The Beginning Page 5

  A man in a blue jacket walked in to the lobby. “I’m looking for Mr. Summer,” he told the clerk. Frankie went over and talked to him. They shook hands and the man left. Frankie walked back toward us.

  “The van has arrived,” he announced.

  Frankie had rented a very nice van for our trip to the park this morning. In fact I would have almost called it a limo. Except the only thing I knew about limos was what I saw on TV. This one had no rope style lighting or bottles of alcohol in it. We all got in and the man in the blue jacket drove us to Adventure Planet.

  On the way there I learned more about my son. Theses well known and even famous people were telling me how wonderful he was. Frankie had given each of them investing advice and almost never steered them wrong. So when he called requesting an urgent favor they all jumped on planes or in their cars and got here as fast as they could so they could help him in time. There were a couple of people who could not make it, Frankie said, but they had promised to come down after the sale was finalized. Others, including some in the van, promised financial backing in the form of loans. Frankie, they said was dead set against selling shares of stock in the park. They seemed to feel this was smart. “Keep it in the family,” one of them said.

  When we arrived at the park, we all piled out of the van. I heard exclamations of “Oh my”, “Dear God”, and even just some whistles. I think they all wore the same expression on their faces that Frankie and I had yesterday morning.

  Jerome walked over to the van and met us. “Good morning ma’am, sir,” he said to Frankie and I.

  We said good morning to Jerome and shook his hand. Then Frankie introduced him to everyone as the man who was going to be our head engineer. Jerome’s mouth dropped open and stayed there as he was introduced to everyone. He looked like he recognized more of the names than I did.

  Frankie turned to the group. “Ok, Jerome here has opened everything up for us. You have two hours to do any preliminary inspections. You have full access to everything, including the back areas.”

  “Just don’t climb over any fences or go anywhere where there are danger or warning signs,” Jerome said.

  “Good point,” Frankie said. “Jerome is handing out radios and park maps that he personally drew for us last night. If you need anything call him over the radio and he will assist you. My mother and I will be in the center area called the Sun. There is a gift shop there. In the back of the gift shop is an office. We’ll be back there looking through records and gathering as much information as we can.”

  Everyone said ok, took their radios and whatever else they brought with them and went on their way. Jerome followed them, eager to assist as needed. Frankie and I walked down the main path way to the Sun.

  “How in the hell, did you arrange this so quickly?” I asked him.

  “Mother, I have made a lot of people very rich. You make a lot of friends and build a lot of clout that way. I have earned a lot of favors from people and I’m simply starting to call them in.”

  “It’s all legal right. I mean none of these people are going to do anything illegal are they?”

  Frankie just laughed, “Mother you watched too much TV.”

  “In that case, I’m very impressed.”

  “You always taught me that I can do whatever I wanted to no matter what anyone else thought and I did.”

  “We tried.”

  He stopped and looked at me.

  “No, you don’t understand. Dad wanted me to follow the rules, stick to what he knew, and not take chances. You taught me to constantly take chances. To live my dream, to follow my heart’s desire. You should have been a nice little house wife and good police man’s wife, but you weren’t.”

  “I’m sorry? Did you just insult me?”

  “No. what I mean is, you were never like the other mothers. They stayed at home and baked and stuff. You were always trying something new. You always wanted to learn something. You went to college while raising us. You didn’t dress like a mom. You were cooler.”

  “I was younger.”

  “You weren’t afraid to try new things and take chances, the other mothers were.”

  “I’m taking a huge chance now.”

  “No, we are taking a huge chance.” He smiled at me. “But mother and son are in this together. I think we are an unbeatable team and we will only fail if we give up.”

  We continued walking and entered the gift shop together. It was dusty and the merchandise was old and faded. Frankie went in the back to start reading through the records, or hack the computer, or something. I stayed in the shop. I had over twenty years of retail and customer service experience of one sort or another, this was my area of expertise.

  My son had faith in me. He turned out to be a powerful and influential man. And a good man. The more I thought about him the prouder I became. We really did do a good job raising him. He turned out wonderfully. And for someone I hardly saw the past several years, I felt strangely close to him. He was a good kid and a good man. I loved him very much. I must make sure I tell him that today.

  I inspected the merchandise offerings thoroughly while Frankie searched the computer in the back for all the records that he could find. For my part I found cheap t-shirts with faded and peeling decorations.

  There was an assortment of cheap plush and toys, none of which had anything to do with the park. The mugs were cracked and chipped. There was nothing for infants or little kids anywhere. There were no snacks or disposable cameras for sale. Even our local amusement park in Pennsylvania had these. In fact, the only thing there was plenty of was empty space. Not only were there empty shelves, but the entire stockroom was empty. What was going on here? I stood and looked around in disbelief.

