Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: The third epilog was just going to be one of my short stories which I have included but Moon FireStar's comments made me write about Scarlett and Vivian Liegh.
Parallel Lives is part of my short story series. I couldn't resist adding it as an epilog to this story. It fit so perfectly. I have re-edited and added a couple of things to make it fit with Returning in Time.
Epilog Also
Atlanta December 15, 1939
"Rhett, how did you manage to get us tickets to the premiere of Gone with the Wind? And all the festivities also. You are so wonderful. I am so excited."
Scarlett didn't need to tell him she was excited. She had been talking about nothing else since he told her they were going. It had been one of his Christmas presents to her. She had been so happy with him that she had given him his special reward a couple of times over the last month and even once while they were here.
He had told her in the middle of November so she could get dresses made if she wanted. Yes, she had wanted. This entire week had probably cost him a small fortune but it was worth it. Scarlett's happiness would always be worth it.
They had stayed at the Georgian Terrace Hotel the same hotel that the stars were staying at. They had even run into Vivian Leigh with her husband one day. Miss Leigh had said to Scarlett, "You have the look of Scarlett. You are not beautiful but there is something about your face that is irresistible. Don't you think so Larry?"
"Yes, her face is irresistible."
Scarlett had simply said, "Thank you" and clutched Rhett's arm tighter.
After the Oliviers got off the elevator, Scarlett had squealed with delight. "She is so beautiful. Isn't she so beautiful?"
"Yes, she is beautiful but she would have to be to portray you in the movie."
"That is true. I heard that Katherine Hepburn had wanted the role of Scarlett. Like she was pretty enough to play me."
Rhett knew the name of every actress that had been in the running to play Scarlett in the movie. His wife had followed the casting of her in the movie closer than she did the books when she was first running the mills back in eighteen sixty-six and sixty-seven. She had read everything written about it. She had even had three more newspapers delivered during that period to be sure she didn't miss any scrap of information. She had not been happy when she had read that Paulette Goddard was the favorite. For some reason his wife had taken a dislike to the actress. When she had read that Vivian Leigh had been cast as the female lead, his wife had been over the moon. His wife had said, "Finally they found someone beautiful enough to play me."
Rhett had replied, "I hope she is a good actress. I don't know of anything she has been in."
"Oh Rhett, Of course she will be a good actress. They wouldn't have chosen her if she wasn't."
Rhett had smiled at his wife. Even after all this time she still had a child like simplicity of looking at life.
Before they left the hotel to attend the premiere, Scarlett had said a little sadly, "Do you think the boys are alright?"
Rhett looked at his beautiful wife who was all dressed up. She was wearing a lovely forest green evening gown, an emerald and diamond tiara, a necklace and a bracelet, and a mink jacket. She didn't look like a mother of five. She looked similar to the woman she had been in the first and second lifetimes but still uniquely herself. People often said to her, "You favor Rhett's grandmother" but she was not a carbon copy of her former self. As Rhett looked at her, he remembered what she had looked like on their wedding day over fifteen years ago. She was still so lovely. Still so youthful. Still so irresistible.
Scarlett looked at her husband as she waited for him to answer her. He was dressed in a black tuxedo and she thought he looked as handsome as he had the day they had gotten married. He did look like his former self but there was a lot of his mother in his face also. His looks weren't as harsh as they had been during their first and second lifetimes. Scarlett thought that had more to do with his knowing he was loved. Not just by her but by both his parents. Alex as his father had healed something in Rhett that only a good father could have. What his first father had broken, Alex had somehow put back together again. Rhett would say something funny and she wouldn't miss her sons so much. Even though she was having a wonderful, delightful time she missed her sons terribly.
"I think the correct question is do I think my parents are alright. Our boys can be hellions. Although knowing my parents the word no probably hasn't come out of their mouths since we left the boys with them."
As they both had hoped Rhett had made her laugh and she was no longer missing their children. At least for the moment. She would be missing them again by the time they went to bed.
They took a cab to the Loew's Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street. As they got out of the cab Scarlett said, "Our mansion was bigger than this."
Rhett smiled and said, "Not quite."
