Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show (17 page)

“I think you found the Universal Mind. There is a lot of peace there
, if you can wrap your head around the concept.” Scott explained.

She wasn’t being critical
, but she was curious about how he would respond to her question. “Does the Universal Mind allow guys to treat me like a piece of trash and then just walk away, leaving me lying wherever they found me with no regard for me or my safety?”

Scott
shook his head emphatically. “No, but it does teach you the self respect and self discipline not to allow yourself to be in that situation in the first place. When we talk about the Universal Mind, we are talking about a state of being and not some force that allows bad things to happen.”

She put her hand on
his shoulder before she spoke. “I don’t know if I can do this alone.”

“We have to make sure you have the people to help you get where you are going. You are not going to be alone.” Scott replied.

She considered her situation for a few moments. “
My mom and dad will help me if they know I am serious about making some changes. I still have a few friends like Beth that I can depend on, too. However, if I am going to do this, then you have to be on my side too. We have to make a deal right now that you don’t just walk away from me. I like your idea of the Universal Mind and I want us to talk more about it. If I am going to live the dark night of the soul, you have to walk there with me.”

“
I am going to be on the road a lot and I can’t always be there with you when you need help.” Scott replied.

She was insisting on a connection between
them. “You have Facebook, email, a cell phone, and a car. We can find a way to talk to each other and sometimes be with each other, if you’ll do that for me.”

Scott
nodded in agreement. “You do what you are supposed to do and I will be there with you. Did the doctor help you set out a plan?”

“She did
, and we have already gotten the process started. I start out with thirty days in detox and I began seeing someone as soon as Tuesday of next week. I know it will be hard, but I think I can do this. I want you to hold my hand while I’m going through this, even if you are five hundred miles away.”

Scott
stood up and extended his hand, and Amie showed no hesitation in taking it. After a long hug, they continued to hold hands as they went down the steps on the way to the car. As they left the fort entrance, they stopped on the wooden breezeway to finish their conversation.

Amie
waited for several people to pass by before she spoke. “You have no idea what a liar I am. I’ve promised so many people I would try to get better, only to let them all down. This time when I fall from grace, you’ll know I tried to warn you.”

“Within the Universal Mind, you don’t fail. We just keep going until we get it right.”
Scott replied.

Amie
started smiling. “If all you wanted was to get me in bed, we could have done that this morning. Why are you trying to help me?”

Scott
leaned against the railing and considered her question. “You are not the only one that has to deal with the dark night of the soul, but I will make you a deal. If you meet me in Swansboro on Monday, I’ll change your life in a way that you can’t even begin to imagine.”

“That’s a big promise.”
She replied with a grin.

Scott
agreed with her. “It is a big promise, but you will also get a nice lunch at Captain Charley’s restaurant, just in case I let you down.”

She looked somewhat suspicious as she considered
his offer. “And what do you get out of this deal?”

Scott
took her hand as they started for the parking lot. “I get two things out of it. I get to be seen in public with a very attractive intelligent woman, and if I am lucky, I may get another piece of the puzzle that makes up the Universal Mind. And if I get really lucky, I may find enough absolution that I can sleep without the ghosts invading my mediation.”

Amie
squeezed his hand. “This is going to be a very interesting lunch date. I don’t let people see my heart and soul, not that many have tried. I have a feeling you will find a way to see the darkest part of my soul and that’s a scary proposition for me.”

As
they reached the car, Scott opened the door for Amie. “What should really scare you is keeping the demons inside of you and letting them destroy your life.”

As she sat in the front seat, she looked up at
him. “That’s true, but sometimes they refuse to leave.”

Scott
looked back at her and replied, “In that case then maybe they just need a swift kick in the ass to get them out.”

Once
they were on their way, she started smiling. “So, Beth and Michelle have been torturing you. I’ll have to have a word with them.”

“Don’t worry about them for now, just focus on you.”

Now, where are you going from here? What’s our plan?”

She lightly punched
him on the arm. “I see you’re already checking on me. I can’t cheat if you are going to be watching me around the clock. Anyway, I’m going to leave here, go home, and have a long talk with my parents. I have already called them and they are expecting me.”

Scott
wanted her to believe that she had people on her side that would be there for her. “That sounds ideal and I will be watching. Give me a call later tonight and let me know how the meeting with your parents went.”

Amie
smiled as she looked out the window while they drove the last few miles to his house. “Yes daddy.”

