Eden Cove Vol. 4

Be careful who you make memories with. Those things can last a lifetime.

Jessamyn sat on the dock, reading her book, enjoying the breeze coming off the water. August was almost over, summer in Virginia was slipping away but the heat would likely stick around for a bit longer. Fall was her favorite time of year anyways so while she always felt a little sad at summer ending, she wasn't even sure why anymore. Maybe feelings leftover from childhood, when you dreaded going back to school. She had never been a fan of school and while some of her friends had looked forward to college, she looked at a few and decided she would rather work. She had an overall feeling that she had been drifting for the past year but now she had been anchored here. On the dock, at this park, in this job, with her friends, she had some freedom now. Next week was the first week of September, she and Molly had found an apartment and were moving in together. It was nothing special but they could afford it, two bedrooms, one bathroom to share and it was clean. Her parents seemed indifferent to her moving out. Typical. Justin had offered to help them move but Taylor had to work all weekend and had stuff going on with his grandma. She had found out that he lived with his grandma full time and had since he was a baby. His parents tried to get down with parenting but they preferred traveling. They visited him once a year. While Jessa had found herself feeling a sense of relief that things were finished with Adam, she was in no rush to get into anything with Taylor. For the last two months, she had spent so much time thinking about him and melting when he touched her. But she still held back something, she didn't want a relationship. And Taylor was going to be starting back at school soon. High school at that! She didn't mind the age difference but she also didn't want a high school boyfriend. Jessa felt like they had a lot in common and she liked spending time with him but something was missing for her. She couldn't quite put the feeling into words. She heard from Justin that Adam put in his two-week notice at Karol's and was going back to work full time for his dad. Apparently he had gotten into a bit of trouble over that scene in the shed. They had threatened to fire him and gave him a "last chance" documentation. The rumor mill said that he was already dating a girl his mom set him up with the weekend after they broke up. Jessa tried not to think about that too much, she didn't want it to hurt.

"Well if it isn't Lil' Miss Head Horror Maze herself!" a voice called out and Jessa looked up to see Justin approaching from the Bumper Boat's area.

"Good morning!" Jessa called out and put her book down, waiting for him to come and sit with her.

"Congrats on the promotion. You deserve it". he said.

"So, don't keep me guessing, did you get the position or what?" she asked

" I DID! And I'm working in YOUR maze as a crazed serial killer!" Justin practically shouted out the news.

All week they had been waiting to hear where they were being placed for The Carnival of Chaos, which is what management had decided to call the Halloween event. Jessa had found out yesterday at closing that she would be one of the two head of operations supervisors for the scariest maze, themed around murderers and monsters. She would be responsible for staffing the outside line, the entrance, and inside to keep lines flowing smoothly. She would also need to keep crew members in the area outside around the maze to make sure things stayed clean. She wouldn't need to do anything with the entertainment crew, like Justin, they had their own sups and would be taken care of. The other head operations sup was a guy named Finn that she had never met, he worked at the new coaster, Hypershot. Glenn said they should work well together.

"I'm so happy for you! You'll be a great murderer! Do you get to juggle knives?" she asked jokingly

"Oh, that would be badass, I should ask if I can". Justin laughed.

"Why didn't you apply for the supervisor spot?" she asked suddenly

"I didn't want it. I like entertaining people. I don't want to manage people".

Jessa nodded, made sense, she guessed. She actually loved "managing" people. She loved how busy it was, how needed she felt and the sense of accomplishment she got from it. She was not an entertainer at all, she didn't enjoy being in the spotlight but she could see that Justin loved it.

The park was already under some serious changes as they prepared for the event. They had two weeks until the first weekend and they started training in two days. There were already decorations everywhere and it was starting to look like Halloween. The "regulars" at the park were as excited as the employees and asked tons of questions, trying to get insider info. Jessamyn found that she couldn't stop smiling. Karol's closed at 8 p.m. tonight and they would be having their first meeting to place crew members at different locations. The crew got to apply for two different locations and then supervisors got to choose where they thought they would be a good fit. Freddy had already told Jessa he applied at her maze and she told him she would choose him, obviously.

