Chapter : 40
Three Finger Cove Book 7: Mark
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Published: 20 Oct 2022


From Previous Chapter:

Ken, Levi and Wayne stopped at the hotel bar for a few adult drinks before going to bed that evening. The older boys stopped in Collin’s room to talk about Mr. Ken’s infatuation with Kate, and if there would be a long-distance romance in the making.

The travelers all got to bed at a decent hour that Sunday night. They all had interesting dreams, but one Cover had a dream that made him smile and take notice.


The travelers met in the hotel lobby at ten o’clock and Ron was waiting there for them. The teen’s mom had dropped him off on her way to work. The group decided to get a good breakfast before going out to the park, and Mr. Ken’s favorite place won out. Ron told Charles that he didn’t have much money and that he couldn’t afford a big breakfast, but the teen Cover told him not to worry and to just get what he gets.

It was close to one o’clock when the group arrived at the amusement park and Arnie asked Jason to take everyone over to the FFF Pass Booth to get them their Fastest Passes. Mr. Ken asked Jason to come back to the office, then, so the three of them could talk.

The group broke up as they had yesterday. Mr. Wayne, Collin, Robert, Eric, Charles and Ron went in one direction while Mr. Levi, Billy, Mark, Matthew, Kevin and Kyle headed in another.

Mark asked if they could ride some of the bigger rides, today, including the roller coasters. He said they didn’t look as bad as the ones at the other three parks and he wanted to try them out. The boy’s dad and Billy told the ten-year-old that they wouldn’t be riding with him, but Matthew and the twins said they would.

Back at the operations building, Mr. Ken sat down with Arnie, Jason and Arnie’s operations assistant, Richard, to talk about what he’d seen yesterday during his walk around. The park’s owner told Jason he appreciated his forward thinking in using the pressure washers to clean up where he felt it was needed.

Mr. Ken told Jason that everywhere he had the two new employees’ work, the food stand areas, the restrooms and their entrances, the main park entrance and the ride entrances themselves all looked great. He told the three that because of his thinking, what’s called ‘outside of the box’, he will be directing his new President of Three Finger Entertainment to implement that program at all of the parks when they all meet the weekend after Labor Day.

Mr. Ken then asked Arnie and Jason if they had their airplane reservations made to arrive that Thursday and then to return Sunday. He told them he already had hotel room reservations made for them at his Lakeside Hotel and they should receive an information packet by the first of September telling them that and about their rental cars.

He then asked Richard if he was ready to hold down the fort for that weekend. Richard told the park’s owner what better way to know if he was fully trained to run the park, than to have Mr. Arnolds gone and not available. The man added that he’d often run the park when Arnie took some time off, so this shouldn’t be any different.

Mr. Ken then talked to the three men about his run in with the food stand manager who refused to replace a soda. He told them that type of attitude was not in keeping with the fun atmosphere they were trying to create there at the park.

Mr. Ken added that he told the food supervisor to talk to the manager about his attitude, or to have him find a new job. Mr. Ken told them not to keep any employee who projects a bad work attitude or ethic, or ignores safety rules and regulations. All three men said they understood what he meant.

Mark and his group came up to the Himalaya and the four boys decided to ride. Mr. Levi and Billy decided to wait at the exit for the boys. The four boys thoroughly enjoyed the ride and when they got off, they were anxious to find another exciting ride.

The Octopus was the next ride the group came up to. Mr. Levi wasn’t sure if he should ride it or not. Billy told the man that he rode one just like it at Fantasy Fun Park and he didn’t have any problems afterwards. Mark asked his dad to ride it with him and he did. Billy paired up with Kyle this time and Matthew and Kevin rode together.

When the ride was over, Mr. Levi said he enjoyed the ride and it wasn’t as intense as he thought it would be. That was when Matthew asked every one if they could ride the train. Billy spoke up and sarcastically said he wondered when his ‘brother’ would ask to ride it. The boys all laughed, but the group found the train station and rode the train.

The group got off the train at the next station where Mark saw a roller coaster he wanted to ride. It was the Crazy Coaster, otherwise known as a Wild Mouse. The twins told their ‘brother’ that it was a fun ride with tight turns at the tops and then dips and turns after that.

