Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show (26 page)

Beth
entered the room and stood at the end of the bed while shining the light on the wall to brighten the room. “I was hoping we could talk for a little while.”

Scott
started laughing until Beth spoke in a tone that let him know she was hurt by his reaction. “This is not funny Scott. I can’t help it.”

Scott
immediately realized she misunderstood his laughter. “I’m not laughing at you. I was laughing at your pajamas. I think they are the cutest things I’ve seen in a long time.”

Realizing he had not
seen her pajamas while she had been wearing her bathrobe and feeling relief that he had not been laughing at her, she pointed her pen light on her pajama top. At that point, Michelle also started laughing. “Beth they’re adorable. You look so sweet in them.”

Scott
also wanted to make sure Beth knew she was welcome. “Make yourself comfortable.”

She held up her hand. “I brought my own pillow. I was thinking we could have a pajama party or something.”

There was a bright flash of lightning followed almost immediately by the loud crash of thunder. Beth jumped into the bed as Scott and Michelle moved over to make room for her. She was sitting on top of the blankets with her head against the headboard holding her pillow when Michelle spoke. “Beth, you have to be cold so get under the covers. You can stay with us tonight.”

Beth
pulled the covers back and stretched out. She turned off her flashlight, but kept it clutched in her hands. Once they were situated and the pillows fixed, they lay quietly for several minutes before Beth’s voice broke the silence. “Well, this is a first for me. This feels downright awkward.”

After another clash of thunder,
Beth felt a need to talk in order to create a distraction. “Michelle, what did you do when you went to pajama parties?”

Michelle
thought about her question with some fond remembrance. “We would eat, listen to music, dance, and talk about boys. What about you?”

Beth
could easily identify with her description. “I guess we did the same things. Sometimes, the boys would try to sneak over and party with us but we didn’t really want them, until we got older. Then we started encouraging the practice.”

They lay quietly for several minutes before
Scott spoke. “I assume the irony is not lost on anyone that the premonition you both had is playing out before our eyes. That includes the fact that Beth is wearing her pajamas with pink elephants on them.”

Scott
waited for a response that never came. “Now, there is only one thing left to explain. Did the two of you make up your story about the premonition?”

Michelle
was quick to offer a denial. “It happened just like I told you. I didn’t make up the story nor would I have reason to.”

Beth
was just as adamant in her reply. “I had no reason on earth to make up that story. But to answer your question, no I didn’t make it up.”

Scott
tried to think of a rational explanation. “Both of you said you saw Michelle go to her dresser and put on a gown. Since she already has one on, that would make the premonition wrong.”

Michelle
challenged his assumption. “If Beth had waited about fifteen more minutes before she came in, I might not have been wearing a gown. But once she was here, I would have gotten up and put one on.”

Beth
realized another problem with Scott’s idea. “It’s not two o’clock either which is when the premonition was supposed to happen.”

They all lay quietly seeing the room and each other clearly each time there was a flash of lightning. After five or ten minutes,
Michelle’s voice broke their silence. “You’re warm Scott.”

He
started laughing. “I’m lying between two very pretty girls in a nice soft bed. What exactly were you expecting?”

Michelle
was also laughing. “I am expecting you to behave yourself.”

Scott
’s argument came quickly. “James Bond doesn’t have to behave when he’s in these situations.”

Beth
was confused with their discussion. “I thought you were Sherlock Holmes.”

“He was
Holmes until he used his deductive reasoning and discovered James Bond has more fun with the girls.” Michelle replied.

Beth
inched closer to Scott. “So you are willing to throw Dr. Watson under the bus just for the chance to be in bed with a couple of girls?”

“
Holmes would do the same thing if he was in my situation and Dr. Watson would be left sitting in the rain out on Baker Street. Holmes didn’t become the world’s greatest detective by being stupid.” Scott replied.

Silence returned for several minutes until
Beth spoke to Michelle. “So what do we do for the next few hours until the storm passes?”

Scott
started laughing. “If there were only something the three of us could do together while lying in a bed.”

Michelle
poked him in the ribs. “We can play a game where we all go to sleep and Scott behaves himself all night long.”

Scott
poked Michelle in her stomach. “I’ve seen several Bond films and they never play that game because it would ruin his reputation.”

Beth
injected herself into the conversation. “But you don’t have a reputation so this shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Michelle
had her own idea for a game. “Let’s pretend that Scott is really hot for us and we put him in a cold shower to cool him down.”

Scott
decided he needed to move on to other matters. “While the two of you have been rejecting my offer of sexual entertainment, I have solved the mystery of who the ghost is.”

Beth
once again moved closer to him. “If it is not the butler, then it must be the upstairs maid.”

Scott
rebuffed her comment. “The ghost is none other than Tom’s mother trying to make sure Michelle is never happy.”

Michelle
thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t put it past her. If she could find a way to avenge her son’s heartbreak, I think she would do it.”

Beth
sat up in the bed. “When Scott wanted to have sex with both of us, he may have been on to something.”

The disbelief over
Beth’s comment was evident in Michelle’s tone of voice. “You want us to have group sex tonight?”

“No. That is not what I was getting at. If the three of us are friends, doesn’t that mean the ghost lost the game? With us being friends, she can’t turn us against each other or use one of us to plot against the other.”
Beth replied.