"Are you Jessa? I'm Finn Cotter". a very tall, older guy with muscles popping out of his fitted polo said in a casual voice. Confident, like he knew exactly who he was and she should know exactly who he was too.

"Uh, yeah, that's me. I mean, I'm Jessamyn". she stuttered. Idiot, she thought. I'm Jessamyn, the Idiot.

"So I hear we're partners now? Should be a fun couple of months". Finn said giving her a smile while he ran his hand through his hair.

Not fair, Jessa thought, I wanna run my hands through his hair too. She stared at Finn and he stared back. She should probably speak now. Those eyes though, she had no idea that eyes really did sparkle.

"Fun. Definitely. I love Halloween. So this is right up my alley". Jessa sounded ridiculous to her own ears. Thankfully, Glenn walked in to start the meeting and while she did have to sit next to Finn in all his gorgeous, self-assured glory for the whole meeting, she was quickly distracted picking out the crew. She tried to only pick the girls she knew would be a good fit for the crowds and maze. She chose Lily, Hunter, Naomi, a woman in her 30s who was pretty new to her crew but a hard worker and quick with a joke, and Freddy. Finn said he wanted to bring on Logan, a basketball player at EC High who was a senior this year, Jason, his best friend, and roommate, Timmy, a guy in his 40s who worked at Karol's part-time for fun and Brooklyn, who was the MVP on the EC Varsity soccer team. Of his crew, Jessamyn had only met one of them, Timmy, who had helped out in Kiddie Korner on two different weekends when she was struggling for staff. Glenn also placed four other crew members with them from other locations, Jessa had met all of them. Finn only knew of two of them. When the meeting was over, Jessa felt pumped to finally be able to see the maze. Glenn said the rest of the "finishing touches" would be done tomorrow, and then she and Finn would meet there tomorrow night at 8:30 to get their first walk-through.

*****

"I'll walk you to your car Jessa". Finn said as they packed up their things to leave the office.

"Oh, you don't need to, I'm just right over there". Jessa replied.

"It's cool. I want to. So your Molly's best friend right?"

"Yes! You know Molly?"

"Yeah, well she knows my roommate, Jason". Finn replied with a smirk.

"Jason. Ha! Ok, yeah I remember Jason".

"So, is it true that you and Molly make out?"

"Wow! No! Not true at all, never happened!" Jessa shrieked

"Okay, okay, can't blame a guy for asking". Finn was laughing with those sparkling eyes and Jessa knew she was blushing. Thank God it was dark out here. She felt like her whole body was on fire. Could he tell? "Goodnight Jessamyn. See ya at the walk-through tomorrow".

"See ya. Goodnight". she answered. She jumped in the car quickly so she wouldn't watch him walk away. Talk about a distraction!

*****

Jessamyn plopped herself down next to Justin and across from Molly in the DBA the next day. There were so many things to cover over the lunch break and she already told Taylor she didn't have time to meet with him. He was asking if he was going to be in her maze, which technically, she wasn't allowed to tell him. His supervisor was responsible for telling him where he was placed. The more she told him that she couldn't say, the more he asked. The more he hugged her and the more he whispered in her ear, the more he tried to kiss the secret out of her. It was not happening, Jessamyn took her job very seriously. She just got promoted! She pushed Taylor away, over and over, and told him to wait, like everyone else. She heard Freddy's advice in her head, don't back down, give em' hell. Stand up for yourself, be mean!

Jessa and Molly discussed how far along they were with packing and how they planned to move stuff in over the following weekend because Labor Day was always busy. The Carnival of Chaos went into full effect the following weekend and the plan was for the park to close for two hours. This gave them time to do a quick clean-up, get the staff placed and ready for mazes, and most importantly make sure parents understood that kids needed to enter at their own risk. The entertainers would not be touching or chasing the guests but they would be hidden in unexpected areas. They had several "chaos zones" located all throughout the park, from the ticket booth, past the carousel and coasters, all the way down to the boardwalk. These would be switched up nightly so if guests came back, they wouldn't be bored. Same inside the maze, each entertainer got two different costumes but could also wear a costume from home IF it matched the theme and was approved by a head supervisor. None of them were stupid so they realized this was the park's way of saving money while getting more out of the employees. Since Jessa was an operations head supervisor or OHS, she didn't get to wear a costume. But she was allowed to do a little bit extra with her standard uniform of khaki shorts and polo shirt. She already planned to go shopping and see what kind of Halloween accessories she could find. The bloodier, the better!