Billy told Mr. Levi he rode it when they were there back in June and he was going to try it. He told the man that they sat one in front of the other and it wasn’t all that intense, but it did have a few tight turns that might jostle them.

Mark asked his dad to please ride it with him. Mr. Levi thought about it while they all activated their Fastest Passes. The twins were going to ride it together and Billy and Matthew were going to ride it together, that was, unless Mr. Levi didn’t ride with Mark, then he would ride with the novice.

Mr. Levi decided to ride the Crazy Coaster with Mark. He was a bit apprehensive and probably as much as Mark was, but for different reasons. At the top of the ride the coaster car went back and forth and the car looked like it would go off the edge before making the turn and continuing on. Mark laughed every time it did that.

As the coaster car began its descent, the car made some quick downward runs, then tight turns and went back up to lose speed, made a flat turn, then repeated and each time, the car looked like it would go off the end.

After the ride, Mr. Levi said, to no one in particular, “That was an interesting ride.” Then he laughed.

Billy asked him if he thought he shouldn’t have ridden it. Mr. Levi said a few times he thought that, but he was riding with his son and he was enjoying it immensely, so he felt it was worth it. The man did say he would be careful on other rides though. Billy reminded the man that this was their last day and they would be heading home tomorrow.

The boys didn’t have a plan of which rides to ride. They started out slow the day before, but after they met Kate and her two sons, Mark and Matthew rode more of the kiddie rides with the two younger boys, so they really didn’t get to ride the majority of the bigger rides.

With that in mind, the group told Mark and Matthew to find a ride they hadn’t ridden and they’ll ride it with them. The Tower of Terror was in view and Matthew said he wanted to ride that. Mark wasn’t too sure if he wanted to ride it.

His ‘big brother’ told him he rode the same type of ride with Mr. Dan, so he’d already done it once. Mark went with his ‘brothers’ and activated his Fastest Pass, but told them he may not get on when it was their turn.

But the ride operator knew the park owner’s kids were in the park, and he figured these were some of them. So, when the current ride was over, they called for the four to take their seats. The setup on this ride allowed all four to sit across and before Mark knew it Matthew sat him between himself and Kevin with Kyle on the end.

The ride attendant brought the shoulder harness down and gave the center strap for the boys to hook up themselves. That was so the ride attendant didn’t have to get near their private parts. Mark was still anxious about what was happening, so Matthew helped his ‘brother’ hook the center strap up and then pushed the shoulder harness down to make sure it was snug.

Before the group knew it, the ride operator released some air and the ride car bounced some to establish the weight to adjust the ride pressure for the shot. The ride was then shot up the tower. Mark screamed. His dad heard him and cringed. Billy laughed.

Then, just as the previous ride he rode with Mr. Dan did, the ride car bounced and then rose to the top. From up there, Mark got to see what the park looked like from about 250 feet up in the air. The Covers on the ride then heard some air being released and they knew the next thing that would happen would be they would fall. And then they did. But Mark didn’t scream. He laughed. He knew what to expect and after that, the ride car bounced a few times before it settled down into its cradle.

“Dad, dad did you see? I rode that big tower ride! It was fun,” exclaimed Mark.

“Yes, son, I heard you ahh … scream as you went up the tower,” chuckled Mr. Levi.

“Dad, it caught me by surprise. Anyway, I laughed as I came back down. I rode something like that with Mr. Dan at one of the other parks, so I knew what to expect,” explained the boy.

The group then looked for another ride to go on. They went past the Scrambler and Swinging Boat and Mark and Matthew said they wanted to ride something they hadn’t ridden yet and they could come back to them if they had time. The other boys agreed.

It was then they came up to another coaster, but this one was different from any of the other ones Mark had seen. He asked his ‘big brothers what type of coaster it was. Billy told his little ‘brother’ it was called Loud Thunder and was considered a wooden roller coaster even though it had a steel frame holding it up.

The teen told Mark and Mr. Levi the coaster was only 80 feet high and was a family out-and-back coaster and the ride wasn’t very long at 3400 feet long. The teen said it wasn’t all that rough, since it was a family ride, but he wasn’t going to ride it because of his internal injuries. He did encourage Mark to ride it since he’s ridden bigger coasters than that one.

