“I can’t believe it.” As her eyes met Finn’s, she cried out, “I’m…free!”
Free from what? Finn wondered.
“You did it!” Jez said to Finn, her eyes bright, her voice excited. “No more cold. No more Maleficent. You freed me!”
With that, the most startling thing happened. Jez changed, she transformed, before Finn’s eyes. The crowd applauded as her hair changed color, from jet-black to a sandy blond. Her eyebrows and eyelashes became lighter as well, and a few freckles appeared on her cheeks. She was, without question, a different girl, a beautiful girl, and yet…familiar. Finn couldn’t get over the feeling that he’d met her before, that he knew her, this new girl. And then, as he glanced back to his friends and saw Amanda there calling for him, a spike of astonishment filled him, and he felt the DHI dissolve and the real Finn return. Amanda’s face filled with light, with an expression of joy Finn had never seen. Tears filled her eyes.
Finn looked back and forth between the two girls, Jez and Amanda, and—
It couldn’t be….
But it was.
They were sisters, twins perhaps, not identical, but close to it.
Only then did he understand Amanda’s efforts, her never giving up. Only then did he come to wonder if Amanda wasn’t some kind of witch herself—a good witch.
The crowd exploded into celebration.
Maleficent’s green form streaked toward them.
As Finn—a boy again—reached the fence, he faced Amanda. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You weren’t ready,” she said.
Amanda stood in front of a large yellow cylinder sticking out of the ground, with a thick, circular, steel trapdoor on top. A number of warning posters instructed proper use.
“The others went ahead,” Amanda said. “Go!”
Finn looked down. “But it’s a trash chute.”
“Go! Feet first.” She opened it. “Quickly! Jump!” She seemed distracted.
Finn followed her line of sight. Maleficent had caught up to Jez. But Jez held her hands in front of her, and try as Maleficent might, she could not get close to the girl. Raging with anger, Maleficent suddenly saw Finn.
Finn asked Amanda, “Is Jez who I think she is?”
“Jess, not Jez, not any more. How can we ever thank you?” The tears spilled from her eyes. “We couldn’t break the spell ourselves.”
“Then she is—Then you are—” Finn’s head swam.
But he stopped himself as Maleficent raised her hand to cast a spell.
Seeing this, Finn jumped down the trash chute.
From high overhead he heard Amanda’s gleeful voice echo as he fell. “I’ll never forget what you did!”
As he was sucked down the foul-smelling tube, Finn tucked the roll of plans away under his belt. He took a deep breath and gagged. He thought he might throw up.
The tube reeked of rotting trash. Gooey bits and sticky globs of rancid food and soggy litter stuck to him like leeches, licked his face and slopped into his hair and clothing. Again, he felt himself gag.
In the distance, far down the tube, echoing through the metal, Finn heard hoots and hollers—Maybeck and Philby.
The suction spit trash into his face. He slammed into some kind of mesh gate, an intersection of converging trash-evacuation tubes. On the other side, black garbage bags and trash raced past. Then the gate opened and it was his turn. He tumbled down and rolled into the next tube, picked up speed, and headed off again, upside down and backward.
Wind roared all around him. A garbage bag smashed into him. It broke open, its trash freed. Awful stuff raced around him and stuck to him. He braced himself just in time for another intersection. But this gate was open and he moved into a third, larger tube.
Aluminum cans peppered his head. Cellophane and cotton candy stuck to him. Diapers, orange peels, sticky popsicle sticks. He somersaulted to avoid this stuff, and there, behind him, came a dull green light. It grew ever larger. It moved quickly.
He was thrown into a back somersault. As he came around, he found himself facing Maleficent. Arms at her side, head forward, legs outstretched behind her, she flew effortlessly through the garbage tube, apparently unaffected by the suction.
“Miss me?” she wheezed.
She lunged. Her ice-cold hand grabbed for the scroll. Finn kicked out and pushed her back.
Her wide eyes narrowed in hatred. She lunged again.
