for the beach with his cousin Jeffrey Stern and Roger Epstein. Billy never mentions the Beatles. They horse around until noon. Billy suggests they walk over to his house for leftover cold cuts.

As far as Billy is concerned, it's all about lunch and maybe some basketball. So he's just as surprised as his companions when the sliding door opens and the Beatles crash their game of hoops. "We're the Liverpool Globetrotters,'' one says, stealing a pass. For 10 minutes it's the Beatles against the junior high boys from the beach. Going for a rebound, Jeffrey elbows Paul in the eye, ending the action.

Everybody leaps into the pool. Roger suddenly feels self-conscious being in the presence of deities. He abandons the pool to sit alone with his beloved Spider-Mancomics. Ringo, the last to join the Beatles and sometimes the butt of jokes, climbs out of the pool and joins the quiet, awestruck boy. They're from different worlds, of course, but Ringo sometimes feels like an outsider, too. Together they read comics.

Roger sells real estate today. Billy is a lawyer.

In the photograph Billy took of Roger and Ringo reading comics, they both look like boys.

The Beatles keep Sgt. Buddy busy. He's trying to protect them but also trying to entertain. He takes them fishing and unhooks a grunt from John's line. He rents sports cars for all of them. He escorts them to the 5th Street Gym, where they meet the colorful boxer Cassius Clay, who is going to fight Sonny Liston at the end of the