HIDDEN MICKEY ADVENTURES 5

by Nancy Temple Rodrigue

  Peter lowered his arms. “Oh, right. Yeah, I found it tacked inside the bellow thing. Didn’t get a chance to open it.”

  “Here’s Adam.” He nodded a greeting as Adam parked and got out of his car. “Hey, Adam. I’m going to have to yell at Peter, all right?”

  Alex had given Adam a brief description of what had happened. Hiding a smile, Adam pointed at Peter and started to wave his arms. “What are you doing kicking my kid out?”

  Wolf took a step forward and pointed his finger at Adam’s chest, being careful not to actually touch him. There was an audience. “And teach your child not to go places he doesn’t belong. That won’t to be tolerated at Disneyland. He’s banned for one month. Don’t bring him back until that’s over.”

  Adam got into the spirit. “Yeah, well, we’ll just see about that! What’s your name? Wolf?” he leaned into read the nametag in the dim light. “Well, Wolf, we’ll just see what happens to guards with a bully complex.” Adam herded the boys into the car, still having difficulty keeping a straight face.

  Wolf watched until they pulled out onto Harbor and disappeared from sight. He managed to wipe his smile off before turning around to assume his duties.

  Fullerton Hospital

  “And then I had to jump from the rail and grab a rope before I fell into the water.”

  “I saw Wolf come running in but he didn’t see me. He hauled Peter out by his arms!”

  “When Uncle Adam came to pick us up, he and Wolf got into a fake argument ‘cause another guard was watching.”

  Alex and Peter, one on each side of Catie, continued to excitedly talk over each other as they related their adventure. In a corner chair, flipping the pages of a magazine, sat Kimberly, her head slowly shaking back and forth at what she was hearing. By silently listening, she found she learned more than had been related at the house. She hadn’t yet discussed with Lance what they should do about Peter’s reckless actions Perhaps Wolf’s threat of a ban might be the best way to go. If Peter had found the next clue, having to wait a month to follow up on it would definitely be a punishment.

  “Wolf said I was banned for a month, but I think that was just for show. Well, I hope he was kidding.”

  “I kept whistling for Peter like I was supposed to, but he never came out.”

  “I never heard you, Alex! Hmmph, I thought that whistle of yours was supposed to be loud.”

  When Kimberly saw Alex put his fingers under his tongue, she had to say something. “Alex, honey, that’s not a good idea inside a hospital room. Save the demonstration for when we get home.” And hopefully by then you’ll forget all about it.

  Alex had learned enough not to roll his eyes. “Yes, Aunt Kimberly. Sorry.” He turned back to the bed. “And then… Hey, Catie! Look, guys, her eyes are open again. Hi, sis.”

  Catie tilted her head so she could face her brother, her lips forming into a crooked smile.

  “Did you hear us, Catie? We were telling you about the latest clue Peter found.”

  Wanting his share of attention, Peter put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You would have loved it, Catie.” Her focus, though, was solely on her twin. Swallowing his disappointment when she didn’t look at him, he turned back to Alex. “I think she misses you. Keep talking.”

  “I miss you, too.” Biting his lower lip, Alex’s voice lowered as emotion took over. “Can you talk, Catie? Is there anything special you want to hear about? School sucks.”

  Her smile widened a little. Under the covers, unnoticed by the others, her undamaged arm tried to rise from the bed. Hampered by the blanket covering her, the movement and the frustration seemed to deplete all her energy. The smile slowly faded as her brown eyes closed once again.

  Kimberly had come over to the bed to softly stroke Catie’s hair. It was a soothing motion she had used on her boys when they had trouble sleeping. “That was the longest she’s been awake. That’s a good sign.” Tears stung the back of her eyes. “I think she’s going to be all right. You know, maybe we’d better go and let her sleep. We’ll want to tell your mom and dad, Alex.”

  “She didn’t even look at me.” Peter had stepped back from the bed as they gathered up their things to leave.

