Shelly's Arc

Chapter 1 of 12

Shelly spread the blueprints across the ticket booth counter and weighed the corners with soda cans. The park behind her hummed with afternoon crowds, kids screaming down the orange slide that wrapped the tallest cactus tower. She tapped the empty plot on the map. "We need one ride people drive across the desert to see. Something they can't get anywhere else." Esther stood beside her in a straw hat, arms crossed against the sun she hated. She had been Shelly's friend long enough to know when Shelly was scared under the planning. "A drop slide," Esther said. "Straight down the middle spire. Riders sit inside a hollow cactus, the floor gives out, they fall through a glass tube into the lagoon." Shelly grinned for the first time that morning. "That's it. That's the ride." Then her phone buzzed. It was her booker at the small theater two lots over. He was calling to say goodbye. Malcolm Whitfield had bought the theater that morning. He had also bought the mini-golf and the arcade on the same strip. Shelly set the phone down slowly. Every venue around her park now belonged to the man who ran the casinos. He arrived within the hour, white suit, dark glasses, hands in his pockets like he was strolling through property he already owned. "Shelly. Good to see the place still standing." "You're boxing me in, Malcolm." "I'm investing. There's a difference." "You're buying every ticket a family could spend before they reach my gate." He smiled under the mustache. "Then give them a reason to walk the extra block. That's business." "This town isn't a board for you to sweep clean," Shelly said. "People live here. Esther's store feeds half of them. My brother grew up on that slide. Stop being greedy for five minutes and look around." Malcolm's smile thinned. "Greedy is a word people use when they're losing. I made you a courtesy visit. I'll make you an offer next week. Sell the park to me, and I'll keep your name on the sign." "No." Shelly rolled up the blueprints and tucked them under her arm. "I'm building the drop slide. When it opens, families will drive past every theater you own to get here." Malcolm tipped his hat and walked back toward his black car. Esther watched him go, then turned to Shelly. "He'll come at you harder now." "I know." Shelly looked up at the cactus tower and pictured a glass tube running straight through its heart. She had refused the buyout, and now she had to build the ride before Malcolm found a way to starve her out. The countdown had started the moment she said no.