Shelly's Arc

Chapter 9 of 12

Shelly woke to a full inbox and a fuller reservation list. She poured coffee and stared at the roster tacked to the wall. Eight days out. Half a crew. She started dialing every temp agency in the county. Two didn't answer. One laughed. The last quoted her a rate that would eat her opening week margin whole. She hung up and put her forehead on the desk. The phone rang under her cheek. It was Amina. "I saw the news segment," Amina said. "Reservations are up." "Doubled," Shelly said. "And I've got fourteen people to run a park built for thirty." Amina was quiet for a beat. "District four has a job fair board that's been dead for two years. The corridor lost its factories. People there want work. Real work, not one shift." "I can't train fourteen strangers in eight days." "You train six good ones and they train the rest," Amina said. "I'll be there tomorrow at seven. Have your job descriptions ready." Shelly held the phone after the line went dead. Amina had called her. Not the other way. She wrote out the roles by hand until the sun came up. Amina arrived in a white van with fifteen people from her district. She lined them up on the cantina patio and introduced each one by name and last job. A retired line cook. Two former ride operators from a shuttered county fair. A lifeguard who'd worked six summers at the public pool. A woman who ran register at a shut-down hardware store for eleven years. Shelly walked the line and shook every hand. Amina watched her do it. "Pay them fair," Amina said, low. "They came because I asked. Don't make me a liar." Shelly nodded and meant it. George rolled up on a service cart with a clipboard and a grin. "Chief, point me at them. I can teach a rock to run a slide gate in three days." He split the group by role and started with the ride operators at the base of the tall cactus slide, walking them through the gate sequence, the lap-bar check, and the emergency stop. By day six, the cook had the cantina line moving in under four minutes a ticket. The lifeguard had drilled the pool team on rescue rotations twice a shift. George certified the ride crew on the twin feeder slides and signed off on the main tower drop the night before opening. Shelly walked the park at dusk with Amina beside her. The staff moved like they'd been there a season. "I owe you two now," Shelly said. Amina shook her head. "You owe them. I just made the call." Shelly looked at the roster in her hand. Every line was filled. She folded it and put it in her pocket.