Four hours later
Scarlett was fuming mad and Rhett was hurrying her to a cab.
As they were sitting in the cab Scarlett started ranting, "That was the worst movie of all time."
"I thought it was rather good."
"Of course, you would. They made Rhett Butler look like a saint."
"Well, maybe not saint. They did show the scene where I carried you up the stairs and the scene where we behaved badly on the stairs."
"Oh please. They made Rhett look like quite the lover with the way Scarlett was acting afterwards. All giddy."
"I didn't make you giddy?"
"No. You didn't," Before Rhett could argue with her Scarlett said, "That movie made me look like a cold-hearted, selfish, self-centered, amoral bitch."
Rhett not being Foolish Rhett didn't point out that she was all those things at that time instead he said, "It is a shame they wrote Wade and Ella out of the picture."
"Who was in charge of casting? The actor that played Ashley looked old enough to be my father. There were so many better choices. Errol Flynn, Bing Crosby, and Kirk Douglas that I can name off the top of my head. I looked like an idiot chasing that old man for twelve years."
"Howard was rather old for that part."
"Ashley was only twenty-five I think when the war started."
"At least they didn't show the mansion as ugly as it actually was."
Which earned Rhett a deep scowl. No, Rhett could never resist poking that hornet's nest because it had been pretty hideous.
"They showed Melly being the one to think of giving her wedding ring when it was really me. They made me look cold and uncaring in that scene. It did earn Gable a laugh."
"That was pretty funny."
Which earned Rhett yet another deep scowl. Scarlett angrily said, "They cut out all the time you spent at Belle's."
"I didn't like them showing me as a man that would cry."
"I liked that part. It almost moved me to tears watching Gable cry."
"The actress that played Mammy was spot on."
"She was very good."
"She was sassy just like your Mammy."
"They made Melanie into a saint."
"She was."
"Then they crammed three years of our lives into six months. The miscarriage, Bonnie's death and Melly's death all jammed up there together. Even the final scene they had you just jauntily walking out of the mansion with one carpet bag. Isn't it amazing how that word 'frankly' changed the impact of your last statement?"
"No, that was totally inaccurate. At that point I didn't give a damn about anything. Come here. I don't want to think about the way we were then."
"I'm sorry, baby. Did the movie bring up too much pain for you?"
"I will be alright. I just don't like to think about how we were then."
"They say that the point to re-incarnation is so the soul grows into a better person. So, I guess we are becoming better."
"If that is true. You and I will be reliving our lives for many more centuries."
Rhett's statement made both of them laugh. Rhett knew he was going to have to listen to Scarlett rant about how badly the movie portrayed her for the next several weeks if not months. For his part he agreed they had portrayed Rhett has a finer person than he had ever thought about being in their first timeline but Scarlett had been pretty muchly spot on. What was the quote he had read that Gable had said about Gone with the Wind before he was cast in the lead? "It's only the story of a bitch and a bastard." Yes, indeed that was what he and Scarlett had been.
Later that night as they laid in their bed sated and satisfied, Scarlett rolled over on top of Rhett and said, "Thank you for this wonderful weekend. I love you. Death will not even separate us."
"I love you, too. No death will not separate us."
She snuggled into his arms and he told her stories. Some she had heard and some she hadn't. She didn't care. She was happy lying in his arms. As was he.
March 1, 1940
Boston
Rhett read in the newspaper that the movie Gone with the Wind had won eight Academy Awards. He looked over the list and was pleased to see that the actress Hattie McDaniel had won for Best Supporting Actress and that Vivian Leigh had won for Best Actress. He smiled when he read that Gone with the Wind had won for Best Picture. He would not be sharing any of that with Scarlett. She had finally completely forgotten about the movie and the book. For months after seeing the movie she would randomly rant to him about how badly she had been portrayed in the movie. He would always agree with her and sympathize. No, he was not Foolish Rhett anymore.
Parallel Lives
A short story.
Atlanta 2015
Scarlett was running through the fog. She knew she was looking for Rhett but she couldn't find him. He had deserted her. She woke up screaming. Rhett reached over and encircled her in his arms and murmured soothing words to her. Scarlett said, "I had the worst nightmare."