"So, Jason is on your maze crew! He's fun". Molly winked at Jessa while Justin rolled his eyes.

"That guy is a total douche. And so is Finn". Justin said.

"Finn doesn't seem too bad". Jessa tried to argue but didn't get far.

"He is that bad. You just think he's hot, like every other girl who has ever seen him. Whatever. Don't fall for the smooth-talking bullshit. I can't stand him or Jason". Justin replied in a voice that said he didn't plan on changing his mind any time soon.

"I don't really know Finn but Jason is a good guy". Molly tried again.

"Molly, just tell us how and when you hooked up with Jason, and let's move on, okay?" Justin shot back

"Sure thing, he was home for Spring Break, Jessa, I think you and Adam were in Nags Head with his family? Anyways, I was bored, he was hot, it didn't last long. I don't mean that he didn't last long, just that we hung out while he was home on the break but nothing more than a casual hello this summer at the park". Molly smiled widely at both of them, stuffed another fry into her mouth, and seemed to be done with the conversation.

Justin and Jessa exchanged glances. Justin rolled his eyes again.

"Is this how you always talk about the men you've been with?" he asked.

Molly shook her head "no" quickly while Jessamyn nodded "yes" just as quickly and they both burst out laughing.

"Wow. Okay, ladies. Enough with the girl talk". he shook his head. But Jessa saw the smile he was trying to cover up.

*****

Jessamyn finished up lunch and headed back to the shed and was about to head around Kiddie Korner to check on her crew when Taylor walked up. Jessa tried not to be annoyed but she had already told him that he couldn't just show up all the time. People knew they were kind of a "thing" or whatever and she didn't want her crew talking about him hanging around.

"Hey, babe!" Taylor said.

"Hey, what are you doing over here?" Jessa answered, trying to duck around his arms and avoid the kiss he was obviously trying to plant on her.

"Coming to see you, duh. How was lunch? Did you get everything sorted out?"

"Yeah, Yeah. Just a lot to discuss with the move to the apartment and all the set-up for the mazes. You get it, right?"

"I get it. I can't wait till you move into that apartment". Taylor smiled his sexiest smile but Jessa felt slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't a hook-up spot for him. She was coming up with a good response that didn't sound too bitchy when she saw Ashley approaching. Damnit. She needed to talk to Ashley too because she needed to let her know where she was working for Chaos.

"I gotta go Taylor. We can talk later. Hey, Ashley, I need to talk to you". Jessa said quickly to both of them. Taylor looked confused but started to walk away. Ashley looked annoyed.

"No thanks". she replied quickly.

"No, seriously. I need to discuss the Carnival of Chaos placement with you. You applied for both mazes". Jessa stated. She was tired of Ashley. She knew she did a bad thing in making out with her boyfriend and she was sorry, she did apologize, multiple times but enough was enough.

"Yes! I did!" Ashley squealed, her attitude changed quickly and it shocked Jessa.

"Right. You did get a maze position, congratulations. You're going to be working in Ghosted, which is located just past the Bandit coaster. Your two head sups are Alex and Carrie. They are both pretty amazing to work with, I hope you really love it". Jessa surprised herself by adding that last part and meaning it.

"Awesome!" Ashley said, she grabbed her bookbag and started to walk away. "Thanks, Jessa," she called back over her shoulder.