Michelle
considered her idea. “The ghost is out in the open so that does make her easier to understand and fight.”

By two o’clock, all three were asleep
and the question of a premonition remained unanswered.

When
Scott woke up on Sunday morning, Beth had gone home and Michelle was sitting at the kitchen bar eating a muffin and sipping on coffee. Her thoughts were racing around in her mind as she was trying to prepare for what she would say to Scott.

Scott
approached the bar and sat next to Michelle. “Has Beth gone already?”

She spoke with a tone of resignation, as she had no desire to prolong saying the things she needed to say to
Scott. “Beth is gone, the ghost is gone, the blue eyed shark is gone, and only the truth remains.”

Scott
knew from her tone of voice that Michelle was ready to come to terms with their weekend experience. “I take it that you have everything figured out when you say the ghost is gone yet the truth remains.”

Michelle
looked into her coffee cup as she spoke. “There is no ghost and there never was a ghost controlling anyone’s thoughts. I went along with Beth’s story last night because I realized she has some serious psychological issues to deal with and I didn’t want to confront her. She was terrified of the storm, she felt very alone, and she needed our support.”

Scott
picked up his cup and raised it to his mouth before he spoke. “How do you explain the premonition, the psychic connections, and your personal feelings of confusion?”

Michelle
replied as she continued to look at her cup, thus avoiding eye contact with Scott. “I don’t have an explanation for the premonition or the psychic connection other than to say they were just an aberration. As for my confusion, it has nothing to do with Beth or ghosts.”

Scott
put his cup on the counter before he stood and walked to the sliding glass doors leading to the deck. “I am inclined to agree with everything you’ve said. I don’t have an explanation for the unusual things that happened, but I don’t believe any of us were under the influence of some mystery girl. So where does that leave us as you sit there with your unresolved confusion?”

Michelle
looked up from her coffee cup and watched Scott staring out into the morning rain. “The questions I thought we could answer when we came here together didn’t get answered.”

Scott
continued to watch the waves breaking on the shoreline. “Part of me would like to argue with you and tell you that we can work everything out. The other part of me thinks we tried to make a transition to being lovers too quickly and without our usual weeks of discussion. It was almost as if we were trying to manufacture our relationship.”

Michelle
got up and joined Scott at the door. “I think we both know that we love each other and our brains tell us we should be together forever. I also think we need to feel the emotions that our brain tells us we should be feeling and right now, I don’t think either of us is feeling what we think we should be feeling.”

Scott
looked at Michelle as he spoke. “When you fist walked onto the baseball field when we were in seventh grade, I felt the things you are talking about, and that feeling lasted for years. I’ve loved you since the first day I met you. Somewhere in time, I think I convinced myself that all we could ever be was friends. Maybe I’m just reluctant to let myself trust you again because I know it didn’t work out for us before.”

She understood his suggestion. “For whatever reason, we never gave ourselves a chance to be in love with each other before. I really don’t know what that says about us or if it means anything at all. There is no doubt in my mind but that I love you. I also don’t know how to fix what I am feeling right now.”

Scott placed his hand on her back. “For what it is worth, I think you made the right decision about Tom.”

In pure frustration, she turned to face
Scott. “Do you have any idea what I am going through right now? Yes, I made the right decision to break off my engagement with Tom. This weekend with you has convinced me that was the right thing to do. I came here with someone I know loves me and would do anything I asked, and I push you into the arms of a blue-eyed shark. It’s as if I can’t take yes for an answer.”

Scott
smiled for a moment. “Sharks have fins, not arms. Nevertheless, you did me a favor when you pushed. You made me realize that I have to change my way of thinking if you and I are ever going to be together. For years, you and I were together as friends and yet we dated other people. That mindset won’t work if we are going to be together.”

Michelle
turned her gaze to the ocean as she asked a question even though she wasn’t sure she would like the answer. “What’s really bothering you about us?”

Scott
walked across the room taking his seat on the sofa and with his legs propped up on the coffee table. “Do you realize that with the exception of Ashley, I have not had a long lasting relationship since you and I first met? I am afraid that if you and I try to make things work out for us, that relationship might also fail. If that happens, then I have nowhere left to run because you would be gone.”

Michelle
came and sat beside him. “At the time I was going out with other boys, I resented you going out with other girls. In fact, it made me as mad as hell because you were supposed to be waiting for me to get my act together. I couldn’t get my act together then and I don’t seem to be doing any better now.”

He looked up at the ceiling, remembering their first nights together. “I thought that after Wednesday night my life was going to be perfect. When we were in the Jacuzzi, everything was coming together just as I had expected it to. It wasn’t just the sex either. When we were playing golf, going out to lunch, or just lying on the beach, everything about you and our relationship was finally as it should be.”

Michelle started smiling. “I enjoyed walking together on the waterfront, eating out, shopping and swimming together too. However, don’t ever under estimate the value of some really hot sex either. We seem to be very good at that.”

Scott
nodded his head slowly. “We were very good together only I don’t think we spent quite enough time in bed together.”

She put her arm over
Scotts shoulder and let her hand touch his chest. “I suppose that if we go on for the rest of our life being friends, then we can do more with each other than just going to dinner and a movie.”