My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

was up to me to create conversation. And I’ve never had my conversationalist skills tested so thoroughly.

“I know I was out late, I was picking up a few extra hours at work,” she answered softly. I reached forward and grabbed hold of her hand.

“You’ve been working a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“I’d like you to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night.” An expression flitted across her features so quickly I couldn’t decipher it before it was gone.

“I don’t know what my schedule will look like tomorrow.”

“Please?” I’d never had to say please to get a date before, and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that I hid my irritation very well. But she sighed.

“Okay, I’ll figure it out.”

“Great, we leave at seven,” I leaned forward allowing my lips to graze her forehead before going to my room. I was determined to make tomorrow night the turning point for us. The point where I mattered more to her than whatever it was that she was doing when she wasn’t in my sight.

 

 

 

 

Ailith

 

 

 

 

At four o’clock I sat in my car in front of an old, very large, building. It looked like the whole thing was made out of stone. If it weren’t for the trash that littered the parking lot, and the overgrown shrubbery, it would be beautiful. There was a beat up old Honda parked right in front of the door, and I finally climbed out when I saw Stacey’s Lumina pull up next to me.

Patsy and her brother were with her. He insisted on coming so that he could see what materials we would need, since he was giving them to us. Derrick had caught a ride with Jake and Christine so that he could gage whether or not he would be able to do the work. Once we were all standing together we went for the door, Stacey in the lead since we were buying the place from her uncle.

He was an older burly man. Honestly, I couldn’t picture him behind the wheel of the Honda. To look at him I could really only see him on the back of an old Harley. His beard reached his chest with gray splattered among the brown. His hair was braided down his back and a bandana hid any balding spots. Yet he was in a dark blue suit. It was quite the unsettling scene.

But Stacey greeted him with open arms as he spun her around in circles. The twinkle in his eyes never left as he looked all of us over. After I got past the conundrum that was his appearance I let my eyes travel around the room.

It was obviously a lobby, but it was huge. The high dome ceiling offered an echo anytime anyone spoke too loud. But the wooden beams looked like they would gleam if we just bothered to wipe away the dust. The floors were all hard wood, oak by the looks of them, and the front counter had a glass display meant to show case various treats.

The glass cases looked newer as though someone had tried to modernize the old building. The tan colored walls allowed for a more neutral atmosphere, but I was more concerned with the four doors that I could see. Two of them were on either side of the long counter, while the other two were at the ends of narrow hallways that branched off of the main room. The whole picture would have been impressive if it weren’t for all of the cobwebs and dirt.

“If you think this is nice, wait till you see the stage,” he was looking directly at me, and when I met his gaze he gave me a playful wink.

He went over to the closet door next to the counter. When I faced it directly I realized that I had gotten it wrong. It wasn’t just a door it was a set of double doors, made from a dark stained cherry wood. He paused, grabbing both handles, and looked back at us, trying to create some anticipation. Then he threw them both open at once with a loud sigh. Christine, Patsy, and Stacey all giggled.

When we all stepped in he hit a switch on the wall and bright florescent lights came on, illuminating the large windowless room. He was right, it was impressive, and not just large, but huge, leaving the lobby in the dust as far as size goes. Though the lobby was in far better condition.

It looked like the entire floor was carpeted at some point, though several spots were bare now. The wood underneath was worn out and cracked. The stage looked like it was a full floor beneath where we stood at the back, the seats making a slope all the way down. Three aisles separated three sections of seating. The aisles were made up stairs that led all the way down to the front of the stage. Which was a bare floor, tiled or wood I couldn’t tell from the distance.

The seats looked like once upon a time they were velvet. But present day several clumps of seats were broken or simply missing. On most of the ones that I could clearly see the upholstery was missing or torn. As I made my way down the stairs a few steps creaked, but that was forgotten as I looked up.

Above the back and side walls sat balconies. Nine of them total, with elaborate pillars to hold them to the ceiling. When I finally made it to the bottom I could see curtains hanging from the ceiling. One of them was to drop while the performers changed scenes and backdrops. Three more were meant to keep the audience from seeing the behind the scene actions.

Straight back was a huge open space, probably to hold the props for any necessary scenes. To the right it looked like the wardrobe and makeup areas, with simple curtains to help with privacy. But there were several old clothing racks and even a few tables with mirrors attached. To the left sat another open area, though what it was for I had no idea. And right in front of the stage sat a deep divot for an orchestra.

