Roskov book 5, p.1
Roskov, book 5, page 1
Ricky Roskov
Book 5
Copyright © Geoff Wolak
Written in October, 2021, from an idea first formed in 2006.
This book is a work of fiction, technically accurate in the detail of geographical locations, and the time period history.
Email the author: gwresearchb@aol.com
www.geoffwolakwriting.com
Another Roskov Hotel
At Marseilles Airport Arrivals we found a man stood holding the sign, “Roskov Hotel”, more free advertising for the hotel, and I joked that we should have the guy stood there all day – to be seen by passing tourists.
As we merged with the crowds we were all in disguise and not being mobbed or bothered, but when travelling like this I was worried for Jenny’s safety.
Minibus boarded, luggage in the rear, and we set off without a crazed fan bothering us nor asking for an autograph, an hour to the hotel, and I found it to be just as I left it. And it was strange to see my name in many places, the hotel now officially named after me.
The Dortmons’ son and his wife were there to greet us, Jenny soon in a chat to the daughter about Alicia Stone as they signed us in, room keys allocated.
In the same room that I had previously occupied - the joining door closed and locked for now, I opened my luggage and filled the laundry bag for housekeeping to find.
A shower and a change, and I headed down to find the younger Dortmons, the three of us soon sat in the bar and chatting about the film – and the DVD sales so far.
The son informed me, ‘We have some people come here to see where the Mercedes car adverts were shot, and they think this was the place for the original adverts.’
‘So long as it makes you money,’ I quipped.
‘Now we have more English and Americans, people who have seen the film. Some ask for a Small Grande Mohican, but the ladies in the café know this already – and we have a sign of them.’
‘A sign?’
He said with a grin, ‘From the film, we list your drinks and people can buy them. And plastic cups with the names printed on them, a Happy Crappy Frapacino.’
I smiled and nodded. ‘You anticipated the silly questions.’
My two lady colleagues finally came down and joined us, soon being recognised, and we stood to pose for a snap, the first one here – and the whole point of being here.
But the American couple being snapped had recognised Jenny from her sitcom and asked about what she was doing here; they had not seen the movie.
A walk down to the café later, and a few guests grabbed cameras and smiled, snapping us as I approached the old lady behind the café counter. ‘A Happy Crappy Potacino please.’
‘With sugar?’
That stumped me for a moment. ‘Please.’
Un-phased, she made me a coffee and handed it over, not that I could tell one type of frothy coffee from another.
Sat with Jenny and Jacqueline, a few people on nearby tables got chatting to us, but we didn’t mind, we had come to chat to such people, hoping that our presence would be reported far and wide.
I had my digital camera with me, and I asked the café manager – a tall thin man and nothing like his alter ego in the movie – to take a few snaps of us.
After our drinks in the café, we ambled up to the Sunset Field since we had seen people walking that way, and we found a sedate bunch of middle-aged locals, a few pensioners, the visitors either sat around or stood enjoying the view.
It took ten minutes before the bunch of sleepy guests actually recognised us, and the first couple walked over to say hello.
Checking out the pool later, the back wall was down and terraces had been made, still some building work evident, and we sat under sun shades near the bar as a few middle-aged ladies swam. And this place was a far cry from the hotel in Mexico full of drunk young Americans.
At 7pm we met in the restaurant, Jacqueline suddenly recognised by a retired French film producer she had met decades ago, and that man and his wife came and joined us. They had chosen the hotel at the mention of Jacqueline’s name, but had not seen the movie yet.
In the bar later we did finally find a pair of film fans, from Derby in England, and I got chatting to them about installing computers at the insurance company building in their town. I posed for a snap, and I asked that they send it to the Derby Herald newspaper for me.
Having had an idea for a while, I asked to speak to Rolf after I had called the twins to make sure they were back safe. ‘I had an idea, for the Corsica hotel, just that the building work may be disruptive for the guests.’
‘There will be more villas built,’ he began. ‘But it will not become a building site. What did you want to build?’
‘A saltwater swimming pool, a big one, down between the road and the start of the sand, a hundred metres long, twenty metres wide, two metres deep, sea water pumped in.’
‘That is a very … very big pool, but saltwater pools are popular I understand.’
‘It’s not for swimming, but people could swim there. No, I would shape the side of the pool to be rough not smooth, same for the base, six inches of sand, then we find rocks from the ocean that have coral and plants growing on them and we drop them in the pool.
‘We fill it with rocks, some quite large, then small fish, crabs, lobsters, and then guests can snorkel and scuba dive, a diver training centre at one end, and a pump filter system plus some heating, so that it can be used ten months of the year,’ I explained.
‘Making us the premier diving centre on the island,’ he noted.
‘Rich people like to scuba dive,’ I pointed out. ‘This giant rock pool would be like diving in the ocean, only safe - and warmer. How much would it cost?’
‘It is big hole in the ground covered in concrete, so it would be cheap,’ Rolf suggested.