*****

"That's it! That's the LAST box! Now we just have to unpack all this". Molly threw herself on their sofa. They picked it up this morning from the local thrift shop. It was old but in good condition, with no rips, just a small stain on one arm. They scrubbed it and sprayed a ton of disinfectant on every inch. They bought two new bean bag chairs to throw in the living room as well, just until they could afford better furniture. Justin had been such a big help, Jessa's dad insisted on helping them move at the last minute. Thank God he did because the furniture was way heavier than either girl expected. Jessa's mom came along too, and so did Molly's mom. While Justin and Jimmy heaved the beds, dressers, nightstands, and the couch inside, the girls moved all the boxes inside. Lisa busied herself making a list of all the things that Jessa needed but she didn't think about until the day of the move. Jessa tried to think of this as a way for her mom to help but it really felt like criticism. Obviously, they didn't have an entertainment center and yes, they did forget to buy silverware. But seriously, neither of them had ever moved into a place of their own! Candy had brought along several things that she thought they might not have thought of right away. Like two make-up caddies because they didn't have as much room to spread out their things on the small bathroom sink. That seemed more helpful to Jessa than Lisa making a list. She was happy to report that they had done all the other important things right, the cable and phone companies were coming tomorrow to set up service. Molly was insisting on basic internet service for her computer while Jessa could care less because she didn't own a computer of her own. She played solitaire on her parents sometimes if she was really bored. She also didn't think they needed another bill. Their jobs at KK's ended on November 6th. They would need to find "off-season" jobs to pay the bills until February 1st when they would start training for the new season. KK's opened to the public on Valentine's Day every year, and the Pavillion hosted a huge dance. But Molly insisted she needed her AOL instant messenger to keep up with her friends. Jessa suspected this meant boys and told her to go to Candy's house if she needed to chat. For now, they would stick with the phone and cable. That was expensive enough when she added up her half of rent and utilities, plus her car payment.

"How about we head down to Pizza Hut? I'm starved and I'm paying!" Jimmy announced suddenly and put his arm around Jessamyn.

"YES!" everyone shouted at once. They headed out of the small apartment and divided up into two different cars. Jessamyn noticed the way her mom stopped and looked back at the apartment building. What she didn't notice were the tears in Lisa's eyes as she stared up at the building that was now her daughter's home. Jessa had never seen her mother cry but that didn't mean that Lisa hadn't spent her time crying in the shower when no one else was around. Lisa was almost 50 and had been raised by parents who didn't want a girl and didn't want to deal with her crying or moping around. As a child, she tried her best to stay out of the way and avoid the paddle. As an adult, she just tried to stay out of the way. She got away from her parents as quickly as she could, she rebelled as a teenager, they all did, it was the 60s. She lived for the music, and the escape the drugs brought her. She had so many "boyfriends" that when Amelia asked her once who she lost her virginity to, she found that she couldn't remember. She told her that it was Jimmy of course, but in reality, she thought she was probably about 14 and it was at a concert. The weed must have had something else in it that night. Or was that the first night she tried LSD? Lisa would never know now. She took a pregnancy test two weeks after she turned 16, she knew for sure it had to be either Jimmy's or Ted's baby. She was betting Jimmy. She was honest from the start about that but he said he wanted to marry her. They waited until after Amelia was born to do the ceremony. Her parents were glad to be rid of her. They didn't seem to be overly interested in the baby but they were decent grandparents. Lisa was amazed that she had created something as perfect as Amelia. She looked just like Jimmy when she was born but as she got older, she looked more like Lisa. Dark hair, beautiful blue eyes, fair skin, and a smile that made everyone around her smile. She had always looked like a little princess to Lisa and for the first time in her life, she had a purpose. No more drugs, no more partying. Jimmy completely agreed with this and was a great father, together the three of them made a happy family. They all grew up together. It was beyond shocking when her birth control failed and she found out she was pregnant again. Millie was about to turn 14 and they had never wanted another child. They all prayed it would be a boy at least. But Jessamyn arrived early and surprised them all by being a beautiful, sweet, quiet, baby girl. Amelia fell in love instantly, it took Lisa longer. The emergency c-section was scary and came with a difficult recovery. Looking back, she recognized the postpartum depression symptoms but back then, she just felt like a failure. Amelia met Kaden two years later, Lisa knew it was over right then, the love, boarding on obsession was overwhelming to witness. Two years after that, Amelia, her firstborn and best friend, was gone. It broke Lisa in ways she couldn't explain because she couldn't comprehend them. She was left with a husband, who also felt a loss he couldn't express and a four-year-old who needed non-stop attention. Today, Lisa looked at Jessamyn and knew she had failed her. She felt powerless to correct it now. She never faulted Amelia for leaving, she cheered her for leaving this place behind and living out that sunny California dream life she never had the guts to go for herself. But what had she done to Jessa?

