Текст книги "Disney after Dark"

Автор книги: Ridley Pearson

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

6

His hand trembling, Finn reread the list that had been left for him at the school office the next day: Howard

Lee

Maitland

Jackson

He recognized these as the names of four middle schools. Four schools where he now believed he’d find the other DHIs. The note wasn’t signed, but he knew it was from Brad.

“You don’t have to do this,” he reminded Amanda, though it was a little late now. They were riding a somewhat smelly city bus toward Lee Middle School. One-story buildings painted pink, sea blue, and white streamed past. Heat waves shimmered from the pavement. Another fall day.

“I’m okay,” she replied.

He wanted to think this had been his idea, but he knew better. He wasn’t sure how she’d managed to talk him into letting her join him, but here she was.

“We might not get back in time for fifth period,” he warned. They’d skipped out on lunch together, slipping out a door near the gym. They’d be in some serious trouble if caught.

“I’m a big girl, Finn.”

The bus driver, a fat guy with a blotchy red face, kept an eye on them in the mirror. Finn was feeling paranoid. “Hey, do you think—?”

“That he’s watching us?” Amanda said, interrupting. “Yes.”

“What if he’s some kind of spy?” Finn asked.

“Oh, please. He’s just curious about a couple of kids on their own in the middle of the day.”

He felt stupid for having said that.

To drum it in, Amanda asked, “What kind of spy? For whom?” She whispered into his ear,

“The Overtakers?”

She meant to tease him, but Finn wasn’t laughing.

“You saw those guys yesterday at the Magic Kingdom,” Finn reminded her.

“You weren’t supposed to be there. You broke the rules,” she reminded him. “You think they’re Over-takers?” Again, she was teasing.

“As if you’d know.”

“When are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“When I find out myself,” he answered.

“These other kids. The other DHIs,” she said. “You think they have the answers?”

“Not exactly.”

The driver picked up a black radio microphone with a curly black cord and spoke into it. They couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“What if he works with truancy cops?” Finn said. The schools were serious about kids cutting class.

“Now you’re making me paranoid,” she said sharply. She reached up and pressed the signal for the next stop. The brakes hissed as the bus slowed and pulled over to the curb.

As they hurried off the bus, Finn caught the driver’s gaze in the side mirror: he was watching them.

Nine hot blocks later they reached the school. Finn was thirsty.

It was a nicer, newer school than theirs. They walked down the main hall, trying to look like they knew where they were going. Neither had been here before.

“What’s the plan?” Amanda asked.

“We’re here at lunchtime for a reason,” Finn explained, checking a wall clock. They had to catch a return bus within twenty minutes or they’d miss the start of fifth period. He doubted they’d make it.

They located the cafeteria by following the noise and smells. To save time, Finn and Amanda had decided to split up. The enormous room was packed with kids and littered with backpacks.

Hundreds of kids ate at long tables.

As Finn passed a table, he heard someone behind him say, “Hey, isn’t that one of the hosts from Disney World?” Less than five minutes, and he’d been spotted. He didn’t like being famous as much as he thought he would. He slipped on his sunglasses.

He saw Amanda a few tables away. She carried copies of the photographs they’d taken at the Magic Kingdom. She was showing them around to kids and asking questions. Finn didn’t know which of the four DHIs went to Lee. He walked slowly, studying faces at the various tables.

It was really loud in here. An abundance of food smells combined into a stink he found sickening.

A big guy suddenly jumped up in Finn’s way, an eighth-grader, judging by his size. He wore a Colorado Avalanche jersey, colorful jams, and new Nikes. “Who you staring at?” he growled.

“No one.”

The big kid reached out and lifted Finn’s sunglasses. “Think you’re too cool?” Seeing Finn, he did a double take.

“Hey! How come I know you?”

“Give me back my glasses, please.”

“Aren’t you like on Zoom or something?”

“I’d like my glasses back, please.”

“Give ‘em back, Roy,” a girl at the next table said. “It’s not Zoom, stupid. He’s a host—over at the Magic Kingdom—like Charlene Turner.”

