Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales!

by David W. Smith

  A smile came and went from his friend’s mouth. “The only person I can think of outside of a Disney Suit is....”

  “I know!” Adam bit out between clenched teeth.

  Lance had walked over to Adam’s desk—if it was actually still there under the mountain of paper—and leaned his hip into it. “And you got her fired.”

  Adam lowered the photograph of Pinocchio’s miniature Bavarian village. His eyes lost their focus. “I know.” His voice was softer now, his thoughts somewhere in the past.

  “Fired from the only job she ever wanted.”

  “I KNOW.” Adam’s head snapped up and he looked into Lance’s face, meeting his eyes for the first time; the glare of resentment and frustration obvious.

  Lance relented a little when he also saw the anger and the hurt that was in them. “How long has it been?”

  Adam regained control over his features and the emotion clamped shut. “Let’s just call it two years.”

  Lance gave a snort. “More like five. Do you think she’ll work with us? Well, with you?”

  Adam’s face briefly registered a ghost of a smile. “Now, that I don’t know.”

  “Any idea where she is now?”

  Adam slowly shook his head and put down all the photos. It was no use. He had looked at those pictures for hours and couldn’t find anything that helped. “Nope. But I know who might. She keeps track of everyone.” Everyone I ever had as a friend, dated, or…loved, he sighed to himself.

  Lance flashed a big grin. “Mom.”

  “Yeah. Mom.”

  There was a low whistle. “This isn’t going to be pretty. Margaret liked her. I mean really, really liked her. I really liked her. Heck, everyone....”

  “I know!” Adam cut him off, exasperated. “Sheesh.” He paused and looked away, back five years to be exact. “I ....liked her, too.” Loved, adored, worshiped. Fill in the blank.

  Lance ignored Adam’s use of the verb liked. “But,” he emphasized, examining a torn fingernail and wondering when that happened, “you still got her fired.”

  Adam glared up at him. He knew that. It had been eating at him for five long years now. “Let’s hope that’s all water under the bridge by now.”

  “Lot of water.” Lance still examined his fingernail, his mumble just loud enough to be heard.

  Ignoring him, Adam gave a sigh he didn’t realize was audible as he reached for the phone. “I need to call Mom.”

  Lance’s infectious grin was back. “Can I stay and listen?”

  An hour later, Adam found that staring at a telephone does not: 1) make it easier to pick up the handset; 2) make it ring by itself; 3) make his heart stop its erratic pounding; and 4) help him come up with the right words to say.

  “Why don’t you meet me in the Park?”

  “It’s raining.”

  “Yes, Captain, I’m aware of that.” The nickname came automatically as Adam chuckled. “There won’t be as many people around while we check some things out.”

  She didn’t have to ask where he wanted to meet. There was only one place. “I didn’t realize you took up smoking.” In spite of her mixed feelings, Beth had to smile at the familiar use of her old nickname Captain Obvious. Lance had dubbed her that years before. He found her habit of stating the obvious amusing and the nickname had stuck. The guys working the Keel Boat ride with her had even started using it right before.… Rats. It still hurt. She closed her eyes and held the phone so tightly her knuckles turned white.

  “I didn’t, but the old Keel Boat dock should be deserted with the rain coming down like it is.”

  Adam’s response to her banter took her by surprise. Lost in her memories, it took her a moment to remember what she had asked. Her voice was quiet, not quite masking her feelings when she spoke again. “Gosh, what a waste. One of the best rides in the Park and now my old dock is a smoking area.”

  “How soon can you get there?”

  Ah, he doesn’t know where I live. “Give me an hour or so, depending on the freeway traffic.” Or fifteen minutes, depending on red lights. After a brief pause, Beth had to add one last point. “Adam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “This’d better be good.”

  “It is,” he promised and hung up, checking the time.

  Two hours later, damp from the spring rain that was still lightly falling, Adam poked Lance in the ribs and motioned with his chin. Lance grinned when he saw a 1980’s-style Mickey Mouse umbrella bouncing up and down as Beth approached along the Frontierland Rivers of America. Waiting a moment, Lance realized Adam wasn’t going to go out and meet her halfway. In fact, Adam didn’t move at all from the spot on the dock where he apparently had taken root. Rolling his eyes, muttering, “Stubborn,” Lance went to meet her himself, arms open.