Finn straightened himself out and gained speed. He briefly pulled away from her.
Through the roar, he heard her mumble: “Anima transformatur!” Finn ducked as she flicked her wrist at him. A sandwich bag next to him melted and re-formed into a rat. That spell had been meant for him. At once, the rat came alive, its tail swiping, its little feet clawing for purchase.
Maleficent closed the gap. Finn tore a hole in a garbage bag, scattering its contents.
He heard a clank of metal not far ahead: yet another gate.
The rat scrambled and scratched at Finn. If he and Maleficent crashed into a gate together, she would have him and the plans. He felt certain of it.
She wound up to deliver yet another spell, the two of them racing through the slimy tube. Finn grabbed hold of the clawing rat and threw it at her. Maleficent fought off the rat and came right for Finn.
He saw a small white circle grow larger and wider. The end of the tunnel! Finn could smell fresh air.
Trying to buy himself time, he shouted at her, “You forgot something: evil never wins in the Magic Kingdom.”
She called back, “That depends on whose magic it is.”
Propelled out the end of the trash tube, Finn flew through the air and crashed into a sea of trash bags in an enormous steel collection box, like a railroad car. He scrambled toward the edge, where he saw Wayne and others, men and women, surrounding the huge collection bin.
“Hurry!” Wayne shouted.
Finn reached for the edge, pulled himself up and over, and fell to the ground, splatting, soaking wet with trash.
There he saw Philby and Maybeck, also covered in goo.
He watched as Maleficent shot out the end of the trash tube and into the giant container.
The team of adults quickly produced a net, dragging it from one end to the other and trapping her inside.
“To the bus! Quickly!” Wayne hollered, moving in that direction himself.
The other adults worked furiously to secure the net.
As Finn ran, he heard Maleficent’s wails of complaint from the bin.
Maybeck, Philby, and Finn caught up to Wayne—the old guy limping along.
Finn shouted, “You’re not going to—”
“No!” Wayne replied. “We don’t kill anything here. Not even witches. We’ll give her a taste of her own jail—the one you found—for a while. It’ll give us time to determine how much power the Overtakers have gained. You’ve done well! We’re almost through.”
“Almost?” shouted all three boys, coming to a stop at once.
They all boarded the bus.
Finn handed him the plans and the pens.
Wayne looked back gratefully and said, “Good job, kids.”
LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW of the castle apartment, having crossed over just before ten o’clock, Finn thought the park looked beautiful.
He wondered if he’d ever know the truth about Amanda, if he’d ever see her again, for she’d been noticeably absent from school that Monday. He thought about Maleficent saying that there were Overtakers far more powerful than she was, and he wondered if more adventures lay in store for him and his new friends.
Willa was the last to cross over. She appeared in the room, wearing a cotton nightgown that flowed to her ankles. To explain this she said, “My mom put me to bed. Nothing much I could do about it.”
Finn looked around at each of his new friends. He liked them all, though each for a different reason. He unrolled the faded blueprints of the park.
They examined them, fascinated to see how the park had star
ted out. Wayne explained what they were looking at.
From the group of pens and pencils on the coffee table, Wayne selected a boring-looking black one. It was fat and bulged. A very old fountain pen.
Wayne put on a pair of sunglasses. He passed out sunglasses to all the kids too, and told them to put them on as well.
“Now,” Wayne said, “we finally put the two together.”
“How will we know if it’s right?” Finn asked.
Wayne’s aged face twisted into a smile. “Believe me, we’ll know.”
Wayne contemplated the pen, then passed it to Finn, “This is for you, I think.” He indicated a small metal lever on the end of the pen.
Finn picked up the pen, carefully unscrewed the cap, and hooked the small lever with his fingernail. He looked up at each of the others, their expectant eyes filled with curiosity and excitement.
“Hold it up high,” Wayne instructed.
Finn did so, and pulled on the lever. A single drop of dark ink splashed down onto the plans. Finn, Wayne, and all the kids jumped back.