Charlene Turner. Finn had her last name now.

“Oh, yeah!” the big kid said, reluctantly returning the sunglasses to Finn. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for Charlene,” Finn said.

“Can’t help you,” the big guy said, sitting back down.

Finn looked to the girl expectantly, but she shook her head. “Sorry,” she said.

Finn looked up to see Amanda waving at him. Having won his attention, she pointed to a window that looked out onto the playing fields. She moved her hand to mimic dribbling a basketball.

Leave it to Amanda: she’d found Charlene.

7

Charlene was talking with three other girls, all dressed for P.E. in gray gym shorts and yelow Tshirts. Charlene’s expression changed instantly as she saw Finn approaching. He wondered why she should be so disappointed to see him. They’d gotten along well enough during the shoot.

“Hey,” he said, greeting her, suddenly made painfully aware of Amanda standing by his side.

Charlene excused herself from her friends, saying, “Back in a whack,” and approached Finn.

“What are you doing here? Are you cutting?” she asked, viewing Finn skeptically. “And who’s she?”

“I have to talk to you,” he said. Then, “She’s a friend.”

Charlene looked him over, and then met eyes with Amanda. “I don’t think so,” she said, and started to walk back toward her friends.

“The dreams. Disney after dark,” Finn said. That stopped her cold.

Amanda looked at Finn curiously, but knew better than to say anything.

“Dreams that aren’t dreams,” he added.

Charlene spun to face him, excitement and alarm in her sparkling eyes. “No way you could know that,” she said.

“Unless…” Finn said. “I’ve been there, too.”

“What’s this about?” Amanda asked. A whisper meant only for Finn, yet Charlene overheard.

“Where’s she fit in?” Charlene asked.

“I told you: a friend willing to help me out,” Finn explained. He added quickly, “Wayne, the old guy. Have you met him? He needs us all together. At night. Tonight, or tomorrow. As soon as I can find everyone: the five of us, all together.”

“This isn’t happening,” said Charlene, suspicious of Amanda, puzzled by Finn. But the expression on her face told him she’d also been in the park in her dreams.

Charlene was the kind of girl you might see on a cereal box.

“Do you know how to reach any of the others?” Finn asked.

“I run into Willa on VMK sometimes, though it’s more by chance.” Virtual Magic Kingdom, a new “massively multiplayer” online game, was all the rage.

Finn played too. “Can you tell her to meet us?”

“It’s not like I know her like that.” Her friends called over to her. “Listen, I can’t do this now,”

Charlene said.

“Contact Willa if you can. But whatever you do, go to bed early tonight. Eight o’clock. Eight o’clock, exactly.”

“I’ve been trying to stay up. I don’t exactly love my dreams lately.”

“We need to know,” he said. She had to be as curious about this as he was. Could they possibly meet in the park in their dreams?

“Yeah, okay…” Charlene said reluctantly.

Charlene looked straight at Amanda but spoke to Finn. “No one can know about this,” she said. Then she lowered her voice and hissed, “It isn’t safe.”

The coach’s whistle sounded shrilly. Charlene took off running but glanced back at Finn one last time. He saw fear in her eyes.

“Meet me!” he called out.

Charlene didn’t answer, but her eyes registered that she’d heard.

After a moment, Amanda said, “We’d better be getting back.”

“Yeah,” Finn agreed.

“It isn’ t safe.”

Charlene’s warning seemed to hang in the air between them.

8

“I'm going to bed,” Finn announced, standing up from the dinner table and carrying his plate to the kitchen sink. He hadn’t been to bed at this hour since elementary school.

“Are you not feeling well?” His mother said, in shock.

“I’m feeling fine,” he said. “I’m just going to bed early, if that’s all right?”

“Have you finished your homework?”

“Yes, it’s done. I stayed after for study hall.”

