Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
I am very happy that so many people also enjoyed the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life.'
Chapter Twenty-Seven
After an hour of just sitting in his hotel room, Rhett said, "What does Scarlett value more than anything else in the world if it isn't Tara or Mr. Wilkes?"
"You know as well as I do that the night Melanie died, she finally saw Ashley as he truly was. You know as well as I do that Ashley was a figment of a fourteen-year-old girl's imagination. She pities him now. She pities Melanie because she is married to Ashley."
"What do you mean about Mr. Wilkes being a figment of a fourteen-year-old girl's imagination?"
"You should ask her about it but this once I will give you some insight into Scarlett O'Hara. She saw him when he came back from his Grand Tour when she was fourteen and she was instantly in love, and she never let reality intrude upon her image of him until reality broke down the door the night Melanie died.
"Tell me what she values more than anything else in the world."
"No, you are going to have to actually get to know her. You are going to have to rid yourself of all your preconceived ideas about her. By the way, she would never tell anyone this but anyone who truly knows her knows this is what she values most. Too bad, Melanie is in New York, or you could ask her."
"I could ask Mammy."
"You could but remember at this time Mammy doesn't like you and she won't tell you anything about Scarlett. Besides, Mammy is at Tara taking care of Susie." At Rhett's blank face, Clarence added, "Will's daughter." When Rhett showed no recognition of the name, Clarence added, "Suellen's husband."
"I never can remember his name. I used to be able to figure out who he was by context clues. I guess what you are saying is that I need to get to know my wife."
"She is not the same woman you left in the fall of seventy-three and she was never really the woman you thought she was then. You made a lot of suppositions about her that were incorrect. When the facts didn't match your image of her, you didn't change your opinion of her, you just disregarded those facts. For example, although I don't know why you always thought her relationship with Ashley was one-sided. It was very much two-sided. Any time he felt her drawing away from him, he gave her enough love and attention to ensnare her again. That is what happened the day she went to visit Ashley's mill after Eugenia was born. That is what happened the afternoon of the surprise party. I could give you more examples, but you get my point."
"I guess you are right. By the way, can you lie to me?"
"I cannot but Marvin certainly can."
"What did he lie to me about?"
"Where he returned you to was not the most important moment in your life."
"Why did Marvin send me back to the Fire House then?"
"I don't know but maybe because if you had chosen differently in your earlier life, you would not have been the same at all. You may never have met Scarlett."
"True. Anything else?"
"Yes. This is important. He lied to you about you losing. You can still win but you will have to work extremely hard to make yours and Scarlett's lives right. She will have to want it as badly as you do for it to work."
"It sounds like I am going to be pushing a boulder up a hill."
"At least unlike Sisyphus, Zeus will not make you start over every day. You can do it."
Rhett smiled at Clarence and said, "I'm going to bed and going to sleep. You need to go somewhere else."
"Very well."
Clarence dematerialized but he didn't go anywhere. He had to make sure Marvin didn't come back to plant negative thoughts or images in Rhett's brain.
Marvin had spent a lot of time the week before watching Rhett, and Marvin was sure Rhett was one hundred percent convinced that he could not win Scarlett's heart back. Therefore, the devil owned his soul. Marvin decided no more needed to be done in regard to that cockroach Rhett Butler. Marvin was new at his job. He had only been doing it for barely a thousand years but so far, he had a seventy percent success rate. Admittedly most of them had driven themselves to hell but it was still considered a win in his logbook.
Marvin was an egomaniac and he liked to boast about himself. Almost any other demon would admit that Marvin was a wonderkid. Unfortunately, he had an ego to match. He was not liked by his fellow demons for a lot of reasons. Although the thing he did that was most annoying was always telling everyone how to do their job, even demons that had five to six thousand more years of experience than him. He had been reprimanded by his supervisor several times on the issue although he had paid no mind to these reprimands. He knew he was such a talented demon that all would be forgiven. He also thought he was the master's gift to the female demons and had made a lot of unwelcome lurid comments to female demons. He had been reprimanded for that also. He also believed he was extremely talented at giving physical pleasure. He paid that reprimand no mind either.
Marvin took it upon himself to talk to Peggy, because he was sure she would be grateful. He had the time since he no longer needed to torture Rhett Butler.
Marvin said to Peggy, "You need to do more mental harm to Scarlett O'Hara."
"Why? She is torturing herself enough for both of us."
"You have to break that fighting spirit she has."
"I can handle Scarlett O'Hara. She has been my assignment for years. Between her pride, her temper, and her blind devotion to Ashley Wilkes, I really didn't have to do that much to ensure she had a horrible life. I just had to whisper a few sentences in her ear every now and then to keep those three things strong and healthy. I don't have to do anything now. Haven't you heard of the latest catastrophe that has befallen her? Her husband ran off with her sister and took all her money. No mere woman is going to bounce back from that. Even Job didn't have as many trials and tribulations as that woman has. Hers is just bad luck while the Master himself was delivering all those blows onto Job. She was recovering from all her earlier blows from life then you returned her in time to have to live the worst years of her life over again. No mere human will recover from that."