  Kimberly put her arm around her son’s drooping shoulders. When did he get to be this tall? “She’s making progress, Pete. Good progress. I know she was happy to hear from both of you. But, Alex is her twin brother. They’ve always had a special bond.”

  He merely nodded, not wanting to pursue the subject. “If we’re going home, I need to open the capsule and see where I have to go next.”

  Now wasn’t the time to mention any ramifications from his stunt. Kimberly waited for Alex to say his goodbyes before she herded them down to her car.

  Peter stared at the handwritten note in his hand. Confusion wiped out the anxious anticipation he had felt. “That’s not right. It can’t be right. It wasn’t even built yet. How could Walt know? He was gone before it opened.”

  The next clue in the Hidden Mickey search contained only three words:

  “Don’t be cheeken.”

  Flashback – Disneyland – January 3, 1965

  Watercolor paintings hung on the wall behind Walt and Julie. In the forefront was a table filled with a small town of miniature buildings, wrought iron balconies, and curving streets. Walt’s hand, holding a small box camera with a flashcube attached, gestured at the wall. It seemed like the movie camera had caught them in mid-conversation. “This is what we call New Orleans Square.” Walt turned from the wall to the model, his finger running through the streets as the camera followed his movement. “See all these streets? It’s going to be very interesting with little shops and restaurants and people can wander around in there.

  “Now over here,” as Walt indicated a lovely nighttime scene painted in dark blues and purples, “we have the special attraction called the Blue Bayou Lagoon. People will actually get on a boat here and ride through the lagoon.” When he turned from the painting to his companion, his voice revealed his excitement for the project. “Here we send them down a waterfall and take them back into the past to the days of the pirates and the old Caribbean. Those pirates were always sacking towns… You believe in pirates, of course?”

  Intent on the description, Julie seemed surprised to be asked a question. “Oh, yes, Walt. I do!”

  “Good, good. Then come over here with me.” They walked a short distance into a model room filled with maquettes and busts and mock-ups of different scenes. Walt stopped next to a man busily at work on the head of a pirate, a blue bandana wrapped around the white clay. “Blaine, tell her what you’re working on.”

  The artist looked up with a smile. “This here will be a full-size pirate,” as he turned the head for a better view.

  “He looks kind of mean.”

  Blaine gave a short laugh. “You’re right there, Julie. Well, the pirates were a pretty tough bunch.”

  Walt took over the conversation. “We’ll have him animated in the show with all kinds of body movements. We call it Audio-Animatronics. But, before Blaine worked on the full-scale pirate, he worked on the miniature. Come over here with me.”

  There were a dozen foot-tall statues on the table and Walt picked up one of the pirates. He held it up to a drawing on the wall behind the table. It was a perfect match. “We do the drawing to get the characters right, then Blaine takes them and puts them into dimension.”

  The camera panned the wall of drawings. “Here we have different pirates and the scenes that will happen in the ride. Like this fellow who is covered with loot!” Walt picked up a colorful pirate who had about eight hats piled on his head, his arms also full of clothing. The statue appeared to be rocking back and forth to mimic the movement of the boat he was trying to get into. “Now we’ll go around and see the town the pirates are sacking.”

  The next room was filled with draped tables, each one holding a different scene. Walt and Julie stopped next to an Imagineer who was positioning a small pirate onto a large
pirate ship. Behind them could be seen the stone-work of a fortress.

  Claude set down the small figure amid the rest of the crew. “We’ve been restaging this walking-the-plank scene. We’ve got the water below and this fellow,” as the camera zoomed in on a scared townsman teetering on the edge of the plank, “well, he’s in a pretty bad way.”

  “I’m going to take Julie to see the town, Claude.”

  “All right, Walt.”

  They turned to another mock-up of the Spanish-styled town. Walt stopped in front of one scene. He let out an appreciative chuckle as the camera slowly panned an elaborate, detailed courtyard. A small group of pirates, holding cutlasses and flintlock rifles, were lowering a tied-up man into a stone well. Up above, the night-capped head of an angry woman poked out of a window.