“You what?” She set down a bowl of mashed potatoes and crossed her arms. “Finn?” She eyed him suspiciously. “You stayed after school to do your homework, and now you’re heading to bed at seven-fifteen?” The night before last, his mother had received a call from her contact on the DHI team, asking if Finn had been to the Magic Kingdom lately. Finn had denied going, feeling awful about lying, but knowing she wouldn’t believe him. She’d grounded him. Finn didn’t even try to challenge her, and that had convinced her of his guilt. “If you’re planning to sneak out—”

“No way!” Finn said. “I’m not, I promise.” He stepped forward and kissed her. “Good night, Mom.”

“I’m going to check on you when your father gets home.”

“Okay,” Finn said. “Just don’t wake me up. Please,” he added. “I need a good night’s sleep.”

He checked his computer. No interesting e-mail. He debated logging on to VMK and looking for Charlene, but instead he changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth, passing his mother in the hall on the way back from the bathroom.

She wore her concern openly. “It’s only seven-fifteen,” she reminded him. “We could catch the Simpsons.”

She’d trapped him. This was an offer he would never normally turn down.

“I’m going to pass, Mom, but thanks.”

“It’s a bad rule, making you get approval before going. A stupid rule, really. If you…if you took a friend to the park…well…your father and I would understand how you wouldn’t have wanted to tell us.”

Finn considered her olive branch. “Amanda,” he said. “Her name’s Amanda.”

Relief spread across his mother’s face. He feared she might hug him.

She was smiling now. Beaming.

“’Night, Mom.”

She looked like she might cry.

“I’ll talk to your father,” was all she said.

Finn knew he wouldn’t be grounded by morning.

He shut his bedroom door. If he crossed over into the park, he didn’t want to be in his pajamas, so he changed back into jeans and a T-shirt. He lay there for fifteen wakeful minutes with the lights out, checking the clock regularly. He tried to relax. Dusk played at the edges of his shades. It felt like the middle of the day. He cleared his mind, dozed off, and finally sank into a deep sleep.

“You’re learning,” said the old man’s voice from behind him.

Finn turned to see Wayne, in khakis and a plaid shirt, sitting behind the wheel of an electric golf cart with the Walt Disney World logo painted on the front. The sky glowed faintly on the horizon. It took Finn a moment to register his location as somewhere in Frontierland, not far from Tom Sawyer Island.

“You just missed the fireworks display,” Wayne said, stopping the cart alongside Finn. “Park closed a few minutes ago. I love this time of night. Especially the music.”

“What music?” Finn didn’t hear any music and realized now that he’d always heard music in the park. The old guy was a bit daffy.

Finn reached out and grabbed the steel bar that supported the cart’s awning. He saw his glowing hand wrap around the metal but could also faintly see through his hand as well. Not only that, but the metal didn’t feel exactly like metal.

“This is so weird,” he confessed.

“Don’t fight it,” Wayne said.

“This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve done some weird stuff,” Finn said.

“This one time, a friend of mine and I—” He caught himself blabbering. Instead, he told Wayne, “I found Charlene. I’m still trying to locate the others.”

“It has to be all of you. You understand that, don’t you? All or nothing. Youngsters your age, you always think it’s all about you, only you. I can promise you, it has to be all of you.”

“I want to help you.”

“You have no choice,” he said. “At some point you’ll understand that.”

Finn felt the words like drumbeats in his chest. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I thought it was a dream at first,” Finn said.

“And now?”

“Now I don’t think so. I don’t know exactly what it is if it isn’t a dream, but I don’t think it could be a dream.” He hesitated and said, “I saw the moon.”

Wayne nodded and cocked his head curiously. “Yet something’s bothering you.”

“Charlene said it isn’t safe. You basically said the same thing.”

“And yet here you are. You came back,” Wayne said.

“You brought me back.”

“Did I? Not exactly. This is a two-way street, young man. You’re neither hologram nor human.

You’re something in between, I think. The holograms don’t think for themselves, and they speak only what you recorded for them. How much you are…one or the other…may depend on your thinking;—what you’re thinking, how you’re thinking it. So I’d be careful of what I was thinking, if I were you.”

Finn spotted a large gold bear by the entrance to the Jungle Cruise. He shook his head to clear his eyes since the bear was walking on two feet and there was what looked like an oversized rat jogging to keep up with it. “Is that…?”