Rhett said, "I told you not to have that second helping of crawfish etouffee." As he continued to hold her.
"That wasn't me that was the baby. I dreamed you left me after Melly died."
"I told you not to read that book, Gone with the Wind."
"I had to read it. It was our lives. Can I have less I told you so and more soothing?"
"I don't remember being disowned from my family over a girl and a buggy incident or being a blockade runner during the civil war. In fact, I'm pretty sure neither one of us was alive during the civil war."
"Of course, we didn't live then. We wouldn't be alive today in 2015 if we had."
Rhett patiently said, "Then it wasn't our lives. We have been happily married for ten years. Now can you go back to sleep. I am not leaving you."
"It was pretty close to our lives. Your name is Rhett Butler. You are from Charleston, South Carolina. You fit the description in the book; swarthy skin, dark eyes, black hair. My maiden name was Scarlett O'Hara. I have white magnolia skin, green eyes and black hair. When I was sixteen, I had a crush on my neighbor who was named Ashley Wilkes. He dumped me to marry a girl named Melanie Hamilton. You overheard him dumping me when you were hiding behind the couch in the library. That day the Wilkes were giving a big party to celebrate his graduation from college."
"I was not hiding behind the couch. I was taking a nap before I was disturbed by the torrid love scene. I would have already left if I hadn't ridden with Frank Ford. I don't know why I accepted his invitation to attend the party anyway. Maybe I was in a festive mood because he and I had just concluded a very good financial deal. I sold him my first video game that I had designed. I made a lot of money on that deal and I invested wisely. Too bad Frank wasn't as smart."
"If my brother-in-law had invested wiser maybe Sue wouldn't be such a bitch. How many video games have you created so far?
"Only six more but the ones I create are very popular. I don't sell them completely out right I get a part of every sale.
"You are so smart."
"I do teach math and economics."
Scarlett smiled at him and said, "I married Melanie's brother, Stanley, out of spite just like in the book right after Melanie and Ashley eloped. They got married so fast I thought Melanie was knocked up but she wasn't. After we were married, I moved from my parent's home to his home. We were going to live with his Aunt Mildred and Melly. I was disappointed at the time that Ashley had gone back to school to get his law degree from the University of Virginia," She snuggled down into Rhett's embrace. Scarlett continued, "I didn't even know I was pregnant when he died in that car crash. We had only done it two times before he had to go back to school in Columbia, South Carolina. He only needed to take one more class before he could graduate. He had been away six weeks. He was coming home for the July 4th holiday and probably driving too fast. I guess it doesn't matter since that drunk driver T-boned him. The police said Stanley died instantly.
"What happened to the drunk driver?"
"They charged him with vehicular manslaughter. He was convicted and only served three years in prison. He was released early for good behavior. When I found out I was pregnant. I was so mad but Melanie and Aunt Mildred were so happy."
"Why didn't you get rid of it?"
"I don't know. I guess because it was the last part of Stanley."
"Whose idea was it to use the withdrawal method of birth control?" Rhett had accepted that he was not going to get any more sleep that night.
"You know it was Stanley's. I was a virgin when we got married. I didn't know anything about sex or birth control. My mother was such a fuddy-duddy that she wouldn't talk about sex with me. She just said, 'Do it to keep your husband happy."
"Now I remember."
"You are such a hypocrite some times. You just like to be reminded that I have only had sex with two men and they were both my husband at the time. While you have probably had intercourse with hundreds of women."
"Not hundreds but it is one of the few ways I am like the Rhett of the book."
"I had a son. I named him Wade just like in the book. Stanley liked the name. He had admired the General Wade Hampton."
"Wait a minute. How did you convince Stanley to only have sex twice in two weeks?"
"I told him it was very painful which it was and that we couldn't do it that often. He told me to go to the doctor to make sure everything was okay with my female parts. I did. The doctor said everything was okay. The nurse explained everything to me. I know now it was painful because Stanley didn't turn me on or know how to get me aroused. I think he was a virgin too."
"Probably. Lucky for you your second husband knows how to get you aroused."
"Be quiet! Just like in the book Wade looks just like Stanley but unlike in the book I have love Wade so much ever since he was born."
