Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show (25 page)

She hesitated for a moment
trying to decide how much she should say to him. “Let me be honest with you. I am very attracted to you and I think you feel the same way about me, even if you can’t admit it. Beyond all that, I have felt very different mentally at times since Friday. This afternoon I felt very sexually assertive and fearful at the same time. I have at times felt confused like my mind moved quickly from one thing to the next. However, this afternoon my mind was focused like a laser on getting what I wanted from you. Right now, I feel embarrassed. I am all over the place with my feelings.”

Scott
tried to offer her some relief. “It wasn’t entirely your fault today. I’m attracted to you, but I was clearly running outside the base lines too. For what this is worth, you are a very interesting girl and I have to say I enjoyed what we did, even though we can’t go there again.

Beth
smiled. “For what it is worth, things will be very different before I could let you go there again. I enjoyed it too and I am still very attracted to you, but I need more from you before that could ever happen again. Given the current situation, I’m sad to say I don’t really see that in our future. To be completely honest, I hope you and Michelle will be very happy together.”

Scott
put his hand on Beth’s back as he spoke. “Before I move on to another subject, is there some special reason you picked out that shirt to wear tonight?”

Beth
wanted to make sure he understood everything she was thinking. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget what happened between us this afternoon because it has to be something special for both of us. How is that for honesty?”

Scott
looked away at the fishing boats. “Did you think for one minute I would forget about you?”

Beth
walked away from Scott towards the fishing boats before she turned to face him. “It’s not easy being you right now. Your girlfriend is all over the map, you aren’t sure what you want, and the little girl shark keeps nibbling on you. You have an enigma on your hands and Sherlock doesn’t know what to do with her.”

Scott
looked down the street at the stores as he spoke. “You aren’t going to make this easy for me, are you?”

After several strong gust of wind,
Beth brushed the hair away from her eyes. “I will make life just as easy for you as you have made life easy for me.”

Scott
quickly changed the subject. “Are you still planning to tell Michelle everything you told me?”

“
I am not going to tell her about the sexual part of our afternoon, but other than that, nothing has changed and we can have that conversation when we get back. I don’t know how she is going to take it.”

To
Scott’s total dismay, within a very few minutes he saw Michelle coming back from the store carrying a small bag. With the start of the rain, their decision to go back to the house was easy.

CHAPTER XIX

The winds were steadily growing stronger as the approaching storm was making its presence known. By eight-thirty flashes of lightning filled the skies and were visible through most of the windows followed by the rumbling of thunder. They knew they were only seeing the beginning of a storm that would last throughout the night. Beth’s rather noticeable fear was already making life uncomfortable for her. 

Fearing a power loss,
Michelle thought it best to make coffee while she still could. Everyone was still carrying on a conversation as Michelle stood at the kitchen bar looking into the living room. Scott was peering out from the sliding doors, seeing the ocean during the occasional flashes of lightning. Beth remained on the sofa with her knees pulled up to her chest as she clutched a pillow in her arms.

Michelle
called out to Scott under the pretense of asking what he wanted in his coffee, but she had a far different idea in mind. Once he looked at Michelle, she pointed to Beth. She then asked him question about his coffee.

Scot moved across the room and sat close to
Beth. He placed his arm around her and pulled her close to him. Out of fear, she dropped her pillow and put her arms around him. It was only moments before Michelle placed the three cups on the coffee table and sat on the other side of Beth. Michelle wasted little time moving closer to her as she also put her arm around Beth.

Within ten minutes, the storm
lessened to some degree. The brief respite was expected as they had only begun to get the storm’s outer bands blowing in. Beth sat up to drink her coffee before she looked at Michelle. “I feel like a complete idiot.”

It was only a few minutes later when
Scott’s cell phone rang. He quickly answered the call not recognizing the number on the caller ID. After a few seconds, Amie had identified herself. Scott took his phone to the kitchen and continued a conversation that lasted almost fifteen minutes.

Once
the call was over, he returned to the living room before placing his phone on the coffee table. Beth was concerned Amie might already be having problems. “Is she okay?”

“She had a long talk with her parents and
put it all out on the table for them. They are going to help her, but she wants both of you to stay in touch with her for moral support.”

