Sandra and Travis were two awkward counselors working for two different homes for disturbed children run by the same company. They’d been dating for a couple of months, and one Saturday they went to the Santa Monica pier in Sandra’s little red Toyota together.

They played some pinball then claimed a bench outside, kissed and looked down at the water crashing against the pilings below their feet.

They had been fighting lately, and though they hadn’t crossed words that day, Travis felt they were right on the edge of another round when The Beatles song, “Across the Universe,” became audible to the pair from a nearby fisherman’s stereo. When the song reached the melody to the words, “Nothing’s gonna change my world,” Travis was instantly relaxed of his concerns and content to sit there next to his girlfriend listening to the song and the waves and smelling her hair and the salt-water and all.

Suddenly Sandra was rushing him to leave because she’d forgotten she needed to get back and make an East Coast call.

Travis said he just wanted to hear the rest of the song, but Sandra insisted they leave.

He asked again and she said, “Travis, no,” so they left.

They didn’t fight on the way to Travis’s place, but when she dropped him off, he drank wine, letting “Across the Universe” play nearly seventy times before he woke Sandra with a call to break up with her very quickly.