“What?” the old man said excitedly.

“Pooh and Piglet?”

“Is it?”

“There!” Finn said, pointing.

“I told you, didn’t I?” Wayne was quick to lose his patience. “I don’t see what you see.” He sounded frustrated.

“Pooh and Piglet.” Finn was certain now.

“What are they doing?”

“Walking away from us.”

“Anything else?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Finn felt like some kind of translator.

“I told you: things are happening in the park. We—you and your friends, actually—need to stop them.”

“The Overtakers.”

“Yes.”

“It isn’t safe,” Finn repeated.

“No, it’s not,” Wayne said, agreeing.

“What’s that mean, exactly?”

“What did you think of the park as a small child?”

“Magic,” Finn said without a second thought. He still thought of it as magic.

“Exactly,” Wayne agreed. “But there are two sides to magic, yes? Good magic is what you’re talking about. But there’s other magic besides good magic.”

“Black magic,” Finn stated.

“A layman’s term, but yes, a darker side to magic that few if any fully understand.”

“Do you?”

“Heavens no. But Walt did. He wrote about it. He made films. Invented characters. He understood its seriousness, its potential for…but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

“Potential for what? Evil?”

“Let’s just put a pin in that. We’ll come back to it.”

Finn climbed into the front seat of the golf cart. His feet disappeared. They weren’t simply in shadow; they were…gone. He felt a little faint. “My feet,” he gasped.

Wayne explained, “The hologram imaging system isn’t set up to project to all locations. There are places we call shadows. Like dead spots where cell phones don’t work. Inside some attractions they will be visible– you, the DHIs, will be visible. Other locations, maybe not. Your feet inside a cart, for instance,” he said, pointing, “not so good. You may be able to control this. We don’t know for sure. You’re the first of your kind.”

Finn glanced down at his missing feet. It wasn’t so bad.

“Okay?” Wayne asked.

“Okay, I guess.”

Wayne pressed the accelerator. The cart lurched forward.

“Where’d you get your license?” Finn asked, holding on for dear life.

“What license?” Wayne answered, his eyes sparkling.

Four or five dark, shadowy figures streaked across the intersection in front of the cart. Wayne didn’t see them. Finn reached over and jerked the cart’s steering wheel, narrowly averting an accident. Wayne braked to a stop.

“You nearly paved those guys,” Finn exclaimed.

“What guys?”

“The—” Finn couldn’t complete the sentence. Wayne hadn’t seen them. Then Finn said,

“Pirates.” He pointed to their left. “But not exactly pirates. They look more like…”

“Like what?”

“More like robots…Like the lifelike pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean. And Finn realized that was it: they weren’t people, but Audio-Animatronics figures that had somehow come alive. “Never mind,” Finn said, not wanting to sound crazy. A group of the figures was pushing a line of smal blue cars ahead of them. Finn thought he recognized the cars but couldn’t associate them with any particular attraction. He was stuck on the idea that some of the AAs—but they were only machines—had come alive. Was that possible?

Wayne asked, “How many?”

“Five…no, six, including the guy with the hat.”

“Interesting. What guy with a hat?”

Finn didn’t want to go there. He’d call them pirates and that was that. “You really can’t see them?”

“Me? Heavens, no. I see the cars, but nothing else,” Wayne said excitedly. “And if you can see them, then maybe you can stop them. Or at least try to stop them.”

“Stop them from what, exactly?”

“Three nights ago at the end of the Fantasmics show, the dragon set Mickey on fire.

Obviously, that’s not supposed to happen. Mickey is supposed to win. He jumped into the water.

He’s all right. The crowd laughed. They didn’t get it. But Mickey could have…He could have…

could be in some serious trouble. And then what?”

“But those are actors, right?”

“The dragon is a machine, an Audio-Animatronics machine. But that machine malfunctioned, didn’t it? It did something that it’s not programmed to do. How is that possible? How can that be explained?”

Finn thought, What a strange old man.

Wayne said, “You think I’m a strange old man.”

“Do not.”

“You’re the chosen leader of the DHIs. Don’t question it. Accept it. Without you, Finn, there is no plan.”