Mark asked Matthew to ride with him and the two, along with the twins, quickly went up the exit to activate their fastest Passes. When they got to the top, the ride attendant told them to wait right there as they would be on the next ride. The boys smiled at hearing that.

When the coaster train came into the station, the rest of their group were on it. They greeted one another at the exit and then the ride attendant had the four Covers select their seats. Mark asked Matthew if they could sit up front. Matthew told his ‘brother’ they should sit in the second seat, first car, so Mark got to feel what it would be like first. So, that was where they sat

When the brakes were released, the coaster train rolled down the slight incline and around a curve and then caught the lift chain. The coaster train went slowly up the 80-foot first hill and Mark got a nice view of the park from that vantage point.

At the top of the hill, the first car rolled over the crest and sort of hung there waiting for the rest of the train to get off the chain. It took Mark’s breath away, as he was expecting to race down the hill instead of hanging and waiting.

When the rest of the train caught up with the first car the exhilaration that Mark expected was right there. The youngster at first took in a big breath, but then laughed as they went over the second hill and then down the next and up and down and so on and so on. Matthew was surprised that Mark was handling the roller coaster as well as he was.

When the ride was over, Mark ran to his dad and told him how much fun that ride was and how he wished he could have been able to have ridden it with him. The boy then hugged his dad.

The rest of the Covers stayed at the bottom of Loud Thunder wanting to see how well Mark handled the ride. They then decided to all stay together and ride the rides that Mark and Matthew missed yesterday because they rode with Rusty and Jessy.

The group came up to the Boomerang. Mark had seen it as they walked around with the younger boys the previous day, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Now he watched it go through its paces and wondered if he should ride it.

Billy saw his little ‘brother’ thinking about doing just that, so he went over to him and told the ten-year-old that he’d already ridden the Demon at Discovery Kingdom and this was very similar, but it did it both forwards and backwards. He recommended to Mark, though, that he should ride it with Collin, if he decided to ride it.

The boys were going up the exit to activate their Fastest Passes, and Mark had to hurry to catch up with them. When he got there, he yelled to Collin and asked him if he would ride with him. Robert was going to ride with his ‘big brother’, but told him that Mark needed a big person to ride something like that in order to feel safe.

Mr. Wayne heard what Robert said and was proud of him. He knew how much the teen, Eric and Charles looked up to their much older ‘big brother’ and wanted as much ‘together’ time as they could get with him before they parted tomorrow morning.

Collin told Mark he would love to ride with his newest ‘brother’, and to pick where he wanted to sit. Mark told him Mr. Dan told him to choose the middle seats on something he’d never ridden before, because he wouldn’t be ready for the front and back seats until he knew what to expect.

Because the ride attendants knew who the group of boys were, they had them wait right there at the exit and load right onto the coaster train when the current riders had gotten off. Some of the people in line complained, but the attendants told them they had Fastest Passes and let it go at that.

Mark took a middle seat, tightened his seat belt after he sat down, then pulled the over the shoulder harness down as tight as he could get it. Collin checked to make sure Mark was locked in securely and then told his newest ‘brother’, “Just sit back and enjoy.”

When the ride operator released the train, the back end went backwards up the 125-foot launch hill. Mark was surprised, at first, but then he remembered seeing that was what it did. When the train was at its highest point, the pull-back release disengaged and the train raced down the hill through the station, right into the cobra roll and then a vertical loop before racing up the other hill.

It happened so fast that Mark didn’t have much time to think or react to what just happened. And now he found the train he was in being pulled to the top of the opposite 125-foot hill. He was going to ask Collin about the ride, but when he began to open his mouth the train was released and he found himself going in reverse through the vertical loop, the cobra roll, the station house and partway up the first hill. The train was then slowly let back into the station where he first started and would get off.

“Well, what did you think of that ride, Mark?” asked a smiling Collin.

“It happened so fast. When we went into that first tight twisty turn I started to scream and didn’t stop until we got out of that loop. Didn’t you hear me?” replied Mark.

“You screamed? I didn’t hear you; I was laughing the whole time. That is a fun ride, my man!” offered Collin.

