The next morning my parents had left again. Darn early risers. This was summer for Pete's sake. I saw several boxes of cereal on the bar. So i sat down to eat a bowl of cereal. I opened my phone. Neither Mark or the girls answered my phone call last night. And they also didn't call me back this morning. I was still convincing myself that they just couldn't hear the phone, or they were having to much fun.

       But this morning i had a slew of pictures from all three of them. It made my heart hurt they were having a lot of fun. And i wasn't there for it. I heard a noise on the stairs and looked up. "Good morning." I sighed. "Well you don't seem to happy, what's wrong?" Asked Tyler. "Nothing, it's just my friends are having a good time without me. I mean they are allowed too, y'know it just hurts." I said.  "Then why aren't you having fun without them?" He asked. I laughed bitterly.

       "I don't even know what that looks like. I'm just trying to help my parents paint, i don't know how you do it! I rolled two buildings yesterday...it took forever." He snickered. "What?" I asked. "Why didn't you use the sprayer?" He said biting his lip to keep from laughing. His dimples popped out. "The sprayer...you mean I...and there's a...but I..." I laid my head onto the bar. "Why me!?" I groaned. "Hey at least you found out about it now and not when you were done with the job!" He said.

      "Oh yea? Well you have paint on your face!" I shot back. He laughed. "Really? That's what i get?" He asked laughing. "Yes, well you look ridiculous." I said. "Somebody sounds angry." He said. "Well i am." I threw my hands up. "Sorry if i hit a nerve." He said taking a seat next to me. I sighed. "It's not you, I'm just mad at the situation. All of it. I mean I'm trying to be supportive of my parents dream and everything but what about mine?" "What is your dream?" "I don't know that yet, I kinda figured it would come to me when i started college. But if my mom has her way I'll be stuck here being an elf. I mean don't get me wrong elves are great but i don't know." I sighed.

       "Don't feel bad i don't know what my dream is either. I didn't apply to college at all. I'm going to take on a bigger role in my dad's company." "Is that what you want to do?" I asked. He shrugged. "I dunno yet, but it'll buy me some time until i figure it out. For now i don't mind it. It's calming, the painting i mean." "Can i see?" I asked eagerly. "Not yet, I'm fixing to start on the floor. But i promise it's almost done. Speaking of. I didn't know what color you wanted the bathroom walls. So i just chose a lighter teal color." 

       "Oh that's fine." "What do you wanna do about the floors? The laminate is old and chipping. I've got some tile samples." He said. "Do you have one about the color of sand?" I asked. "I do, i can do that." He nodded. "Thanks for doing all that." I said. "No problem. It's stuff i learned last year my dad wanted to see how i did on my own. The first time i did the floors at a house. I started at the door and worked to the window. I had boxed myself in. So i had to open the window and climb down a tree. I came in the front door and scared the crap out of my dad. He said woah son i didn't even see you come down the stairs much less outside."

       I laughed. "I can picture you climbing down a tree actually." I shook my head. "Hey were all learning things here, and if you wanna have some fun let me know. I hate to see you in a funk. I promise you it's not that bad living here and if you make your own fun you won't feel like you're missing out so much." He said. "Thanks I'll think about it." My phone rang. "I should get back, good luck." He waved and headed back up the stairs. "Thanks bye."

       "Hello?" I answered. "Hey baby girl, guess what? I got a new car. An suv so the truck is yours for the day. Grab the keys and come on whenever your ready. The buildings you painted look great by the way." My mom said. "What are we just made of money? Did we win the lottery?" My mom laughed. "No we invested in some stock that did well. I'll see you soon , i gotta run." "Okay, fine see you soon." "Keys are on the bar." I looked around spotting them behind a box of cereal. I finished the cereal that was now soggy but whatever.

       Setting the bowl into the sink i scooped up the keys and headed to the park. Once i was back at the row of shops i dug in the first building again and sure enough there was a sprayer. I'd never used one but they didn't look overly complicated. I found a plastic cup and scooped paint into the container. Then i checked to see that it was attached to an air compressor. Easy enough. 

I carried everything outside. I hit a button and the sprayer hummed to life. I was careful to aim it at the outside wall. I didn't want to get paint anywhere but the wall. It only took me a minute to get control of it. It sprayed on beautifully. This would only take two days instead of a week. I was painting like it was my job that i didn't want to stop when my dad brought tacos for lunch. But it's tacos so i stopped long enough to sit down next to him.

       "It's look great! You are really doing great." He said. I don't know how bad the job needed to be done. I mean could somebody else not do it? Sure. Maybe they just wanted to include me. I'm not sure. "Oh, thanks. Did you get the train stuff sorted?" I asked. "Oh, finally this morning. We figured out which rails would melt the snow. I mean i was iffy about putting a train around the whole park but it's so iconic how could i not? And the train station will have heat lamps so the people waiting outside won't freeze." He said.