“What plan?” Finn gulped. Wayne seemed so serious all of a sudden.

Finn sensed something behind and to his right. He spun around and saw her. Charlene.

His breath caught. She was…glowing. A fuzzy light sputtered at the edges of her body and all around her head, like a halo. She wore a white nightgown. Her hair danced in the wind.

Some distance behind her stood Philby. He wore school clothes, like Finn. Finn recognized him immediately. They were missing Maybeck and Willa.

“Hey there!” a gruff voice called out.

Finn turned. The pirate in the black hat was addressing him.

Me? Finn’s expression said, though he kept his mouth shut.

Wayne asked, “What’s happening? Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he warned.

Charlene and Philby moved steadily closer.

Wayne, appearing distraught, admonished Finn. “You must not get ahead of yourself!”

Finn climbed out of the golf cart. Then, concentrating, he walked right through the cart to the other side. It’s all about what I’m thinking, he realized. If I focus on being a DHI, I’m nothing but light.

A shimmering Charlene approached a tree. She tried to walk through, but crashed into it instead. “How’d you do that?” she asked. “Why can’t I do it?” she asked Wayne.

Wayne seemed flustered. “You all need more time.” He glared at Finn.

The harsh grinding of metal dragging on pavement interrupted them as the pirates pushed the line of blue cars.

The one in the hat, with a broad moustache and thick black beard, hollered out, “Ahoy, there, matie! Lend us a hand, if you will.”

Finn stayed where he was.

“I said lend a hand!” hollered the elaborately dressed man. Behind him, the more scruffy pirates– machines!—pushed and dragged the blue cars. All of a sudden, Finn recognized them as the cars from the Buzz Lightyear ride. He’d been on it dozens of times.

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Finn said.

“Pass? I gave ye an order, me boy. Now heave to!” the captain growled.

“An order? I don’t think so.” Finn replied.

Charlene stepped back and dragged Philby with her. They ducked behind the tree.

“The name’s Blackbeard,” the man said. His mouth moved like a puppet’s. His arms and legs moved stiffly. His eyes mechanically shifted, from the left to the right, their motion disconnected from his speech.

Finn felt a spike of fear but hid it. “Is that so? And I suppose I’m Jack Sparrow?” he asked, smirking.

The captain stepped forward boldly, still a ways off. “Is ye now?”

The pirates stopped their pushing. They gathered behind their captain.

Finn counted six in all. They were dressed in ill-fitting costumes. They had scars on their faces and scabs on their hairy legs. They went barefoot, wearing dark pants that stopped at their calves, and blue-and-white striped shirts. But they weren’t human.

Blackbeard drew his sword. His six pirates drew knives. “I said lend a hand. You’re my conscript now, lad. I’d be obliged if you hove to.”

“You’re not ready,” Wayne hissed at Finn from the shadows. “I’d help you if I could see them, but I can’t.”

Finn felt a jolt of terror, unsure what to do. His legs, wobbly and rigid, were unwilling to move.

He figured he could run faster than a bunch of mechanical pirates but wasn’t sure he wanted to test that theory. Besides, he couldn’t budge.

Finn looked back. Four glowing eyes, like cats’ eyes, shone from behind a tree. Charlene and Philby.

“What are you doing with those cars?” Finn asked the captain, stalling. Think!

“You might could say I’m borrowing them, laddie. Or you might could say the Space Ranger Spin is under repair.” He tilted his head and cast an evil eye in Finn’s direction. “I’ve seen you before, Jack Sparrow. Now, where would that be?”

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Finn said.

“He’s one a’ them hosts, Captain,” a smallish man with frog eyes called out. The man’s right arm continually lifted up and down, up and down. This was apparently the motion he made in his role in the attraction, and he couldn’t stop it.

“A host!” the captain declared. “A new ride? Is that what ye’re telling me?”

His pirates mumbled.

“We don’t much care for new rides,” the captain explained in a dry, cold voice. “Don’t much care for them at all.”

“Do I look like a ride?” Finn asked. His voice trembled. “I’m just a boy.”