"That's true."
"While I was pregnant with Wade, I got my GED. After he was born, I enrolled in Georgia Institute of Technology. I have always been very good at math just like the Scarlett of the book. Stanley left me with an insurance policy but it wasn't very much. I was able to help pay the expenses of the household. Fortunately, Pa was able to pay the tuition at GIT. Melanie watched Wade while I was in class."
"Where I fortunately was a professor. I saw you on campus that day you came to register and I made sure our paths crossed. Why had Melly come with you?"
"To give me moral support. The more I lived with her the more I liked her."
"Which is not like the book. That shows you were much smarter than the Scarlett of the book. She was too pig-headed. Once she decided something nobody could talk her out of it. It was a great trait when she was right but a horrible trait when she was wrong."
"Did you read the book?"
"I had to in self-defense. I listened to it on audio while driving back and forth to work. I had to know what you were talking about with all this parallel lives garbage."
"Our lives are in parallel with the characters of the book! By the way the entire four years I was enrolled at GIT were you courting me like the Rhett in the book courted Scarlett all throughout the war."
"Of course, I couldn't ask you out because that was a violation of the Code of Conduct for employees at GIT. Didn't you think it was strange that I always arranged to have your advising sessions right before lunch and I was always going out to lunch as soon as our meetings were over? I had figured out that you were definitely a foodie so it was easy to tempt you into having lunch with me. But you were still pretty young at that point. You were barely eighteen when you first enrolled and needed some time to grow up. I was already twenty-six. I knew you didn't see me as anything more than a friendly professor."
Scarlett smiled sensuously and said, "Don't be too sure of that. I had some very naughty dreams about you."
Rhett smiled and kissed her. He said, "After I found out your new last name after I saw you and Melly that day. I went to the registrar's office and got assigned to you as your advising professor. Fortunately, the woman at the registrar's office who arranged these things had a crush on me. I took her out several times. Her name was not Belle but Judith."
Scarlett sat up and jerked out of Rhett's embrace. She said, "Does take her out mean sleep with her?"
Rhett said with a knowing smile, "I wanted her to be happy. I didn't want her to tell anyone what she had done for me. So, I had to date her that entire first semester you were at GIT."
Scarlett laid down against her pillows. She let Rhett take her back into his arms. "I'll bet it was only her happiness that you were concerned about."
"I had to do what I had to do to get close to you since we had started off on the wrong foot. I could tell you were still angry about the things I had said that day."
"You were hateful that day just like the Rhett in the book."
Rhett had long ago learned not to defend himself about what he had said that day. Even though he didn't regret saying what he said right now all he was going to say was, "Yes I was." As he had hoped his wife relaxed back into him. In that movie Love Story, the character, Jenny Cavilleri was totally wrong. Love doesn't mean never having to say you're sorry; love means saying you are sorry when you really aren't.
"You got me out of Atlanta by getting me that position at Harvard's MBA program which is like in the book and abandon me to all those Yankees.
"I will agree with you on the getting you out of Atlanta but the abandonment part is a bit of a stretch. I never told you I was going to go to Cambridge with you."
"I know you paid for my tuition at Harvard. I thought it was strange at the time that I was awarded a scholarship that I didn't remember applying for which miraculously covered all four semesters. Pa would have helped if he could have. All of Pa's money was stolen by his financial advisor, Jonathon Payne. He stole that money when Mother was dying from ovary cancer. Pa went a little crazy after Mother died. Payne is such scum. The worst part of those two years is I had to leave Wade with Melly. I missed him so much. I only got to see him at Christmas and during the summer." Scarlett got a little misty eyed. Rhett didn't think she would ever get over her guilt of having abandon Wade. Rhett knew that Wade didn't see it as abandonment but Scarlett still felt guilty about it.
"He was happy with his Aunt Melly. He loved living with his cousins Beau and George. You had no other choice. You could barely support yourself. You have told me all you did while you were there was study and work. That wouldn't have been much of a life for Wade. He is eighteen and he could go to school anywhere he wanted to. He has chosen to go to GIT just like you did. That doesn't sound like a child that is angry at you about something that happened fourteen years ago." Rhett had said the same thing to her many times but she still felt guilty about the time she and Wade had been separated.