Scott
pulled the car into the driveway. “Your daddy will be a piece of cake compared to me. We don’t stop until we win, even if you slip along the way.”

“Don’t leave me hanging out alone to fight the monster.” She replied.

Michelle and Beth were sitting on the deck talking when Amie and Scott came through the door. Beth turned to Michelle while shaking her head. “We turn our backs on him for five minutes, and he goes out chasing other women.”

Scott
puffed out his chest in pure arrogance as he explained his situation. “I don’t chase women. I catch women and I happen to have caught a very special girl today. After all, when the cat is away, the mice play.”

Beth
went on to introduce Michelle and Amie to each other. Scott was surprised that Amie remembered Michelle had been with her on the trip to the hospital. In fact, he was surprised that Amie remembered any of them given her condition. After fixing everyone a diet drink, they sat on the deck and talked for several minutes.

Amie
winked at Scott as she spoke to Michelle. “I understand that you and Beth have been making Scott suffer in the hot tub.”

Michelle
was smiling as she defended her team. “We allowed Scott to sit with us in the Jacuzzi yesterday. Being there with two girls made his ego a little inflated and we had to bring him down a few notches. We didn’t do anything to him other than just sit there.”

Amie
looked at Scott and then at Beth. “In his mind, when you just sit and talk without doing anything else, that is torture.”

Beth
glanced at Michelle. “We are trying to teach Scott the art of self discipline. We want him to learn that when he looks at a woman, he should look at our faces and not our boobs.”

Scott
acted as if he understood her logic. “So the reason you wear two piece swimsuits is so I’ll look at your face. That makes perfect sense now and that plan should really work out well for you.”

Amie
gave Scott a hug before she stepped away. “I have to be going, but I wanted to thank all of you for what you have done. Scott has me on a new spiritual journey and right now, I need all the help I can get.”

Michelle
and Beth stood up and gave Amie a hug. “Be careful. His spiritual journeys tend to end up in a hot tub with half naked women.”

Beth
explained that she was going to walk with Amie back to her car and she would see them later. Amie made sure Scott could hear what she was saying before they turned to walk away. “Next September when I am doing better, I want to come back here with you and Michelle and help torture Scott in the hot tub. That could be fun. I’ll show you girls how to really drive him crazy.”

Scott
gave her a quick hug. “You are supposed to check in with me tonight, so don’t forget.”

“You’re ri
ght, you are worse than my dad, but I’ll call you.” Amine and Beth then turned away and walked down the boardwalk.

Scott
put his arm around Michelle as they watched them disappear down the steps to the beach. It was then that Michelle made her observation. “I have some serious doubts about being seen in public with you.”

“
Why is that?” Scott asked.

She turned her attention fro
m the beach to look at him. “You attract some very dysfunctional women.”

Scott
pulled her closer to him. “I guess that’s why you and I have been friends for so long.”

CHAPTER
XIV

Michelle
looked up at the sky. “I’m hot.”

Scott
interrupted before she could finish her idea. “I always thought you were.”

She folded her arms across her chest
. “I was going to say that you and I should go swimming together. We haven’t been in the ocean all day.”

They
wasted little time getting to the beach and into the water. After swimming for twenty minutes, they stood beyond the breakers riding the small waves. Scott was curious about how her morning had gone. “Did you and Beth have fun shopping together?”

“It was very nice.” She replied. “We had fun being together and
we had a great lunch.”

They
stood next to each other facing the ocean and listening to the sounds of the waves breaking behind them while watching the gulls swoop down in the water. The warm afternoon sun along with the smell of suntan lotion filled their senses.

Michelle
’s words soon changed the course of their conversation, but did not fully express her feeling of apprehension. “Scott, something very strange happened to me last night.”

Scott
replied with an attempt at a joke, not knowing she was being as serious as she was. “You must have discovered the meaning of total sexual fulfillment for the first time in your life.”

She continued to watch the gulls, as she
was slightly reluctant to share her experience. “That’s not what I was talking about, but with some practice, I think you have potential. Anyway, last night I woke up just before two o’clock because I was cold. I got out of bed and put on my gown when something strange happened. I got back in bed and snuggled up to you.”

She stopped speaking for several moments until
Scott turned and looked at her at the same moment she had turned to face him. “I had the strangest sensation that Beth was in the room with us. It wasn’t like a passing thought, but more like a feeling that I could almost feel her presence. I could almost see her lying next to you.”

“Are you sure you weren’t having a dream?”

She slowly shook her head. “You know me better than that. I don’t stand up, walk to the dresser, take my gown from the drawer, and then put it on while I am asleep.”

When
Scott walked with Beth to her cabin the previous night, one of the last things Beth told him, was her plan to haunt him by lying in bed with him at two o’clock in the morning. The coincidence of Beth’s statement and Michelle’s experience were hard for Scott to ignore, even if neither of the ideas were rational.

“I’m not sure what you mean when you say you could almost see her.”

Michelle scrunched her nose as she tried to think of a way to explain what she saw. “I could see her without really seeing her. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but I guess it would be like I could imagine her, only the image was clear.”

Scott
thought of a way to test how clear her image was. “Could you tell what was she wearing?”

It took
Michelle only a moment to respond. “She had on short white pajama bottoms and her top was a white v-neck with little pink elephants on it.”

“That’s a fairly specific description of something you couldn’t really see.”
Scott replied, still trying to understand what she actually saw.

Michelle
started smiling. “I always notice what other girls are wearing, even when the other girl is a ghost. It was a cute little outfit.”

Scott
also started smiling, while teasing Michelle. “How little was this outfit? Would I have liked it?”

Michelle
placed her finger up to his face and smiled. “It’s none of your business how little or cute it was.”

He
took her hand as they started walking toward the shore. “I don’t know what happened to you last night, but I would assume it was just left over from all the drama we went through yesterday. Between Amie and Beth, it was a really weird day.”

She reached out and touched
his arm to stop him from going onto the beach. They stopped walking and stood with the water up to their knees. “Scott, I was almost afraid last night.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up if you were frightened?”

She once again gave him a halfhearted smile. “What was I supposed to do? Should I have told you to get rid of the cute little ghost that was lying next to you?”

“
Beth is a living, breathing, walking, and talking girl. She can’t be all those things and still be a ghost.” He replied.

Michelle
smiled again. “I know, and she has a credit card. If she were a ghost, the bank would probably cancel her card after she died.”

“One would think so.”
Scott replied.

Michelle
stepped in front of him as she made her troubling observation. “All the logic in the world doesn’t change what happened to me last night.”

Scott
watched her for several minutes thinking he needed to provide some explanation she would accept. Unfortunately, he really didn’t have an explanation that she would readily accept. “As my hero Sherlock Holmes always says, ‘
Once
you
eliminate the
impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’
Our job is to rule out everything we can.”

Michelle
poked her finger in his stomach. “Okay Sherlock, I was not drunk, on drugs, having hallucinations, nor was I asleep. You can take it from there.”

As she had taken away all the obvious answers,
Scott had to scramble to give her another option. “It’s elementary my little female Watson. Secretly, Beth wants to have a relationship with me. Therefore, she learned how to become a form of plasma that would allow her to transcend time and space. This process lets her be in our bed while still in her bed as she crossed into a parallel universe. Do you have any problems with that theory?”

She put her arm
over his shoulder as she spoke. “Let me destroy your theory by pointing out the obvious flaws in your thinking. First, I have no desire to be your little female Watson. Next, that Beth would love to climb in bed with you is anything but a secret. That part is obvious. However, you might be on to something with your idea of her traveling through a parallel universe.”

“She doesn’t want to go to bed with me.
Beth just appreciates me talking to Moose yesterday and finding out what really happened on the canoe trip.” Scott replied, knowing his words did not match reality.

They
started down the beach choosing to walk in the water. “I don’t have an explanation for what you experienced last night. I can only guess you were tired, had a lot on your mind, and it just all came crashing down on you. If anything like that happens again, wake me up.”

As
they walked along, she started teasing him again. “So, Sherlock has no answers for me.”

They
continued to walk as Scott continued to think about her experience. After several minutes, he stopped walking and turned to Michelle. “Maybe there is an explanation. Maybe what happened to you was a psychic experience. What if there was some type of mental connection between the two of you?”

Michelle
had a doubtful expression. “That seems unlikely.”

His
rebuttal came quickly. “So was your experience. If you really want to know, then all we have to do is ask Beth what she slept in last night. If she says anything other than white pajamas with pink elephants, then we know it was just your imagination.”

Michelle
thought about his answer. “What happens if she was wearing white pajamas with pink elephants?”

“I don’t know, but let me ask you this. Other than just having the feeling she was there, did you get any feeling for why she was there or what she might have been doing
, or if she wanted something?”

“No, but do you really think it could have been a psychic thing going on?” She asked as
they continued their walk.

Scott
opted to tell her the truth. “What I really think is that you have been under a lot of stress with Tom and now having me around all the time hasn’t given you the time to think everything through.”

“You’re probably right.
Still, I can’t explain what it is, but there is something strange about Beth that I can feel when we’re together. I can’t give you a good reason for me inviting her to get in the Jacuzzi yesterday, or why I went to the party, or why we went shopping, or for anything else. You and I were supposed to be alone and I keep inviting her to do things with us.”

They
turned around and started walking back to their beach towels. “Maybe you needed a girlfriend to talk to.”

She shook her head. “It’s more than that. I honestly believe she would love to get you alone somewhere. I wish you could have seen her face when you were putting the lotion on her yesterday. If I hadn’t been there, I think you might have gotten lucky.”

“I don’t think so, but you and I are all alone this afternoon and I’m assuming she will be leaving tomorrow. I would also assume that tomorrow will be the last time we will ever see her again.” He replied.

Michelle
corrected him. “She only lives about twenty miles from us. I think she wants to be best friends or something. I like Beth and she is fun to go out with, but I’m still having strange feelings about her.”

Scott
asked what he thought was a reasonable question. “Do you feel like you are competing with her or are you jealous of her for some reason?”

Michelle
stopped and turned to face him. “No, it’s nothing like that. In fact, I almost feel like I am dealing with myself when I talk to her. It’s as if we are on the same wavelength and just gliding along. When you were rubbing lotion on her and giving her a massage yesterday, it didn’t bother me at all. I’m telling you, something strange is going on. That’s not like me.”

He
hesitated for a few moments before giving Michelle his own confession. “There is something about her that draws me to her. Until you told me how you were feeling, I just assumed she was flirting or playing mind games with me. I don’t know what it is either, but she has a way of making a connection to me. Moreover, before you say anything, I am not about to go off with her and do something stupid. I’m not even sure it’s a romantic or a sexual thing that she and I share. It’s more like a mental contest I’m having with her.”

Michelle
gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you for being honest with me and don’t worry, because I trust you. You’re right. It’s almost a mental thing I have going on with her too. I don’t know if it’s a game we’re playing or something else.”

They
sat on the beach towel before Michelle handed him the bottle of sunscreen. As Scott was putting the lotion on her back, he wanted to find out what she was thinking. “If it’s not a mental game the two of you are playing, then what else would it be?”

She was becoming even more
concerned than he had already seen. “I don’t know, but it’s getting spooky. I wasn’t planning on going shopping while we were here, but last night the idea just popped in my mind and she immediately agreed. If I suggest something then she agrees with it. If she suggests something, I agree with it.”

Scott
suggested a possible explanation. “Maybe the two of you have a lot more in common than you thought. Maybe you just like being around each other.”

Michelle
’s response told him something about her sense of control. “I came here to be alone with you, yet I’ve invited her to swim with us this afternoon. At this rate, I’ll be inviting her to dinner.”

Michelle
started smiling as she continued her thoughts. “I should be worried about you having a relationship with Beth but it looks like I’m the one who’s paying the most attention to her.”

Scott
tried to be more lighthearted with his comment thinking it would set Michelle’s mind more at ease. “There is no reason the three of us can’t be alone this afternoon. We can talk about all the old times that we never shared together.”

Michelle
smiled briefly. “Scott, I know you are just trying to make me feel better, but this is really something I need to deal with. Beth and I had never met before yesterday, but our bathing suits were almost identical. Last night, we both wore shorts with a collared knit shirt, which were almost identical except for the color. We both had shrimp salad and ice tea for lunch. I had already decided what I was going to order and she ordered the exact same thing before I did, so I know she wasn’t just trying to copy me.”

Even though
Scott had his own suspicions, he tried to downplay those things she thought were unusual. “Sometimes things that appear to be related are nothing more than a coincidence.” He continued to speak after a long pause to consider what might be best for Michelle. “Do you think we should leave today and go somewhere else to get away from all the drama?”

She gave
Scott her answer without even taking time to consider his suggestion. “We can’t just leave. That wouldn’t solve anything and besides, it would be rude to do that to Beth.”