  Walt pointed at a small metal ring that stood up on the edge of the table. “Now, if you look through that ring, you’ll see what the audience gets. Here you see the pirates dunking the mayor in the well, trying to force him to reveal the hiding place of town’s treasure.”

  The camera continued past the pirates and stacks of kegged gunpowder. “All of this will be seen from a boat, you know, and all the characters will be life-size and lifelike in their movements.” A stack of barrels came next, holes shot into them, as streams of rum were frozen in the air. The pirates who lounged or staggered about had drunk their stolen find.

  “Even though these fellows found the town’s rum supply, they are more interested in what is happening across the river.”

  The camera panned to three tiers of pirates who leaned forward to see what was happening across the river. There, a line of women in various signs of distress were all tied together at the waist. A beautiful redhead in a scarlet dress stood out from the rest of them, seemingly uncaring of her predicament. “Here they are auctioned off, all the town’s beauties.”

  Julie beamed at the all the scenes she’s seen so far. “That’s absolutely fantastic, Walt!”

  Walt held up a cautionary finger. “You haven’t even seen the grand climactic scene.”

  “How could you possibly top this?”

  Walt rocked back on his heels, obviously enjoying his tale. “Well, we set the place on fire and have our audience trapped down there in the flaming city!”

  “How do they get out?”

  “Well, you got into this mess by going down a waterfall. Now, how would you suppose we get out?”

  Julie tilted her head, an unsure smile on her face. “By going up a waterfall?”

  Walt gave a laugh as he turned to look into the camera. “That’s right! Anything’s possible at Disneyland!”

  Fullerton

  “I guess anything’s possible at Disneyland.” Peter sat back from his computer. He had just watched the tenth anniversary show from Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. The details of the upcoming Pirate ride had captured his attention. Walt had indeed known all about the attraction and what would be included in it. “Now that I know where to go I just need to figure out how.” A grimace replaced his smile. Still smarting from the set-down he had received from his last stunt, he knew he’d have to plan this next one more carefully. “Guess I won’t be jumping from a boat any time soon. They’re too far away from the Well Scene anyway. I’ll just have to figure out another way to get there.”

  Closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair, Peter pictured the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in his mind. From the moment he would step onto the flat-bottom boat in Laffite’s Landing to the final chain-driven ascent up the last waterfall, he followed the winding course. Each scene, each turn in the river was as clear to him as if he was actually there. He could hear the boom of the cannons on the Wicked Wench as she fought against the fort. Between the turrets on the fort on the left were the silhouettes of a sword fight. The sounds of the battle muted as the boat turned left and entered the pillaged Spanish town. Their knees shaking in fear, prisoners still in their nightclothes watched in horror as the mayor was again and again lowered into the well, the sound of his gurgling floated over the water. As the mayor was raised again, a stream of water shot out of his mouth and his wife appeared in an upper window. “Do not tell him, Carlos. Don’t be cheeken.” One of watching pirates fired his flintlock at her and she fell screaming back into their house.

  Peter’s memory kept the ride going as the boat next went past a dress shop with a particular Captain hiding from the pirates who were seeking him. The following auction and the popular redhead took up both sides of the waterway. He pictured the pirates who looked down from an arch as the boat slowly sailed under. After the auction was the sacked town with a pirate teetering on top of a stack of rum barrels outside the wrecked cantina.

  Peter stopped just as he got to the minstrels singing about their wayward lifestyle. His eyes popped open as he leaned forward in his chair. Though not exactly sure, he thought he might have discovered a way to reach the mayor. There were two more weeks to go in his detention, so he had to rely on the Internet to check out his new theory. With renewed energy, he got to work.

  “I’m going to need Aunt Beth’s help to get to the next clue.”

  Lance glanced over from the stove where he was scrambling eggs for their breakfast. “Oh? I don’t think she’s gone back to work yet.” The excited look on Peter’s face fell. “What did you need? Anything I can do? Or Wolf?”

  At the mention of Wolf, Peter had to grimace. What he had thought was a joke had turned into reality. He had been banned from the Park for a month. Not sure if Wolf would help him, Peter’s shrug was wary. “I don’t know. How much do you know about the backstage area of Pirates?”