The drop of ink settled, then expanded and bled out into each and every faded line drawn onto the plans. It raced from one to another, spreading faster and faster. Faint lines became solid and bold.
The detailed plans transformed, one page after another. Some of what Finn saw was familiar, an area of Frontierland, a piece of Liberty Square. But much of this was foreign to him—parts of a park never before seen.
“Come look!” Wayne said, now standing by the small window. He tore the theatrical gel from the window.
The kids joined him, squeezing together.
Below, the dark park filled with light, following the same pattern that the ink flowed through the plans. Light rushed up lanes and streets, jumped over benches and engorged trees. Attractions came alive. First on the outer edge of the Magic Kingdom, but steadily rushing toward the castle.
Faster and faster the light traveled through the park, brighter and brighter. It arrived at the castle from all directions, a brilliant white light racing up the walls. The kids jumped back, blinded.
The sky erupted with fireworks, throwing blazing color and light into the heavens, deafening explosions and blinding colors.
The local newspapers would report the next day that a private party at the Magic Kingdom had been responsible for the most amazing show of fireworks the park had ever seen. But Finn and the other DHIs would know differently.
With the sky still erupting outside, Wayne walked over to Finn and extended a hand of thanks. They shook hands. The kids cheered and formed a huddle. As they spun in celebration, Wayne returned to the coffee table. There, he picked up the black remote.
And pushed the button.
This book is dedicated to all those readers who,
by e-mail, demanded it be written.
You see?
Someone’s listening….
LIGHTNING FLASHED ON THE HORIZON. A breeze swirled around the Cast Members. The air tasted dusty, almost bitter, with electrical charge.
Finn Whitman, one of five kids on top of the final parade float, pointed to the far gate where the Magic Kingdom’s DHI-Day parade was to pass through, where five identical kids, wearing identical clothing to theirs, stood waiting.
DHI stood for Disney Host Interactive or Daylight Hologram Imaging—depending on whom you asked—a recent addition to the Magic Kingdom that offered the holograms of five teenage kids as Park hosts. The five kids who had auditioned for those roles were typically forbidden to enter the Magic Kingdom. But tonight was special: it was a DHI celebration.
Finn sensed trouble coming, wondering if it had to do with the electronic illusions waiting by the gate.
“How weird is that?” he said, seeing himself as a hologram not thirty yards away. The Finn Whitman standing by the gate looked no different from himself, except for a slight sparkle, a glow, when viewed from a certain angle.
“It gives me the weebies,” said Charlene, regarding her identical, though electronically projected, twin. She too wore a cheerleader’s outfit; she too had her blond hair pulled back severely into a ponytail, not a hair out of place; she too looked slightly embarrassed to have the body of a young woman, instead of a girl. Charlene was an athlete and champion gymnast and had clearly been recruited as a Disney Host for her clean, cheerleader looks and her uncanny physical ability. She was good with people and could make friends with anyone. Most kids at school were jealous of her—but the other DHIs appreciated the skills and abilities she brought to the team.
The hologram of Charlene stood next to the hologram of Finn, but the software had all five holograms in PAUSE, making them look more like glowing mannequins than kids. They awaited the start of the parade with the patience of the robots they were.
“We’ve been here before as them,” said Willa, “but never with them.”
“I was, once,” corrected Finn. “Only the one time, and I was being chased by Security. I have to admit, it was plenty strange to see myself guiding some guests while I was also running for my life.”
“What’s that?” asked Philby, pointing up at the rise behind the tall boundary fence inside the Magic Kingdom.
“Cinderella Castle,” answered Charlene.
“No, the gray balloon,” Philby said. “It’s massive.”
“Looks like a weather balloon,” said Terry Maybeck, who seemed to stand more than a head taller than all of them. An African American, Maybeck currently wore his hair in dreads, making him look older than the others.
The swarming clouds suddenly swallowed the large balloon.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Philby. “You don’t release a weather balloon in an electrical storm unless you’re Ben Franklin.”