      "What about all the rides? I mean no offense i don't want to ride a roller coaster when it's freezing." I said. "You are right. We will have to shut a good bit of the rides down. But we'll move those workers. And when the season is off we'll lower the price to half. Besides everything is so magical. Once you get the buildings and shutters painted we'll have to put Christmas lights on EVERYTHING. People will come here to hear the carolers on the street corners. To shop in a vintage toy store. Stop in for cookies..." I mused over what he said.

       While it all sounded fine and well. What would people do during the odd seasons? "I think you'll have to do more. Maybe you could have hands on workshops. Like in the wood shop or the glass shop. Let the kids help and make a keep sake. I mean you could charge them. But it'd be cool and the kids are learning a new art. Then you could have other crafts that are Christmas themed. Shoot the kids could even help make cookies and then decorate them. Maybe even have a place where they could buy Christmas sweaters and take Christmas card photos." I said.

       My dad laughed slapping his knee. "You are a chip off the old block. Every last one of those ideas is genius my dear!" He shot a text off to my mother. His phone dinged back. "I love it!!" He grinned showing me the phone. "Glad i could help." I said almost bitterly. My dad looked at me. "Look i know you didn't want to come here. I get it i really do. But this is why we need you. You have a lot of ideas." He said. "Well I'm doing my best. When do you figure you'll open?" I asked. 

       "Okay so you're painting these buildings. These will be your babies. Once the outside is done I'll show you the plan for the inside. Once all that is painted you can start unloading all of the stuff and stocking it on the shelves. Then it's cleaning the windows and vacuuming. The works can't start making stuff until a week before or you know just to much. The guys will have all the rides fixed and running by the end of the week. I'd say another few weeks to paint everything. Then we need to landscape and decorate everything. Putting heat lamps and gas lamps. Then putting garland and lights. Decorate the big tree. It's about to be June. I'd say we can have this whole thing knocked out by September. Then we can start on the Inn."

       "But you can open the park in September?" I asked. "Yep, and the Inn sounds like a big task and maybe it is. But we'll start painting every room. Putting in new carpet. The beds and quilts your mom had made. Then we need Christmas paintings for every room. Somebody local to go with her theme." He agreed. "Sounds good to me." I had finished my tacos and stood up to throw the trash away. "Thanks for the chat kiddo, I'm proud of you." He said. "Thanks dad."

       It did take me two days to paint the exterior of each building but when i was done they looked a thousand times better. I thought I'd alternate the shutters. Green on one building red on the next. I heard a loud crash from behind me. "Catch it Dave!!" I turned to see a guy grabbing madly for a sign that had fallen off one of the trucks. He fell onto the ground barley catching the sign. "Whew." Dave sighed. "Good Catch Dave." I called out. He held up a thumbs up.

      The guy jumped out of the truck to help him up. "Hey, if we put these signs up will we be in your way?" He asked. "Not at all." I said shaking my head. He looked at a clip board in his hand. "Okay this tells us which stores will be where and we can put all the signs in the right place." Said Ed. Or at least that's what the tag on his overalls said.

       I was doing second coats on all the shutters. I mean the buildings looked great. And now that the signs were going up you could tell what every place was supposed to be. I saw an electric truck pulling in behind them. "All right Carl, let's get the lights up and I'll wire them into the ground. It'll look all neat." "Wes, that's a lot of lights man. We're gonna be here for a while." "So what dude. You gotta hot date?" Asked Carl. "No but...your mom might come over again." "Dude shove off." Said Wes. Men.

       I took a seat to let them do there work. I called Mark. "Hey babe." He said. "Hey what are you up to?" I asked. "Nothing much. Just getting back from the beach. What are you up to?" That sounds fun. "I'm just waiting some Christmas shutters." I said. "Oh that's fun." Our conversations where going the same every time we talked. What are you doing without me. What am i doing without you. It seems doing a long distance relationship is a lot harder than either of us imagined. 

       "Who did you go with?" "Tony and Manny came out. Tony has been trying to get Leslie to go out with her. He thought if she saw his sick moves then he would want to date her." He chuckled. "Hey it worked for me didn't it?" Mark and i met on the surf team. See he and i were both up for captain our Junior year which was a big thing. He had a crush on me so he let me be captain and i was in awe of the gesture so when he asked me out i said yes.

        "You yes, Tony no. She couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him no." He said. I snickered. "Well maybe he should try harder." I said. Guys felt they didn't have to try with ladies these days. Where was a sweet, nice gesture these days? Mark didn't do anything when i told him i was leaving. Not even flowers. I thought maybe once we got here he'd have some sent over but nope. I don't even get sweet good morning texts. I can't think of a time when i did now that i think of it. I frowned. I guess i was just to happy to see it. "Did you hear what i said babe?" "Oh no shoot sorry." "I said i gotta go help my dad clean out the garage but that i loved you and I'd call you later." "Oh sure thing. Love you too." I said hanging up.

       I called the girls. Our conversation wasn't much better. They talked about who they were crushing on this year. About Dani tripping over a sand castle and eating sand. More of things and people i was missing out on. I let the go and got back to painting. Once i had finished up the shutters it was time to go home for dinner. We just picked up chicken.