*****

Over 2600 miles away in Valencia, California, Amelia put down her book and looked at the time. Kaden had taken the kids to Magic Mountain for the afternoon to give her some time to herself. She had spent most of that time cleaning the house and doing the laundry. Millie struggled to do anything for herself lately, she felt restless, and on edge. Kaden was trying hard to understand this but since he was happy and content with their lives, he didn't understand her new feelings of restlessness. To be honest, neither did she. Things were good here, Gracie was in fifth grade and while she struggled academically sometimes, she excelled in sports and had lots of friends. Tristan was in third grade and was the opposite of his sister, a bookworm with few friends and zero interest in sports. Baby Kai, which they still called him, even though he was rapidly approaching 3, was an all-out mess. Sweet, cuddly, loud, fun, and the last child for sure. She and Kaden both agreed they were done. Amelia lived for those kids. She was with them pretty much all day, every day. She even got a job at their private school three years ago once Tristan went to the full-day program. She had been working as a receptionist for a family law practice, it was always busy and her days flew by but she found it somewhat depressing. Once she had Tristan, she decided not to go back to work. They were paying a private babysitter at that time anyways because Grace was only 2 and they could sacrifice her paycheck. When the position of room assistant came up at Baywater Primary the same day she went to register the kids for that year, it felt like fate. While she wouldn't be working with either of her kids, she would be right there if they needed her. She already knew she loved the staff and it gave her a chance to meet new people and work with children. Maybe meeting new people was the problem.

*****

Jessamyn and Molly collasped on the couch together, exhauted and excited. Their first night in their first place of their very own. After dinner they had hit the local Walmart, found some throw pillows on clearance, a small entertainment center to hold the television, a shower curtain and some cheap towels. Justin had stuck around to help them set everything up and unpack a few boxes but it was now close to midnight and he had to open tomorrow morning. Jessa had to open as well but Molly was going in late to meet the phone and cable companies.

"Are you tired?' Molly asked.

"So tired". Jessa replied.

"This has been a magical day. Who knew your dad would be so excited to help? And I swear I saw you mom smile like three times. That is a record for one day! And Justin, don't get me started, that guy is the best. I think he's a little in love with you".

"Okay now I know you need sleep. My parents were really helpful. Maybe they are just glad to be rid of me".

"It's not that Jessa, they seemed really proud of you. Maybe a little sad too. Not like my mom. She's been ready for me to move so she can have her space and date freely". Molly said.

"That's crap Molls, she's going to miss you like crazy. My parents, I don't know". Jessa answered.

*****

Jessa woke up Friday morning after her first night in her own place feeling happy and ready to take on the busy weekend ahead. Labor Day weekend was the end of summer and while some people had four days to play and cook out, she had four open to close shifts. Followed by a week of training with Finn and her new crew for the maze, Waking Nightmare. Their theme was "classic horror", with entertainers dressing up as vampires, werewolves, zombies and costumes that closesly resembled horror movie favorites. The layout of the maze made you feel as though you were trapped in a house and looked very creepy. No licensed characters were allowed. Jessamyn and Justin had assumed this was in case someone decided to sue the park but seriously? Who would care? They didn't know yet the cult following Carnival of Chaos would gather and how far people would travel to experience it every year. Molly had finally stepped it up, at Jessa's urging, and applied for the location supervisor postion at Bumper Boats. She got it, naturally and each boat was themed to a different Halloween look, although nothing too spooky since they would only operate during the day. In the evenings, Molly was supervising one of the Chaos Zones. She had zone 1, which was located at the front of the park, she would cover from toll booth to Karousel. Her zone CZ1 was themed to witches and goblins, which Molly was especially hyped about. Taylor was bummed about his position, which was not in a maze, like he hoped, and he had been assigned to work in Chaos Zone 2, which was themed to clowns. Jessa actually couldn't blame him at all, while she was a big fan of IT, she didn't find clowns scary on a regular basis. The other maze, Ghosted was themed to ghosts, evil pumpkins, scarecrows, and monsters. The layout made you feel like you were trapped in some sort of field. The other two Chaos zones were CZ3, a haunted fairytales zone and CZ4 which had lots of creepy pirates down by the boardwalk.