  Adam could hear her happy shriek. “Oh my word! Stinky!”

  “Shrew!” Lance’s grin threatened to take over his entire face.

  “Are you still hanging around with him? Gosh, no accounting for taste!” Beth threw herself into his arms, umbrella forgotten as her arms went around his narrow waist.

  Adam watched as they hugged as old friends always do, and then watched as the hug lasted longer than a hug between old friends should last. Inexplicably he started to get irritated with Lance. His face darkened, Adam was just about to march over there and do….something. His brain overrode his runaway emotions as he realized he had no idea what he would do. He had no right now, no claim. He lost that right years ago. Adam forced himself to remain in his rooted spot as he observed Beth not-so-subtly trying to extract herself from the bear hug. “Okay, you big oaf, let me go!”

  They both laughed and turned back to the dock. When her gaze reluctantly settled on Adam, her happiness visibly dimmed. It was like watching a bright light bulb begin to fade. “Buck up, old girl.” Lance took her arm through his and patted her hand.

  “I’m fine.” Even to her own ears, her mutter was unconvincing.

  “If you cain’t smile, then grit yer teeth. It all looks the same from here,” Lance quoted from her old Keel Boat spiel.

  “Guaranteed to make the next few minutes fly by like hours.” The response was automatic, and she smiled again. “Gosh, it’s good to see you.” Some of her old animation came back as she punched him in the arm. She looked up at him with her big brown eyes. “I missed you, Slick. You could’ve kept in touch, you know. It’s not like I died.”

  He touched the side of Beth’s face with his fingertips. Adam tensed again. “I know. It just felt like you did.”

  She gave his arm a grateful squeeze. “Hey, why don’t we just go ride Space Mountain and forget this.”

  Lance tugged her toward the landing. He could feel her holding back, resisting, and had to encourage her to move. “Come on. I think you’re going to like this.”

  “That good, huh?” Beth leaned back to look up at his 6 foot 2 inch height.

  Lance just nodded and came to a stop next to Adam. Lance looked from one to the other. They just stood there unsmiling, looking at everything but each other. He rolled his eyes and did the best thing he could. “I think I hear a churro calling.” With that, he abruptly turned and left.

  They both stared in disbelief as Lance sauntered off toward New Orleans Square, mindless of the drizzling rain. Adam turned back to face Beth, but she still stared after Lance, unable to believe he had actually left her alone with Adam. Still unable to look Adam in the eye, neither of them said anything. The moments stretched on and the silence started to get a little embarrassing now that their buffer was gone. One of them had to say something. Adam cleared his throat. “Nice umbrella.” Are you kidding?

  “Thanks.” Beth couldn’t say any more at that moment. It had been so different when she talked to him over the phone. True, it had been a complete shock when she realized who was calling. But, on the phone, she didn’t have to look at him. She didn’t have to see the way his wavy blonde hair dripped rain into his soft blue eyes. Hair that needed to be brushed off his forehead
. Scenes of past rendezvous with Adam on this same dock tumbled through her mind. Knowing this moment was coming since his mysterious phone call, she knew she’d have to talk to him, look at him, be near him…remember him. She just didn’t realize the memories would still hurt so much and was trying to make the tightness in her throat go away.

  When she said nothing else, Adam tried again. “I, uh, I like some of the stuff they came out with in the ‘80’s.” Gosh you sound lame.

  “Thought….” She had to stop and clear her throat before she could continue. “Thought you might like it. I figured you wanted us to look like tourists—from what little you said on the phone.”

  “I do.” He didn’t bother to clarify which he meant since he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She hadn’t changed at all. Her brown hair was still shoulder length, cut to frame her oval face, the ends flipped under. Same lovely brown eyes. Same pert nose. She had on a short bronze-colored raincoat over her preferred stretch jeans and tennis shoes. Well, he amended to himself, at least she wasn’t soaking wet now. No! Bad memory!

