Author:
Audience Rating:
Publication:
Genre:
Character Age:
TG Themes:
Other Keywords:
Permission:
Chapter 2
“Wow, this place could use some work,” Tracey said as she walked up to Neal and Rose who were standing near the front door. A faded sign painted in 80s neon declared this to be, “Swankies Fun Center.”
There were 7 cars in the parking lot including the three that Rose, Neal and Tracey arrived in. Rose smiled and pointed towards the door, “Don’t worry guys, this is perfect, it’s the exact vibe we need, and it’s going to be cheap.”
They walked into the small tight lobby full of air brushed paintings of skates and big goofy smiling faces. There were two narrow doors and a window. A relaxed young guy was sitting back in the office looked up from his phone.
“Hey, umm, you guys want to skate?” the guy said, walking over to the counter.
Rose used her best professional voice, “I’m Rose from Derby City Angels, we have an appointment with Mr. Swankie.”
“Oh yeah, the roller chicks,” the guy said and then saw Neal, “Or um, people.”
Neal rolled his eyes, long past trying to explain that Derby was more or less a co-ed sport now. The door buzzed and the guy told them to wait.
Loud pop music, black light, and a slightly musty odor greeted them inside. A handful of mostly young kids rolled around the polished wood floor. Beeps and flashing lights came from a small arcade area and past that black carpet with with neon shapes as far as the eye could see.
“Yeah, this place rules,” Neal said sarcastically.
“Hey, welcome to Swankies,” they turned to see an older grey haired man in an Adidas track suit coming their way. “So you’re the roller derby people,” he said as he jutted out a hand.
“Yes sir Mr. Swankie, we talked on the phone,” Rose said as he shook his hand.
“Well, let's go over here to the concession area and get comfortable.”
They followed him past the counter to a row of plastic tables bolted to the floor. The snack bar lights hummed overhead. An excited Mom filmed her daughter as she stomped her way across the floor in plastic Barbie skates.
Rick Swanky dropped into a chair like it was his throne. He spread his arms wide, palms up.
“So. Derby.” He said it like it tasted funny. “I get calls all the time from groups wanting special deals. Hockey guys. Speed skaters. Some church group wanted to do, I don’t know, praise skating.” He snorted. “Everybody wants cheap floor time.”
Rose stayed standing. Neal noticed that. Rick noticed it too.
“We’re looking for a regular practice space,” Rose said. “One night a week. Off hours. We don’t need staff, music, concessions. Just the floor.”
Rick smiled without warmth. “Yeah, well, tell you what I can do. Private party rate. Two hundred fifty a night. That’s the number.”
Tracey let out a short laugh before she could stop herself. Rick’s eyes flicked to her.
“Two fifty?” Rose said calmly. “Rick, you’ve got seven cars in the lot tonight and three of them are ours.”
Rick leaned back. “Yeah? And this floor costs money. Insurance costs money. Kids break things.” He tapped the table with one thick finger. “You want exclusive use, you pay exclusive prices.”
Neal crossed his arms. “We’re not throwing a party. We’re practicing quietly. Boring. Half the time we’ll look like we’re doing drills for gym class.”
Rick waved that off. “Still a liability. Someone falls, sues me, next thing you know I’m selling funnel cakes at the county fair.”
Rose tilted her head, studying the room. The flickering light. The empty tables. The echo of wheels on wood. “Rick,” she said, “what do you make on a Tuesday night between eight and ten?”
Rick laughed, “I close at 7 on Tuesday night. Look I know this looks slow, but on most Tuesdays I’ve booked a party and have 20 rugrats rolling around in here. I do OK.”
“Because we’ll be here every week,” Rose continued. “All year. We’ll bring people in. Adults. They buy snacks. They bring kids. They book parties.”
Rick squinted at her then laughed, “Yeah I’ve heard it before, you’re going to try to sell me on free advertising?”
“Yeah, not only free, we’re advertising and we pay you. Plus there are no people more loyal than derby people” Rose said. “And we don’t have two hundred fifty dollars.”
Rick laughed again, but this time it was thinner. He leaned forward.
“Alright. What do you got?”
Rose didn’t miss a beat. “Fifty bucks a night.”
Rick barked a laugh. “No way.”
