A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 21

This is the 12th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.

Today’s story: Man Arrested Trying to Quarantine on Private Disney Island.

Florida deputies arrested a man who had been living out his quarantine on a shuttered Disney World island, telling authorities it felt like a “tropical paradise.”

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies found Richard McGuire on Disney’s Discovery Island on Thursday. He said he’d been there since Monday or Tuesday and had planned to camp there for a week, according to an arrest report.

The 42-year-old said he didn’t hear numerous deputies searching the private island for him on foot, by boat and by air because he was asleep in a building. He told the deputy he didn’t know it was a restricted area, despite there being numerous “no trespassing” signs.

“Richard stated that he was unaware of that and that it looked like a tropical paradise,” according to the arrest report.

I’d never heard of Discovery Island, so I did some research and found this article: Disney World mysteriously closed an island 20 years ago and left it in ruins. Take a look inside.

Here is what the island looked like before it was closed over two decades ago:

Here are images of what it looks like now:

Here’s my take. Meet Jeanette Struthers and Carl “Lombo” Lombardo. They are mismatched personalities — she’s by the book, he’s free-spirited — but somehow have managed to forge a friendship while working together for eight years as part of a security team for WonderWorld, Inc., the world’s largest theme park company. Their particular domain: WowWow Land in the tackiest part of Florida (wherever that is). It’s the oldest of the corporation’s holdings where the business got its start. Now with theme parks all across the globe on every continent except Antarctica (“But soon to come!”), WowWow Land is only remembered at quarterly meetings by corporate mucky mucks because of its place in the company’s history.

In truth, WowWow Land is pretty pedestrian in terms of its attractions compared to the dozens more modern and sophisticated parks. Jeanette and Lombo don’t mind. The crowds are less. Corporate oversight minimal. They can pretty much do their thing as they loop around the park day after day, handling mostly mundane matters. Not a bad life for a couple of millennials who never thought they’d have job security and yet, here they are.

In short, it’s a pretty sweet gig.

Then reports start coming in. Strange lights at night at what used to be known as Wowza Island. Once connected by a long wooden bridge to the main park area, the island was closed several years before due to lack of interest. Primarily home to exotic birds, most notably parrots, it has sat quietly off the beaten path… until now.

Jeanette and Lombo get word from on high: Check out what’s going on there on Wowza Island. That’s how they find themselves on a brutally hot summer’s day boating over to abandoned island.

The buildings are still intact albeit with some jungle growth. Oddly, a few of the structures appear to be cleaned up, almost as if they are still functional.

The duo discovers a number of mysterious clues: carpentry tools and electric tools; power generators; clothes drying on a clothesline.

Clearly, someone is living on the island.

That someone is Coronelle, seventy-three years old and not to be messed with. She’s lived a hardscrabble life and hasn’t come this far to see her ultimate fantasy derailed by a couple of “young whippersnappers” wearing theme park uniforms. Which is why when the guards happen by Coronelle’s hiding place, she swoops down and knocks them both out. When they revive, they discover they are tied up… like really tied up with some super-sophisticated rope knots… and under the watchful eye of Coronelle, who wields an impressive Bowie knife. Oh yeah, there’s a talking parrot on her shoulder named Squawky.

Here’s the deal: Coronelle is dying of cancer. The only fond memory she has in her crappy life are the times she managed to scrape together enough nickels and dimes to buy a ticket to WowWow Land. Once there, she’d head straight to Wowza Island. This was her special place, the only pleasant respite from a life shuffled from one foster home to another, one lousy romantic relationship after another. She has spent her whole adult life as a clerk sequestered away in some dank basement office in the bowels of city hall.

Coronelle had one hobby: handyman. Educated by one of her many foster fathers to learn how to use tools in a toolbox — to handle chores he was supposed to take care of — she carried that knowledge and practical experience with her. It was the main means she had as an adult to develop a few relationships in her neighborhood, fixing other people’s household “to do” items.

But always she remembered: Wowza Island. Once she learned she was dying and given the recommendation to take on a radical medical treatment which only promised much pain and discomfort, Coronelle decided on another plan of action: Take over Wowza Island.

The first part of Act Two involves Coronelle using Jeanette and Lombo as her “slaves” to help her fix up this structure and that. It turns out Coronelle wants to fix up the island to its previous “splendor.” It’s an absurd goal as most of the buildings are in a significant state of disrepair. But what are you going to say to batty old woman wielding a big ass knife and supported by her “army” of wild talking parrots. They act as her spies and confidantes.

Then Stockholm syndrome creeps in: First Lombo, then Jeanette begin to buy into Coronelle’s fantasy. That becomes a problem when WowWow corporate sends over a boat with other security guards.

Thus begins the first battle of Wowza Island (there are more to come). Of course, Coronelle has prepared for these naval “assaults” with spear-chucking machines and coconut-flinging devices.

The situation escalates as the press gets involved. Cellphone videos of skirmishes taken from WowWow Land visitors across the way hits social media. Coronelle gets interviewed a la Dog Day Afternoon. Now she’s a star

Suddenly, the theme park is jammed with people. Corporate white collar types arrive from HQ, forced to figure out what to do.

Jeanette and Lombo know they have a job to do, ordered by their bosses to “take her out by any means necessary,” but they have learned Coronelle is dying, indeed fading fast.

Do they do what they need to save their cushy jobs and see to it Coronelle is arrested, likely thrown in jail for the rest of her life?

That’s where YOU come in. What would YOU do with this setup?

There you have it, my 21st story idea of the month.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.