by Madyson Grey
“It will probably take them a day or two to get over the scare,” Ted told Rafael. “They had to be milling around right here when the others were killed. They’re all in here together.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Rafael agreed. “I’m glad the horses are in another corral. I’d sure hate to have anything happen to them.”
It was lunchtime when Rafael was seated at his own kitchen table with Victoria and Lena that he remembered he’d promised to get Lena a doggy door for Rosie.
“Sorry, Mama Lena, I forgot all about the doggy door,” he said apologetically.
“No problem,” she said dismissively. “You’ve had more important things to take care of than a little doggy door.”
Right after lunch, Rafael called one of the carpenters that had worked on the farmhouse and asked him about installing a doggy door. The man told him that he could come out the next morning and do it.
“Would you like the kind that has a sensor that goes on the dog’s collar that opens the door? That way no other critter can get in your house,” the man said.
“Sounds great,” Rafael told him. “Go for it.”
He told Lena what he had found out and told her to figure out where she wanted the doggy door to be put. She told him there was only one logical place that went from her living room out into the fenced back yard and pool area.
So with that settled, Rafael turned his attention to his computer and checking in on Thornton-Rivera Enterprises business. He also put in a call to George in North Carolina at the Smoky Trails RV Park to see how things were going back there. He knew everything was probably fine, but he wanted to touch base with him anyway, just to begin nurturing a working relationship with him.
After that call, he placed one to Ben at ThornRiver RV Park in Nevada to do the same thing. This one was different, in the respect that there was work to be done there, and he wanted to see how it was coming along. Ben reported that the restroom renovation was well under way, and he thought it would look real nice when it was finished.
“Please email me some photos when it’s all finished,” Rafael asked him.
“Sure thing, Mr. Rivera,” Ben said.
“Please call me Rafael, or Rafe,” Rafael said.
“Okay, Rafe,” Ben responded. “I’ll send pictures of the progress, if you’d like.”
“That would be great,” Rafael said. “And after the restrooms, I’d like to see the office and store building painted inside and out.”
“Sure thing, Rafe,” Ben said.
“We’ll be over there in a couple weeks or so to check on things,” Rafael told him.
“Sounds good,” Ben said. “See you then.”
That evening Rafael and Victoria were in the family room watching the news on TV. The newscaster reported that a variety of animals all over the LA area had either gone missing or were found dead and gutted, just as their sheep and heifer had been killed. The killings were being linked to a Satanist cult in the area who used the animal organs for ritualistic practices.
“Sick. That’s just sick,” Victoria said disgustedly.
“No doubt,” Rafael said. “People are sick.”
Chapter Five
Since it was only about three weeks until Thanksgiving, Victoria began making plans for the holiday. She and Rafael had agreed to invite as many of the family as wanted to come, and to include the three managerial couples. Everyone could contribute to the meal, but they would have the dinner at their house.
Victoria immediately began to invite people. Of course, Lena was there and her folks would come up. Manuela was happy to be invited. Mateo was still in jail, so he wouldn’t be there. Uncle Mac and Aunt Diane responded favorably, too, swelling the number to eight, so far. Rafael would extend invitations to the three couples the next morning when he went down to the park. The other employees would be given fifty-dollar gift cards to be spent as desired.
The next day when Rafael extended the invitation to Mickey, Ted, and Jim, Mickey told him that they already had plans to spend the day with Sarah’s sister and brother-in-law who lived in Oceanside. Ted and Jim both said that they’d have to check with their wives, but as far as they knew, they had no other plans.
Rafael texted the information up to Victoria who was still at home, so she could begin planning the meal and seating arrangements. There would be twelve for dinner at this point. Right after lunch when Victoria went down to the park, Jim’s wife Jan waved her over to the farmhouse where she was posted.
“Thank you so much for the invitation to Thanksgiving dinner,” she said to Victoria. “I was feeling a little blue because we don’t have any family in the area, and this would be our first Thanksgiving with just the two of us. Usually, we’re together with one or more of our kids or siblings, or some of the family. So it will be nice to be with you.”
“We’re glad to have you, and have time to just visit and get better acquainted on a personal level, not just at work,” Victoria said, patting Jan’s shoulder.
“Can I bring anything?” Jan asked.
“Yeah, I’m planning on having everyone bring something. I just haven’t gotten it all together yet to figure out what. It will be something easy like a vegetable, or a pie, or something like that.”
“I do make a pretty mean pecan pie, if I do say so myself,” Jan said modestly.
“Well, I’ll just put you down for pecan pie, then. Can you make two?”
“How about three? You say there are going to be twelve people?”
“So far, that’s the count.”
“I’d best do three pies, then.”
“Thanks, Jan. That’ll be great. Pecan is one of my favorites. Say, do you happen to know if Ted and Darlene have other plans, or if they are coming to our place?”
“No, I don’t,” Jan answered. “Since today is her day off, I haven’t seen her to talk to her today.”
“Okay, I’ll catch up with her before too long.”