"For once Peggy you are right."
"You are an ass, Marvin. I have been doing this job for a thousand years more than you. Despite your opinion to the contrary, I know what I am doing. I may not be a boy wonder like you, but I am good at my job."
Marvin resented the reference to his incredibly young age, but he tried not to react to Peggy's comment. He said, "Alright. Alright. I will leave you to your fun and games with the new arrivals. Unless you want to go have some fun and games with me."
"Hell no."
"I can assure you that you will have a good time."
"Go away! I have work to do. It is work despite how much fun it is to torture these poor souls.
Just like that Marvin was gone. He had other humans to torture. He was going to put Rhett Butler on the back shelf. Peggy was right. With everything that is happening to her Scarlett O'Hara will turn bitter and angry, especially at Rhett Butler.
While Rhett was having an encounter with an angel Scarlett was going over the books for the store one more time. She was cursing Frank Kennedy one more time. Although, it looked like she was going to make a profit. Once she got the store on solid footing, she would make Hugh the manager again. He really was quite good at being the manager as long as she was watching him to make sure he didn't make any mistakes.
Scarlett finally went to sleep. She was so tired that she didn't even worry about what Rhett was going to do. She had been worrying about it for the last week. She finally decided she couldn't do any more to stop Rhett Butler than she had been able to her first timeline. Furthermore, he knew everything she knew. Well, not everything. He didn't know about Patrick.
The next morning, Rhett woke up and wondered if he had dreamed his encounter with Clarence. No, he knew the angel was real. As he laid there he thought about Clarence's question. What did Scarlett value most? What else had the angel said? Forget everything he thought he knew about Scarlett and start learning who she was and who she had been. Not who he had thought she was and not the person she had shown the world.
Rhett began to think about Scarlett's life. Before the war she had been the pampered, spoiled daughter of a wealthy planter who had been the belle of five counties. The worst thing that had happened to her was the man she thought she loved married another woman. A pretty blessed life all in all. After the war started then her bad luck began. Charles dying, the war, him abandoning her at Rough and Ready, Sherman marching through Clayton County stealing and destroying things, out of the blue needing three hundred dollars for taxes, her building up her sawmills…. Rhett paused there. He had always thought she had done that for the money. But it was like Clarence had said, 'Not exactly.'
Rhett pondered that for a long time. He got cleaned up, got dressed, went down to eat breakfast and continued thinking about Scarlett buying the sawmills. The first thing he decided was that she hadn't bought the sawmills for herself but to support her extended family which included the Wilkeses. She hadn't worked so very hard for herself but to support her family. All that money equaled security to her.
Rhett paused in the act of bringing his fork to his mouth. Security was what Scarlett valued most. She had tried to get security, by having a lot of money. He didn't know what Wilkes was to Scarlett, but it wasn't security. He would have to get more information before he solved that question.
Rhett shook his head. That was what her nightmare was about. Not being safe and secure. He vaguely remembered her telling him about the nightmare when he had asked her to marry him. He had politely let her talk, but he had not listened to what she was saying. He remembered something about when she tried not to be so avaricious, her nightmare got worse. He remembered her saying she had to check if there was food in the house. He knew she had done that a few times when they had been sleeping together. After she thought he was asleep she had left the room. At the time, he didn't know where she was going and he, of course, had assumed the worst. He had assumed she had left the room so she could think about Mr. Wilkes or something else involving the weak man.
Rhett knew at that moment he had put on blinders as far as Scarlett and Mr. Wilkes were concerned. He had begun to believe everything was about Mr. Wilkes, which he now knew it hadn't been. A lot of the time – yes but not all the time.
When Rhett got back to his room, he called for Clarence. The angel materialized immediately. Rhett said, "Scarlett values security more than anything. That is why she married me. Not for my money but what my money represented."
"Yes, that is what she values most – security. There are a lot of reasons why she married you. Don't stop digging."
"I have to go see her. I haven't seen her since I discovered she had come back too. We have to talk about our situation."
Clarence didn't try to stop Rhett. The angel knew it was true. Rhett had to see Scarlett.
After Rhett knocked on the door to Hamilton House, Peter informed him that Scarlett was at her store. Rhett went to the store. Scarlett was in her office.
Rhett asked one of the clerks, "I would like to see Mrs. Kennedy."
"I will see if she is available."
As Rhett looked around the store, he saw that Scarlett had fairly quickly managed to restock most of the shelves. Upon closer appraisal it looked like much the same stuff all over the store. He decided that was smart on her part. She needed people to believe in the solvency of Kennedy's General Store.
Rhett looked at all the customers and noted that none of them were members of the gentry. He, in fact, recognized several of the customers as Yankees and Republicans. He wondered how she was drawing in those customers. She was being smart. They were the ones with the money. Rhett smiled to himself. For as much as he had always called her stupid, she was a lot smarter than even he had realized. She was just uneducated. She also lived in a need-to-know world. If she didn't think she needed to know something she didn't care about it. Recalling his conversations with Frank at Hamilton House and her rapt attention, he guessed she had decided she needed to know about politics and the economy.