Parks and Determination
The mayor of Callan faces trouble as she tries to deliver on a campaign promise.
If the mayor of Callan were ever going to be seen at the closed-down crime-ridden Callan Park, it definitely wouldn’t be at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. Which is why she’s scheduled a sketchy meeting at Callan Park she doesn’t want anyone to know about at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. And in case anyone happens to be taking an early-morning jog in the area, Mayor Sehren Chase has disguised herself. She’s offensively wearing a hijab even though she’s definitely not a Muslim, along with bug-eyed sunglasses even though it’s too early to be sunny in Callan.
“I’ve never dropped anyone off here before,” the Scoop driver says to the mayor as he drops her off, not knowing who she is because of her disguise and her use of a fake name on her Scoop account. “You sure this is where you want to get out?”
Of course I don’t want to get out here, she thinks. But she’ll have to if she wants to live with herself.
She thanks the driver and heads for the chained-up gate. Waiting for her on the other side are two men who look like they haven’t showered in a fortnight because they’ve been too busy playing Fortnite. They’re both wearing glasses and graphic t-shirts featuring references to sci-fi franchises.
One of the men pulls a futuristic laser pointer out of his pocket and waves the laser dot all over the chain on the gate. The chain morphs from hard metal to elastic rubber that stretches wide enough to create an opening in the gate for the mayor to walk through. The chain did have a lock on it that has a functioning key, but why use a key when you’re part of the only group in the world with erronium?
“Boss is waiting in the gazebo.”
Mayor Chase walks past various members of the Trouble Shooters gang playing with their precious erronium. What a shame it is, she thinks, this beautiful place was once filled with Callanians enjoying the serenity of nature and is now headquarters to a gang that uses a rare metal to make things not work when they commit their crimes. Erronium can make anything stop working; alarms, security cameras, guns, you name it. It makes the Trouble Shooters quite difficult to deal with.
“Let’s try it on our phones,” one of the Trouble Shooters excitedly suggests to a fellow gang member. “Call someone!”
The other Trouble Shooter pulls his phone out and calls his dad.
“Hi Dad, it’s me… I know it’s been six months… I miss you too Dad… You what? You love me? I… I lo-” the touching over-the-phone reunion between a father and his long-lost son ends when the other Trouble Shooter points an erronium laser at the phone.
What a shame.
Suddenly a high-tech weaponized drone flies toward the mayor but shuts down and falls to the ground once it’s an inch away from her nose. Standing across the mayor on the other side of the malfunctioned drone, holding a smoking erronium laser, is the leader of the Trouble Shooters.
“Emperror,” Mayor Chase says his name like she’s refused to say it a thousand times because of how stupid the play-on-words is.
“Greetings, Madam Mayor,” Emperror says with a smirk. His get-up, a black turtleneck, black cargo pants, narrow-lensed black sunglasses and a black leather trench coat, is sending “I’m super annoying,” vibes.
“You know why I’m here,” Mayor Chase states as she removes her disguise now that she’s out of sight of people outside the park. “I promised to reopen Callan Park when I was elected. I’ve given you and your gang time to move, and I’ve even agreed to let you use the abandoned warehouse outside downtown for the time being. It’s time.”
“You mean the abandoned warehouse Alpha Girl remodeled recently?” Emperror replies with a decreased level of amusement in this interaction.
Mayor Chase rolls her eyes and takes a breath as she prepares to tell her adversary that’s just not her problem. Before she can get the words out, Emperror holds his index finger up to indicate he’s not done talking.
“You should know, Madam Mayor,” Emperror says shrugging his shoulders. “The city council is moving forward with selling the park. And the buyer has no intention to reopen it or kick us out.”
The mayor glares at Emperror as she stands in the circle of Trouble Shooters quickly forming around her.
“Before you say another word about how you want my friends and I to leave our home, remember why the park was closed in the first place,” Emperror says menacingly. “It’s not safe here. Not for you. Not for your friends. Not for your family.”
Mayor Chase drops her phone from her sleeve into the palm of her hand so she can tap the screen with 911 already dialed, only for her phone to explode as soon as she touches it.
Emperror laughs as he reveals the detonator connected to the erronium bug he must have planted in her phone at some point. He snaps his fingers and his gang points their guns at the mayor as they surround her.
“Which one of your goons is gonna let me use their phone to schedule a Scoop ride?” Mayor Chase asks her nemesis nonchalantly.