Back at home, Victoria worked on the Thornton Park website, and put up a notice that the park would be closed for the Thanksgiving weekend, but would reopen Sunday morning as usual. Then she worked on both of the websites for the two RV parks that they had recently acquired. Both of them needed reworking, as they really weren’t very good sites.
She spent most of the afternoon until suppertime on the websites. She got the Smoky Trails one looking pretty good and more user-friendly, but only made a good dent in the ThornRiver site. It would take a lot more work.
The week before Thanksgiving, Rafael and Victoria made a hurried trip over to Las Vegas to check in on the progress of the work on ThornRiver RV Park. Things were coming along nicely. The restrooms were finished and looked really great with the new tile floors, new fixtures, fresh paint, and new mirrors. Now they were restrooms that they would be pleased to use.
“If it isn’t good enough for us, it’s not good enough for our guests,” Rafael told Victoria as they looked things over.
“I agree,” she said. “Why should anyone have to use substandard facilities while paying to be here? These showers are really nice now. I wouldn’t hesitate to use one myself. Now if the employees will just keep them clean like this, we’ll be happy.”
“I’ll see to it that they do,” Rafael stated firmly. “When you’re reworking the park websites, I want you to put in a page where guests can leave feedback for our parks. I want to know if anyone is rude to them, if the facilities aren’t clean, or whatever isn’t up to snuff.”
“Consider it done.”
The painters had the outside of the building about half done, and what was done looked so much nicer. They had chosen a pastel shade of sage green with a darker trim, and they both liked it really well. The interior rooms were to be done in a cream color. The building contained the registration office, a small convenience store/gift shop, a game room, and a laundry room. The gift shop and store was the best part of the whole place, and was very well stocked.
Victoria inspected the washers and dryer
s while Rafael tested all the video games to make sure that they worked properly. She talked to a couple of campers who were in there doing laundry, asking them how they viewed the laundry room in particular and the whole park in general.
“Well, I’ve seen better machines,” one lady told her. “I guess mostly they’re dirty. They seemed to work all right, but I had to wipe off the ones I used before I wanted to put my clothes into them.”
“Yeah, me, too,” the other lady put in. “The dryer lint screens weren’t cleaned out either, and the folding table was dusty. It just looks like nobody has bothered to clean in here in weeks.”
“Thank you for your feedback,” Victoria said. “My husband and I just bought the park about three weeks ago, and this is the first time we’ve been back to really check things out. We had the restrooms remodeled first, because I thought they were gross. And restrooms are so important to be clean and nice. But we have plans to work over the entire park, so hopefully the next time you’re through here, it will be a lot nicer than it has been this time for you.”
“We come to Las Vegas every fall for my husband’s birthday,” one lady told her. “But this is the first year we’ve stayed in this park. We had already told each other that we’d never stay here again, but if you’re working on it, we’ll give you another chance next year.”
“How about you?” Victoria asked the other woman. “Do you come here often?”
“No, we’re from back east and on a once-in-a-lifetime trip across country. But we’ve been disappointed in the park, too. The restrooms are really nice, though. We could tell that they are new, and we see that the building is being repainted.”
“If you two wait right here, I’d like to give you something. What are your names?”
“I’m Jeannie Rafferty.”
“My name’s Sue Cole.”
Victoria went to find Rafael to relate to him what the guests had just told her.
“I’d like to give them a discount coupon, if it’s okay with you,” she told him.
“Sure. Whatever you want to do, go for it.”
Victoria went into the office storeroom and found some paper to write on. On one sheet she wrote: “This entitles Jeannie Rafferty to 50% off her next stay at ThornRiver RV Park. No expiration date.
Victoria Rivera, co-owner.”
On the other sheet of paper she wrote: “This entitles Sue Cole to a 50% discount on anything in the store, no restrictions. Victoria Rivera, co-owner.”
She folded the sheets of paper in half so that the writing showed on top, took them into the laundry room and handed each sheet to the right lady.
“Oh, wow! Thanks a lot!” Jeannie exclaimed. “That’s really nice of you.”
“Yes, thank you very much,” Sue added. “I really appreciate it. I’ve had my eye on a turquoise and silver bracelet that I couldn’t really afford. But with this, I think I’ll get it. Unless my husband wants something, too. I should share it with him. Anyway, thank you very much.”
“You’re both very welcome,” Victoria said warmly. “I’m glad to do it. Your feedback is very important to me. Before too long, I hope, I’ll have the website revamped, too, and I hope you’ll check it in a couple of weeks and leave a comment on how your stay was. It will be valuable to us and to future guests.”
Both ladies told her that they would remember to do that. Rafael came in about that time and Victoria introduced him to the women. Rafael assured them that they would continue to upgrade and improve the park, so that on subsequent visits, they would find it much nicer.
Later that day, after they had covered the campground thoroughly and made tons of notes, they sat down with Ben and went over the list with him.
“Now, I know that much of this will take time to get done. We’ve made a start, and we’ll keep at it until everything is just as nice as we can make it,” Rafael said. “However, there are some things that we see that desperately need attention now, that you and the other workers can take care of daily.”