“You’re my boy now,” the captain declared. “Ain’t he, lads?” His pirates all nodded in chorus.

He said to Finn, “Now…be a good boy and lend us a hand.”

“I’d prefer not to,” Finn said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll be on my way.” He summoned his courage and turned.

“Ye don’t turn yer back on the captain, youngster! I said halt!”

Finn stopped and glanced back over his shoulder. The captain signaled his crew, and they reacted immediately, like a bunch of well-trained dogs. They fanned out. They were not exactly fast on their mechanical legs and feet, but they were steady and worked well as a team.

One of the pirates climbed into a Space Ranger car. He aimed its toy laser cannon at Finn and fired. A bright red pulse of light shot through the night, narrowly missing Finn. He’d ridden the Space Ranger Spin himself a dozen times or more. He knew there was nothing to fear; he’d put his hands into the laser’s light stream before. Nothing ever happened. The laser cannons were no more dangerous than a flashlight.

Another thin red line of light flashed. Again, it missed.

But then Finn realized the cars were not plugged in, were not attached to any ride, had no power source. So where did the electricity for the cannon come from?

As if to answer him, the next pinpoint of light struck his arm. A red bead flickered on his shirtsleeve. The fabric instantly turned brown, then gray. Then… ouch!

It burned him! Finn leaped out of the way.

“Hey!” he blurted out.

He smelled burning hair. His hair. His skin.

The laser was real.

Another flash. Finn dodged out of the way. He avoided the next few attempts as well, the red beams flying past him like glowing arrows. He danced left and right, his arm stinging.

Now the other pirates circled and closed in on Finn, their knives extended.

If a toy laser can burn, what is a very real-looking knife going to do? Wayne had warned him that he was half hologram, half human. Only now did he realize his human half could hurt.

His wounded arm looked less transparent all of a sudden. He wondered if his fear made him more human than hologram. He pushed against the fear, as if he were trying to shut a heavy door.

A gray-haired pirate with a peg leg thump, thump, thumped his way closer. The circle closed around him. Now Finn could smell the pirates: oily, like an old car, and faintly electrical.

Charlene called out to him from behind the tree.

The captain raised his sword higher, trying to follow that voice. “Reinforcements, mates! Be ye ready!”

Two of the younger pirates closed in on Finn. They walked stiffly and slowly, like six-foot-tall toy soldiers. Finn circled to his right, away from them. He dodged two more attempts from the laser. One of the pirates was hit in the process; the captain raised his hand to stop the laser assault.

The two young pirates, their knives glinting, pressed ever closer.

The captain, with one knee cocked, his foot perched on the lead car, thundered, “Well, now, laddies! Serve him up like a fine filet!”

“Hey, dog breath!” It was Philby. He stepped out from behind the tree.

All six pirates turned toward Philby at once.

With the pirates’ attention briefly diverted, Finn sprang for the nearest Space Ranger car. He grabbed hold of its laser, swiveled and fired. A pulse of red light shot out. Finn was a veteran of Space Ranger Spin. He winged the pirate in the car ahead of him, not ten feet away. The pirate didn’t seem to feel it—he was a machine.

Another pirate charged. Finn shot his knee out, and the thing toppled over, its one good leg moving, still trying to walk.

Finn saw a difference between Blackbeard and the other pirates: Blackbeard had a vaguely human sound to him. Most of the others—all but a few—looked and sounded more like machines than real pirates.

Finn sliced and burned right through the peg leg of the older pirate. He too, teetered, leaned, and tumbled over. Two down.

On the captain’s command, his men charged as a unit. Finn aimed for their knees in a brilliant display of gunnery. They staggered. Several fell. The captain ordered a retreat, and Finn held his fire.

Blackbeard, his eyes darting weirdly back and forth, reached for, but then decided against, the sword that hung at his waist. He clucked his tongue in disappointment. “Ye’ve made a terrible mistake, lad. Me advice for ye is, go back from whence you came. And take them there other two with ye. For yer own good.” His mechanical facial expression never changed. He made no more threats—not with Finn still perched behind the laser. He simply turned and walked away. He did not run, did not hurry, Finn noted. He headed down the path and, a moment later, was gone, out of sight. His pirates dragged themselves and their other fallen mates off with them.

