by Madyson Grey
He got up and paced the room, thinking. Then he called for his assistant to come into the room.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rivera, this is Judy Holt, my assistant director,” Mr. Hillman said when the woman entered his office.
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Rafael said, rising to shake hands.
Victoria followed suit.
“I’m happy to meet you, too, Mr. Rivera, Mrs. Rivera,” Mrs. Holt replied.
When they were all seated again, Mr. Hillman explained to Mrs. Holt what the Riveras suggestion was. She, too, thought it was an excellent idea.
“Who is this reporter that wants to do this interview?” Mrs. Holt asked.
“Her name is Carmen Blakely, and she hosts a program called Live in Los Angeles,” Rafael told her.
“I’ve seen that program a lot,” Mrs. Holt said. “I think it’s really good. If it’s her that will do the interviewing, I’m all for it.”
“Here is her card,” Rafael said, holding out a business card to Mrs. Holt. “You may call her yourself and make the arrangements.”
“Thank you. I’ll do that right away. With your permission, of course, Gene,” Mrs. Holt said.
“Certainly!” he said. “Go for it. Be sure to schedule it for when I’m here, too.”
“Oh, of course.”
“Well, we’ll be going then,” Rafael said as he and Victoria stood to their feet. “That was what we came for.”
Victoria nudged him and he looked questioningly at her.
“The park,” she said.
“Oh, yeah. One more thing, Mr. Hillman,” Rafael said. “This park that I mentioned earlier. We would like to extend an invitation to you to bring your women out to the park for the day sometime, at your convenience. It’s open seven days a week, ten to six-thirty. Of course, the admission to your group would be free.”
“What all do you have there?” Mr. Hillman asked.
“We have a small replica pioneer farm, with a farmhouse and barn, and animals that the visitors can pet. We have old-time skills demonstrations such as spinning, milking the cow, blacksmithing, butter churning, candlemaking, and so on.
“We have a nice gift shop, and a miniature train that runs throughout the park. We have a lovely botanical garden, and there are paths that meander throughout the park property that is left in a more natural state. There are signs posted by many of the trees and plants that identify them.
“It’s fairly simple place, taking people back to a simpler, slower way of life. You are welcome to come check it out first to see if it’s someplace you’d like to bring your girls.”
“It sounds really nice,” Mr. Hillman said. “Security is my only concern. If there happened to be one or two unscrupulous men in the crowd, it would only take seconds for them to grab one or more of our girls.”
“I understand. What if you only bring a few at a time, say five or six of them, with enough adults to pair up with them?” Rafael suggested.
“That might work. Although I know the girls would have fun all going together,” Mr. Hillman said.
“How many do you have here?” Victoria asked.
“Right now we have 136 women, including the fifty from the raid you folks were instrumental in.”
“That is a lot to keep track of in public,” Victoria agreed. “Maybe it would be better to divide the group up.”
“Well, we’ll think about it and see what we can do,” Mr. Hillman said. “I really appreciate your kind offer, and as soon as we can figure out how to bring them over safely, we’ll do it.”
“That’s great,” Rafael said. “I think they would enjoy it. Oh, and by the way, here’s a little something for the kitty.”
Rafael pulled a check out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Mr. Hillman.
“Thank you, sir,” Mr. Hillman said fervently. “Thank you both very much.”
The amount on the check was $50,000.
Since they were out anyway, Rafael and Victoria decided to fool around for a while rather than going straight back home. They stopped for lunch at an interesting looking place, and afterward Rafael indulged Victoria’s yen to cruise a nearby shopping mall. They didn’t head for home until nearly suppertime.
Right after supper, they rode the quad over to the park. It was just at closing time and Rafael wanted to pick up the day’s receipts to put in the bank the next morning. He met up with Mickey who assured him that the day had gone well.
Victoria went into the gift shop to take a quick inventory and see what they were getting low on, so she could place some orders over the weekend. One thing she wanted to be diligent about was making certain that the gift shop was well stocked and they never ran out of things.
The old-fashioned toys had been a smash hit with both adults and kids alike. Parents and grandparents bought the toys for their young’uns, and kids bought them with their own spending money. Of course, the soda fountain was a bit hit, too. So far, everything they were doing was working really well. All the employees told them that the visitors were just enthralled with the place, and were full of compliments.
Rafael and Victoria rode back home full of joy that their dream was so successful so far, and that so many people were enjoying the park. Their employees all seemed happy, too, so far. They paid generously, and gave the employees all a twenty-five percent discount in the gift shop, and free admission to the park for every member of each employee’s immediate family. Happy employees are loyal employees is what Rafael believed, and Victoria agreed with him.
Sunday Rafael and Victoria flew back to Des Moines, Iowa, to inspect the last property on their list. They arrived in the early afternoon, rented a car, and found a place to eat first off. Then they located the building that they owned there. But because it was Sunday, the building was closed up, so they amused themselves by driving around town, exploring, before locating a hotel for the night.