As the Covers got off the ride, the other Covers congratulated Mark for riding the Boomerang. The youngest Cover didn’t know what to say. Their friend Ron came over to him and asked him how old he was. When the teen learned he just turned ten, Ron told him he had ‘balls’ for a ten-year-old and should be proud of himself as he has friends who have eleven-year-old brothers who haven’t ridden it yet. Ron then patted him on the back as they walked down the exit.

Mark went over to his dad, but not as exuberantly as he had after some of the other rides he’d ridden. His dad asked him what was wrong. Mark told his father that the ride was intense and fast and so quick that the first part was over before he knew it, and when he went to ask Collin a question they were going backwards and were soon back in the station.

Levi asked his son if he liked it. Mark said, “Dad … I think I’d have to ride it again to know because … the ride was over so fast that I never got the chance to really experience it,” now laughed the boy.

The other Covers heard what Mark said to his dad and laughed right along with him. They asked him if he was ready to go again. Mark looked at them and said, “Maybe later.”

The groups stopped for something to eat. They all got a soft pretzel and a soda and this time Collin bought. As they sat around and talked about their trip, they asked Ron what his friends thought about his being out here these past two days.

Ron told them they didn’t believe him even after he showed them the picture back in June. And now they were jealous that he got to come out here and have Fastest Passes for two days. He said they all wanted to know how they could be so lucky. Everyone laughed.

Collin told Ron that they shouldn’t have let you come to the park alone back in June. But Ron quickly said that if he had his buddies with him back then, he would never have met them and he wouldn’t be there with his new friends right now, having the best time ever. All the Covers applauded. Mr. Wayne told Ron to be ready for when they came back for the park’s Christmas Wonders celebration. Ron smiled knowing he’d meet them again around Christmas time.

Food finished, the group headed off to ride something Mark and Matthew hadn’t ridden yet. Mathew suggested they head over to Top Spin. But as soon as that ride was mentioned, the twins warned Mark not to ride it. Kevin told Mark the ride spun around on the arms and also spun around in the arc, and the ride turned on the large arms through an arc as well. Both twins said they had headaches after riding it.

Mark said he would like to watch it and decide if he wanted to ride it or not. So, the group decided to head in that direction. Upon arriving there, the teens all ran up the exit to activate their Fastest Passes, but Mark wanted to watch the ride first.

Mr. Levi, the twins and Billy stayed with Mark as the youngster watched the ride go through its paces. Since Billy rode it back in June, he explained to the boy what the ride was doing as it twisted and turned on its axis. Mark watched the teens ride Top Spin and even though they looked as if they were laughing, he wasn’t too sure he would be. Mark decided he wouldn’t be riding it.

Kate Partlunds, the real estate woman Mr. Ken took a shine to the previous day at Crystal Park and whose boys, Rusty and Jessy, Mark and Matthew took on the Kiddie Rides came to the park about five o’clock and asked to talk to Ken Thomas.

When Mr. Ken heard she was there, he took a golf cart and went to where she and the boys were and met them. She asked him if he had time to talk and he told her he did and then asked her if they could drop the boys off with Mark and Matthew and let them ride some rides.

Mr. Ken asked the ride supervisors if they knew where his boys were and when he learned their location, he drove the golf cart there. Once there he asked the group to watch the two very young boys and get them on some rides while he and Kate talked.

Ken was going to drive back to the operations building, but Kate told him they didn’t need to go all the way back there. She just wanted to talk to him and ask him some questions about some phone calls she received today. Ken smiled and then drove over to a quiet area where they could talk and not be disturbed, but Kate could still see her boys.

“Ken … when I walked into work this morning … I had … I had a number of phone messages … and they were all from a real estate company … from back in Texas. My Broker … he … he wanted to know … how I knew this company … a company who I never ever heard of.

“So, I told him that I had no idea who they were and I would call them and ask them what this was all about. So, I did. … Do you know an Amy Ozarker?” asked Kate.

“Yes. She’s a lawyer and had done some legal work for me here, and is representing the two people running against the two incumbent commissioners. Why?” honestly answered Ken.

“Well, after I talked to Three Finger Real Estate, they referred me to her. She tells me that this Three Finger Real Estate Company … that they need a local real estate agent to represent them in their real estate dealings here.