“And,” Rose added, “we help with birthday parties when you’re short staffed.”
Tracey raised an eyebrow. Neal looked at Rose like she’d just volunteered his soul.
Rick stared at her. Long enough that the pop music seemed too loud. Finally he rubbed his chin.
“Fifty,” he said slowly. “You all sign waivers, no liability, and someone can come early when we have a party?”
Rose smiled. “Yeap.”
Rick stood and stuck out his hand again. “You break my floor, you buy it.”
“Fair,” Rose said, shaking.
Rick grinned, all teeth now. “Welcome to Swankies, The new home of the Derby City Angels.”
As they walked back toward the door, Neal leaned close to Rose.
“You just signed us up to be rodeo clowns. You know that.”
Rose shrugged. “Cheap rent has a price.”
Tracey glanced back at the rink, kids wobbling under black lights.
“Honestly,” she said, “I used to love skating parties.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos!
Click the Thumbs Up! button below to leave the author a kudos:
And please, remember to comment, too! Thanks.
Comments
Well, like you said
Completely different; I shall follow along. Never roller skated, and was terribly unstable on ice skates.
I have just remembered the "skates" we got for Christmas once. Metal over-skate things to buckle over one's shoes, and wheels which all seemed to have permanent brakes on..
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."
LOL, yes we had some of those
LOL, yes we had some of those as kids. Horrible things.
Liking these three
Distinctive characters. Old friends. Great combo for a good story! Rose knows how to negotiate, too.
— Emma
I just started reading this…….
And can’t help smiling! This wonderful story reminds me of some really good times.
Yeah, I remember the old “sidewalk skates” that went over your sneakers - hell, I can even remember the song by Melanie: “I got a brand new pair of roller skates. You got a brand new key.” LOL, I remember having to put those damned things on and tighten them down with the key. When I was just a kid, about seven or eight living in Merritt Island, Florida, we used to skate on the sidewalks using those things. We lived in a brand new sub-development; my father, who was an aerospace engineer, was working on the Apollo Project at the time and we had just moved into a new house. We lived in Cape Canaveral before then, but it still had dirt streets back then so we couldn’t skate.
We used to hold up a blanket behind us, stretched out with our arms, and let the wind push us down the street on our skates!
In 1970, just before I turned ten, we moved to upstate NY. General Electric, my father’s employer had lost their contract with NASA as the Apollo Project was winding down, and he was transferred to their Schenectady, NY plant - gas turbine division. We were lucky as a lot of his co-workers were simply laid off. Although moving from Florida to New York didn’t seem very lucky at the time, lol. In the long run, especially in light of my later life, it was probably one of the better things that could have happened to me. It meant I grew up in a state that was much more liberal and accepting of the person I had always buried deep down inside.
Any, I digress. After moving to New York, skating was different. We no longer lived in a place where we could use sidewalk skates year round. I think my sisters and I were probably the only people I knew who even had them, lol. Skating was an indoor thing. I can remember going to Rollerama on weekend nights to go skating. The old organ music, the disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and real skates! The kind you had to lace on - with hard rubber wheels and the toe stops. And of course the “couples only skates”.
I used to love watching roller derby when I was a kid - the Bay City Bombers! And who can forget the old Raquel Welch movie Kansas City Bomber? I had pretty much forgotten about roller derby until years later, around 2012 if I remember correctly. I had taken my start up team to Des Moines, Iowa to start up a new logistics operation for Bimbo Baking USA (our customer). This would entail all of us (I would pull about six or eight people from a group of around twelve I used regularly) to spend the better part of three months setting up a new operation - finding a site, hiring, staffing an office, setting up systems and processes, etc. We would all stay in the same hotel, eat meals together, and try to find things to do in the area during our off hours. For me, this usually included visiting whatever historic sites or oddball tourist sites there were. On this trip, if I remember right, that included visiting the “future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk”, lol. But it also involved rediscovering roller derby. One of my team found out that a neighboring community had a women’s roller derby team, and a group of us instantly became supporters of the team. I even still have a t-shirt for the Iowa City team somewhere around the house, lol!
Of course, nowadays it’s usually flat track roller derby versus the banked tracks we used to see when I was much younger. If I were a few years younger, I might actually look at forming a team myself!
D. Eden
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.”
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus