"About six months ago, I was asleep in my bed, with Yoko, at home, in the
Dakota Building. And suddenly, I wasn't asleep. Because there was this blazing
light round the door. It was shining through the cracks and the keyhole, like
someone was out there with searchlights, or the apartment was on fire.
"That was what I thought -- intruders, or fire. I leapt out of bed, and
Yoko wasn't awake at all, she was lying there like a stone, and I pulled open
the door. There were these four people out there."
"Fans?" I asked him.
"Well, they didn't want my autograph. They were like, little. Bug-like.
Big bug eyes and little bug mouths and they were scuttling at me like
roaches."
He broke off and stared at me.
"I've told this to two other people, right? One was Yoko, and she believes
me. She says she doesn't understand it, but she knows I didn't lie to her. I
told one other person, and she didn't believe me.
"She laughed it off, and then she said I must have been high. Well, I've
been high, I mean right out of it, a lot of times, and I never saw anything on
acid that was as weird as those f___in' bugs, man.
"I was straight that night. I wasn't dreaming and I wasn't tripping. There
were these creatures, like people but not like people, in my apartment."
"What did they do to you?" Lennon swore again. "How do you know
they did anything to me, man?" "Because they must have come for a
reason."
"Your're right. They did something. But I don't know what it was. I tried
to throw them out, but, when I took a step towards them, they kind of pushed me
back. I mean, they didn't touch me. It was like they just willed me. Pushed me
with willpower and telepathy."
"And then what?"
"I don't know. Something happened. Don't ask me what. Either I've
forgotten, blocked it out, or they won't let me remember. But after a while
they weren't there and I was just lying on the bed, next to Yoko, only I was on
the covers.
"And she woke up and looked at me and asked what was wrong. I couldn't
tell her at first. But I had this thing in my hands. They gave it to me."
"What was it?" Lennon dug into his jeans pocket. "I've been
carrying it round ever since, wanting to ask somebody the same question. You
have it. Maybe you'll know."
"I took the metal, egg-like object and turned it over in the dim light. It
seemed solid and smooth, and I could make out no markings. "I've never
seen anything like it."
"Keep it." John told me. "It's too weird for me. If it's my
ticket to another planet, I don't want to go there."
When we first met on November 28, 1974 he was suffering terribly from his
separation from Yoko. His drug abuse, and drinking, linked to the sorrow of
Yoko's recent miscarriage, had driven them apart, and John desperately wanted
to mend the relationship.
He just didn't know how to make the first move. The night Lennon and I were
introduced, Elton John was playing at Madison Square Gardens. Elton was trying
to persuade the ex-Beatle to get up on stage with him, and John was torn -- he
wanted to perform but he was scared.
Finally he turned to me and offered a deal, as though I were a negotiator sent
by God: "I'll sing," he said, "but you have to make Yoko call
me."
Like all of John's jokes, this one was a plea from the heart, wrapped in a
sardonic quip. Yoko phoned John out of the blue, 36 hours later. I think John
always believed I had beamed a mind-control ray at her. For my part, I think
that of all the synchronicities that have shaped my life, that was one of the
strangest.
Now, 24 years on, when I hold the cold, metal egg in my fist, I have a strong
sensation that John knew more about this object than he told me. Maybe it
didn't come with an instruction manual, but I think John knew what it was for.
And whatever that purpose was -- communication? healing? a first-class
intergalactic ticket? -- it scared him. I wish I could have warned him... that
however scary aliens seem, it's the humans you have to fear.
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