Finn released his hold on the laser, his fingers stiff from gripping so tightly. His shirt bore a small charred hole. The burn on his arm was now a blistered scab. He’d hoped he might only have imagined it—but no: it hurt something fierce.

He climbed out of the car.

“Way to go,” Charlene said simply, trying not to sound too impressed.

Philby approached, and Finn thanked him for the diversion.

The two shook hands. It felt to Finn as if that handshake represented a pact between them.

They were in this together now.

To celebrate what he called their “first victory,” Wayne offered them ice-cream bars from a food kiosk. He carried a heavy-looking ring with dozens of keys of all shapes and sizes with which he unlocked the kiosk.

Finn sat down on a bench. Wayne handed him his ice-cream sandwich, and Finn tore off the paper and bit into the treat. He tasted it, though it wasn’t nearly as sweet as it should have been.

Maybe he was only half human, he thought.

“What about Willa and Maybeck?” Charlene asked, enjoying her ice cream.

Finn devoured the ice-cream sandwich. With his mouth full he said, “No clue.”

Charlene explained, “Me and Philby met here in the park the other night. We haven’t found each other…you know…on the outside yet. Not like the way you found me. But here we are.”

Her mention of “the outside” sent shivers up Finn’s spine.

Philby said, “I don’t seem to remember as much as Charlene when I wake up. I’m not sure why. But you know, I’ve never really remembered my dreams, so maybe that’s part of it.”

“But this isn’t a dream,” Finn reminded him.

“I know that now,” Philby said. “But I didn’t know that earlier.”

“This will all change,” Wayne said. “The more you cross over, the more it will feel familiar to you.”

“Cross over,” Philby repeated.

“Weird, huh?” Finn said.

Wayne’s hand slipped into his pocket.

“No!” Finn called out, knowing the man intended to send him back to his bed. “You owe us an explanation first.”

“I need you all together,” Wayne said.

Finn said, “You have the three of us. That will have to do. When—if—we’re ever all together, then fine, you can explain it again. But I just got burned on my arm by a group of…”

“Pirates,” Philby said. “Mechanical pirates.”

“Mechanical pirates that could talk and take orders,” Charlene added.

“Yes. Pirates,” Finn said. “Pirates you can’t see, as I understand it. And I don’t understand it.

And I’ll stay up, dusk to dawn, if I have to, in order to figure this out. And, if you don’t tell us what this is about, you won’t see me again.”

“Or me,” Philby said.

“Or me,” Charlene agreed.

“It’s now or never,” Finn declared.

The old man looked paler by a good deal. Some bird off in the thick of green cooed deeply.

Finn felt like they were being watched.

“All right,” Wayne said, smiling. He glanced around suspiciously. “Come with me.”

They followed. After a bit of a walk, Wayne unlocked and admitted them into the auditorium for the Country Bear Jamboree. He placed the three kids in the first row. Then he walked through the dark space and checked all the doors. He returned to the front of the hall and leaned against the stage to address them.

“There’s a fine line between imagination and reality. An inventor dreams something up, and pretty soon, it’s there on the table before him. A science-fiction writer envisions another world, and then some space probe finds it. If you believe in something strongly enough, I think you can make it happen.”

“That’s a good thing,” Finn said.

Wayne asked, “But what if we believe in witches and villains? If we believe as strongly in Wayne asked, “But what if we believe in witches and villains? If we believe as strongly in things like them…can we make them happen?”

“You’re giving me the creeps.”

“This park, this wonderful place, makes both sides happen—the good and the bad. Some of Walt’s stories go back generations. Hundreds of years. Cinderella. Snow White. We see similar stories in many different cultures across the globe. What if these stories were once true? If they were real, passed down from generation to generation? Different cultures experiencing similar things? And if they were real, are real? If the hero and heroine go off to live happily ever after, then what happens to the villains, witches, sea monsters, and evil stepmothers?”