  When it was time to go we met the others and piled back in to the van. There was almost no conversation in the van as we drove. The others were busy using tablets, laptops, and phones. I was going over the faded t-shirts, dollar store style plush and cracked mugs I found in the gift shop. In my notebook I was writing a list of the type of merchandise I felt we should have. Maybe we could donate the existing merchandise to charity. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t want it.

  ***

  The meeting with the lawyer was short. Our experts gave a short speech telling how badly the area of the park that they examined was damaged or neglected or both. In addition, Frankie’s lawyer Pete made mincemeat out of Adolf’s lawyer, George. I got the feeling that Adolf was George’s only client, or at least the biggest one and George did not want to lose him. George did everything he could to ask for more money or to say the contract we signed at the restaurant was not valid. Every time George tried any of that, Adolf would jump in with a “No!” Every time Adolf said no, George looked like someone punched him in the face.

  We were willing to pay more money, but Adolf did not want it. He just wanted out and even more so, he did not want his estranged wife Barbara to have any possibility of benefitting. It seemed to me that George tried his best to stop Adolf from selling. It finally got to the point where Adolf said to George, “sell it or you’re fired.” We all just smiled at George as he gave in.

  George and Pete drew up a new contract. Just a formality, they said. They told us they would send it to the hotel for our signatures later. We told them we’d be there later this afternoon.

  Chapter 6: Getting to Work

  We all went to lunch together, including Jerome. He was very interested in what happened at the meeting and what plans we had. In general, we had decided to shut the park down for about two months. Our experts were going to bring in teams to help fix up their respective areas of the park. In addition, we were going to build a parking garage. Not everything would be done in two months, but by opening day, the majority of it would be ready. The rest would be ready just enough to entice guests to want to come back when the different attractions opened.

  After lunch Jerome returned with us to the hotel. Frankie went to the front desk and booked all the extra rooms we would need for the p
eople coming down to help us out. The hotel’s owner was so excited to finally have her hotel filled. In fact, she had to call a friend of hers who owned a neighboring hotel to get all of the rooms that we would need.

  She looked so happy that I was happy for her. But, I was still just a little concerned that these hotels were not up to the standards these people were used to. However, on the plus side maybe one of them would open a better hotel here. I didn’t want to run the small businesses out of business, but I did want to attract a higher end visitor. Surely there was room for both.

  Pete brought the contract over personally. He was rather proud of himself and the way he handled George. I’d known Pete for years, I was proud of him too. Frankie and I signed the contract and Pete went down to make it official, whatever that meant.

  Frankie, Jerome, and I sat together at a table in Frankie’s room and tried to plan exactly what to do next. We decided to call a mandatory meeting of all of the park’s employees. Everyone from the girl in the ticket booth to the head of HR must attend.

  We also decided that everyone would go through the hiring process again. We would conduct interviews, get fingerprints, and do background checks on each and every employee. In addition, we wanted to make sure everyone had the job that made them the happiest. When Frankie and I were at the park that first day, it was obvious that most of the employees did not like their jobs nor were they motivated in any way to do a good job. When I questioned how we were going to do this, Frankie just looked at me and smiled.

  “Of course, Honey, you called in another favor. Some famous HR firm is going to come in and do all of this for us?” I said smiling at him.

  “Um, what?” Jerome said.

  “Frankie is a financial genius. He’s made some connections in his career,” I said.

  “Jerome,” Frankie said smiling, “finance is to me what engineering is to you.”

  Jerome smiled, “something you’ve been dreaming about since you were a kid?”

  “Exactly. By the way, you and I will talk more later, but you’re going to finish your degree and get your license so you can be the head of engineering for us.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand?”

  I thought I did. Frankie and I had discussed Jerome and how great it would be for him to finish his degree.

  “You know the park, you love the park, and you know the rides. There is no one better to be in charge of the rides than you,” Frankie said.

  Jerome smiled. “Thank you, but I can’t afford to finish school for a while. And I will not take charity. I must earn what I get.”

  Frankie held his hands up, “it’s not charity. We will be starting a tuition program, and I think a scholarship program for deserving employees. You will be the first recipient. So, no pressure, but you are the one all the others will have to live up to.”

  “I will be a role model for the other employees?” Jerome asked.

  “Yes, you will,” I said.

  “Ok, I can do that,” Jerome said smiling.

  ***

  The next several days were full of meetings. Meetings with all of the experts. We met in groups, we met one on one. We met at scheduled times. We met when someone called and asked to meet. I had never attended so many meetings in my life.

  We had meetings with the current staff. We held the mandatory meeting and interviewed and performed background checks on all of them. Most of them were rehired and kept on. Some went to new positions and some went to their old ones. Some were promoted and some were demoted. Then they all had the choice of helping with the renovation or not working and being called back when we reopened. Most chose to help. They were put on duties like cleaning, painting, and sweeping.

  Somewhere in all of these meetings, something occurred to me. “Frankie,” I said, “we only have about three security guards. We’re going to need to increase security, especially with all of the construction we’ll have going on.”

  “I already took care of it,” he said.