Emperror happens to look at the gang member who briefly spoke to his parents earlier and nods toward the mayor. The young man hands his cell phone to the mayor.
“‘Dear Mom and Dad, I’m sorry for running away from home and joining a gang. You’re probably right about this just being a phase…’” The mayor recites the Trouble Shooter’s notes on the screen.
The gang has let down their guard to laugh at their fellow gang member who’s scrambling to take back his phone when suddenly a golden light appears in the center of the sky. The light gets bigger and bigger until the bright object is close enough for everyone to realize it’s not an object at all - it’s Alpha Girl.
“Madam Mayor, get behind me,” Alpha Girl says as she stands heroically in the center of the circle. She holds her energized illuminating hands out in front of her, ready to shine a laser beam of light at the first Trouble Shooter to make a move.
Mayor Chase holds her hands up and shifts them to every direction as if her palms are projecting a forcefield preventing anyone from doing anything crazy.
“I’ve actually got this totally under control,” the mayor says to Alpha Girl as if she’s not surrounded by one of Callan’s worst gangs who, moments ago, were pointing their guns at her. “I was just leaving.”
Suddenly, someone fires at Alpha Girl. She dodges the bullet with ease, and it hits a conveniently-placed tank of liquid erronium. The tank explodes and gets erronium all over the gang’s guns, turning them into bubble-blowers.
“Is there an erronium tech-support number you can call?” Alpha Girl says sarcastically as she grabs the mayor and blasts off into the sky.
“Seems kinda silly to be hanging out in Callan Park before the official reopen, Madam Mayor,” Alpha Girl says as they fly away.
“Well turns out there’s not going to be an official reopen. I can’t get them to agree to move.”
“Oh, the gang of criminals isn’t keen on taking orders from the law?” Alpha Girl tries to point out how ridiculous Mayor Chase’s reasoning is. “You promised to reopen the park when you were elected. Let’s reopen the park.”
“They’ll hurt the people I care about.”
Alpha Girl tries to assure the mayor her loved ones would be protected, but she’s suddenly caught in an erronium net, making her powerless. She and the mayor fall down from the sky and hit the ground so hard that their lack of injuries can only be explained by this being fiction.
The erronium net perfectly wraps around Alpha Girl’s body and doesn’t hold Mayor Chase at all. The mayor struggles to push herself up to attempt to help the person who usually does the helping.
“You see, Madam Mayor,” Emperror begins to monologue. “Failure is inevitable. It’s best to accept that and simply stop trying to overcome it. You failed to keep your campaign promise. Now move on.”
Mayor Chase is able to stand up and shamefully look away from Alpha Girl struggling to get out of the net.
Suddenly “My Humps,” by The Black-Eyed Peas starts playing in the mayor’s pocket. It’s the mayor’s assistant calling. The fall must have broken the erronium bug Emperror planted.
“Answer it,” Emperror shrugs and gestures toward Alpha Girl. “I don’t think I need to worry about you having someone more powerful than her come here to stop us.”
So she answers.
“Good morning, Madam Mayor!” Mayor Chase’s assistant, Charlotte, a young woman who’s always looked up to her, says cheerfully. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the park, and I don’t think you need to stress so much about it. Every Callanian trusts you and believes in you. They’ll understand if you can’t get it reopened.”
Mayor Chase thanks Charlotte and slowly faces Alpha Girl.
“I’m at the park now, and the Trouble Shooters have Alpha Girl caught in an erronium net. Send help,” she hangs up the phone and looks at Emperror who laughs at the mayor’s stupidity.
“Send all the help you want,” Emperor says as he rushes toward the mayor with his finger on the trigger of his laser. “They’ll fail. They’ll all f-”
“You’re wrong, Emperror,” Alpha Girl says calmly as she uses her palm to cup the gun and protect Mayor Chase.
Stunned, Emperror turns to see what’s left of the erronium net, its remains partially melted and smoking.
“Failure isn’t inevitable,” Alpha Girl’s words emerge from her being as she literally lights up the park. “Growth is inevitable. Experience is inevitable. That means learning is inevitable. Failure is a choice.”
The Trouble Shooters don’t seem to care about Alpha Girl’s touching speech as they charge her, screaming and blasting both erronium and regular bullets in her direction.
“See?” Alpha Girl rhetorically asks Emperror. “I’m attempting to save Mayor Chase from your bullet, but your minions are firing their own bullets at me. This is now slightly more challenging. So I can either accept failure or keep pursuing my goal and learn and grow from the experience.”