“It needs a lot of work,” Derrick mumbled, though thanks to the acoustics in the stadium like room everyone heard him.

“Do you think you could fix it?” I asked, he was still up in the seats, though he looked at me so I knew he heard me perfectly.

“Yeah, but if we want it done quickly I’ll need more help.”

“Jason did offer up the football team. Maybe the basketball team could put in a few extra people. I’m more worried about the missing seats, how are we going to replace them? This place is really old, we probably won’t be able to find any exact replicas,” I was mostly talking to myself, but Patsy answered.

“Maybe the guys in shop class could help. If they get a good look at them. My cousin loves that class and their quarterly projects are due in a few weeks.” I shrugged.

“Can’t hurt to ask if you trust them.”

“At least there’s a spot for the orchestra,” Jake supplied hopefully.

“No, we won’t need that.” Everyone turned to look at me. “Anyone who performs should be seen not just heard. I mean, that’s the whole point of this right? To be seen and heard for a change?” I asked, and several of them nodded.

“Check this out,” the should be biker said with a mischievous grin from next to one of the curtains. He reached his arm behind the curtain and suddenly the floor started to move. The divot for the orchestra started to rise until it was even with the rest of the floor. And then it was above the floor. He let it rise a good four feet before hitting something else and letting it settle even with the rest of the stage.

“How’d you do that?” Christine asked, making her way over to him.

“It’s not that surprising really,” Patsy’s brother stated from the other side of the stage. “This place was really popular for a long time. They tried to keep it as updated as possible, until about fifty years ago.”

“Yeah, I added the electric platforms a few years back. But between that and the lobby I ran out of money. After that I just kind of never got back to it.”

“Platforms? How many of them are there?” I asked.

“Enough for the entire stage area. I had high hopes for the kinds of performances that I wanted to play. It’s all sectioned off in four foot by four foot squares. All of the lights and wiring have been redone. I even added dimmers for all of them. There are small lights all along the seats and aisles, kind of like a movie theater.” With this new information I scanned the stage. It was big enough to fit an entire orchestra, the choir and then enough space for the football team to lounge around in. I met Stacey’s, Christine’s, and Jakes glances. All of us thinking of the same thing. The numerous possibilities.

“What do you think, Derrick? Can we get this place in good shape?” I asked, if he couldn’t or even suspected that we couldn’t, then we were screwed. He cast an appraising eye around the room, and took a deep breath. The rest of us held ours until he nodded.

“I think so. It’ll take a lot of work, but it’s like you said, it’s worth it.” At his words I turned to the current owner.

“You said sixteen thousand right?” I asked, when he nodded I pulled out the envelop that I had gotten from the bank when I had cleaned out my savings. Christine and Patsy both followed suit. While he pulled out the necessary paperwork.

“Just sign and date, I’ll send the papers in, but as of this moment, consider the place your’s,” he answered, though he had a sad lilt to his tone.

“You know, after the benefit we really won’t have much of a use for this place,” I said as he met my eyes. “Maybe, after this is all over, as long as the school can use it for whatever is needed, I don’t see a reason why you can’t run it.”

“That’d be awesome. We need a new place around here,” Christine added, her small smile as she looked at me said she knew exactly what I was doing. The older man eyed us carefully, before he smiled, his eyes glistening slightly, before he nodded.

“I’d be happy to keep the place running for you.” I offered it to him, mostly because he had had such high hopes for the place. I understood how life could sometimes get in the way of your dreams.

This way, he wouldn’t get nailed for the back taxes and he could still have his dream. He could probably even make a good living off the place. Besides, I thought, thinking about what Drake and Becca had said about taking away the jobs that others needed. This way we could replace any jobs that we’d be taking away. Therefore, truly helping the local economy.

After that he left us to decide what materials we would need. Though Patsy’s brother took care of most of that. We really just needed to decide what cleaning supplies we needed to get. Though we all agreed that we needed a lot of pledge and pine sol.

“You know, something’s been bugging me about this whole thing,” Christine murmured to me. I didn’t know what shocked me more. The fact that she was talking directly to me or that she had thought any deeper into our current situation.

“What?”

“This mystery man that’s buying the school. Maybe if he knew what we were trying to do we could talk him into delaying the buy out. Give us a chance to succeed. But no one knows who he is. Even when I heard my dad talking he had said that no one had met him face to face. They were just doing business