Brother Willy's Traveling Salvation Show by W. Scott Mitchell Page A

interested in my heart or my soul. He has some corporate concept of what a wife should be and his mother seems to fit that role.”
    Scott could not resist the temptation to ask what he thought was an important question. “When you came home from school, we went to Cape Lookout. I asked you what was bothering you. You said I would not understand because I was not a female. Now, here is my dumb male question. What attracted you to him in the first place? Why would you agree to marry him if he was not close to what you were looking for?”
    Michelle took a few minutes to think about her answer. “We were both business majors in school and had that in common. His dad was entrenched in the corporate world and I guess I was impressed by that because he had passed along that corporate worldview to Tom. Somehow, I became impressed with his world and forgot the value of my world. We went to dinner at nice restaurants, got dressed up to go to nice parties, and sort of lived that fantasy life for a while.”
    He asked the logical follow up question. “So what happened to bring you back to earth?”
    Michelle looked at the ocean for a moment and then back at him. “William and Betsy were taking a road trip and stopped in to see me at school one day in late April. You have to know that William and Betsy are very wealthy people, yet we went out to dinner at a typical local restaurant instead of one of the nicest restaurants in town. I realized he had been very successful in the business world, but chose to live his life with a degree of elegant simplicity. That was when I realized Tom and I came from different worlds.”
    She paused for a moment before she continued. “One night after William took me to dinner, Tom took me to a very nice expensive restaurant to eat. While we were there, he made some smart-ass comment about the dress I was wearing not being appropriate if I were planning to move up in the business community. At first, I was embarrassed and then I got as mad as hell. I came home from college the next day, you and I went to Cape Lookout, and you know the rest of the story.”
    Scott steered the conversation in a different direction trying to understand her motives. “Why haven’t you told anyone that your engagement was off? I would have thought you would have told your mom before now.”
    “I wanted you to be the first person to know because I knew you would be there for me in a way that mom can’t be. She will support my decision and me, but you and I hold each other up in the bad times in a way parents can’t. I can tell you things I wouldn’t want to tell her.” She replied.
    He was silent long enough to cause Michelle to question his thoughts. “You have something you want to say, but you aren’t saying it.”
    Scott hesitated to tell her the truth, but at the same time, he had to get the answer to his question. “Are you coming to me on the rebound from a failed relationship?”
    Her voice was emphatic. “No. Not at all. I left him. He did not leave me. I realized he was a stuffed suit and that was not what I wanted. I didn’t leave him with my heart being broken. I left with a sense of relief. I came to you because I realized this is where we belong and that is the only reason. Tom is history and you and I are the future. I think it’s time to close the door on Tom and talk about us now.”
    Scott agreed with her suggestion. “I think you are not only beautiful, but also very smart. It’s time for us to move on.”
    She leaned forward and gave Scott a quick kiss before giving him one of her scheming looks. “I believe you said something about a Jacuzzi and a bottle of champagne before we were sidetracked.”
    Having helped Michelle to her feet, they began their trek back to the house. She stopped on the bottom deck step and looked at him for a moment before speaking. “If you and I are going the distance tonight, you have to make a commitment to me now.”
    Scott looked back at the ocean and then