"You are right. You paying my tuition was like the taxes If we correlate that to the book that needed to be paid. Which the Rhett in the book didn't pay. The Rhett in the book was awful."
"He was hurt because the Scarlett in the book was trying to use him. He regretted it when she married Frank Kennedy."
Scarlett said, "Thank God I didn't have to marry Frank. He gives me the creeps."
"Where you thinking about it?"
Scarlett ignored the questioned which was answer enough for Rhett. Maybe there was more to this parallel lives garbage than he thought.
"After I graduated with my MBA, you helped me get the job with Crystal Inc, as their Financial Manager that was like the Rhett in the book giving her the money to start her mills."
"You made the most of that opportunity. You are now their Chief Financial Officer which could be correlated to that other Scarlett making her mills so successful. But fortunately, this is where our lives take a right turn from the book. When you came back from Harvard you knew you didn't love Ashley. You knew Melly was a wonderful woman. She and Ashley are happily married with three children. Ashley is a good attorney. He is good enough that I use him with all my complicated business contracts. He and I are not best friends but we aren't enemies like in the book. Because unlike the Rhett in the book I never got insanely jealous of Ashley. We started dating. We fell in love. Actually, I was already in love with you so you fell in love. We got married. We have lived happily ever after. We have never slept apart except when one of us is traveling for business. Thanks to modern medicine we were able to wait two years before we had our first child."
"Yes. Thanks to modern medicine Melly was able to have children even though her body is not made to birth children. Her doctor didn't even let her go into labor with Beau. She told Melly from the beginning she would have to have a C-section. But isn't it strange that we named our daughter Eugenia Victoria just like in the book? Although we call her Genie not Bonnie.
"That was during your royal watching days so it's not that surprising. We named our second daughter Elizabeth Diana because of your royal watching. Speaking of our second daughter, the nanny told me she has decided that she doesn't want to be called Lizzie anymore. She wants to be called Elizabeth and she won't answer to anything else."
Scarlett rolled her eyes. She and Rhett said at the same time, "That is your child."
Rhett said, "That is our child."
"It is strange that Melanie named her first son Beauregard just like in the book and Suellen named her daughter Ella Marie just like in the book."
"Fortunately, Ella Marie is an attractive child not like the Ella in the book."
"Not as pretty as our daughters though."
"No, not nearly as attractive as our daughters," Rhett said. He thought, 'Scarlett and her sister Suellen are as competitive as the two sisters in the book also.'
"What are we going to name our son? He is going to be here in less than two months."
"How about Alexander for Alexander the Great and Gerald for your Pa. I know you still miss him. That's another time our lives have been different from the book. He died of a heart attack and there wasn't a horse anywhere around. He had never owned a horse."
"But what about my sister Corrie becoming a nun. That was definitely right out of the book. I did have a nursemaid like in the book but we didn't call her Mammy and she wasn't black. We called her Miss Priscilla."
"The characters in that book were seriously flawed. Rhett never heard the adage 'You can get more flies with honey than vinegar.' He should have been a lot nicer to Scarlett and given of himself not his wallet. He shouldn't have continually tried to set off her temper. That is a way you are not like the Scarlett of the book you have control over your temper."
"I have learned to use charm on people instead of bullying them unlike the Scarlett of the book. That Scarlett was definitely obtuse. She should have realized that Ashley loved Melly when he came home for his furlough at Christmas. She should have been a lot more concerned about Rhett's happiness. They were both selfish and self-centered. We are not like them.'
"You can be stubborn, opinionated, and self-absorbed and I can be mocking, obstinate, incomprehensible but we are always working to a win-win solution to our problems. I agree that there are some strong correlations between our lives and the characters in the book but we are not characters in a book. We are real people living happily and pretty successfully. Now come here. Let's have a win-win solution and make each other happy."
"In a minute, have you scheduled your surgery to get snipped?"
"It is scheduled for next week during spring break."
Scarlett smiled and said, "Thanks. I am too old to be having any more children after this one." She started kissing her husband. Although neither got any more sleep that night neither of them complained.