Monday morning they did their inspection on the building, and found most everything to be in order. There were a few minor repairs that needed attention, but when they told the building superintendent about them, he was already aware, but said that there wasn’t enough money left in his budget for that month to do them. He had had some other repairs that were more urgent that depleted the maintenance account rather quickly.
So Rafael authorized him to spend another couple thousand to fix these other things, and send the bills to headquarters. The super was so grateful for Rafael’s dedication to keeping up the building in good repair, and for authorizing the extra needs. After the inspection was complete, they went to lunch. Then, on the recommendation of their building super, they went to check out the state capitol building.
They were not disappointed. The Iowa capitol building is a beautiful edifice. Its 23-karat gold leaf dome gleamed in the sunlight, and inside, many interesting things captured their attention. A one-quarter scale model of the USS Iowa, was eighteen feet seven inches long. Rafael was quite taken by it and studied it from all angles.
Victoria was liked it, too, but was more interested in the array of dolls that represent Iowa’s forty-one First Ladies in their inaugural gowns. They were both interested in the huge mural painting titled Westward that covers the full length of the east wall, painted by Edwin H. Blashfield. It’s a stylized representation of the pioneers who came and settled Iowa.
After a quick look around, they discovered that they could take a guided tour that was starting in just a few minutes. All of it was very interesting, but Rafael’s favorite part was the climb to the Whispering Gallery. After climbing ninety steps arranged in a very tight spiral staircase, the tour guide went to the opposite side of the dome to demonstrate the fabulous acoustics. Speaking in a normal tone of voice, her words were heard across the dome as if she were standing right in the midst of the group.
“This is really amazing,” Rafael whispered to Victoria.
“No kidding,” she whispered back.
After the tour was completed, Victoria had to visit the gift shop to pick up a souv
enir of their experience. Then they took off to go to the airport in time to grab a bite to eat before their flight left at 7:55 that evening. They got home rather late that night, and went straight to bed.
With the completion of the inspection tour, they made out a tentative schedule to repeat the inspections beginning again in January. This time, they decided to schedule the more distant locations for spring and summer, and do the California locations during January and February. It was better than thinking they needed to travel during the winter months, or postponing the inspections as they had done the previous winter.
A couple of days after returning from Des Moines, Rafael received an email from Carmen Blakely with the video interview attached. He called Victoria into the office to watch it with him. They were both pleased with how well the interview had been edited. The full story was there, only it was concise and to the point. The horrific crime of human smuggling was emphasized, while Victoria’s kidnapping and rape were downplayed.
Not that the kidnapping was presented as unimportant. On the contrary. It was presented as the awful reality of what these evil men were capable of. But it took a back seat to the focus on human trafficking and its horrors.
Rafael emailed back their approval and asked if Carmen had gone to Angel’s Retreat yet. She said not yet, but she had an interview that afternoon. He also asked if she knew what the air date would be so they could be sure to watch it when it came on. Carmen didn’t know, but said that she would let them know just as soon as she did.
Thornton Park consumed most of their time for the first several weeks it was open. Not that they were actually needed on site, but they were like kids with new toys, and were just obsessed with being there most of the time to see how things were going.
They were learning what excellent choices they had made in the three couples they had hired. The other employees were great, too, but the three live-in couples were proving to be invaluable assets to them. Not only did they really know their stuff, they also were wonderful with the public, and had meshed together and worked in concert like well-oiled machinery.
Rafael knew that he and Victoria could be gone for weeks at a time and the park would thrive. The only thing that they were needed for at this time was to make the nightly bank deposits and to keep the gift shop stocked. But he had plans to relieve themselves of even those duties, because they wanted to do some traveling that summer. That motorhome of theirs was just begging to be taken out to play.
He knew by now that Mickey could be trusted to handling the deposits. And Lena was as interested in the gift shop as was Victoria, so he knew that between the two of them, it would be well taken care of. Lena may have only been a cook and housekeeper all her life, but she was no dummy. She had a keen eye for great merchandise, and a listening ear to what the customers wanted. She was working only two days a week in the gift shop, but already knew more about it than even Sarah did, and Sarah was great.
So it was with confidence that Rafael approached the subject of an extended vacation to Victoria, who was all for it, provided the park would be all right with them gone.
“I am quite confident that our park managers are capable of running things without us. I doubt that Walt Disney spent every waking moment at Disneyland, and our little park is nothing compared to Disneyland,” Rafael assured her.
“Yeah, not quite,” Victoria giggled. “So where do you want to go, and how long do you want to be gone?”
“Well, we’ll have to figure all that out. Why don’t we both start making a list of all the places we’d like to go and things we’d like to do, and then match them up to plot an itinerary,” Rafael suggested.
“Sounds good to me. Are we confining ourselves to the Lower Forty-eight this trip?”
“Yeah, I think so. For now anyway.”
“Okay. I’m good with that. Just checking, though. When do you want to go?”
