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  I Married a Beatle

Carol Skinner

 
   

There was this whole complicated legal agreement.  What a pain. I had to promise not to tell about the marriage until today. And even now, all I can do is say “a Beatle” or “the Beatle”, not which one. Cripe.

I can tell you though it was all pretty exciting when it happened. I mean, I went from laying on the eyeliner in the girls’ bathroom at Roosevelt High School and showing off a ring wrapped in angora PRETENDING it was from “a Beatle” to actually marrying the guy. A girl’s dream, no kidding.

At first, I can tell you, it was incredibly cool. Of all the girls in the world, “a Beatle” picked ME! I wanted to believe I was something special (who doesn’t?) but to be honest I never really did believe it. But the night we met after the concert in “a city,” there was a look in his eye when he saw me standing there (yeah, that was me), I could see it, for real. And suddenly I felt like I went from Ann Marie the plumber’s daughter to, like, Princess Ann Marie, except cooler. The way he looked at me—I don’t know—I just felt like I was different, like I mattered. A Beatle married me, for godsake.

Funny though. You’d think that would make you the happiest girl alive. Thing is, it didn’t. After a while, things just kinda went downhill. I mean, he never vacuumed ONCE, stuff like that. Plus you wouldn’t believe how much he talked about his hair, but when I wanted to talk about mine he wasn’t at all interested. Long story short, we ended up getting a divorce after a pretty short time, and by then I didn’t even want the money he said I could have. I just felt kinda empty and, well, not worth it.

Ah well, so many years ago. Anyway, I got a nice old guy for a hubby now. He never really looks at me the way “the Beatle” did that night. Never has, really. But we been together a long time now. Sometimes when I’m putting on my eyeliner I look hard in the mirror for what “the Beatle” saw and try to get that girl to come out. I kinda smile and say, “Hey, where’d you go anyway?” But no answer. All I ever see now is Ann Marie.

 

 

  

Carol Skinner has taught composition and literature at the college level and now works in educational publishing as a writer/editor.   She has contributed articles to Contemporary Poets, Crime and Detective Fiction, and Rolling Stone.  This is her first published fiction.

 

 

 

 

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