  She could see he was scrutinizing her face. Did he remember? Beth cleared her throat, which was very dry at the moment. “I think we need to clear up something if we might possibly work together.” She looked over at Tom Sawyer’s Island, not meeting his intense look. “It’s been a long time....”

  “Five years.” He hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud.

  At the mumbled words, she felt something inside thaw a little. He knew? Thrown a bit, she had to start over. “It’s been a long time, and I want to know something about that day.”

  He didn’t have to ask which day she meant. He shifted uneasily to lean into the railing, some ducks swimming by apparently capturing his attention. “I was hoping we could get past that. You know, water under the bridge.” He knew that tactic wouldn’t work.

  “Lot of water,” Beth mumbled. “You got me fired.” Then she waited for him to say something, something he hadn’t said on that fateful day. Something he hadn’t said any time since. Adam, say ‘I’m sorry.’ Tell me you were wrong.

  When he didn’t make any reply and shifted his attention to the Mark Twain chugging by, she continued, hurt by his silence. “Do you realize how much that position meant to me? I was the first, heck, I was the only female Keel Boat pilot in any of the Parks. And I was good, Adam. I was darned good!” She gave a little ironic laugh. “You should know. You helped me improve the spiel.” Beth paused to get her voice back to normal, marshalling her emotions. She refused to cry. She had done enough of that in the months that had followed that awful day. “I still don’t realize exactly what happened, why I fell into the River. Everything was normal. I was pushing the boat into the river with the shove stick. Bertha Mae’s nose was far enough out to start the trip. And then I...I was in the River. You jumped in—why, I don’t know—to save me? I got fouled up with the stick and the tie rope and you.” She paused, her cheeks suddenly flushed red with her still-vivid memory. “My shirt came half off. People were snapping pictures, laughing at me. You were, like, wrestling with me for some reason. Then a Suit showed up—probably because some Raft guy radioed that a worker was in the water. You disappeared under the Dock. I got pulled out of the River by Pete and the Suit. Got hauled to the area office. Dressed down for nearly stripping in view of the guests! Fired on the spot. And,” she finished, struggling with it all, “banned from the Park for three years.”

  “I didn’t know you were banned.” His comment seemed to be addressed to the ducks that bobbed in the wake of the steamship.

  Her hands came down on the railing with a loud smack. “That’s all you can say?! That I was banned? Not that I was fired? Not that I was in line for promotion? Not that you didn’t stick up for me? What happened to you?!”

  Adam was silent for a long time. Because everything got out of control so quickly. Because I didn’t think about the consequences. Because I was going to propose to you before I helped you out of the water. Because you were so angry and hurt beyond anything I had ever seen. Because I didn‘t know how to fix it. He finally managed to say something out loud. “I don’t know what I can say. They would have thrown me out of the Park too.”

  “Isn’t it possible that I wouldn’t have gotten fired if you had helped explain it was an accident?” Say it, Adam, say you’re sorry. When Beth realized he wasn’t going to say anything else, she sighed. It seemed nothing on his side had changed. There was no point beating a dead horse. He apparently wasn’t going to tell her what she desperately needed and wanted to hear. With a hurt nod of her head, she gave up and asked something else. “How did you get out of it? You were in the River too.”

  “They didn’t see me. They were too focused on your, uhm, chest.”

  Beth blushed again and then slowly shook her head side to side, an uncomfortable smile on her face. “You know how many photo albums I’m probably in around the world?”

  He managed a little laugh. He glanced sideways at her. “Three year ban, huh?”

  She nodded. “Usually for the charge of ‘indecent exposure’ as they termed it, means a ban for life.”

  “And yet here you are, Captain.”

  “Obviously,” Beth added dryly. “They relented a little after I asked them to review my past employment history and flawless record.” She didn’t add the part about the uncontrolled sobbing she had broken into when told she was fired and banned for life.

  With a frustrated groan, she turned and punched him in the arm. Hard. He realized she was still as strong as she had been when she needed to push the nose of the Keel Boat away from the landing dock.