“Well, it’s already the twentieth of June,” Rafael said. “What do you say we shoot for July first? That gives us the rest of this week and all of next to get ready and to plot out a route, and another week and a half to monitor the park.”
“I think that’ll work,” Victoria said. “I’ll start getting the motorhome ready, which shouldn’t take too much, because we pretty well restocked it after the last time we used it. But I can start taking out the clothes that we’ll want, and check on what food is needed.”
“Yeah, and I’ll run it in for an oil change and a once-over to make sure it’s still perfect. It should be. It doesn’t have that many miles on it yet. But if I get the oil changed now, we won’t have to do it on the road but maybe once.”
“Do you want to pick out your own clothes, or do you want me to pick them out for you?”
“You mean to take on the trip?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll do it. There’s already underwear and socks out there, isn’t there?”
“Pretty sure there is. For both of us. But I’ll double check.”
“How long can we be gone?” Victoria asked.
“I’d really like to be gone two or three months, but we’ll have to see how it goes,” Rafael answered.
“Oh, cool!”
With the date set, they had a goal to work towards. The next thing would be to figure where to go, and where to go first. Choosing places to go wouldn’t be difficult. Narrowing them down to what they could see and do in the allotted time was another thing.
Chapter Twelve
After their discussion, Victoria set about right away to make a list of all the places that she knew about that she wanted to see. She went to the bookcase and pulled down a United States atlas just to have for a reference. Her starter list went something like this:
Crater Lake National Park
Yellowstone
Mt. Rushmore
Mall of America
Wisconsin Dells
Chicago
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
Amish country in Pennsylvania
Niagara Falls
Great Lakes, all of them
Maine
Vermont
Rhode Island (just because it’s the smallest state)
Cape Cod
Washington, DC and the Smithsonian
Roanoke Island, North Carolina
Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC
Graceland
Charleston, South Carolina
Disney World, Florida
The Everglades
Georgia plantations
New Orleans
All of Texas
Victoria laid aside her list for the time being, knowing that she would add to it. She intended to do some Internet searching a little later. But now it was lunchtime and she was hungry. Rafael had gone into his home office to do some work.
Lena was already in the kitchen starting to fix something to eat.
“Whatcha makin’?” Victoria asked as she entered the kitchen.
“Thought I’d whip out some cheese enchiladas,” Lena answered. “I’ve got some rice cooked to make into Spanish rice, and we’ve got salad stuff.”
“Sounds yummy to me,” Victoria said. “Can I help?”
“You can grate some cheese while I start the rice. Here, fill up this bowl,” Lena said as she handed Victoria a medium sized plastic bowl.
Victoria got the cheese out of the refrigerator and the grater out of the drawer and set to work. By the time Lena had the onions and green peppers chopped for the rice, Victoria had plenty of cheese grated.
“Now what?” she asked Lena.
“You can dip the tortillas in the sauce, and then put a gob of cheese in each one and roll it up. Put them in this pan,” she said pointing to an oblong baking pan on the counter.
“Like this?” Victoria asked as she demonstrated what Lena had just told her to do.
“That’s it,” Lena said. “Just keep doing that until the pan is full”
While they worked, Victoria told Lena about their plans to take a summer vacat
ion in the motorhome. Lena was enthusiastic about the idea, and told Victoria that she could handle the inventory for the gift shop with no problem.
“I’m sure that the three manager couples can well handle things while you kids are gone,” she said confidently.
“Oh, I think so, too,” Victoria said. “I just kinda feel funny about starting up such a major project and then leaving it for such a long time. But I know that we can’t be there every minute of every day. And I’ve dreamed of taking a long trip in the motorhome ever since we first bought it. You’ll be all right here by yourself, won’t you? Grandma and Grandpa aren’t that far away.”
“I’ll be just fine,” Lena assured her. “Don’t you even worry about me. Shoot, I’ll be a lady of leisure with you two gone. I’ll just be laying around the pool reading books or going shopping.”
“You just do that,” Victoria grinned at her mama. “You deserve to relax. You still do too much around here, but I don’t know how I’d get along without you. Marian never taught me how to be a housewife. All I know about it is what I learned on my own in Seattle, and what you’ve taught me since I came back.”
“You would be just fine without me, honey. But I’m glad to still be useful,” Lena said, giving her daughter a one-armed hug.
Before too long, Victoria went to call Rafael to come and eat. He told her that Carmen had emailed him saying that their interview would be on TV that evening at 6:05.
“Oh, good,” Victoria said. “I was kind of afraid that it might not air until after we left on our vacation.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Rafael said, closing the lid on his laptop computer and getting up to go eat.
While they ate, Victoria showed Rafael her list. He didn’t say much, because he was too busy keeping his mouth full, but he nodded approvingly as he scanned the list.
“I’ve got one started, too,” he said around a mouthful of enchilada. “Some of the same places, but some different.”
“I’m sure we’ll learn of more between now and then, too, and we’ll discover places along the way that we don’t even know about,” Victoria said.