Michelle
picked up her coffee still feeling curious about Scott’s plans and his involvement with Amie. “Are you still going to meet her for lunch on Monday?”

Scott
’s reply was indefinite. “I am going to call her back on Monday morning and see where things stand. I told her I would come, so I should try to be there if she keeps her end of the bargain.”

Michelle
shook her head slowly. “It must be hell to have an addiction. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”

They sat quietly for several minutes before the thunder
and lightning once again captured their attention. Beth’s comment made Scott and Michelle stop and think. “If her addiction to alcohol is as bad as my fear of storms, I don’t see how she gets through life.”

As the
winds grew worse, Beth’s reactions grew more apparent, although not as noticeable as when the storm began. Realizing Beth’s anxiety was growing and hoping her gift might keep Beth distracted for a few minutes, Michelle opened her pocket book and handed Beth a bottle of the lotion she had enjoyed.

“Thank you so much. How did you know I was out?”

Michelle replied, “I think you and I used your entire bottle in the last two days. This lotion makes me feel so good and I felt bad about using so much of yours. I decided I should get you some more.”

For the rest of the evening they sipped on their drinks and talked. The television station would issu
e periodic updates on the storm conditions along with various costal alerts. Knowing the storm would last through the night, Beth left the room during a lull in the storm to put on her pajamas.

Michelle
took the opportunity to raise an important question. “What are we going to do with Beth for the rest of the night? We can’t leave her alone all night. The poor girl is terrified.”

Scott
quoted the news station comments but Michelle knew he was not at all serious. “This is going to go on all night. As frightened as she is, it would only make sense if I sleep with her.”

Michelle
had other thoughts about his plan. “I see a potential for problems with that plan.”

“Do you want
us to all stay in one room? Would that solve all the problems?”

Michelle
started laughing. “I see the potential for some really big problems with that plan.”

“Then you and
Beth could sleep together and I could sleep alone. I would be thinking about you all night long, but I am willing to make that sacrifice if you would like to have her all to yourself.” Scott replied, while still teasing Michelle.

“That plan has no potential problems because it is not going to happen.”

Scott shrugged his shoulders. “If she can’t stay alone and one of us can’t stay with her, then I am out of options unless we all camp out here in the living room.”

Michelle
shook her head. “I am not sleeping on the floor when I have a nice soft bed and a boyfriend to keep me warm. We’ll all go to our rooms and see what happens.”

Scott
conceded that Michelle had the best plan. “That works for me.”

Michelle
kissed him and replied. “I think I’ll get ready for bed too.”

When everyone returned to the living room, one thing was obvious.
Scott was ready for Beth to explain her psychic experience to Michelle. Beth spent the next twenty minutes telling her much the same thing she had spent the late afternoon telling Scott.

The conversation between
Beth and Michelle was surprising to Scott. He had expected at least some sense of resentment from Michelle, but saw none. In fact, Michelle appeared to have a level of understanding Scott could not grasp. Beth did most of the talking without interruption until she had completed her story. Michelle’s level of interest was high and the reasons for her interest would become clear over the next twenty minutes.

Michelle
was sitting beside Beth as she turned to look directly at her. “What happens after you drive a wedge between Scott and me? What is the end game for her?”

Beth
shook her head slowly. “I don’t know what she wants.”

Michelle
understood Beth’s story because it explained the same feeling and thoughts she had been having. She turned her attention to Scott. “Before you decide that Beth is losing her mind, let me assure you that she is not crazy. I didn’t understand what was going on with me until Beth told me her story.”

Still being surprised with
Michelle’s reaction, Scott looked at her while waiting for an explanation that she offered without hesitation. “I have been assuming that I was confused about our relationship, but what Beth said makes more sense to me. It is as if someone has been trying to influence my thoughts about us. She wants me confused in order to create doubt about us.”

Scott
waited for several minutes before speaking as he tried to find some rational explanation for what they were describing. “You both realize the military has spent billions of dollars trying to produce a psychic experience like the one you are describing and they have had no real success.”

Beth
was the first to challenge Scott’s skeptical attitude. “Maybe you can ask the military how you saw an image of my ex-boyfriend and described his injury and other things about him even though you have never seen him before. If you accept that experience as being real, then you can’t deny what Michelle and I experience as being real.”