  “Feel better?” He had to restrain from rubbing his aching arm.

  She laughed. It was the first honest laugh he had heard since Lance deserted them. He could tell she was relenting a little. “Actually, a couple more punches would make me feel a lot better.” She sighed and shook her head at the conflicting emotions that churned inside. “You know, you could at least have had the decency to go fat and bald since the last time I saw you.”

  He just chuckled softly.

  She was quiet for a few minutes. “They had me followed the first time I came back to the Park.”

  “Really? Was it a Suit or Security?”

  Beth smiled at the memory. “Al.”

  “Al? Was he still working then? Gosh, he had to be 100 years old. How’d you know he was following you?”

  She gave him a sarcastic look. “It was Al. He never was very subtle. I doubt he would’ve had much of a career with the CIA.”

  “How long did it take you to notice you were being followed?”

  “All of five minutes. He was there before I got to the end of Main Street. I guess they wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to expose myself to the kiddies again. But, I took it easy on him. Had lunch at the Golden Horseshoe because I knew he liked the show and get off his feet for an hour.”

  Adam nodded and smiled. That was just like Beth to think of the comfort of an old man rather than the indignity of being followed.

  “So, have you said yes yet?” The intrusion of Lance’s voice startled them both. They took a step farther away from each other.

  “We haven’t gotten that far.” Adam heard himself snap at his friend, for some reason irritated that Lance was back.

  Lance ignored him and took Beth by the arm. “Well, you’ve talked so long the rain has finally stopped. Come on, Captain, let’s go ride the Bobsleds.”

  She pulled free with a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding! I ain’t sitting in your lap again!”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “Could be fun.”

  “No, thanks. I tried that once, remember? I still don’t know how you got your hands up....” She broke off when she saw the wicked grin on Lance’s face and the frown on Adam’s. “Never mind,” she mumbled, red-faced.

  “Hey, Adam, did you get to the part about your costume collection?” Lance had noticed the sour expression on Adam’s face since he rejoined them and decided
to stir the pot a little more.

  Adam silently winced and cursed Lance in the same breath. That had been Beth’s goal—to collect a costume from every ride. She would have been able to do it if she hadn’t gotten fired. He could feel her eyes burning into him as he glared at Lance, willing him to shut up. Lance calmly smiled back at him, rocking back and forth on his heels.

  “Yeah, well, I, uh, kept in touch with some of your old friends from here….” Adam broke off at the accusing look on her face. She hadn’t been allowed to keep in touch with her old friends. “Listen, I think we need to get to the point of all of this.”

  “Yes, Adam, I think you’re right.” Lance gave a tug on her arm to distract her. “We’re going to go ride Mansion. There isn’t any line right now.”

  “The sun’s out. Obviously.” Beth was glad for the break in the tension. She folded up the red and black umbrella, stashed it in her purse and walked off with Lance. Adam wondered what Lance was up to when he saw their heads go together as they neared the entrance. She suddenly roared with laughter. Adam sighed as he followed them up the walkway to the ornate front porch of the Haunted Mansion. He had a long ways to go.

  There were only about twenty-five people in the Stretching Room, the expanding room within the foyer of the Haunted Mansion. Beth stood between Lance and Adam in the middle as everyone looked up at the elongating portraits that adorned each wall. The lights came back on as the hidden doors opened into the Portrait Gallery. As Beth waited to exit, she looked to her right and noticed Lance wasn’t with them. He had, in fact, ducked out through a hidden cast member’s door with one of the female Ghostess cast members and went to the French Market for lunch. After waiting a couple of minutes in the Gallery to see if he would rejoin them, the remaining twosome got into a Doom Buggy that would take them through the Haunted Mansion.

  It was then that Adam started his explanation as to why he needed her help.

  The next day, Beth hesitated outside of Adam’s apartment—the same apartment she had often visited when they were dating. She tried to still her pounding heart, wiping her sweaty palms down the leg of her jeans. Come on, girl, you can do this. You’ve already seen him. The worst is over….