Chapter 3
A s Charlotte rolled her suitcase through the Orlando airport the next morning—both the best airport because of the theme park shops where she could grab her favorite snacks one last time and the worst airport because of all the wrung-out crowds who had been to those theme parks—she mentally planned her day back in Ohio. While she longed to hang around and soak in Wonder World’s atmosphere and take one more ride on the Cosmic Catastrophe Coaster, she chose an early flight so she could get home and work. She had to turn in her article to Ride Report since getting a story up first on the internet, or at least in the first wave of stories, made a difference.
She made her way to her gate and sunk into a chair with an audible sigh. The satisfaction of being exactly where she was supposed to be and finally being off her feet lulled Charlotte into a cozy state. Of course, she didn’t linger in that moment for long. Her brain was already spinning out with her to-do list for the next twenty-four hours. Charlotte had learned the only way to calm her mind in these moments was to pull out anything she could make a list on and get it all written down. She pulled up her phone’s notes app and went step by step through everything, including what she could accomplish on the two-hour flight.
· Collect thoughts on Cosmic Catastrophe and make an outline to organize the chaos
· Transcribe interviews, starting with timestamps from notes
· Look through photos for any Easter eggs from the Cosmic Thrill movies
Charlotte was well aware that she put too much of herself into her work, no matter her title or role. Work consumed her identity. She didn’t know how to be another way. Looking at the families waiting around her in clumps, it was easy to see why she did it. Kids clutching plush toys from Wonder World and Dreamland. Fellow grown-ups talking about when they could plan their next trip to the parks. The happiness the theme parks brought so many was palpable here, strewn out across plastic airport chairs.
For Charlotte, it started in her teens when she began working at Lands of Legend and saw behind the scenes how theme parks could bring together storytelling, thrills, and facades to create unforgettable experiences. Visiting the park had been special. But working at her uncle and aunt’s park cemented Charlotte’s path; she never wanted a career that didn’t involve theme parks and her passion had become, for better or worse, all-consuming. Her whole life.
Lands of Legend brought together different corners of myths and fairy tales in a magical setting. On paper, the park sounded cheesy. Anyone in the theme park industry voiced skepticism about a small park in Southeast Ohio delivering on the themes and offering a quality experience. Then they’d visit, many at Charlotte’s urging, and most of them ate their words. To walk into Lands of Legend was like entering a safe bubble from the rest of the world—a safe bubble for people leaving behind stress, loss, loneliness, anything heavy they wanted to cast aside while they gave in to escape and wonder.
Growing up with Lands practically around the corner, Charlotte spent a lot of her youth roaming between myths and fairy tales. She couldn’t recall her first visit to Lands because she’d been in diapers, but one moment in particular years later cemented the special alchemy of imagination and a themed setting for her—not that she knew any of those words at the time. As she looked at a small boy putting on a puppet show with Wonder World toys from behind a suitcase, Charlotte remembered that moment.
It was a lazy, warm afternoon at Lands of Legend, right after the park celebrated the autumnal equinox. Charlotte ran ahead of her parents, skipping over the familiar cobblestone paths in her favorite part of the park: Fairytale Land. Sun sprinkled through the canopy of maple trees dropping spinning helicopter seeds onto the paths and people below. Charlotte made a game of catching the seeds before they hit the ground and launching them as high into the air as she could.
Ignoring her mother’s call, Charlotte pursued her precious “helicopters” into Bluewhistle Meadow. As she scurried around the base of her most beloved tree, a tree she’d napped, picnicked, and read books under, she glimpsed a life-sized wing. With a bounce in her step, Charlotte raced ahead, nearly running into an otherworldly-looking faery wearing a flowing, gauzy dress in all the colors of fall, from dark reds to amber golds. Dried leaves and acorns stuck out from a crown adorning her short auburn hair. Charlotte stopped in her tracks. The faery bent down to Charlotte’s level and held out her hand.
“I’m Flossleaf. Can I show you my realm?”
Flossleaf took Charlotte on a walk around the meadow, telling her about where she came from. It didn’t matter that Charlotte had been to Bluewhistle Meadow many times before. She’d never seen it through faery eyes. Flossleaf painted a new land underneath Charlotte’s feet. One teeming with faeries and fantastical creatures, with portals to other realms, with magic.
After she said goodbye to Flossleaf, Charlotte rushed back to her parents to tell them everything and to beg them to take her to the World of Faery. She didn’t know then that the World of Faery was imaginary. That night Charlotte spread out crayons and paper on her bed and drew Flossleaf, her home, and the faery friends Flossleaf had described. Charlotte still had those drawings somewhere.
That’s what a theme park could create. It could open those portals to other realms by engaging with imagination and fantasy. Charlotte would later learn the importance of making a story people could live within, a theme park, instead of only watching the story like an amusement park. She wanted to spread more of that specialness into the world.
An announcement from the gate agent, tinny and harsh, saying they’d start boarding soon pulled Charlotte back into the present and she took the time to note the effects of that specialness in the faces around her at the departure gate. She also took a breath to remind herself that there was more to her life than her work. Wasn’t there? She’d never handled the work/life balance well, especially not when she was at DreamUs. Charlotte didn’t even keep in touch with anyone from L.A. who wasn’t a former work colleague, because she’d never met anyone outside of the Dream Mechanic office walls. She started her days early in the Glendale office, even earlier if she had to drive down the I-5 to the parks in Anaheim to be on-site. Sometimes she adjusted her hours to accommodate meetings with peers across the globe. Charlotte loved every minute, but it hadn’t left space for much outside the office beyond sleeping and eating.
