Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show (5 page)

Sally
swatted at George’s arm. “George, you can’t talk about Tom like that.”

George
acted as if he was going to swat Sally, “Why not? You don’t like him either and you said his mother is an egotistical nut. Scott is a good hard working boy and I like him.”

Sally
leaned over and kissed George on the cheek. “Don’t threaten me if you want to keep that hand attached to your arm.”

William
smiled as he watched George and Sally going at each other. “Well, at least we now know where Michelle got her spunk from.”

Sandy
glanced at her watch before drawing the attention and laughter of the other guest. “What on earth are they doing up there?”

Betsy
patted Sandy on the back as she walked behind her chair. “Scott and Michelle are in their early twenties and they don’t work on our time schedule and for the record, some things are better not known.”

William
looked at his watch. “I took the liberty of changing the plan just a little. I offered to let them use my beach house for a few days.”

It was obvious to all that neither
Sally nor Sandy were expecting William’s news. Sally was the first, but not the only one to express her surprise. “You did what?”

William
’s personality took on a completely serious quality. “These kids have been in love with each other for years and just didn’t have sense enough to know it. With Michelle getting married, the clock is ticking and they need all the help they can get. They need time alone and they don’t need any interruptions from us. Michelle has a lot of things to figure out right now.”

George
put his hand on Sally’s arm. “I think William is right. Hell, two blind squirrels in a ten thousand acre forest would have more luck finding each other than Scott and Michelle have had so far.”

Sandy
looked down at her drink. “Well, God help anybody that ever tries to hurt Michelle. She was out on Highway 70 a few days ago and had a flat tire so she called Scott to help her. He went after her like a bullet from a gun. He didn’t like the idea of her being alone on the side of the road for even a minute. It was in the middle of the day and a trooper had pulled over to help.”

Betsy
changed the conversation as she remembered Michelle’s recent trip. “How did her trip to Tom’s house go last week?”

Sally
looked around to make sure neither Michelle nor Scott was near by. “I have a feeling it didn’t go all that well. She has said almost nothing about her plans, which is not like her. She doesn’t seem to be enthusiastic about her relationship in a way that I would have expected.”

Betsy
stood behind William while listening to Sally. “Do you think it is just pre-wedding jitters?”

Sally
shook her head. “I don’t know, but George is right. I don’t like his mother at all and I am not crazy about Tom. Having said that, we have never let Michelle know how we feel and have been supportive of whatever she wanted to do.”

William
glanced at his watch again. “I don’t think you need to be concerned about Tom much longer. Scott and Michelle have been in the barn for twenty minutes and if my prediction is right, they will be here in a few minutes acting as if nothing has changed. After they talk to us for a few minutes, they will get the key to the beach house and be out of here.”

Betsy
placed her hand on William’s shoulder. “Then we come to the hard part. We have to wait for a few days to see if our efforts have paid off.”

Apparently,
Mark was having some reservations about their actions. “I would be a very happy man to have Michelle as a daughter in law, but I have to wonder if we are doing the right thing by trying to push them together.”

William
attempted to downplay their actions and was probably right to do so. “Listen Mark, we aren’t pushing them together. We have only opened the door to what is possible and given them a nudge. They will find their own direction from here, regardless of what we think is best for them.”

Sally
supported William’s comments with her observations. “I know my daughter and she will not get pushed easily. I also know she is very protective of Scott and I don’t think she is going to let him get too far away from her. She can’t keep an eye on him if she is living in New England.”

Sandy
spoke in a hushed tone, “Here they come so let’s act as if nothing is going on”.

CHAPTER
V

Both
Michelle and Scott were smart enough to recognize the efforts William, Betsy, their parents, and others were making to bring them together. What they did not know was the reason behind the groups plan or the much larger implications for their future. However, just as William predicted, they took his offer to use the beach house.

For the most part
, Michelle was very quiet on their way to Emerald Isle and Scott assumed she had a lot to consider. They arrived by nine o’clock in the evening and spent their first fifteen minutes exploring the well-appointed beachfront home. The outside temperature was warm, the sky was clear and the moon was nearly full as they saw a few fishermen standing in the surf. Michelle offered to fix their drinks before they sat outside on the deck to watch and listen to the sounds of the ocean.

They
sat in relative silence as Scott was determined she would be given the opportunity to take their discussion in whatever direction she wanted to go. Her voice soon broke the silence. “It’s been quite a day. In fact, it has been quite a week, quite a month, quite a year, and quite a lifetime. So, where do we start if we want to sort it all out?”

