The Beginning (4 page)

“I don’t know. I think Jerome and the people at the restaurant are weighing on my mind. I feel for them. You’re father and I were lucky enough to never have that sort of trouble but we knew plenty of people who did and we always helped them.”

“I get it, but it’s out of our control. We can’t keep it from closing.”

“You’re right.” I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. When I opened them I looked at Frankie. He was sitting on the other bed in the room using his lap top. I didn’t even feel him take it from me. I reached over and picked up my book from my night stand. Maybe reading would help me forget about the park.

I read a page or two, but just couldn’t concentrate. Instead I opened my laptop and did a search for books about theme parks. There were plenty on the major parks, but that’s not what I was looking for.  I continued and found quite a few on subjects like theme park planning and careers and added them to my wish list. Then I saw one on abandoned theme parks. I bought the electronic version right away and started reading it.

It had some of the eeriest photos I’ve ever seen. It creeped me out and made me sad all at the same time. Those photos represented lost dreams, lost opportunities, and lost jobs. I was saddened just looking at them.

The photos had more of an impact on me than I realized. The images haunted my dreams. In those dreams I walked in to Adventure Planet and the entire park was nothing but images from the book. In one of my dreams, I was being chased by an abandoned carousal horse who wanted revenge for his death. Next I dreamed about Jerome and his family. In my dream Jerome, his wife and about 10 children sitting on the street corner begging in Dickens style. It was even snowing.

“Mom. Mom! Wake up! Mom!”

I heard Frankie calling my name. I opened my eyes and sat up in bed. I looked around the room. I was in the hotel. In my bed. That was good. There were no carousel horses in there. That was even better.

“Mom, are you ok? You were yelling.”

I hadn’t seen Frankie look like that since the last time he had a nightmare when he was a little boy. I took his hand.

“It’s ok, Honey, I just had a nightmare. Dreamed about Adventure Planet and it wasn’t good. What time is it?”

“About six.”

“Did you stay in my room all night?”

“Yeah, sorry. I kind fell asleep while using my computer.”

“It’s ok,” I smiled at him. “Let’s get ready to go, I have to find Jerome and make sure he’s ok.”

“Um, Ok.”

I kicked him out of my room so I could shower and get dressed. I put on a pretty off white short sleeved top, purple shorts, and my favorite comfortable sneakers. I met Frankie in the lobby. He was wearing new looking jeans, a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and some sort of suede shoes. Nothing of his was ever faded or worn looking. I wondered if he bought all new clothes just for the trip.

We sat at a table and ate the hotel’s free breakfast. I ate stale muffins and some just ok fruit. At least the coffee and juice seemed good, if not watered down. Frankie seemed to love everything. I questioned his taste.

After breakfast Frankie told the lady at the desk (the same one from last night) that we were going to Adventure Planet today. She looked at him kind of funny, but didn’t say anything. She gave us permission to leave the truck and the car hitch in her parking lot while we were gone. In fact, she let us keep the keys to our rooms in case we decided to spend the night again. In my mind I questioned this, but I suppose she didn’t do much business and it was wishful thinking on her part.

We unhitched my car from the moving truck and we were on our way. What was going to happen next I didn’t know. Looking back, I never could have guessed.

We pulled up to the entrance of Adventure Planet and we stopped. It was like one of the pictures in that book I read last night. It was a sad, sad looking place. The paint was peeling. The foliage was growing over on to the road. There was nothing inviting about it. It would have made a fantastic heavy metal album cover.

We were trying to figure out where to park when we finally saw a worn out sign that said “Parking”. We assumed it was once in the shape of an arrow, but now you really couldn’t tell what shape it was. We turned the way we thought the arrow was pointing, to the left. We followed the gravel path to the gravel parking lot. There were maybe twenty other cars in the lot.

“Well, I don’t feel so bad now. Someone must be here,” Frankie said.

“Yeah, at any rate we’re not the only ones.”

“Unless, of course the cars belong to the employees,” Frankie joked. At least I think it was a joke.

We parked the car and walked the gravel pathway toward the park entrance. At least we were hoping that’s what the sign said. When we came out of the foliage we saw one small, carnival like ticket booth. The girl sitting in it was reading a magazine and chewing gum. We had to knock on the window to get her attention.

She looked up at us and simply said, “What do ya want?”

I let Frankie take this one. If I had to speak I probably would have yelled at her.

“Good morning. Two adults, please.”

She looked at him. “Ya never been here before, huh?”

“No, ma’am, we have not.”

“Well, go in. If you like it you can pay when you leave. Saves me from having to give you your money back.”

With that she turned back to her magazine and ignored us. Frankie and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and went in.

Again we walked along a gravel path that was overgrown with trees. We were walking for what seemed like several minutes. I was starting to wonder if we were ever going to get there when the pathway opened up to a very wide area. You could tell the ground was once painted yellow. We were in the area called the sun. We knew that because we saw a large, much worn sign that said “The Sun”.