And she was in danger of doing it again. Between consulting for Lands of Legend and kickstarting her freelance theme park reporting career in the last five months, she had to remember to leave room for herself and her friends. ( Yes , Charlotte, she mentally reminded herself, you have friends now—well at least a friend .)
Charlotte pulled her phone from her backpack and texted Melanie.
Charlotte: Already miss you.
Melanie: Me too!! When are you going to take an actual vacation and come here for more than just a little work?
Charlotte: I know!
Charlotte: I’ll get on planning that. I promise.
Melanie:
Charlotte: For real.
Melanie: Good!!! I also want to come hang at Lands again. It’s been forever.
Charlotte: Anytime. Sir Cinna-Swirls on me.
Melanie: Be still my beating heart.
Melanie: Btw I forgot to ask! How is Lands doing?
Charlotte’s thumb hovered over her keyboard, hesitating. She wanted to be honest with her friend because being vulnerable was important in building trust. Still, it hurt to type the words.
Charlotte: It’s such a special place, you know that, but profits seem to have stalled. Attendance is down, revenue is down. I don’t know if they’re ever going to get Under the Waves open.
Melanie: Ugh, it has to be hard to keep all of that running. But your aunt and uncle always figure it out.
Melanie: Plus they have you to help, so they have an expert on their side.
Charlotte: You’re sweet. I’ll help them as much as I can while I’m there. It’s temporary.
Melanie: I know, I know.
Melanie: I’m still keeping an ear out for theme park jobs down here for you and I’ll let you know if I hear of anything.
Charlotte: Thank you.
Melanie: But Lands is good for you. Just saying.
Charlotte: Heard.
Melanie: Charlotte, do not even make me think of my restaurant days, istg.
Charlotte: ?
She heard her boarding group being called, so Charlotte joined the line—which was only a line by the loosest definition of the word—and made her way forward.
Charlotte flipped through a news app on her phone while waiting in the jet bridge and saw a headline about another amusement park turning down Peak Fusion’s offer to collaborate on its intellectual property. The story on Ride Report pointed out that the blockbuster television and movie studio had been trying to insert itself into what seemed like every amusement park across the United States. Well, according to sources, anyway, but Charlotte knew Ride Report had solid sources. Peak Fusion had a pile of popular intellectual properties that would attract families to amusement parks, but the nos stacked up and people weren’t sure why. Speculation was that Peak Fusion was trying to foster goodwill on the public relations front. It was one of those companies that settled lawsuits quietly and passed investigations, but there had been recent rumblings about supply chain exploitation. The factory that produced toys for all the studio’s properties was battling toxic work environment allegations. Reports of sexism and crushing hours in the visual effects departments for the company’s Heroic Patrol movies and video games had come out, too. The potential skeletons hiding in the company’s closet were apparently numerous enough to make business partnerships challenging. Charlotte vaguely remembered hearing about Peak Fusion making a proposal to DreamUs last year, but DreamUs was a powerhouse of a corporation with IPs of its own—it didn’t need Peak Fusion.
The line had finally made it to the front of the plane; Charlotte put her phone away.
Once aboard, she settled in as much as she could into her assigned window seat. She preferred the right side of the plane for work trips, which were ninety-nine percent of her trips; she could position herself at just the right angle with her small laptop. Any other seat threw her off. Charlotte popped her headphones in to discourage any chitchat and pulled out her iPad mini to make notes until she could get her laptop out. She couldn’t wait. She got so much satisfaction from blissful, undisturbed, distraction-free plane writing!
Over the two-hour flight, Charlotte managed to not think about Chad and Jeni more than a few times and knocked out most of her feature on Cosmic Catastrophe. That left her plenty of time to file her completed story well before end of day. Mentally patting herself on the back, Charlotte extracted herself from her seat and gathered her bags. Nothing about lugging a carry-on suitcase down a plane’s small aisle was graceful, so she ignored the buzzing of her phone in her back pocket until she got to the relative open space of the terminal. She fired off a quick text to Melanie to make plans to catch up soon and opened her unread text.
Aunt Marianne: Will you be at Lands tomorrow?
Odd, her aunt didn’t normally check in to confirm Charlotte’s hours, but then again, as a consultant, Charlotte didn’t have set office times.
Charlotte: Yeah of course, it’s on the office calendar!
Charlotte’s attempt to get the office staff to use a shared calendar was a work in progress.
Aunt Marianne: I just wanted to make sure! Just make sure you’re still around at one.
Charlotte: Why, what’s at one?
Aunt Marianne: We want to have a meeting before things get away from us with planning for the summer season.
Charlotte considered it a triumph that her aunt mentioned any kind of advance planning. As a family company, Lands tended to eschew corporate structure and scheduling in favor of on-the-fly brainstorms and check-ins. Maybe Charlotte’s input was helping them finally get more buttoned up.
Charlotte: Ok! You know I’ll be there. Looking forward to seeing you and Uncle Frank! 3
Aunt Marianne: Lv you, Charlotte.
Charlotte smiled at her aunt’s signature abbreviation that had been born of a texting typo and then persisted to the point that it was how Aunt Marianne now signed birthday and Christmas cards.
Charlotte: Lv you too, Aunt Marianne.