‘What the . . .’ Elle muttered, as a man carrying a guitar and wearing a 1960s-style grey suit strolled toward the pair. He sported a bowl hair cut – just like the original ‘Paul’. The man was now standing directly in front of Penny and Elle delivering his serenade seemingly for them alone. However, a small crowd was gathering to watch the performance and Elle suddenly realised just what was happening.

‘This is hilarious,’ Penny laughed. ‘What are the chances?’

Elle snorted. ‘Penny, all of these songs. They are off the album we’re looking for, Beatles for Sale.

Recognition suddenly dawned on Penny’s face. ‘Do you mean that this is Paul?’

Elle rolled her eyes – she was clearly not finding the humour in the situation. ‘Yup. An impersonator. A Paul McCartney impersonator. Colin was right. This is just internet craziness.’ She looked at the singer in front of her, who was clearly delighted with himself and the show he was putting on. ‘Are you Paul?’ she yelled, trying to raise her voice above the hoots and cheers of the crowd around them.

The singer smiled and took a hand away from his guitar. ‘Sir Paul, that is. And you must be Penny. I hear you are interested in authentic Beatles music – well that’s me. In the flesh. Doesn’t get much more authentic than this.’ And he continued singing – on to the song Rock and Roll Music – apparently, he was going to cover the entire Beatles For Sale album.

‘For crying out loud,’ muttered Elle. ‘Law of Attraction all right.’ She looked at Penny. ‘Come on. This guy doesn’t have an album to sell.’

‘What?’ Penny was crestfallen. ‘But how do you know?’

‘Because dear sister, I understand a crazy when I see one. This guy was having you on.’

‘What? But I can’t believe he would do that. We drove over three hours to get here . . .’

Elle pulled a five euro note out of her purse and dropped it into the hat which had magically appeared at Paul the impersonator’s feet, then turned with Penny to push through the crowd, which had now swelled three deep around the impromptu performer.

Making their way away from the sculpture, Penny heard a round of clapping behind her – the busker had just finished one song and was on to the next. Two young men, who were heading toward where ‘Paul’ was singing passed them by chatting away about what was happening. Elle heard, ‘This guy is great. He usually performs in front of Classic Records on Shop Street – I wonder what brought him over here?’

Penny, who had heard the same, stopped in her tracks. ‘Did you hear that? They said that our Paul impersonator made his way over from a record store in Shop Street. Maybe it’s worth a look.’