  “So we’ve hired more guards?”

  “HR is on it right now. In addition, the local police have agreed to help. Chief Campion and I had a meeting, and he is so excited to see the park get going again that he offered all the help he can. Which, in this small town is not a lot.”

  “Did you say his name was Campion?” I asked.

  “Yeah, Marlowe Charlie Campion. Apparently his parents were big mystery buffs.”

  “Apparently. But, he can’t be in charge of security here. Is HR hiring for that?”

  “We’re searching nationwide, but for now, I’ve called in another favor. He’ll be here tonight.”

  “Who, another famous person I should know?” I smiled at him.

  “No, he’s not famous, but you know him.”

  A feeling of dread came over me. “Your Dad!”

  “Mom, don’t get mad. He knows his stuff and he volunteered to help.”

  “Yeah, but…wow. Why didn’t you at least discuss it with me first?” I didn’t know what to say. It’s not that I had any bad feelings toward Frank, but this was my world and I was very uncomfortable with him entering it. Or taking over like he always does.

  “There’s more,” Frankie said.

  I just looked at him. More? What like Frank was going to move here permanently? Like he already married Minerva and she was coming too? Like he was going to shoot me and put me out of my misery? “What?” I said out loud.

  “Minerva is coming too. They are staying in separate rooms. When she heard that Michael LaGivens was here she was excited and wanted to meet him. I thought you’d be ok with it since your divorce was amicable.”

  “Yes, yes it was. I hold nothing against your father. I even like Minerva, we became friends. But, it’s going to be weird. What if they show affection in front of me? I don’t know how I’ll react. What if your father refers to this as one of my little projects? I may just have to kill him if he does.”

  “Dad and I talked. He’s going to be on his best behavior.”

  I rolled my eyes at that. Frank didn’t know what best behavior meant to other people.

  “He knows his stuff, Mom. He’s taken every training class he could, he reads books on police procedures and he has years of experience.”

  “That’s true.”

  “And he’s doing it for free. Using his vacation time.”

  “Yeah, cause God knows he couldn’t use it to take a vacation with me.”

  “Mom!”

  “I’m sorry, but I asked him to and he said no. But you’re right. I will tuck away any resentment I may have and focus on Adventure Universe. After all the park is the only thing that matters right now.”

  “It’s Adventure Planet.”

  “No, I think Adventure Universe makes more sense. If all of the areas are planets themselves and they revolve around a sun, then it’s a universe. Right?”

  Frankie was silent for a moment. “Wow. That is pretty smart, Mom. I like it. I’ll call Pete and have him look in to changing it legally.”

  “Besides, it’s a really cool title. We need to rename the planets too. I mean the names are descriptive, but way, way too simple.”

  “Ok, any ideas?”

  “I’m still working on it. I’ll let you know if I come up with something.”

  “Cool. So what’s next on the agenda?”

  Together we looked at the list of tasks we had listed on a legal pad. So far the group of experts had started on things such as revamping the restaurants; building offices to replace the existing sheds and trailers in the rear of the park in the employee only area; saving rides whenever possible as well as designing and constructing some new ones; redesigning all of the landscaping to fit the theme of each area; redesigning not only the restaurants but their menus as well; adding an employee cafeteria that served the same food we sold in the park; adding employee break areas to each “planet”; and building Broadway quality theaters for our new shows.

  We still had plenty to do such as: order uni
forms for all of the employees; start the construction on the parking garage; hire more people; get new costumes for our costumed characters; order things like machines to make name tags and ID’s for all of the employees, and so on and so on.

  We also needed to design shows to entertain people and give them a chance to sit down. We had some high caliber music people working on that. I called in a few favors for this one. However, this was going to be my secret.

  “Tomorrow”, Frankie said, “we start construction on the parking garage.”

  “And if I recall correctly, the local press will be here for the ceremonial first shovel of dirt.”

  “Yes. You and I will need to be there to have our pictures taken.”

  “Ok,” I sighed. I hated having my picture taken. I never looked good in pictures. “Good thing I put my stuff in storage and got my clothes out, at least I can dress nice.”

  “Yeah, that reminds me, you need to find a place to live around here. Preferably with a room for me.”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you, I ‘m thinking of buying Adolph’s house? I even have a real estate agent. There isn’t much for sale here and what is for sale are mostly fixer uppers, repos, and condemned. His house was the nicest. And he wants to leave so I know he’s motivated to sell.”

  He looked at me in shock. “What? No, you didn’t tell me.”

  “Yeah, I really like the house Adolph’s family had.”

  “Is he selling if for a dollar?” Frankie laughed.

  “No, unfortunately he wants real money for this one. His family must have had a lot of money at one time. The house is huge and could probably be used as a bed and breakfast or a small hotel.”

  “How big is it?”

  “Each floor has four bedrooms.”

  “How many floors are there?”

  “Three, with bedrooms. One without.”

  “Whoa!” His mouth flew open. “How much is it?”