NOVEL NEXT Chapter 120: Why?
"We need to close the park," Luka suddenly said at lunch.
Two heads went still, then looked up. Eve, sitting beside him in the booth, gave him a terrible frown—like he just kicked her in the shin. Annie, sitting across from him and working on last minute wedding plans, gave an introspective frown. The idea wasn't an instant "no" for her, as weird as that sounded.
"Why?" Annie hesitantly asked.
Luka gestured at his plate of food. It was some type of meat and bread served with a small grain salad like bulgur wheat and parsley. It was also little Ren's first "signature dish" since receiving his divine blessing. Mr. Todd, for the low-low price of cooking for the bar staff for a week, allowed Ren to serve his food in the establishment as a trial run. Every plate of food was served with a small "review" card and pencil.
"It's good," Annie said, not seeing the point. "A little lemony, but that can be fixed."
"No, it can't!" shouted Ren from across the bar. He was sitting with his mom and Nicole, and together they were going over the review cards. "The marinade uses lemon and mooncitrus!"
"Cut one of those!" she shouted back before turning to Luka. "I don't get it. Why does Ren's food warrant closing the park?"
"Yeah!" snapped Eve. "Why would we ever close the park?"
Luka gave her a warm smile and tapped her on the nose—Eve flinched like a cat before smiling herself. "I wasn't gesturing at the food—although I agree, it's too lemon-y."
"Uhhhh!" groaned Ren.
"—No, what I was trying to address is this ever-growing pile of notes and things to do or fix."
The girls collectively looked below Luka's plate of food, finding the stack. It was wide and tall, hoisting the plate that sat on top to an uncomfortable eating level. It was also unorganized and mostly loose—a hearty wind could blow the papers to the four corners of the world, and there'd be nothing anyone could do about it.
"You want to close the park to finish making the park?" Annie asked.
"I do." Luka lifted his plate and found a specific note. "Tram and I talked about this weeks ago, actually. But back then we didn't want to kill the momentum of the park—and I think that's backfired a little. It's like I'm swimming upstream trying to finalize everything."
"It's been going well enough lately, why change things now?" Eve asked.
Luka made a face. "It has—don't get me wrong. But what happens when stuff starts breaking down? Every ride has moving parts and even with reinforcement and durability glyphs, parts rub, things shift, and paint chips. Eventually things will need actual maintenance—"
"And you can't be doing maintenance and creating new lands in the park."
"Exactly. I already feel myself spread too thin, and sooner or later it's going to come back and bite us."
Eve stared at him long and hard for a moment. Her eyes traced his curled lips—lips that never seemed to frown anymore while she was around. She spied his scratchy hair and unshaven beard, the bags under his eyes, and the dirt in his nails. Luka worked the most hours out of anyone in the park—even going as far as to work on designs while on a date with her! He put them away when he caught himself, but still—it was obvious the man was always thinking about the park.
And if he said they needed to close, then it was likely the best option.
"For how long?" Eve asked.
"Two weeks," Luka replied instantly. He pulled a piece of paper from the middle of the stack to the top. "Here, I did the math using Bestial Grove as a starting point. Granted, that themed land could have been completed earlier if the shipments of all the exotic plants didn't take so long, but I digress."
"Two weeks is reasonable," Annie said, drumming her fingers on the table. "And I wouldn't worry about killing the momentum. After the faithful's holy day, we're seeing record attendance with tons more wanting to come." She considered something and added, "In fact, we could use the park's closure as a marketing stunt. 'World Walker Park will be closing in preparation for our Grand Opening Extravaganza!'"
Luka hopped into what she was saying. "'New lands, new rides, more thrills, more magic, more imagination.'"
"And more bathrooms," Eve muttered, tugging on a suggestion slip in the stack of never-ending notes. "Always more bathrooms."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Laughing, Luka said, "I'll talk to Tram about it. Although, I have to make an appointment with her office now… or something. Oh, that reminds me, I need an assistant."
Annie's eyes turned to Eve. "She can do it."
Eve went to argue but faltered. "Well—I suppose I could."
Luka shook his head. "No. I don't want to force you into a position like that. It's going to be long hours and little reward. Besides, I need someone—you—I trust walking the park and dealing with problems the new hires won't have the experience to deal with."
"Is Frankimilianmaximilian not good enough?" she asked.
Quirking an eyebrow, Luka said, "We both know the answer to that—yes he is. But we also both know the park's too big for just one person who knows what they're doing."
