CHAPTER TWO
Jason woke before the sun burned off the morning fog, groggy and distracted by dreams of roller coasters that felt more like memories. He used his phone to pull up the quickest route to Adventure Isle, waking up gradually as he drove. Halfway through the long and winding journey, he entered what felt like a permanent sense of déjà vu. He recognized landmarks and yet had no memory of ever traveling on that road before. He also had no idea how long it would take to reach his destination. The GPS became spotty as his phone reception went in and out.
Just as he was starting to worry he’d missed a turn somewhere, a rickety billboard reassured him that his "adventure is only a mile away!"
"I don't think that 'isle' was really the best name for this place," Jason muttered as he followed another sign down a narrow, dirt road. "Unless they want to remind you that you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. With no reception. And no help for miles."
The empty parking lot had been all but lost to the creep of the surrounding woods, the lines completely obscured by weeds, vines, dead leaves, and trash. Ancient light poles looked as out of place as the streetlight in Narnia, and Jason was sure that no matter where he parked, he would be stepping in broken glass.
His earlier impression that the park was more like a set from a horror movie only increased when he saw the front gates. The left had only one hinge and swung back and forth with every gust of wind. The right one was still tight, but its red paint had been weathered away, leaving only patches of what, at first glance, looked like blood. A massive dragon’s head hung over the gates, its red tongue still remarkably vibrant, despite the broken and missing teeth in its gaping jaw. Its eyes once lit up, but the left globe was completely busted out, and the right was hanging from a tendon-like cord.
There were a few other cars in the parking lot, and since they were mostly clean and no weeds grew from beneath the hoods, Jason assumed they weren’t just abandoned there. Gathering up his courage and hoping this wasn’t all just an elaborate joke—or a weird trap—he stepped out of the car and picked a careful path towards the gate.
The man standing in the cylindrical ticket booth at the front of the gate was so small and so gray that Jason almost didn’t see him at all. He approached the window in time to see the old man shuffle a deck of cards and start dealing out a game of solitaire. He worked with the speed and precision of a Vegas dealer, and Jason couldn’t help but be a little impressed.
"Excuse me? Mr. Kelsey?"
The man looked up at him with a small frown of confusion that quickly morphed into a radiant smile.
"Jason!" The man’s voice was as warm as his smile, and the card game was abandoned immediately. He made the exclamation as if he had known Jason his entire life. Jason was slightly taken aback. He wasn't accustomed to a new client referring to him by his first name right from the first moment of meeting, but something about the older man told Jason that this was simply the type of person Mr. Kelsey was, and it wouldn't occur to him to be anything else.
"Hello," Jason said. "Thank you for letting me come by and see the park."
"Of course!" Mr. Kelsey said, putting the deck of cards down on the counter. "I'll be right out."
The older man scurried through a door at the back of the small ticket booth, and a moment later, he emerged through another door at the back of the cylindrical building. He came toward Jason with his hand already extended toward him. Jason took it and Mr. Kelsey shook it enthusiastically.
"I'm thrilled to have you here," Mr. Kelsey said, still holding onto Jason's hand. "I can't wait to bring this park back to its former glory." Finally, he released Jason's hand, but continued to smile at him broadly. "My great-grandfather opened this place, you know. Of course, it was just a picnic ground and a swing back then. My granddaddy built it up a little more, and then my daddy after him, and then me. It's floundered a little bit in the last few years, but I know that we can make it amazing again."
Jason felt himself smile. Hearing that Mr. Kelsey's great-grandfather had started the park just like his own great-grandfather had opened the firm softened Jason's heart. Not only did it mean that the sparkle in Mr. Kelsey's eye when he talked about the park was the sparkle of the generations that came before him and the hope and faith that had trickled through his family, but it also meant that that park had actually been around longer than the firm hired in hopes of finding an investor to save it.
"Can you show me around? Maybe tell me a bit about what you hope to achieve for the park once we find an investor for you?"
Jason followed Mr. Kelsey through the turnstiles a few yards behind the ticket booth and onto the main road of the tiny park. He could hear the voices of the few patrons around them, the occasional laugh or scream telling him that the people who had come out to the park were at least enjoying themselves.
As they walked, Jason tried to pay attention to everything that he saw. Buildings that likely once held small shops and restaurants were dark and boarded. A few shells of staging areas showed what was left of rides that had been removed but never replaced. At the far end of the main street was a Ferris wheel that spun lazily, three of the cars inhabited by families that gazed down at the rest of the park.
He looked to one side and noticed the roller coaster that he’d seen from the parking lot hadn't moved since he’d been there. They turned a corner and Jason realized that the ride was closed. The skeleton rose against the sky, pieces of the wood missing and the cars that had once soared along the tracks sat under the abandoned rails, grass and ivy trying to reclaim them.
"Why isn't the rollercoaster running?" Jason asked.
Mr. Kelsey stopped walking and looked at the still, silent ride. He sighed and Jason saw the sparkle in his eyes fade.
"That one's been down for a few years now. I always wanted to fix it up and give it a new theme, but I was just never able to do it."
"Having a coaster would really bring in the crowds."
"Maybe we can make that happen." He took a slightly shuddering breath, trying to retain the smile on his face. "We have to, Jason. This is all I have. This is all I have ever been."
Jason felt a twinge of sadness in the way that Mr. Kelsey said "we." Even though it was Jason's job to find someone who would make these things happen for him, he suddenly felt a sense of camaraderie toward this man and his dream.