He was in no position to argue with their logic but still felt he needed to know more. “Why do you both refer to the ghost as a female?
More to the point, what does she want?”

Michelle
looked directly at Scott. “She wants to make sure you and I are not happy together. She wants you to be attracted to Beth, which explains why I kept trying to get the two of you together. I was reacting to her thoughts instead of my own. If she can get you interested in Beth, then I am left out in the cold.”

After a few moments,
Beth turned her attention to Michelle. “It’s worse than you think Michelle. She is using me and I understand that. I get a strong feeling that she really doesn’t like you at all. She is angry with you.”

In the true spirit of haunted house movies, a loud rumble of thunder shook the house following several flashes of lightning.
Beth quickly grabbed Scott and buried her face in his chest. Scott made a comment trying to ease the tension she was feeling. “I sure hope the thunder was just a coincidence and not the ghost working her magic.”

After a few moments,
Beth settled back on her seat and leaned back on the sofa. “I don’t think she is so influential that she would be able to control storms.”

Michelle
watched Beth for a few moments as she considered an idea. “Have you always been this afraid of storms or is this feeling worse than normal?”

Beth
shook her head. “I don’t ever remember being this afraid of a storm. I have always been afraid, but not like this.”

Michelle
then looked at Scott. “Maybe you are more afraid of this storm because the ghost wants you to be afraid. Each time there is a flash of lightning or a burst of thunder, you climb into Scott’s arms for protection.”

Beth
clearly looked embarrassed. “I don’t mean to do it but I just jump because I am scared.”

Michelle
started smiling. “Beth, you can sit in his lap all night long if it makes you feel better. I was just thinking that the ghost could be trying to use your natural fear to bring you closer to Scott. I’m not mad about it.”

Beth
looked away and then at Michelle. “I’ll bet you guys wish you had gone to the mountains instead of coming to the beach.”

Scott
understood Michelle’s logic. “That is an interesting point. If she can play off your natural inclinations, it would be easier for her to manipulate the situation. That would imply she could read your minds as well as implant thoughts into your mind.”

Beth
was the first to respond to his idea. “I don’t know what she knows or what she can do, but I feel her influence is growing stronger or perhaps just more determined. But, my knowing what she is doing also makes it easier for me to recognize her interests and react to her influence.”

Michelle
agreed. “She is getting stronger. When the three of us were swimming in the ocean, my mind felt like Jell-O sloshing around from one idea to the next.”

Scott
turned to Michelle. “How do you feel right now?”

“My mind is more logical and thoughtful but, I feel like she is still
here and Beth was right. She is getting stronger. I also sense that she is getting angry with us for even having this conversation.”

Beth
thought for only a moment. “She is angry with us. She doesn’t like the fact that we recognize her influence, but she feels confident she can overcome our resistance.”

Scott
decided the time had come to do an experiment. He went to the bedroom and came back with two pens and two pieces of paper. He then instructed Michelle to go in the kitchen where she could not see or hear Beth. He then posed his question. “I want you both to write down your answer on the paper and don’t say a word to each other. Here is the question. What does this girl want?”

After a few moments,
Scott told Michelle to come back to the room as Beth was handing Scott her paper. Seeing the same answer on both papers, Scott glanced outside. “Wow.”

Beth
looked at Scott. “She wants you and she could care less about me or Michelle.”

They continued their discussion for another hour going over much of the same ground they had already covered.
It had been a long day and all were ready for a good night's sleep. Beth assured Michelle she would be fine sleeping alone and with that decision made, they all went off to bed.

Once in bed
Scott turned on the news to get one last weather update before going to sleep. He began to see stories about downed trees and power lines. He found little comfort in the fact that the worst of the storms were yet to reach their location on Emerald Isle. That news was about to change. In less than five minutes, the power flickered on and off several times before it went out and stayed off. Within a few moments, they heard a loud knock on the door.

Completely startled by the sound
, they both turned to look. The room was almost black as the streetlights outside were also off due to the power outage.

“It’s unlocked. Come on in.”
Michelle said in a very welcoming voice.

The door opened and
Beth peaked in using a small pen flashlight. “Can I come in for just a minute?”

Michelle
replied, “Of course you can come in.”