Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show (36 page)

Scott
looked confused. “When you were talking to me through Beth, I got the impression that I was supposed to die when you did.”

She took his hands as she watched his reaction. “
I was only wanting for us to be together. I didn’t understand a different reality at the time, but now I do. Eternity goes on forever, but life passes in the blinking of an eye. We will be together when the given order brings us together. That is not your decision or mine.”

Scott
hesitated to share his thoughts but soon made his belief known to Ashley. “I can’t go through life with the guilt of your death.”

“
Scott, you were always my big strong cowboy that kept me safe and protected, but please don’t try to be the Master of the Universe. That job is well beyond your skill level.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”
Scott asked with a grin.

“It means that many
kind and smart people have lost their minds trying to solve the problems of what could have been. Life is not hypothetical… life is what it is. Things are the way they are for a reason. If anyone is to blame, it would be me.”

Scott
was ready to ask a question he had spent years thinking about. “I was told that you left your house after the prom because you thought Michelle was coming with me to the river.”

Ashley
started laughing. “Scott, that is crazy. Everybody in school knew you and Michelle were friends and nobody thought there was anything going on between you and her. Everybody thought your relationship with her was strange, but nobody thought you were having a physical relationship with each other.”

“Then why did your friend tell me you came to the river to catch me with
Michelle?” Scott asked.

There was a tone of disgust in
Ashley’s voice. “She told you that because it was her idea to go to the river that night. She couldn’t deal with the guilt so she just dumped it on your shoulders.”

Scott
returned to their previous idea. “You and I are together and happy now. Why did you say it’s not my time to leave this world if we can be together now?”

“I said that because you haven’t finished your job yet. Don’t you know you are supposed to fix all the broken girls?”
Ashley said while teasing Scott.

Scott
chose his words carefully. “I’ve finished fixing all the broken girls. You are with the Universal Mind, Michelle is in Washington living her new life without me, and Amie is going to graduate school to solve all the mysteries of the universe. My work here is finished.”

“I think you are forgetting someone.
Michelle, Amie, and I all suffered from self-inflicted wounds. Beth suffers from being a victim of abuse that was not of her own choosing. She needs you more than you can imagine and I want you to help her just like you were with me when I needed you.”

“Are you like an angel or something? You look and act as
just like you always were. It’s like we have gone back in time and nothing between us has changed.” Scott asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t
know what I am, I don’t know how this is possible, and I can’t explain it to you. However, you always said that
once
you eliminate the impossible
,
whatever remains
,
no matter how improbable, must be the truth
.
Nothing between us will ever change and I will be here waiting for you when your time comes.”

“Just for the sake of curiosity, why are you wearing your prom dress on the sailboat.”

She looked down at her dress as she replied, “Because this is the way I want you to remember me. I don’t want you ever to think of me sitting in that wheel chair with a blank expression on my face. I want you to remember me as we were in our time and place. I want you to remember the girl you took sailing and all the fun we had together.”

Scott
’s curiosity about her presence came to his mind. “How does it all work? How are you here? How long can we be together? Why are things happening like they are?”

She leaned back looking up at the sky as she spoke. “I don’t yet know how all things work
, but you will find what I do know to be very interesting.”

“Does that mean I’m going to learn the secrets of the universe?”
Scott asked.

“You are one of the lucky people who
were helped by Brother Willy’s Traveling Salvation Show. If not for William and Betsy, you and Michelle would never have come to the beach together for the weekend. If you didn’t come to the beach, you would never have met Beth. If you never met Beth, you would never have heard me speaking to you through her voice. You would never have met Amie and she would never have gone to rehab. Michelle would still be living at home and the two of you would still be pretending that you were right for each other. Last but not least, you would not be here on a raft getting ready to become shark bait.”

Scott
continued to question Ashley. “When you were alive, how were you able to get into Beth’s mind? Can I assume you were the ghost she kept talking about?”

“
There was nothing mystical about my mind link with Beth. When you sit in a wheel chair or bed twenty-four hours each day, you learn things about mental power that most people don’t even know can exist. Beth and I had some very interesting girl talk sessions, but you should never tell her about any of this. She needs for you to be her rock right now. I am the one who convinced Beth to talk to you the day you met. You are supposed to take care of her.”

“The way you are talking
, you must be here to save me from myself.” Scott replied.