He went on to stress the importance of having a clean facility, both inside and out. Daily cleaning of the inside of the building would be mandatory. Dusting, cleaning the laundry machines and folding table, washing windows, sweeping and mopping the floors with a clean mop every day, and keeping the merchandise and shelving dust-free was imperative.
Keeping litter picked up outdoors was mandatory, too. They would be provided with grabbers and buckets to use to pick up the trash. In fact, before they went back home, Rafael and Victoria would go into town and purchase all the cleaning supplies that the park would need for a while, and set up accounts at the appropriate places so that the manager could replenish supplies as needed.
Keeping up the landscaping, mowing, watering, weeding, and pruning bushes and planting flowers would be ongoing. The park was going to sparkle, or they would know the reason why. Ben actually seemed relieved to hear that the new owners were taking such an interest in the park and would enforce the rules of cleanliness.
“Just between you and me,” he said in a low tone, “Cleo needs to go.”
Cleo was one of three park workers. She lived nearby and had worked at the park for twenty years.
“She thinks she’s been here so long that she doesn’t have to do much of anything but show up and run the cash register,” Ben complained. “She won’t cooperate with me, and when I’ve tried to push her, she runs to Joe, the old owner, and whines to him and then he would get on my case.”
“Thanks for that information, Ben,” Rafael said. “I’ll take care of her, don’t you worry.”
“Good luck on that,” Ben said wryly. “She can be a little hellcat when she’s crossed.”
“I’ve dealt with hellcats before,” Rafael said confidently.
Victoria looked at him with curious surprise, but he offered no explanation.
“The other couple are seasonal workampers, so they’re only here for the winter months. Their contract is up the end of March. They are free to re-up, or we’ll be hiring a new couple for the summer season,” Ben explained. “So far, they’re doing a fair job. They’re in their early seventies, and not real ambitious, but they’re nice to the campers, and that’s important.”
“How do you get by with only three workers?” Victoria wanted to know. “That’s not enough, is it?”
“It’s all that Joe would allow me,” Ben said. “I’m on with Cleo, and then Bob and Betty work the two days a week that we’re off. That’s part of the problem. We’re spread too thin to keep up on all the cleaning and yard work.”
“I’d like to hire a full-time yard and maintenance man,” Rafael said. “He can do all the yard work, and fix things that break down.”
“If we hire a couple, the woman could do all the cleaning of the restrooms and the building,” Victoria put in. “A full-time cleaning person could keep the place pretty much spotless.”
“Good idea,” Rafael said. “We’ll put an ad in the local papers for just such a couple. Then you and Cleo and the workamper couple should be able to handle the registration and store, shouldn’t you?”
“Easy,” Ben said. “That would be wonderful.”
“What if we put in a mobile home here somewhere for the maintenance couple to live in?” Victoria suggested. “That could be part of their pay, to have free housing. Oh, another thing. They would have to have two days a week off, so who’s going to do the cleaning those two days?”
“What about a second workamper couple?” Ben suggested. “Give them a free space and propane, and they’ll do the yard work and cleaning just two days a week.”
“Is that how the workamper thing works?” Rafael asked. “We don’t know much at all about the RV lifestyle. We learned a bit on our summer vacation, but I’m sure there’s a lot that we don’t yet know.”
“Yeah, usually if you’re hiring for just a couple of days a week, the workers get a free space, and maybe free laundry and propane. It varies from park to park, depending on the number of hours worked, the typ
e of work, and how nice the owners want to be,” Ben told him.
“We want to be nice enough to attract quality workers,” Rafael said. “Good employers usually can keep good employees.”
“True,” Ben agreed. “There are several websites dedicated to workampers, so you can look there for the one couple.”
“Cool. Give me the web addresses and I’ll do that,” Rafael said.
Ben took a few minutes and wrote out several addresses of the most popular websites for workampers on a sheet of paper and gave it to Rafael, who thanked him for them.
They talked a while longer, discussing the various aspects of the park, and revisiting the list of renovation projects that they had made when Rafael bought the park. It was nice to be able to check off the restroom remodel. Just that day, the painters had completed another side of the building, leaving just the back side yet to do. They would start on the inside just as soon as they finished the outside.
The next project would be to pave the roads into and inside the park, including all the RV pads. After that was done, attention could be turned to the landscaping and beautifying the grounds.
Rafael and Victoria stayed a couple of days there long enough to fire Cleo, the problem employee, and hire a maintenance couple, a second workamper couple, and a local woman to replace Cleo. As predicted, Cleo didn’t go without a tantrum. But Rafael was firm, and in the end she picked up her personal things, her final paycheck, and left in a huff.
It would take time to put in the mobile home for the maintenance couple, but they were willing to wait, and to live in their RV in the park until such time as the home could be put in. It would go in next door to Ben’s mobile home, where there was already a pad, but they would need to find a suitable mobile to put in there. Rafael authorized Ben to go with the new couple to pick out a good used single-wide and have it moved in and set up.
Chapter Six