The Disneyland Quest

by Matt Ainsworth

  Chapter 16

  The line for the Jungle Cruise was short as usual. It was not a very popular ride, but it was by far Dizzy’s favorite at Disneyland. The robotic animals and scenery looked a little phony, but Dizzy loved the skippers’ corny jokes. His dream was to move to the Los Angeles area for college and work at Disneyland, hopefully as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise ride.

  “What are we doing here?” Travis asked.

  “The clue said A. Belle. I think it means Amazon Belle, one of the boats on the Jungle Cruise.” Dizzy was excited, not just to find the next clue, but to get to ride the Jungle Cruise. “Let’s go.”

  “No way mister,” Ana said as they began walking through the queue. It was full of items from a fictional exploration company, complete with old radios, dusty cargo, and an old chessboard with small animal statues and shotgun shells as the pieces. On the walls were framed maps and drawings of the boats.

  “Come on Ana,” Dizzy pleaded. “You were willing to go on the raft to the island earlier, right?”

  “That was different. It was like five seconds. This thing goes on and on.”

  Dizzy had shown her a video of the ride on YouTube before the trip, hoping it would put her at ease. It didn’t work. Her love of her brother and fear of boats were now at odds with each other.

  “I’m sorry, Dizzy,” she said, not looking up at him. “I can’t.”

  “Look,” Travis interrupted. “I’ll stay here with her, you go on the ride. Find the next message that will tell us where to go. Remember, look for anything that looks out of place.”

  “Got it,” Dizzy said. He was disappointed in his sister and didn’t return her goodbye as she and Travis exited the line.

  “Welcome to the world famous Jungle Cruise,” the skipper began as the boat left the dock. “I’m your Skipper John and we are going to spend six crazy days and eight magical nights on our cruise.”

  Dizzy laughed. He knew the jokes were bad, but for some reason every one of them cracked him up. He had to remind himself he was looking for a clue, and turned around to look outside the boat, hoping to find something that would catch his eye.

  Eight minutes later the ride was almost over and nothing looked like a clue to Dizzy.

  “And here we are, the Eighth Wonder of the World. The back...side...of...water!” the skipper said as the boat passed behind the famous Schweitzer Falls.

  “And a reminder for all of you to keep your arms and hands inside the boat as we approach the dock. If your hand gets caught between the boat and the dock it will really hurt....our dock.” The skipper finished up the journey with one final joke. “Thank you for being a wonderful crew. Anyone want to go again?” No hands went up. “Didn’t think so. But I will. Over and over, again and again. For the next seven hours.” The skipper continued to mumble about how painful his job was. The guests laughed as they climbed off the boat.

  Dizzy was depressed. The ride was over and he hadn’t seen anything that resembled a clue. He saw Travis and Ana waiting for him near the exit.

  “Well?” Travis asked excitedly. “Did you find anything?”

  “Nope,” Dizzy said. “You think I should ride it again? Maybe sit on the other side of the boat this time?”

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Travis said.

  “Any sign of Justin or his friends?” Dizzy asked. He hoped they hadn’t figured out ‘A. Belle’ wasn’t the princess, but the Jungle Cruise boat.

  “Nope, not that I could see.” Travis said. “I haven’t seen Big Red either.”

  “Ok, good,” Dizzy said. “I’m going to ride it again. Hopefully I find something this time.”

  “Make sure you ride the right boat,” Travis said as Dizzy went back into the line.

  “Oh man, of course!” Dizzy was furious with himself. In his rush to get on the ride, he didn’t think about riding the actual Amazon Beauty Jungle Cruise boat. He just got on whatever one arrived when it was his turn.

  As Dizzy snaked his way through the line, he approached a cast member.

  “Um, excuse me,” he began. “Can I wait to ride the Amazon Belle boat?”

  “The Belle isn’t running today, buddy,” the cast member said in a fake Australian accent. “Sorry, mate.”

  That surprised Dizzy. He was sure the clue would be on the actual boat. But maybe his first idea of the clue being somewhere on the Jungle Cruise ride itself was correct. He got on the next boat that arrived and began his second journey through the jungle.

  Dizzy’s skipper was a girl, but she told mostly the same jokes. Dizzy became more and more frustrated as the ride went on, not being able to find anything that looked like the next clue.

  “And here it is ladies and gentleman. The back side of water!”

  As the boat approached the dock Dizzy became depressed. He checked in with Travis and Ana and went right back to the line, hoping the next time would improve his luck. He rode the Jungle Cruise four more times in a row, each time hearing the same jokes and finding himself less and less entertained. By his sixth ride, he was mouthing the words to the jokes along with the skipper.

  Over one hour had passed since the parade ended and Dizzy still hadn’t found the next clue. He was sure A. Belle referred to the Amazon Belle, but without that boat running he had no idea where to look for the clue. Again, he found Travis and Ana waiting near the exit.

  The look on Dizzy’s face answered Travis’s question before he could answer it.

  “Nothing, huh?” Travis asked. “And you looked everywhere?”

  Dizzy was frustrated and snapped at Travis.

  “Yes! I looked everywhere! What did you want me to do, get out of the boat and inspect every single rock and tree branch on the ride?” He was getting angrier now. “That’s it, I’m done. This whole thing stinks. We have wasted most of our vacation. And for what? One stupid number of a combination? This is pointless. Let’s just give up and go on some rides and have a normal rest of the day.”

  Travis and Ana said nothing. They both looked at Dizzy, his face red with anger.

