"Teasers"
By: Gordon Bombay In the backstage area of the park, within a warehouse nestled between the parking lot, Planet Snoopy, and a security post—there is an office.
It's a quaint space, an older area that's a nice respite from the heat afforded to whoever is on duty at the time.
A man sits there among the hum of a struggling window a/c unit, the din of the water park, and the faint whistle of the train passing in the distance.
He slinks down onto a desk chair, one probably as old as the park itself. The well-worn coveralls he dons are speckled with dried paint.
On the walls: remnants of a proud park's past are hanging in posterity: signs dating back to the halcyon days of Son of Beast's announcement (before it all went wrong), posters highlighting the first Winterfest revival, and wooden smurf characters outlined with a faded blue.
His desktop computer struggles. Recently loaded with Windows 10, its hardware hails from a software edition that debuted just prior to the new millennium.
He squints to see the screen in the warm afternoon light of a muggy midwestern afternoon.
In his glasses, words reflected... "KICentral.com," "Forums," "Decoding2020," and... "teasers."
Confidently, he pushes back in the chair, propping his feet up on the desk.
He sips his coffee and glances over at a stack of freshly printed signs sitting against the wall—the ones waiting for their day in the park.
Chuckling, he glances back at the computer screen and mutters: "When I'm darn good and ready you impatient, 'Acers.' When I'm darn good and ready."