‘I worry that we’re spending money before we make it…’
‘That is not a worry when we know that we will make the money. I know what each business area has invested and what it makes, and I have no concerns with investing further money, and the hotel is already attracting a great deal of interest.’
‘If the rock pool does well, I have an idea, for another one, in England, a roof over it, forty metres deep.’
‘An indoor diving centre, yet salt water,’ he noted.
‘And with fish swimming around, a living eco system. Like diving in an aquarium.’
‘If people at our hotel can scuba dive and snorkel ten months of the year, then it boosts the hotel greatly, also day visitors allowed – paying guests.’
‘If we get rich people interested in diving, then … they’re less likely to be old and sick,’ I pointed out.
‘Yes, a concern you seem to have for our hotel, to be overrun with such people.’
‘Old sick people would put off some guests, so we keep the two groups separate, those that are fit and healthy … and those that need a spa retreat.’
‘I will price up the rock pool, a good name for it. As kids, the twins loved exploring rock pools.’
‘We all did as kids, yes. Are your partners happy with their investments?’
‘Beyond happy. They would have been happy with break-even in the first year, you will hand them over a hundred percent in a year.’
‘And the extra room in the nightclub?’ I asked.
‘The spreadsheet suggests that it would add to the profit if people booked rooms, for parties and business meetings. If we use the other building’s main entrance at night, we do not suffer from a traffic jam in one area, and we break no Health and Safety laws.’
‘Is that practical, to use the other stairs?’ I asked.
‘A few ropes on brass posts would stop people walking to the wrong area,’ he suggested. ‘And we can offer poker tournaments on a regular basis, and in the Swedish winters this will attract interest.
‘Players from Europe can stay in the hotel next door, so a tournament on a Wednesday night would not interfere with our main business on a Friday or Saturday night.
‘A second bar, a big one, would almost double our ability to sell drinks, and that means more profit since we buy in bulk up-front.’
‘And our partner manager?’ I asked.
‘I will meet with him soon and show him the figures,’ Rolf promised.
‘Price up a big hole in the ground in Corsica as well, and if ready for August it will add to the attractions, and add to the good reviews about our hotel.’
‘You are with Jenny and Jacqueline?’
‘Yes, promoting this place, but it feels odd now that we’re not filming. Met a British couple that came just to see the place, but they’ll stay just a few days here and then in a regular hotel down on the coast.’
At breakfast, I ran straight into petrol head Steve from Sheffield, hands shaken. ‘What you doing here at this quality place, you’re a grunt from Sheffield!’
He laughed. ‘I was driving around so came across, not far from where I was in Italy.’
The ladies joined us for breakfast, talk of Mustang cars and driving through the Alps. I made sure that Steve got snapped with us, and after breakfast he showed us his car, Jenny sitting in it and being snapped, and at the café we ordered Small Grande Mohicans as a few guests snapped us.
Steve was leaving, just the one night here to have a look around and take a few photographs, and we bid him safe driving as his Mustang’s loud purr caused guests to stop and stare.
Trish called, and the comedian chat show host that had given me such a good review had invited us on.
They were in agreement - that the chat show came first.
Trish called back later, to say that the new Mercedes advert shot at the beach hotel would be delayed till more people had seen the movie, and that they had created an advert from spare movie footage, footage of myself and Jacqueline driving around the French countryside as well as at the Dortmons’ hotel. We would be paid, myself and Jacqueline, plus residuals as usual.
I explained it to Jacqueline and Jenny. Jenny would still get her lump sum, but the residuals would not start yet.
Work comes first
After breakfast we checked out, soon in a minibus to the airport, a short direct flight to Heathrow.
In London we grabbed an expensive taxi-minibus with tinted windows, but we were in disguise anyhow, and at the Edinburgh Hotel we checked in, three rooms to avoid the gossip.
A shower and a change, shoulder bags carried, dresses in bags for the ladies, and at 2pm we set off to the studios, the show to be taped.
Before the start of filming I wandered into the audience waiting area and said hello to many of them, posing and being snapped, talk of the hotel in Corsica and of rescuing divers.
Ten minute warning, and there was no panic because this was being taped. We were soon stood behind the audience, the comedian stood taking the piss out of a few politicians currently in the news.
Finally, he welcomed us on, and I shook his hand before I sat, the audience loudly clapping, Jenny and Jacqueline giving him French-style hugs and fake cheek kisses.
Settled, he began, ‘So, just back from Corsica and filming the latest Mercedes advert…’
‘That advert has been delayed,’ I began, ‘till more people see the movie, or it won’t make much sense. The advert continues where the movie left off, so Mercedes will soon show a different advert, shot in the south of France - which is where we just came from.
‘We had a holiday in Corsica – and to check up on the building work, then flew across to Marseilles, to the hotel where we shot the movie, a short visit.’
‘So there’s still building work going on?’
‘A little bit. Jenny’s villa is not quite ready, the villa for L’Oreal is still being worked on, and we’re adding in a large saltwater pool, for swimming and snorkelling.’
‘Snorkelling?’
