overcome all her imperfections. In return, he received love and tenderness and a daily visit to his lonely flat from his baby sister.
On the other hand, William disapproved of Prue going out with John and his mates. To his mind, that would bring nothing but trouble to his sister. Not only was John a lazy person who took nothing seriously, not even college, but he also spent all day long strumming a cheap guitar! William really pitied Mimi and John’s lovely girlfriend, Cynthia.
However, in spite of loving her brother, Prue found more than enjoyment in hanging around with John, George and their bandmates. They played in little clubs, in some basements, pubs and in festivals and opened a whole new panorama to her. Now she could see beyond her nice house in the district of Penny Lane. Now she got to see and taste the flavour of being young and active.
In one of these so called active parties she usually attended with John, George and the other lads, she made friends with Ivan Vaughan. She had seen him in one or two opportunities before. One of those opportunities had been when he introduced Paul McCartney to John in 1957. Paul and Ivan had been friends since primary school and Ivan thought that it would be great if John had a new player for his skiffle band. Paul was a very skilled guitarist but his best feature, according to John, was that he could actually tune guitars! Paul joined the band instantly, and later on, introduced George to John.
Ivan and Prudence kept seeing each other in the bars and pubs where The Beatles played and with the passing days developed something more than a friendship but less than a romantic relationship. A nice name for it would be… physical relationship.
In spite of this, Prudence’s bond with everyone was not so friendly. Right from the kick-off, her link with Paul McCartney was completely nonexistent. This fact could be summed up in only one word: jealousy. She was jealous of him. Since they met each other in 1954, Paul completely monopolized George. They played the guitar together, they wrote songs together and, afterwards, they even were in a band together so they had gigs to attend together! Prudence was completely stubborn about not wanting to share George’s friendship with anyone. And much less with conceited people. Nonetheless, Prue tried to disregard him – and he tried to disregard her.
***
Hamburg, Germany.
Not having led a sheltered life at all, Alyssa Kirchherr had the worked on the streets of the St. Pauli district. She was born on the 19th June, 1941; three years before her parents were killed by soldiers of the Gestapo, accused of helping Jews to leave the country. She was raised by her uncle and her aunt who, by that time, already had a daughter called Astrid.
With no parents or siblings, and under the custody of her non-interventionist family, Alyssa did almost everything she wanted to do. That included not finishing high school to dedicate herself entirely to work for her man, Bruno Koschmider. He was the owner of two sex clubs, The Indra and The Kaiserkeller. They were both located on the Grosse Freiheit, near the Reeperbahn. However, The Indra was the lousiest one.
Alyssa was the most important stripper at The Kaiserkeller. She was the top act and every customer knew her. In fact, she was very well-known all around the area. Her performance, called ‘Delightful Delilah’, made every heart race.
In spite of that, her only dream had always been to visit England. Or to live in England! That’s why the only academic thing she had worked on was English, discovering that she was pretty good at languages.
Little did she know that she would soon meet a very interesting part of that country she loved so much…