ARTHUR is a Bostonian, all-American, successful businessman who started to amass his wealth in his late twenties. It was in his early fifties, however, when he felt like a bolder rolling down a hill hit him. It was his ex-wife who shocked him when she found a chance to a life worth living, and she was not willing to leave him behind.
Betsy became Arthur's wife in his early thirties. He was kind, loving, and gave Betsy one comfortable, luscious, and enticing life. Although Betsy was not obsessed by money, she received everything she may necessitate. Betsy was not superficial and trivial, however. She was an intelligent and down-to-earth woman who wanted more out of life.
This is the story of two people who ~for money or for love~ were separated,
but later reunited by fate or by destiny ~or by someone out there perhaps~
when a man unrelated to either one begun to suspect that there may be an
extraordinary life to live.
ARTHUR is a tastefully well-dressed man with an enchanting personality, impeccable manners, and a finesse that a man raised to be a gentleman posseses. Everyone recognizes what Arthur transpires and instills. As a result, Arthur is perceived as a trustworthy, reliable, and certainly pleasurable man to deal with. All of his well-defined aptitudes and qualities are vital ingredients in Arthur's successful business cocktail.
To this man, his office with many employees working to run his business was not his job. Instead, work was exciting and not stressful. His well-remunerated employees absorbed his excitement. The work environment at Arthur's place of business was productive and efficient. As years went by, Arthur's knifelike business abilities let him climb such upward spiral of success as his employees also built up their wealth.
Although Betsy's life evolved in a wonderful home in a fine Boston suburb ~and she was surrounded by everything she could possibly want~ she experienced marriage feeling lonely and abandoned by her otherwise kind, loving, and caring husband.
Betsy's inner self begun to ask if making money is all that there is to life.
In her moments of solitude, Betsy came to close her eyes to revive flashes of countless gratifying moments and the luxuries her husband surrounded her with in the past years. She could not help it, but to become aware of two conditions that inevitably unfolded, and became clearer and clearer for her to perceive.
Firstly, the memories of countless indulging and pleasant moments and material things Arthur surrounded her with had a not-always-easy-to-see price tag attached to each of them. Betsy took the bull by the horns when she saw herself being the one paying the stiff price that comes with each tag. That price implies to silently accept giving away a piece of her husband. Secondly, if she wanted to find out what else there is to life other than making money, she on her own ought to go out there to find out.
Sometime after their twentieth anniversary, Betsy asked Arthur for a divorce.
Her insightful perception and sound judgment along with her relentless unwillingness to masquerade things and her honest reluctance to cover them up were the factors that determined Betsy's decision. Such decision became the fuel to a strong driving force that kept her searching.
Despite neither a promising nor encouraging outlook, what Betsy was about to confront were events with twists that she could not have anticipated. It was fate or her destiny ~or someone out there perhaps~ that placed her on such a collision course with what will happen to her.
Within a year or so after the divorce, Betsy had made several trips away
from Boston. Conscientious that there may be nothing to be found, every
fiber deep in her inner self was telling her that there must be more to
life than a Marriage License, come back from a honeymoon, go out
there to make money, and accept losing a husband shortly after.
ONE OF HER TRIPS took Betsy to lovely place of beauty in the Pacific Ocean. It was amid one calm, warm, and windless night when she was seating on a bench at a bus stop not suspecting that she was unknowingly waiting for a man.
In the bareness of the night, Betsy detects in the distance the scene of a man in uniform seemingly coming to her bus stop. After he arrives, the officer offers his salutation and takes a seat; but he realizes that he may appear unfriendly. To justify his state of mind, the officer offers to the only passenger at the bus stop his apology, and explains of his rather complicated work day; and that all he wants is to give his aching legs a deserved rest as well as a set of wheels to take him home.
In an almost perfectly quite environment, they are alone with no one on sight. Betsy gracefully started a placid, serene, and courteous conversation likely to soothe a man in need of something kind; and he perceived her intent. The officer's intuition tells him a scarce quality the lady irradiates. To correspond to her kind attitude, the officer forces himself to relax; and to show genuine interest in what transpires behind her words.
After talking for a while, they came aboard one bus almost empty. There was no contact after boarding. The short bus ride took them to a bus stop where they both got off at. After waiting for the pedestrian light, she went her way across the street. Then, another street-crossing, and a short walk took her to a hotel with front stairs leading up to its lobby.
The officer, however, stood at the intersection watching her until she reached the hotel stairs and vanished in the lobby. Before she did so, however, the officer managed to observe something. It was an ephemeral glance of hers looking in his direction just one split of a second before she faded away in the hotel's lobby. Perhaps, the lady felt that officer's eyes following her every move. She needed a fugacious glance to answer her burning question: "Is he still there ?"
The officer had an enigma of his own, and rushed across the street; but he did not wait for the pedestrian light. He felt an urge to walk upstairs to look inside the hotel's lobby hoping that the unexplored lady irradiating scarce qualities ~who offered him soothing words in a kind moment~ was still visible in the glittering lobby.
He saw her when she turned away from the front desk looking down at her mail, and used that moment to contemplate her. He perceived one of few and far between women who may show up in a man's lifetime. Eventually, Betsy detected the officer's presence; and like thunder, she felt a spike of excitement running through her entire self.
Minutes ago, Betsy's fugacious glance confirmed what she felt: he was there looking at her; but the presence in the hotel's lobby implied much more than "him looking at her." Motionless, the officer was anchored next to the entry door contemplating her without saying a word; or making a gesture. Such intriguing and provocative action kept Betsy breathless, and her excitement skyrocketing.
The only excuse she had to escape his eyes was to shuffle her mail. She did so until she finally read between the lines, and deciphered his message. Betsy then needed some time to decipher something crucial: did she want "in" or "out"? As Betsy takes the time she needed, they both were holding their breaths in suspense. She was such bundle of nerves, but appeared to be calm when she stopped shuffling letters; and in a decisive move, she walked toward the officer glueing her eyes in his.
Betsy and the Security Officer were on a collision course; and not yet face to face, their hearts were already pounding.
It was breathtaking and exhilarating when they looked at each other in their eyes. In silence, they spent several seconds contemplating their faces just like an unalloyed man and a real woman of scarce qualities do it: not playing games. If a moment has magic, that was it. Such enchanting and glowing state kept them both breathless like no other prior instance in their lives. It lasted until she breathed in and whispered a question to the officer: "Are you still hungry ?" "...and very thirsty as well" he whispered back.
Betsy took time before she rolled her dice. Then, she said to the officer... "I have food in my room. I can prepare you a meal. Would you like to come up... to my room ?" The officer did not respond right away. Instead, he perceived over again the qualities of a genuine woman and classy lady mirrored in her titillating eyes. His silence brought cliff-hanging suspense to Betsy, but the officer brought relieve when he accepted her noble intent to address his appetite.
Motivated and excited, Betsy asked the officer to give her five minutes before going up to her room. He said that he will go for a while. She was afraid that he may be leaving, but the officer brought relieve again saying that he will only go out to bring in something to drink; and that he promises to knock on her door in ten to twelve minutes time.
The officer was back just as promised, he was invited in, and the dead-quite hotel's fifth floor heard the sound of one door closing. It was the sound that sealed their destiny. What may happen between an unalloyed man ~who feels in the prime of his life~ and a real woman irradiating the scarce qualities of a classy dame happened that calm, warm, and windless night in a paradisiac and alluring place somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