Annie smirked a little. "You just wanted to use his real name, didn't you?"
Eve's eyes found the corner of the ceiling. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She then smiled devilishly. "On a completely different note, have either of you seen Alex? I want to tell her something embarrassing about her beloved."
They laughed for a while, dined on more of Ren's dishes, and worked through their mountains of work. Eventually it was time to get back to the park and continue work there.
"Everything ready with the wedding?" Luka asked his daughter.
She carried a thick binder full of details—caterers, music lists, guest invitations. "Yeah." She went quiet before asking, "Is it weird I'm feeling more nervous about this wedding than I did my first one?"
"That's strange. I wonder why?"
"I think it's a combination of being on this world with you, and the fact that our first wedding was rushed and we only invited a handful of people."
"Why was that? Surely you had the money for a large wedding."
Annie poked him in the chest. "We did. But someone made the idea of marriage seem evil to me, so I didn't want to hold a massive wedding and then end up divorced later on."
Ah. Luka didn't have to read too far between the lines. Annie was scared Vlad would turn out like him and eventually leave her, thus rendering the wedding, marriage, and love null. There would be no point in a large service because she didn't fully trust love yet.
"Well," Luka said, "sorry, first of all. And I'm glad things worked out well for you two. I like Vlad, and I like the way he treats you."
"I do too," Annie replied with a snort. "That's why I married him. And it's why I'm going to marry him a second time."
Eventually Annie veered off to find the groom and finalize some details. That left Eve and Luka together.
"Finally," Eve mumbled, "thought she'd never leave."
Luka stopped and raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh?"
Eve turned a shade redder and held out her hand. Luka smiled and interlaced his fingers with hers. "You're kinda cute when you're embarrassed, you know that?"
She turned redder. "Someone's mentioned that before, yeah."
They walked in warm silence, passing guests and park employees. It was after lunch and the morning crowds were gone. In an hour or two the evening crowds would show up, specifically the locals of Sneerhome finally off work and ready to be thrilled.
"We need that teleportation hub up and running," Luka whispered to himself. Then, to the open air, he said, "Maybe one of the gods could trade the components as payment for their divine plots in the park?"
A glowing butterfly passed by—the bait had drawn a big fish it seemed. Or there just so happened to be a glowing butterfly flying around. But what were the odds of that?
"I'm still a little hesitant on closing the park," Eve said. "What am I going to do during that time?"
That was a good point, one Luka hadn't thought of. Closing the park would mainly be for him, and only him. The other employees would be jobless for two weeks. He supposed they could pay them normal wages for these weeks, but that seemed a little… expensive.
"I don't know," he said to Eve. "I'll talk to Tram and we'll work it out. Maybe we can host tours around the park during the closure or something."
"That's an idea. I don't know how popular they'd be."
"Maybe the gods can create another park layered on top of this one. Then I can work on the real park while the fake is open."
The same glowing butterfly passed by, but this time it whispered, "No."
Luka frowned. "That's just rude. Told off by a bug."
The butterfly landed on a guest's head and glared at Luka.
They ignored the bug and continued on, eventually finding their separation point. Luka leaned over and planted a small kiss on Eve's forehead.
"I'll see you later," he said.
"Y-yeah," Eve slurred, her green skin completely red.
***
"You want to close the park!?" Tram practically shouted.
"I think we need to. Otherwise, I'm going to drown in trying to get everything to a level position."
Tram looked as if she was about to bite Luka's head off—then, all of a sudden, she turned serene. "This is a good idea, actually. We can market the closure and reopening. 'World Walker Park will be closed in preparation for our Grand Opening Extravaganza.' Or something like that."
Luka eyed her—that was oddly similar to what Annie had said. "Yeah… something like that."
Tram nodded as if everything was right in the world, then paused. "Wait. What about all the employees? What are they going to do for two weeks?"
"I was thinking about that. We could host guided tours of the park while we finish the rest of it up. We could also go to news organizations and pay to have one of their editors come out—like a media day sort of thing. Those would both need employees to work. Then we can also properly train all the new employees. Give them odd scenarios to work out, shift them around to different jobs in case that's ever needed, and we could even train them in hospitality and de-escalation."
"Media day, eh?" she quietly asked.
"It's a thing on Earth. Don't know how well it would translate here."
"Contact Stell Metus at the Sneerhome Chronicle. He should have some sort of idea." Tram hesitated. "Also, tell Metus our plans to close the park. He should be the one to break the news."