Molly stopped by Kiddie Korner on her way into work and told Jessa everything went smoothly with phone and cable set up. Jessa gave her a quick hug and then ran off to fix Bethany's rotation. The place was packed with kids and everyone's break had been late due to all her crew members that were scheduled for noon and 2 o'clock being late because of all the traffic to get in today. It was very rare for KK's to be packed, very rare for the parking lot to be full, it only happened on holiday weekends. It didn't help that the weather was perfect this weekend too. Hunter had called in, apparently he was sick. Lily and Hannah were both late because they rode together. Jessa just took a deep breath because she already knew the rest of the weekend would be the same.

Jessa parked under the street light in the apartment buildings parking lot, just like Freddy told her to earlier that day. He said if she was going to be going home alone at night, she needed to be cautious of her surroundings. "Park under the street light, keep your keys in your hand, look around you, be aware, look twice before you open the door, don't let someone sneak up on you". This is advice that Jessamyn would always remember and she would always follow it, long after Freddy was gone from this Earth. If there were no parking spots under a street light, she would think to herself " I tried Freddy".

Jessa quickly ran up to her door, 126, looked over both shoulders and unlocked the door, closed it quickly behind her and locked it. The dark and empty apartment was still and quiet. She flipped on the lights, first in the living room and then the kitchen. She was tired but hungry, a quick snack and then bed. She grabbed a bag of Doritos and got her apple juice out of the fridge, along with one of the brand new glasses from the counter. She opened the bag of chips but when she tried to open the juice, the top didn't budge. Jessa tried, and tried, but the top would't move at all. She checked the fridge again, soda and water. She didn't want either, it was too late to drink soda and she hated water. She wanted her juice. She tried the top again. And again and again and again. Jessamyn threw the plastic bottle across the kitchen.

"Dammit!" she screamed shaking with frusration. Then she sat down on the kitchen floor and cried. Jessamyn cried the type of ugly crying that you only do when you're completely out of strength to hold it together. She cried for Adam and the way they left things and how quickly he replaced her. She cried for Taylor because she knew she didn't have any real feelings for him, he was just a distraction. She cried because she had never come home to an empty place before. She was scared that her parents wouldn't even come visit her. She cried because the stupid juice wouldn't open and there was no one to help her. She cried because even though she felt like she was making the right choices in her life, she also felt very alone.

After several minutes of this terrible crying, Jessa remembered that someone had told her, maybe Bev, that when she couldn't open a jar at home she ran hot water over the lid. Jessa jumped up and grabbed the juice, ran to the sink and waited for the water to warm up while she wiped up her face. She put the lid under the steaming hot water and counted to 60. Then she twisted hard and it opened right up. Jessamyn nodded. She could do this. She heard the door open and Molly came into the kitchen.

"Oh good! I could not get that top off!" Molly said.

"Hot water". Jessa mumbled back.

"Jess? You ok?"

"Yeah. Just a long day". Jessa smiled, glad she didn't get there ten minutes sooner and see her breakdown.

The phone rang and they both jumped. Molly went to get it and was back a minute later.

"That was just Justin, making sure we both got home and that the phone worked. I'm gonna jump in the shower. You going to bed?" Molly asked

" That was sweet. Yeah, I'm off to bed". Jessa said.

She wasn't alone.

Check back in with Jessamyn next week as she starts training for the Carnival of Chaos! Thanks for reading.