“She added … well, she told me that they had already written a considerable number of contingency contracts and are willing to offer me 75% of their commissions … if I would follow each of them through to final settlement.

“Ken … did you have anything to do with this? Honestly now? Did you do this just for me? My Broker … he can’t believe that … that a Texas real estate company … would call me direct and offer me such a lucrative deal. So, tell me … did you have anything to do with this? Be honest with me, Ken!” begged Kate.

“Kate … I will be open and honest with you on this and will answer all your questions, but let me tell you what transpired. I own Three Finger Real Estate. And after we departed last night, I called my office manager. We talked and I asked them what the status was with all of the contracts we’d written along the highway that passes by the park, and out by the lake.

“My manager told me that their biggest hurdle was … that they were fifteen hundred miles away and that Amy Ozarker … that Amy could only do so much, as she had her legal practice to run. So … I asked them … I asked them that if I gave them a real estate contact here would they be able to work with them.

“They told me that since all the contracts were already written and were contingencies, the local real estate agent would be responsible to service the contracts, you know, stay in contact with the seller, answer any concerns they may have, hold their hands so to speak, and whatever else needed to be done to keep the contract from dissolving. Then, when we release the contingency, you would ensure the land surveys are completed and the seller’s agent sets a reasonable settlement date. Simple enough,” answered Ken.

Kate looked at Ken and just shook her head. She knew what he said was true, but she wondered why her? So, she asked him. Ken told her that he would have to have found someone, and he had, in her. He then told her that if she feels she isn’t qualified enough to handle the project, then she should say so, and he will find someone else. He told her he didn’t mean to cause any trouble at her office, and if he has to, he would gladly go and talk to her broker.

Kate told him that wouldn’t be necessary. She said that she could handle the contracts, but it was the total amount of the contracts that surprised not only her, but her Broker, as well.

“Kate … when I came here, and bought Crystal Lake, I was told that the road was going to be made into a five-lane divided highway. That was the primary reason I bought the park. With its proximity to the lake, I already had a second right-of-refusal on a portion of the lake property and I had planned to make the park into a destination place.

“What happened, after I bought the property, was that I learned that four of the seven commissioners were no longer on board to follow through with the highway project. Long story short, I proposed to them that I would pay their share to get the highway built.

“In the meantime, enough of the property owners along the proposed highway had also heard the commissioners weren’t going to build the highway for quite some time. So, they quickly put their properties up For Sale. I guess they didn’t want to have to pay taxes on the land for many years to come.

“When I was here, and saw all the For Sale signs, I had my real estate group make some enquiries. I then had them go in and make offers on practically all of the properties and put sweet deal contingency contracts on them,” explained Ken.

“But these contracts … they go out and they include lake properties as well, Ken,” stated Kate.

“Yes, they do. The owners of the park … they gave up their option on the lake property, too, knowing the commissioners weren’t going to build the highway. So, I picked it up and then some. I plan to expand the park using the lake and to put vacation and permanent homes out there, and I hope to build a new community eventually there, too, Kate,” added Ken.

“Ken … do you know how much commission … how much money I would make … if all of these contracts … if they all go through?” asked Kate.

“Yes, I know. But keep in mind … someone out here was going to make that commission. Why not let it be you?” finished Ken, with a big smile on his face.

Kate, too, smiled at his reasoning. She knew that if all those contracts went to settlement, she would have enough money to buy a nice house and put her sons through college if she invested it right. She couldn’t be happier and it was all because Jessy tripped and fell.

She also was thanking her lucky stars that she met a man, like Ken, who was not afraid of someone like her who already has boys of her own. Over the previous night she felt she got to know him and that he was open and honest with her.

She liked that he had two teenage boys of his own even though he was only twenty-six. She further liked that he took in and fostered boys who, through no fault of their own, needed a home, and he treated them as being part of his ‘family’ and not as income to run the house.

Even though they lived fifteen hundred miles apart, she hoped, with his owning the park, he would be there often enough she could get to know him even better, and that maybe something could develop between them. She knew she needed her mom to meet him, but since the boys had met him and his ‘extended family’, and liked them, she felt that wouldn’t be a problem.

She was in deep thought, when Ken said something to her that brought her out of it. He was telling her that she would have to get with Amy, and they would have to coordinate with his real estate company to transfer the contracts for her to administer. Ken told her there would be a contract between them and her, spelling out conditions, responsibilities, etcetera.