With that, Alpha Girl snatches Emperror’s laser from his hand, tosses it to the side as she pushes him out of the way, steps in front of Mayor Chase and projects from her extended hands a forcefield made of light. The bullets and erronium bounce off the forcefield and hit the Trouble Shooters. The bullets managed to get hit by erronium first though, so they became rubber bullets before they hit anyone. Whatever needed to happen to avoid writing a massacre.
The gang members that were hit by the backfired erronium stopped working immediately.
“You are not your labor,” one Trouble Shooter says to another. “You’re so much more than that.”
“A job is simply not worth my time,” another one declares.
With the Trouble Shooters engaging in their own Great Resignation, Alpha Girl turns her attention to Emperror again. He’s got his erronium laser pointed right at her from the ground.
PEW
As the beam of erronium heads straight for Alpha Girl’s stomach, she reaches her illuminating hands down at light speed. She grabs the beam as if it were thread and pulls it out of the laser.
Emperror looks on. Defeated. His stare slowly turns to his laser.
“If my erronium no longer works for me,” he says, staring at the laser in disarray. “Then there’s nothing left for me.”
He turns the laser to his own forehead. Quickly, the laser is kicked out of his hand before he’s able to pull the trigger. His face turns toward his savior with a look of betrayal, then shock. It’s not Alpha Girl he sees.
It’s not in Mayor Chase’s nature to let someone kill themself if she has the ability to kick the gun out of their hand. She couldn’t even let her nemesis do it. Every Callanian wishes they were that good and that bold. That’s why they trust and believe in her.
She paces over and reaches down for the laser. She holds it in her hand like a trophy. Then she points it at the lock on the park gate.
PEW
“Callan Park is officially open to the public.”
“Well, not really officially. There’s some logistics to go through first.”
A FEW WEEKS LATER
“Testicles, one, two. Testicles, one, two,” Mayor Chase says into a microphone (that’s already been tested) as a horribly awkward attempt at humor to begin her speech at the first annual Callan Park Picnic.
“I really appreciate the patience and unwavering support the people of this city have given me,” she says from the bottom of her heart. “Reopening the park took longer than expected. Longer than I wanted it to. Too long for every Callanian here today…
“Especially me. I let myself down when I didn’t keep my campaign promise. I convinced myself it was okay. That you all would understand. That’s not fair. Not to you, and not to me.
“Here’s to commitment.”
The sea of Callanians sitting on their blankets on the freshly mowed grass take a break from eating snacks and drinking soda to raise their glasses, or cups, or bottles, or cans, before giving Mayor Chase a standing ovation.
My name is Cody, and I’ve got commitment issues.
*Hi, Cody*
My inability to commit to things I know are good for me, such as writing and publishing my work consistently, has led to a lot of bad feelings over the years.
I often find myself rationalizing quitting. “I shouldn’t be doing this if I’m not enjoying it.” “No one’s gonna care if I stop doing this.” “I just have other things I could be doing right now.”
I want to stop that.
I think a severe fear of failure lies at the core of my commitment issues as well.
I’m going to listen to Alpha Girl’s words of wisdom (which I wrote, so really my words of wisdom) about failure, learning and growing and stay committed to writing this series.
Here’s to commitment.
“Thanks to you, Ned, we’ve finally figured out how to reverse-engineer erronium,” a guy wearing glasses and a labcoat says to Emperror, or apparently, Ned. “We’re lucky Alpha Girl didn’t have you arrested.”
Ned thanks his colleague bashfully and looks away to hide his tears. To his surprise, he sees an old associate standing right behind him. He’s wearing a white suit with navy pinstripes.
“Mr. Real,” Ned says flustered. “I haven’t seen you since before the incident with the park.”
“It has been a while, hasn’t it,” the man called “Mr. Real” responds nonchalantly. “Looks like you’ve changed quite a bit since I last saw you. And figured out how to reverse-engineer erronium? You did that ahead of schedule.”
Mr. Real sees Ned is becoming the gif of Alan Garner from the blackjack scene in The Hangover. He gently places his firm hand on Ned’s upper back.
“Turns out supporting the reopening of the park was the move all along,” he explains. “City Council and the mayor ate that right up. Closed a deal easily.
“And turns out you were better off in one of my labs. Keep up the good work, Emperror.”
First he tries to buy O’Reilly’s, now he owns Callan Park? What is Mr. Real planning?
There’s only one way to find out - check out the next installment of Time Well Wasted in two weeks.
So talented!