  The question caught him off-guard, causing Lance to pause. Turning back to the stovetop to cover his discomfort, he fiddled with the eggs. It had happened over a decade ago, but the memory of what he had done still haunted him. In their first Hidden Mickey treasure hunt, he, Adam, and Beth had found a secret tunnel behind the massive bed in the Captain’s Quarters. It led to a subterranean cavern beneath the Treasure Room. There they had found the final door and the final clue to their treasure. In a state of desperation and greed, Lance had actually pulled a gun on his two friends and demanded the treasure—whatever it was—for himself. That impulsive, stupid move had cost him his two friends and, ultimately, the treasure behind that door. He still didn’t know what it was Adam and Beth had found. He never asked. Taken in another direction, he had followed what he thought was the answer to the clue. In the end, he had come across a different cavern and a different find that had led him to Kimberly. It had taken years and years to win back his friends. It wasn’t a warm, fuzzy memory for Lance.

  Peter still waited for an answer so Lance swallowed his shame and shoveled the eggs onto plates. “Call your brothers. Breakfast is ready.” When he recovered his composure, he answered his son. “Yeah, I know a little about the backstage area on the New Orleans side. It’s like a maze back there. Very easy to get lost. But, I think you know that.”

  Peter joined Michael and Andrew at the table and thoughtfully chewed on a piece of toast. “Yeah, that’s why I wondered if Aunt Beth could help. You know I need to get to the Mayor in the Well, right?”

  Lance took a sip of orange juice and nodded. “That area of the ride is outside the berm, of course, and on the other side of the water. I can’t help you back there. Wolf might. I don’t know.”

  “I’d rather ask Aunt Beth.”

  Munching on a piece of bacon hid Lance’s smile. “Wolf isn’t mad at you.”

  Silently listening, Michael’s radar kicked in. “What’d Peter do? Why’s Uncle Wolf mad at him?”

  “He isn’t mad at me. Didn’t you hear Dad?”

  “Boys, stop. Sorry I’m late.” Kimberly came into the kitchen and took her chair. “This looks great, honey. I could smell the bacon upstairs.”

  “Well, I knew you had to work today. New batch of princesses to train?”

  Peter’s head shot up. “You’re going to Disneyland?”

>   “I am. You’re not.” Kimberly’s tone held an apology even though she didn’t voice it. “You only have a few more days to go. You can wait that long.” The grumble she received as a reply wasn’t understandable.

  Lance filled her in on the conversation she had missed. “Peter thinks he knows how to get to the Mayor, but will need Beth’s help.”

  “She hasn’t gone back to work since…since Catie got hurt.”

  “I know, Mom. I was just hoping she could help me. I have a plan all worked out.”

  Neither Lance nor Kimberly liked the gleam in his eyes. “Well, maybe you can lay it all out for us tonight when I get home and we’ll go from there.”

  Realizing he had to be satisfied with that, Peter merely nodded. It was going to be a long day.

  Fullerton

  Lance stared at the printout Peter had handed him. It was rough layout of the entire Pirate ride flume with the scenes reduced to minimal words like Treasure Cache, Fort, Jail. Just after the WickedWench, though, was another flume Peter had highlighted with three arrows. There were also a double row of lines over the flume that seemed to connect the land areas.

  Lance pointed at the second set of lines. “What’s that one?”

  In his excitement, Peter was bouncing up and down on his toes. “The Hairy Leg Pirate.”

  Picturing the scene, Lance knew if you looked up as you sailed under that bridge, the hairy leg of a pirate slowly swung back and forth. “It’s an arch over the water.”

  Nodding, Peter pointed at the first set of double lines. “So’s that one.” He then indicated the other waterway that made a large curve behind the Auction and the Chase. “That’s why I need Aunt Beth’s help.”

  “Ah, I’d forgotten all about that place.” The words Boat Storage were printed inside the secondary flume. “You know? I think you’re right. Do you want me to call Beth for you?”

  “You mean I can go ahead with it?”