“Not our problem,” said Maybeck. “All we’ve got to do is ride the float and wave to the guests. Let’s stick with the program.”
At that moment, music started and the first float moved toward the open gate. The five holograms came to life, as if a switch had been thrown. They formed a line at the front of the parade, waving to the bushes, as if guests were waving back.
“Sometimes our DHIs look so stupid,” Willa said.
“Sometimes?” Philby said sarcastically.
“They paid us well,” Maybeck reminded them, “and we got Gold Fastpasses for our families. We’ve got nothing to complain about.”
“And they’re having a parade to celebrate our DHIs returning to the Kingdom,” Finn said, “and we get to be part of it. Things could be worse.”
“Who here doesn’t miss the way it used to be? Before they patched the source code?” Maybeck met eyes with each of them.
Finn had been the first to “cross over” during his sleep: to wake up as his own hologram in the Magic Kingdom. Initially it had seemed impossible, but encounters with pirates and witches had made him reconsider what was real and what was make-believe. Soon, all five kids had come to the same realization: when they went to sleep at night they awoke inside the Magic Kingdom as their DHI holograms. In reality, it had not been a corruption in the software’s source code but the ingenious work of a veteran Disney Imagineer named Wayne, who had needed their help. But no one at Disney knew this other than them, so recently programmers had inserted a software patch to correct “the problem.”
None of them knew if Wayne could, or would, undo it, allowing them to return to the Magic Kingdom as nighttime holograms. But all of them secretly hoped he would.
“Here we go!” said Finn. “Hang on!”
Their float jerked and climbed up the sloping asphalt just behind another float carrying Aladdin and Jasmine. With all the floats strung out in a line, the kids had lost sight of their matching holograms out in front, leading the way.
The music swelled, and a man’s voice dramatically announced, “Welcome to DHI-Day at Magic Kingdom!” The sound of applause rose above the lush jungle landscaping.
“Keep your smiles on,” said Maybeck, “and hang on tight.”
But at that
moment, all five kids lost their balance and stumbled into each other. Jasmine and Aladdin also slipped off their pillows as their float accelerated to close a sudden gap that had appeared in the parade line.
It took Finn a moment to spot the problem: one of the floats—the villains float—had been pulled out of the line and off to the side. The Aladdin float, and the one carrying the DHIs, had sped up to close the gap.
“What’s with that?” said Maybeck. “Broken down?”
“No,” said Philby. “It’s empty.”
He was right: the float’s platform lacked a character or Cast Member. It was just an empty wooden rectangle. Below it, the Cast Members responsible for preparing the floats scurried around frantically, hurrying to get the empty float out of the way and to fill the void created by its absence.
“What happened?” Finn called down to one of the Cast Members just before reaching the gate and the adoring guests.
The man didn’t answer immediately. But his face gave away his concern. “He was right there a minute ago,” he mumbled, nearly drowned out by the music. “I swear he was!”
“Who?” called Finn. “Which character?”
He and the others had long since learned to take nothing for granted. Not when there were Overtakers in the Park, who wanted to gain control of the Magic Kingdom. There were no accidents here: everything happened for a reason, even if the other Cast Members didn’t recognize it.
“That float should have Chernabog on it!” said Philby shouting to be heard above the music. “Only he’s not there.” He turned and looked back at the empty float as they passed fully through the gate and into the Park. Finn had turned around as well. So had Maybeck.
“Who’s Chernabog?” grumbled Maybeck.
Philby answered, “Only the most powerful villain Walt Disney ever created.”
Finn’s voice was overpowered by the joyous music and the crush of applause. “And he’s gone missing? That can’t be good.”
FINN FELT THE QUICKENING BREEZE of the lightning storm bearing down on the Park. He hoped the weather would hold off at least until the parade finished. It was an evening parade with fireworks to follow. He didn’t want it canceled. It wasn’t every day he was asked to ride a float in Disney World.
Kingdom Keepers Boxed Set Page 21