  “Please don’t give up Dizzy,” Ana said. “Would it help if I rode it with you? Come on, let’s ride it just one more time. Maybe we will get lucky.”

  “You don’t have to do that Ana,” Dizzy said. “It isn’t there. I can’t make you ride on that boat, especially if there isn’t even a clue on the ride. Besides, if I have to see the backside of water again I am going to throw myself overboard.”

  “Well, I’m going,” Ana said, walking back toward the entrance. “You can stand there and whine about it or come with me.”

  Travis and Dizzy stood there, shocked at the little girl’s boldness. They both started laughing and followed her into the entrance.

  Ana was acting as brave as she could, but the sound of each boat leaving the dock was a reminder of what was coming. She tried to take her mind off the boat by paying as much attention to the items hanging on the walls in line. She wanted Travis to take her picture in front of the chess set, the maps, and the drawings of the boats.

  “Send these to Mom,” Ana said posing in front of a framed drawing of a boat. “Something for her to remember me by.”

  “Wait a minute,” Dizzy said, pointing at one of the pictures on the wall. “Look at that.” He and Travis approached the picture. Ana stood on her tippy toes trying to see.

  “What?” she asked. “What is it?”

  “It’s the Amazon Belle,” Travis said.

  “How could I miss that?” Dizzy said. “I walked right past it six times.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Travis said. “Your mind was on the ride, not on the line.”

  “Look at that box in the bottom corner,” Dizzy said. “There is a word written in red and underlined. Can you see what it says?”

  Travis held up his phone and took a close up picture of the writing. He then used his fingers to zoom in on the picture.

  “It says Tilly. Does that mean anything to
you?”

  “I know who that is!” Dizzy said happily. “Let’s go.”

  “You mean we don’t have to ride the boat?” Ana asked as they began working their way out through the entrance. “Boy is today my lucky day!”

  The three kids ran out of Adventureland and back down Main Street.

  “What are we doing back here?” Travis said as Dizzy came to a stop in front of Main Street Cinema.

  “Meet Tilly,” Dizzy said, pointing toward the female mannequin in the theater’s ticket booth.

  Travis and Ana looked at the fake cast member, complete with name tag with her name and hometown.

  “It says she is from Marceline, Missouri,” Travis said. “I wonder why.”

  “That’s Walt Disney’s hometown,” Dizzy said.

  The walls of the booth behind Tilly were decorated with photographs. Old pictures of Walt and his wife Lilly, decorative hats, American flags, and more.

  “This must be the second step of the clue,” Travis said excitedly. “We are halfway to the second number and the last clue. Look for anything that stands out. And do it quick. We don’t want people to see that we are looking in here. We have no idea who might be watching us.”

  The three kids looked at Tilly, her name tag, and the items on the wall behind her.

  “The clue could be any of these things,” Dizzy said.

  “What’s that pig doing there?” Ana asked, pointing to a black and white picture of a pig statue hanging on the back wall over Tilly’s left shoulder.

  “That does look strange,” Travis said. He held out his hand like he was holding an imaginary microphone and began speaking in a game show host voice. “Dizzy Walker, for $250,000…name that pig!”

  Dizzy stepped back from the ticket booth, trying to remember where he had seen that pig. It seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it.

  “I know I’ve seen it somewhere,” he said, jumping slightly, trying to jog his memory. “Where would a pig statue be at Disneyland?”

  “Aren’t there a bunch of statues around Walt and Mickey at the end of Main Street?” Travis suggested.

  “Yeah, but those are statues of the main Disney characters. There isn’t a pig there.”

  The sun was beating down on them and all three kids were sweating. Dizzy continued to hop in place, hoping the memory of where he had seen the pig would come to him. Ana saw someone walk by with a giant ice cream cone.

  “Can we get some ice cream?” she asked. “I’m dying out here.”

  Dizzy’s eyes lit up.

  “Dying,” he said excitedly. “That’s it! The pig statue isn’t a regular statue. It is a gravestone at the pet cemetery.”

  "Where is there a pet cemetery at Disneyland?” Travis asked.

  “Outside the Haunted Mansion,” Dizzy said. “Let’s move.”

  “Good job, Ana,” Travis suggested as they began yet another jog down Main Street.

  “Thanks!” she said, already lagging behind. “Does that mean I get an ice cream?”

  “As soon as we open that vault,” Travis called back to Ana. “I’ll buy you the biggest ice cream cone you have ever seen. I promise.”

  Ana smiled and ran faster to catch up to the boys.

  The three kids arrived outside the Haunted Mansion a few minutes later. The line for the ride was extremely long, stretching out of the gates and through a temporary line set up by ropes along the brick wall nearby. The sign above the gate said the wait was sixty minutes.

  “Let’s use your Fast Passes,” Travis suggested. “This line is going to take forever.”

  Dizzy had forgotten all about the twelve Fast Passes in his wallet. If he would have remembered, he would have used them for sure on Jungle Cruise. It was a good thing he didn’t, as the clue was hidden in the line and not on the ride.

  “Bad idea,” said Dizzy. “We don’t want to get on the ride. We want to get up to the pet cemetery in line.”

  “Oh yeah,” Travis said. “That makes sense.”

  As the line moved forward, Dizzy, Ana, and Travis entered the gates outside the Haunted Mansion. The line split into two lanes and curved around a grassy area. On the other side of the grass was the pet cemetery, complete with fake statues and gravestones of the deceased pets. The line continued to move forward and Dizzy saw something that made his heart drop into his stomach.

  Justin, his friends, and Megan were all crowded around the pig.