“
Betsy told you something that you need to remember. Salvation can mean the liberation from ignorance or illusion or it can also mean preservation from destruction. You are getting both of these things today. My accident was not your fault and you can be liberated from that illusion. You are not going to take your life, thus you are being preserved from destruction. Brother Willy’s Traveling Salvation Show works in some very unusual ways that might surprise even William and Betsy. For that reason, you should think about working with them. They gave you salvation and you didn’t even know it. Working for the Salvation Show might be your calling in life.”

Scott
chose to argue with her. “If I had stayed with you that night, you would never have been hurt. There were things I could have done different.”

“
Scott, if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. If I had my way and if I had made different choices, then you and I might be married and living happily ever after. If, if, if. We don’t know what our fate would have been if I had not been hurt that night. Those things aren’t ours to know, but never underestimate the power of the given order. You and I will have eternity to be together and your life here will be over before you know it. You will be an old man looking back one day wondering where all the time went. One day, you are going to walk out on the beach and I will be standing there waiting for you to take me sailing again. We will get in this boat and we will sail away together for all eternity. I am very happy right now and I don’t mind waiting for you but today is not the day when you and I sail off into the sunset together.”

After a long kiss and a period of holding each other close,
Ashley kissed the tip of his nose as she often had done. “I think you have something which belongs to me.”

She held out her wrist as
Scott pulled her bracelet from his shorts pocket and placed it on her arm. “How did you know I was bringing this to you?”

“You didn’t think I was going to leave without my bracelet, did you? I may be dead but I’m still your girlfriend.”
Ashley replied with her typical grin.

After hooking the clasp, they gave each other a
nother long and very loving kiss. When Scott opened his eyes, he was lying face down on his canvas raft. As he looked around he saw no sailboat and Ashley was gone. He looked over his shoulder and immediately realized he was less than twenty feet from the shore. To add to his astonishment, Beth was standing at the edge of the water frowning at him.

He got off the raft and started towing it past the breakers until it dragged
in the sand. Beth walked up and hit him in the stomach. “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how far out there you were?”

Scott
turned around and looked at the ocean for a moment before he faced Beth once again. “I was a lot further out there than you will ever believe.”

Beth
was still nervous and made her concerns known. “You said I was a shark. Okay. I am a shark and if you ever do something stupid like that again, I am going to bite your head off.”

Scott
placed his arms around Beth and pulled her close. Ashley’s words immediately came back to him. “I guess that would make me shark bait, wouldn’t it. Don’t worry because it won’t happen again. I was just lost in a daydream.”

She took his hand leading
her up the beach. “I expect you to take me to dinner so that I can explain how you and I are going to spend our life together.”

Scott
pulled her hand so that she would stop walking. “How did you know I would be here?”

Her expression became much more serious
, yet somewhat devious. “I don’t know. I just had a feeling I should come here to find you. Maybe the ghost told me or, maybe I called you mom and she told me you were coming out her. You choose whichever answer works for you, because both answers would be correct.”

Scott
stared at Beth for a few moments. “I was very far from shore and I don’t have a clue how I got back.”

Beth
was confused by his comment. “The girl with the small sail boat towed your raft behind her boat until you were close to shore. Don’t you remember? She may have saved you life and you should go thank her.”

Scott
glanced around expecting to see Ashley, but he saw no one nor did he see a boat. “Where did she go?”

Beth
scanned the beach and ocean looking for the boat. “That’s strange. She couldn’t have gone far but I don’t see her or the boat.”

Scott
turned and looked back at the sun setting on the horizon. He reached in his pocket realizing Ashley’s bracelet was in fact gone. After a brief smile, he turned back to Beth. “I would love to take you to dinner and let you tell me how we are going to spend our life together.”

As they came closer to the ferry landing,
Beth made a casual observation. “When I invite you to come to bed with me, I don’t expect you to just go to sleep without showing me some level of affection.”

Scott
started smiling. “I thought you were afraid of me.”

“I’m not
afraid of you anymore. In my dream last Friday night, the ghost told me you would take care of me and never hurt me. I believe she was telling me the truth because for some reason, I finally realized the ghost loves you.”

Thank you
for readin
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this novel and please share you impressions with others and m
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Other Books by
W. Scott Mitchell

The M
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Coincidence by Design

Emily’s Last Obsession

The
Gray Stone Conspiracy

The Reincarnation of
Annie Brown