“Harvey Wallbangers.” Sherri was taught to always repeat their order. “That’s OK by you?” She smiled at Arthur, who smiled back, and when he did, she felt something strange shift inside her, a sort of rightness, like the feeling she got when she’d add up her tickets at the end of her shift and come to the correct number. She finally looked at him, really looked, and he looked right back. He was wiry and intense. His brown eyes, almost obscured by his long bangs, were fixed on her. He wasn’t appraising her the way the other men did; he was studying her, learning her, the way she did when she looked at sheet music for the first time.

She needed to wait on her other tables, but she felt suspended in his gaze. “What brought you to town, anyway?” she asked.

Arthur said, “I’m part of the group that’s hoping to resuscitate Rainbow Springs.”

Sherri gasped. “Rainbow Springs? You’re working on that place? It gives me the creeps!” She saw another of her other tables fill up. She couldn’t talk for long, but she’d always been haunted by the massive resort that never opened. The property was tucked into the woods in neighboring Mukwonago. It had a huge conference center, hundreds of hotel rooms, and a main street complete with empty shops. The rooms were all set for visitors, complete with boxes of tissue, towels hanging from the racks, and beds turned down for guests. The pool just waiting to be filled with water. But the complex was financially stillborn the day it was set to open a decade earlier. The owner, who lacked the sexiness and savvy of Hugh Hefner, was once worth millions, but he’d squandered his fortune on the property and didn’t trust banks to help with the necessary financing, so he went bankrupt. For years it sat empty. All the kids from her school ignored the NO TRESPASSING signs. They’d throw rocks in the windows, get high, have sex, hold séances, and seek out messages on their Ouija boards. “They should burn that place down,” Sherri said.

“That, or maybe we can save it somehow.”

Jerry jumped in. “I thought Arthur should see how the Playboy resort works, how it’s designed, get some ideas.”

“Seems like everyone wants to build a paradise out here,” Sherri said. “Resorts, camps.”

“This corner of the state is practically Eden,” Arthur said. “Fresh springs, the lakes, the hills. Why not share it with other people?”

“People who can afford it,” Sherri said. “You know, sometimes I think how different this place would be if a woman designed it. We wouldn’t have men walk around dressed the way I am, I can tell you that. Honestly, I don’t think we’d have men at all.”