“I would like to start by telling you I had nothing to do with what happened at your Uncle’s farm. I didn’t know about it, didn’t plan it, and I would not have put you in that situation.”

She looked down at her bare feet for a moment while sitting with her hands folded in her lap. “I know you would never put our relationship up for a public review. I can only assume everyone would prefer I married you instead of Tom. That doesn’t make me feel very good and it hurts my feelings. I guess they think I don’t have enough sense to pick out a husband.”

Scott
watched a couple walking on the beach before he spoke. “Come on, you know it’s not that simple and I suspect they might have done the same thing if you had never met Tom. It was about much more than that.”

She turned and looked at
Scott before she spoke, while expressing her doubts in the tone of her voice. “Then what was it all about?”

It too
k only a moment for him to make a case. “It was about you and me. When I kissed you the first time, it was a very nice experience for me. When I kissed you the next two times, you were even more enthusiastic and passionate than before. I think they see something going on between us that we’ve missed. And, they may not be wrong.”

She replied while still being somewhat argumentative, “So what am I supposed to do now? Would they be happy if I send
Tom a nice rejection letter and then climb into bed with you?”

Scott
shook his head letting her know he disagreed with her. “William said the world is full of endless possibilities. No one forced us to come here. We came here together as a matter of choice. We can’t blame them for the choices we make.”

She started grinning after giving
him a brief snarl. “You are always supposed to be on my side, even when you disagree with me.”

Scott
took a moment to remind her about their conversation at Cape Lookout in May when she discussed her reservations about getting married to Tom. “You expressed your doubts about Tom, and then you went to see him to plan your wedding. I don’t know where you are right now or what you really want. That makes it hard for me to be on your side.”

She leaned forward, turned to face
him and then spoke with determination. “Maybe we should stop dancing around the issue. Do you want a relationship with me?”

With some reluctance,
Scott gave what he thought was a truthful and perhaps even a wise answer. “I don’t think I should answer that until you get your head straight about Tom. I don’t think it would be fair to either of us until you decide what you are looking for.”

She stood up abruptly
, leading him to believe she was angry at his lack of a direct answer. She then smiled as she picked up a large beach towel. “It’s a beautiful night for a walk on the beach. Let’s go have a long truth session with each other, just like the ones we used to have.”

As
they walked down the steps from the deck to the beach, Scott thought about some of their past discussions. “You and I had some fairly deep discussions, and some were quite personal. Is that what you have in mind?”

She took the last step and was standing in the sand when she turned around facing
him. She held up her left hand, which he could see in the moonlight, and then asked if he noticed something was missing. It was apparent she was not wearing her engagement ring, thus leading him to ask the relevant question. “So, what happened to the missing ring?”

They
started walking across the sand as she began her explanation. “When I went to see Tom last week, his mother started telling me about her plans for my wedding. When I politely told her I had not made any decisions, Tom assured me his mother had a lot of experience in such matters and I should try to follow her recommendations.”

Scott
replied, while trying to offer her some support. “I have never been engaged, but I’m pretty sure that was not very smart on his part.”

Michelle
started shaking her head. “Oh, it was ridiculous. She had everything laid out in a binder with perfect organization. She had selected the church, the catering service, the flower shop we should use, where I could go to look for my wedding gown and the bridesmaid’s dresses. It was as if all I needed to do was show up and then get married. I would not be surprised if she picked out my engagement ring. She never once stopped to consider I might want to get married here and not in Rhode Island.”

“Just so I can play the role of devil’s advocate, was it
Tom’s fault that his mother has some obsessive issues?” Scott asked as they continued their walk.

She stopped and looked out over the ocean. “His father is a stuffed shirt corporate executive, his mother is obsessive, and he is a blend of the two o
f them. Tom wore a coat and ties most of the time I was there and he didn’t even have so much as a job interview. I saw some aspects of his personality when we were at school, but he just morphed into something weird when he got home.”

“You still haven’t told me what happened to the engagement ring.”

She took a deep breath and a long pause suggesting she was trying to maintain her sense of emotional control. “When I told him that he and I would be the ones to make our major life decisions, he took that as an attack on his family. One thing led to another, and we ended up in a major fight. I caught an early flight home that same day and we haven’t spoken since. He hasn’t tried to call me and I haven’t tried to call him. I am not going to call him because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Thinking
he now understood the situation, he tried to address the matter head on. “Now you’re waiting for him to call with an apology.”

“Not exactly. When
Tom went to take a shower, I called a taxi to take me to the airport. When the taxi came, I handed my ring to his mother and said that since she was Tom’s agent, she should start looking for a new brain dead girl to take my place. I wasn’t interested in the job.”