Going down that same pole there were other signs directing you to the other “planets” in the park. They were: Planet Kids, Planet Super, Planet Future, Planet Dinosaur, Planet West, Planet Movie, Planet Magic, and Planet Fairy Tale. Simple names, but you knew how each planet was themed

“Well, where do you want to start?” Frankie asked me.

“Wish I had a map,” I said.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen one and that oh so polite lady in the box didn’t offer one. Maybe there aren’t any.”

“Ok, let’s start from top down. The second arrow from the top says Planet Kids. Let’s go there first.”

“Ok. Makes as much sense as anything else I’ve seen here today.”

We walked along another gravel path way to Planet Kids. The very first thing we came to was a carousel. The horses weren’t as creepy as the ones in my dream or even in the book, but they weren’t that far off either. The carousel wasn’t running but it was playing music. The music coming from it was once cheerful, I guessed, but whatever was being used to play the music was pretty worn out and the sound was more like a record album left in the sun.

I hadn’t noticed, but there was a man painting one of the horses by hand. He looked up at us and smiled. “Hi, folks, would you like to take a ride on her?”

I looked toward the voice. It was Jerome from the restaurant last night. He was dressed in jean shorts, a white t-shirt, and white tennis shoes. At least I assumed his shoes were once white, right now they were kind of grey and had paint splattered on them. He was also wearing his name tag from the restaurant.

“Hello, again,” he said smiling. “I remember you from the restaurant last night. What are you doing here?”

“We came for a visit, wanted to check the place out. I’m sorry did you say you remembered us?” I said.

“Yes, ma’am, you and the gentleman here stood out because you weren’t from around here.”

“You’re just off the highway; don’t you get a lot of people from out of town in the restaurant?” Frankie asked.

“Sometimes. But usually when they see the condition of our town, they just stay in their room till morning.”

Frankie and I just looked at each other. That was the impression we got too. In fact, we almost did that.

“Jerome, you asked if we wanted to ride. Is this thing safe, ‘cause it sure doesn’t look it?” I asked.

“Oh, yes, ma’am. I take personal care of all the rides in the park. I started working here when I was in high school, and through college, and then after college. I guess you could kind of say that we grew up together her and me. Only she’s aging a lot faster than I am, poor girl.”

As he said that he patted the head of the horse he had been painting. I looked closely at it.

“Jerome, just how old are these horses?” I asked.

“Well, ma’am, it’s hard to say. The original Mr. Neuspech bought everything used, including all the rides. He opened this place in 1973. I’m going to guess that the horses are maybe from the 1950’s. Maybe older.”

“Oh, my God, you’re sure they are safe to sit on?” Frankie asked.

“I tell, you what I’ll start her up and I’ll ride with you. When you’re ready to get off, I’ll jump down and turn her off. How’s that?”

I looked at him and smiled. I liked his confidence. “You have a deal.”

Frankie and I chose our horses and mounted them. Mine was one that had once been decorated with pinks and purples. Frankie chose one that looked like it had once been all greens. Jerome set his paint brush down and started up the ride and hopped on a horse near us.

“See, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Jerome said. “I take good care of her. If it’s got an engine I can make it run.”

“That’s incredible,” Frankie said. “Do you just have a natural knack for mechanics?”

“Well, yes sir, ever since I was little. I’m trying to go to school to become an engineer.”

“Wonderful,” Frankie said.

“Trying? If you don’t mind me asking,” I corrected myself.

“No, I don’t mind. I didn’t know what I wanted to do right after high school, I was lucky I finished high school. So, I just worked here and kept dating my high school sweetheart, Marcella. Finally, about six years ago I decided I wanted to become an engineer so I can take care of these rides. I started one class at a time, you know. Take it slow, keep the costs down.”

“I understand,” Frankie said.

“But then, we discovered that Marcella was pregnant. Well, I ain’t a man who shirks his responsibilities. We got married. My first child was born a little bit after. Little boy. We named him Marcus. After he was born I kept on doing one class at a time. Still trying, you know.”

We both nodded at him and waited. I mean, there had to be more. Right?

“Then about two years later Eric was born. Then a year later my little girl was born. The Lord almost took her from us both before and after she was born so we named her Angela, because she was given to us by God.” He had tears in his eyes as he was telling his story.

“She’s ok now?” I asked.

“She’s ok. Gets sick more than other babies, though.”

“Does your wife work?” Frankie asked.

“No, sir. Marcella takes care of the children and the home. She was a teacher until Marcus was born. Now we say she has a class of three, Marcus, Eric, and Angela,” Jerome said.

“My daughter is also named Angela and she’s my youngest,” I said.