‘It will have rocks in it, and fish and crabs. And I designed a new villa, which has only just started to be built, and it will have a sunken salt spa, local hot springs water – the smelly kind.’
‘My wife and I sat in one, yes, said to be good for you. Will your hotel have a health theme?’
‘Not a bad health theme, no, we have exercise bikes, pushbikes, swimming, horse riding, so it’s for the able-bodied. And the beach is a mile wide, for people to walk along.’
The backdrop changed, our beach, pristine white sands and an inviting blue ocean seen.
‘It looks great, white sands and clean,’ he noted.
‘And just for our hotel guests, it’s a private beach.’
‘So you rescued two stuck divers…’
‘There was a cave-in as they were diving, but we knew that they were close to a small vertical shaft that let the light in, so I led a team that way to see if we could lower down fresh air tanks, but we found loose rocks and we started to move them away.
‘As Jacqueline handed out hot coffee and food, we finally managed to make the hole wide enough and we got the men out, which is now a way in for other divers.’
‘Jacqueline, you helped out?’
‘I figured it would drag on for days, so we made up flasks of coffee and took it down to the rescuers on the golf carts we use around the hotel.’
The backdrop changed, Jacqueline seen with the rescuers.
‘And they found ancient cave drawings…’
I explained, ‘Hand prints, ten thousand years old, so before anyone can explore that cave the French government scientists need to take a look.’
‘Jacqueline, would you go diving there?’
‘I was a great scuba diver years back, now a bit rusty.’
I turned my head to her. ‘I hear that you’re still good … at going down on an old wreck.’
She slapped my arm as Jenny doubled-over laughing, the audience laughing loudly.
Our host asked, grinning, ‘Jenny, do you … dive?’
‘No, but I will try the new pool at the hotel on Corsica. Not sure I want to be deep underwater these days.’
The backdrop changed, our hotel in Corsica, as seen from up on the main villa’s roof.
He noted, ‘It looks nice, just these small chalets, no big hotel full of screaming tourists.’
I told him, ‘Each small villa is separate, so you won’t hear your neighbours. And there’ll never be more than twenty people around at any one time, no queues.’
Jacqueline put in, ‘I stayed there last week for the first time, and the villas are great, not like a hotel room at all, like a small house, and the windows are huge and facing the beach, and you just waste hours sat with a cup of tea staring out.’
‘Jenny, what did you make of it coming from New York?’
‘It’s very different to my apartment in New York, and there’s no bustle, so very quiet, and I walked the beach at dawn, just me, and I fed the horses in the stables, and it was worth going just for that.
‘And it doesn’t feel like a hotel, more like a private estate or someone’s home, and we had communal meals in the main building, no set menu. It would be great for single female travellers, very safe, and you meet people at meal times.’
I put in, ‘We wanted to avoid the traditional hotel experience.’
‘So do we all,’ our host quipped. ‘Last year I rented a villa in Greece with a pool for my kids, and that was great, no one to pester us, no set meal times. So, Ricky, how are the DVD sales going?’
‘Heading towards a million sales quickly.’
‘That is good, for an Indie movie.’
‘It’s showing in the cinema in Germany, and we get paid for every person that buys a ticket, and that’s going well, but we have no plans for wide cinema release, this was a private deal, a payment agreement worked out. We’d make a lot less in cinemas in America, for every person that sat to watch it.’
‘Jenny, you took a modest payment…’
‘I did, and I’ll get a slow payment as the DVDs are sold. But I landed a Mercedes car advert as a result of it, more to follow.’
‘And you Jacqueline?’
‘The same, and we wait for the DVD sales, which will be way more than we expected, and the Mercedes adverts keep me busy. Following on from the movie, Jenny is my estranged daughter, shocked that I’m a jewel thief.’
‘And you two get along in real life?’
‘We do, never a cross word,’ Jacqueline confirmed.
‘Ricky, you’re the boss, so do they do as they’re told?’
‘I had to send Jacqueline off the set for laughing too much, the saddlebag sketch.’
The audience laughed, Jacqueline doubled over.
‘I saw the outtakes, yes. And your response, to a critical story in the papers this week, using the mongoloid kids…’
I adopted a confident smile. ‘I read an article … about the kids and their school in Germany, how they acted in movies and TV series to make extra money, and I wanted to help them, so I booked them to come to France, a bit of a holiday for them.
‘The kids are all over eighteen, so not quite kids, and smarter than some would give them credit, they have a mental age of about ten years old.
‘I wrote them in as just being sat around, then added them in getting wet and then getting their revenge on Claudia at the end, and the kids love acting, and their teachers were very grateful of the work and the money.
‘But one kid, he stood with me and pointed at Jacqueline and asked if Jacqueline was an expensive woman.’ The audience laughed. ‘I told him that she was very expensive to maintain.’
They laughed louder.
‘Then the kid whispers to me: better to use your hand.’
The audience laughed loudly, along with Jacqueline and Jenny.
‘That would save a lot of money for the men of the world, yes,’ our host noted. ‘Jenny, are you expensive to maintain?’