They
walked for a few minutes without speaking while he thought about what he should say to Michelle. He must have taken too long to get his thoughts together as she challenged him to say something. He offered her his sympathy and willingness to help in any way she thought might be useful. She thanked Scott and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before telling him to tell her what he really thought.

They
stopped walking and turned to face each other before Scott replied, “I know I’m just a stupid male and don’t understand girls. Still I have one observation. You appear to be sad about losing something that you really didn’t want.”

“That’s not stupid and you’re absolutely right. For a while, it was a dream, then a fairy tale, and then it became a nightmare. It was fun to think about getting married
, but the reality to make it work just wasn’t there. I am glad I found out sooner rather than later.”

Scott
placed his arms around her and replied, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you.”

“I know you want what’s best for me and I appreciate that. Right now, you and I need to start our truth session as it relates to us. What do you want for us?
” She asked as she took the beach towel and laid it out for them to sit on.

“When you told me you were getting married, I felt like someone had kicked
me in the gut. The thought of losing you was hard to take and I don’t want that to happen. I would like to see us moving in a new direction. What do you want?”

Michelle
’s answer came with very little forethought. “I think I want the same things as you, only I don’t want us to lose what we already have. We have a very rare kind of relationship now.”

Scott
thought a nudge might help them consider their options. “If things had worked out with you and Tom, our relationship would have been over. We are sitting at the crossroads now and by choice or design, I’ve got to find a job and get on with my life and so do you.”

Michelle
understood as well as Scott that things were going to change regardless of what they might want. “You and I have both been out with a lot of other people, but I have never been very serious about anyone before Tom came along. Now, the one person I got serious about turns out to have been a huge mistake. Is there something wrong with me?”

He
started drawing designs in the sand as he considered her question. “I didn’t really realize this until my last year in college, but I compared every girl I went out with to you. I don’t know why during all the years we spent together we didn’t let our relationship with each other become more than it was. Maybe we were just too close to each other to get serious about someone else.”

After several minutes of silence,
Michelle made a very interesting comment that caught his attention. “You have given me the chance to be very selfish with our friendship. I didn’t have to wonder if you were expecting me to go to bed with you each time we went out to dinner. I didn’t have to make sure my makeup was perfect every time I saw you. I could dress for comfort and not have to be fashionable for you. You were always there when I needed you without expecting anything in return. You made it easy for me to tell you my secrets because I could trust you.”

“If I had asked you out on a date in high school
or college, would you have gone?” Scott asked, hoping to get some insight into her thoughts.

Her facial expression and the long pause suggested she was giving
his question serious consideration. “I don’t know. Think about all the things we needed to discuss before we took that step. Had we gone out together, we might not be friends now. How would we have managed the physical part of a relationship? Would we have made the decision to attend the same college? Would we have decided to live together for a while? Would we still feel the same way now about each other had we been a couple. My last question is why are you looking at me like that?”

Scott
looked away from her, choosing to stare at the waves while getting his thoughts together. “For the first time since I have known you, I now understand why we never became a couple like normal people would.”

By
this point, she was grinning at his suggestion that he might actually understand her. “Maybe you can share the solution to our great mystery.”

Scott
was also smiling as he played the role of the great detective. “Before I solve this mystery, I shall provide a demonstration. Let’s begin. Describe to me in one word your reaction to our kisses tonight.”

She rolled her eyes
playfully as she played along with his game. “There is too much involved in that kiss to define my reaction in one simple word. I have to consider my feelings of surprise, my emotional reaction, my physical reaction, and lots of other thoughts and feelings.”

Scott
continued to watch her as he held up one finger. “Describe that kiss in one word and only one word.”

She thought for a moment and replied, “Nice
.”

He
changed his question. “Now describe it in only two words, nice and what?”

Her response came with little thought. “Nice and loving.”

Scott challenged her again. “Now use three words including nice, loving and what?

“Nice, loving, and passionate.”

Scott then gave her the final question. “This is the last time so you can use four words.”

Her smile this time was more devious than in her previous answers. “I would use the words nice, loving, passionate, and arousing. So how does this solve our great mystery?”

Continuing his rather weak attempt to portray Sherlock Holmes, Scott explained his observation of their problem. “It is elementary my dear Watson. When you and I start talking about anything, we analyze it to death. It makes no difference what the subject is, we say to each other if we do this, then such and such will happen, but if we don’t do that then something else will happen. We over-think everything. We turn the simple act of going out to eat into an expose of dining establishments.”