“And is this your husband?” Jerome asked.

“No”, I said blushing, “this is my son. His name is Frankie.”

Jerome looked a little embarrassed. “I beg your pardon, ma’am, but you don’t look old enough to be his mama.”

“I had him very early in my life. My name is Misty.”

“How do you do ma’am.”

We shook hands across horses. His hands were rough. Definitely the hands of a man who worked with his hands for a living. I got the feeling I was really going to like Jerome.

We heard someone shouting off in the distance.

“Jerome,” Frankie said, “I think that man is trying to get your attention.”

Sure enough there was a man waving his arms and yelling Jerome’s name. Jerome jumped down from his horse and stopped the ride.

“Jerome,” the guy yelled,” it’s time for your lunch break.”

“Ok, Bobby, thank you,” Jerome not so much yelled but simply annunciated, his voice carried beautifully. He then jumped down and stopped the ride. Frankie and I dismounted our horses and joined him.

“Jerome,” Frankie said, “thank you so much for the ride. Can we buy you lunch? We’d love to talk to you some more, learn more about the park.”

“Well, thank you, sir, that’s very generous, but we all get to eat here for free. The food is awful, but you can’t beat the price,” he said smiling.

“In that case, may we join you?” Frankie asked.

Jerome shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “If you want to eat lousy food, you are welcome to join me.”

The three of us walked together to the section of the park called Western Planet. It was quite a walk, but Jerome explained that he goes there because it’s the only place the health inspector hasn’t closed down even once.

Frankie and I ordered exactly what Jerome ordered; a tuna sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottled beverage. We found a clean table and sat down. We ate our lunch in silence for a few moments. I was examining the place. It wasn’t too bad; it was just really run down and in need of a paint job and a good scrubbing.

“Last night at the restaurant I heard you talking. I heard you say that you were having a hard time making ends meet and I wanted to help you,” I said handing Jerome a folded up bill that he could not see was a fifty.

“No, thank you, ma’am. I can’t take charity.” I could see sadness in his eyes as he said this. I got the feeling he wanted to take the money, but his pride wouldn’t let him.

“Ok, it’s a tip for being our VIP tour guide today,” Frankie said. “Can you show us around the park? Maybe teach us about it, share its history?” Damn my son was clever.

“I can do that. I am supposed to make my rounds after lunch and check on the rides. I’ll take you folks with me. Then I’ll take that tip after I’ve earned it.”

“It’s a deal,” I said, smiling at Jerome.

“Frankly, the best thing anyone can do for me, for us, is to buy this park and fix it up,” Jerome said.

“Is it for sale?” Frankie asked.

“No, sir, not really. The problem is that Mr. Neuspech, the park owner that is, well his wife’s family wants him to sell the park so they can have the half they think she should have had. They think it’s worth a lot more than it probably is. Mr. Neuspech wants to sell because he doesn’t want the place anymore, but he doesn’t want to give her family any money since she left him and disappeared.”

“Interesting,” Frankie said. I looked at him. When Frankie said something was interesting, he meant that he really was interested. I knew his wheels were turning. He pulled out his phone and started tapping on the screen.

“You won’t get much of a signal out here. And we don’t have wifi. There is internet, but only on company computers,” Jerome informed Frankie.

“My phone is very strong, Jerome,” Frankie said smiling.

We finished our lunches and began our tour of the park by following Jerome on his afternoon rounds. We got to hear stories from the park’s hay day. We learned a lot about the park and how it operates.

For example, the park was set up hub and spoke style with the Sun being the center. However the different planets had no official pathways leading between them. So anytime you wanted to go to a different planet, you had to return to the Sun first. Jerome thought the original idea was to keep people from getting lost. Of course over the years dirt pathways had been made through the trees to connect the planets to each other. The guests and probably some of the employees saw to that.

We also learned from Jerome that the employees did not have their own break rooms. So they had nowhere to escape the guests. Instead, they had old lockers from the high school that they could use when they worked. Nor did anyone get uniforms or name tags. There was no real way to know who worked here and who didn’t. Jerome seemed to take everything in stride, but most of the employees were either rude or bored. Some were on the cell phones. A few were even asleep, literally, at their posts.

Our first impression of the park was reinforced more and more as we explored with Jerome. The paint was peeling or gone everywhere. Signs were falling down or had fallen down. The few signs that were still up were very hard to read. Much of the metal looked rusted and dangerous. I felt sadder and sadder the more I saw and the more I learned. A once glorious place was now trash and rubble.

Frankie, however, just looked more and more like a cat about to pounce on his prey. He was eager and asked Jerome all kinds of questions. Some of which even Jerome didn’t know the answer to. Once in a while Frankie would pull out his phone, take a picture, and tap something in to his phone. I had no idea what he was doing, but I knew he was up to something and I couldn’t wait to find out.