Kate was somewhat surprised at that, but then figured because they initiated the contracts and were only transferring them to her to administer, they needed to maintain complete control. She then told Ken that her broker wanted her to share the contracts with the other agents in the office. Ken laughed when he heard that.

“Kate … these contracts … they will be transferred to you and to you only. Since you are not a broker, your broker will also have to sign this agreement. That is so he understands the conditions of the transfer and that the contracts will be assigned to you and only you.

“The agreement will stipulate that those contracts will transfer to whichever agency you work for. That will ensure that after the agreements are signed and he thinks he can remove you from his agency and keep the contracts and assign them to someone else, he will find himself in a world of hurt.

“As the Broker, he will get his usual commission share and that will be spelled out in the agreement. Kate … once I own all of this property that is when the real money will be made.

“Don’t tell your broker this, but when I then sell many of those parcels to restaurant and hotel chains, who will want to get in on the action, as I begin to grow Crystal Lake into a destination park, who do you think I will use to sell them? Huh?” laughed Ken.

“Then, when I begin developing the vacation and permanent housing community out at the lake, who do you think I will want to handle that? If your broker has any smarts, he won’t make a stink over this, and he will see that there is a bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow waiting for him and his agency.

“It won’t happen overnight, mind you. The five-lane highway needs to be completed first and during that time the park will slowly be expanded. While that happens the hotels and restaurants will begin to materialize along the highway and the lake … it will be developed and before long the whole area will explode before our eyes,” finished Ken with a big smile for Kate.

Rusty and Jessy got to ride the Kiddie Rides again without really having to wait in line. But tonight, the twins took the two younger boys on them, while Mark and Matthew went on the bigger rides with their ‘brothers’.

The last ride the two hadn’t ridden was called Steel Attack. It was a steel roller coaster that had speed, tight turns, two inversions and a corkscrew. The boys went up the exit with the ‘brothers’ to activate their Fastest Passes and they didn’t have to wait as word got around to the ride operators who the group was.

Mark rode with Collin again, since it was his first-time riding Steel Attack. He screamed down the first hill and into the first inversion. He calmed down after that when he realized it was just like the other steel roller coaster he rode. As the boy relaxed, he smiled the rest of the ride and then thanked Collin for riding with him.

As they walked off the platform, Collin asked him if he wanted to try that again. Mark said he did. So, once the Covers were at the bottom of the exit, Collin and Mark went back up. Everyone asked what they were doing. They told them they were going to ride the Steel Attack, again. They quickly followed. Billy was bummed out he couldn’t ride.

Mark and Matthew went back and rode the Tower of Terror, Loud Thunder, the Himalaya, the Octopus, the Swinging Boat and the Crazy Coaster. Mr. Levi rode with his son when he could and Billy joined on those rides as well.

As the evening came along the lights came on in the park and the boys enjoyed a few of the rides that way too. They all chose to ride the out-and-back wooden family roller coaster, Loud Thunder, as their last ride before leaving for the night. Mr. Ken asked Kate to join him and his sons. She did, and the two rode together. Rusty and Jessy stayed with Mr. Levi and Billy while their mom rode the roller coaster.

The whole group went out to dinner that night, again. But this time they went to a buffet and they sat back in a corner. As they were in line, Mr. Wayne told the boys to let their ‘dad’ and Kate have their own table to talk and keep Rusty and Jessy busy. Mr. Wayne bought that night.

Ken and Kate were seen holding hands some during their meal and their smiles told anyone who looked that they were getting along very well like two adults do while they are getting to know one another. Ken did ask Kate if he could see her again. Kate was happy to hear that question and said he could. He told her he would call her when he could set it up.

After dinner, Rusty and Jessy hugged all of their new ‘big brothers’ before getting in their mom’s car. She thanked all of the boys for being such good ‘big brothers’ to her boys, and that they talked their grandmother’s ear off today, telling her all about them.

They all said their goodbyes and Kate and Ken gave one another a big hug and then they looked at one another before they separated. Then everyone went their separate ways.


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Three Finger Cove Book 7: Mark

By Chowhound

Completed

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