Lennon takes the album. Mark offers the Bic pen that he’d used earlier this morning to inscribe The Catcher in the Rye.

This is it.

Lennon attempts to sign the album, but the pen won’t write.

This is the moment.

Lennon makes a few circles, and finally the ink begins to flow.

History and time, coming together.

Lennon writes “John Lennon, 1980.” Mark watches, smiling. Goresh snaps a photo and captures the moment.

Synchronicity.

Mark slips a hand inside his pocket. His gaze flicks to Yoko, and he’s reminded of a dream he’s had several times, the one where he knocks on the apartment door, and when it opens Yoko smiles at him. She is friendly, happy to see him.

In that moment, he feels loved.

“Is that all?” Lennon asks. “Do you want anything else?”

Mark shakes his head.

John and Yoko climb into the back seat of the car and drive off into the night.

Chapter 61

Chapter 61

I’ve looked at life from both sides now…

—“Both Sides Now”

At 4:30 p.m., Jack Douglas is waiting for John and Yoko inside the Hit Factory.

David Geffen arrives with good news. “Double Fantasy has just gone gold!” he tells John and Yoko after they show up.

The announcement triggers a round of applause and hugs. For the two weeks since the release, John had been sleepless, worrying about sales for the new album. But achieving gold-album status—five hundred thousand copies sold—returns him to the top of the pop music mountain.

Over and over, they listen to Yoko’s master vocal and John’s guitar licks and keyboards for “Walking on Thin Ice.”

“John, are you all right?” Yoko says, wondering why he’s playing the song so many times.

He doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he tells his wife, “I think you just cut your first number one!”

John, Yoko, and Douglas make plans to finish mixing the song the next day so that they can release Yoko’s new single by Christmas.

At 10:30, John wraps the session.

“Should we stop at Wolf’s for a hamburger?” he asks a sound engineer. “If I ate it, it would go right to my knee,” he adds, deploying one of his Britishisms to let everyone know how hungry he is.

He’ll get dinner with Yoko later.

First, John has a promise to keep. “I want to go home and kiss Sean good night.”

—

December 8, 1980

The security guard’s name is Jose Perdomo. Unlike the other Dakota watchmen, Jose, a Cuban refugee who speaks broken English, is friendly and talkative.

They’re discussing Fidel Castro, the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

“What would compel Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot the president?” Mark asks.

“I don’t know.”

The temperature has dipped. Mark tightens the scarf around his neck and shuffles his feet in an attempt to stay warm.

“Do you think Castro had a role in it?”