HIDDEN MICKEY ADVENTURES 4

by Nancy Temple Rodrigue

  Her cute face fell. She hadn’t been wrong after all. “Oh. I thought we had a fun time together at Disneyland.”

  Peter’s head jerked up, his green eyes flashed with anger. “Fun?” Now, two days later, Peter’s head was finally clear and he had had plenty of time to go over all the events. “You were so rude to my friend Catie that she had to leave and hasn’t spoken to me since!”

  Lisa stood there slightly stunned. To her, the events of that day were still somewhat fuzzy, confusing. All she could clearly remember was going on the rides with Peter. Then there was something about a room somewhere on Main Street, but those details seemed to be all jumbled. “I was? I…I don’t remember that. I know Catie left early, but I’m not sure why.”

  “You don’t remember. Oh, that’s convenient.” Frustrated, Peter ran a hand through his hair. Mentally, he tried to count to ten before he continued, but only got to four. “She tried to give you a compliment on that silly necklace you had on and you turned it into an insult.”

  The girl’s fingers unconsciously went up to her bare neck. “Necklace?” She looked down at her hand as if wondering why it was empty. “Wasn’t it shaped like a bird or something?”

  Peter rolled his eyes. “It’s your necklace. You should know what it looks like.”

  A blush crept up Lisa’s face. She seemed more confused than anything else. Thinking back over the day she had spent with Peter, she looked out toward the buses with unseeing eyes. “Yeah, I should know, but I can’t find it anywhere. I even asked my mom to help me look, but she didn’t remember anything about it. Maybe I dropped it at Disneyland or somewhere.”

  “Well, all I know is that you were wearing it when you left.”

  “I was?” She gave a small shrug with her shoulders. “I don’t remember. It’s just gone. It’s like I never had it at all.”

  “Well, necklace or no, you were rude to Catie and I really don’t want to talk to you right now. I have to catch my bus or I have a long walk home.”

  As he stalked off, Lisa looked after him, her face miserable. “I’m sorry. I just…I don’t remember.” Her whisper was spoken to an empty corridor.

  Kimberly looked up when she heard the front door slam. Since the younger boys, Michael and Andrew, were already home from their schools, it had to be Peter. When the windows quit rattling, she headed for the hallway. Something had to be wrong. That wasn’t like Peter.

  Muttering to himself as he jerked off his backpack, he was stomping up the stairs when she reached him.

  “Afternoon, Sunshine.”

  “Yeah.”

  Okay, an attitude, too. Great. “Peter Percy Brentwood.”

  If the tone in her voice hadn’t stopped him, the added treat of hearing his full name would have done the trick. He immediately came to a halt on the second floor landing. What he didn’t manage to stop was the dramatic sigh as he turned around. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Don’t ‘hi, Mom’ me. Come down here and tell me what’s wrong.”

  “What makes you think something’s wrong?”

  Kimberly didn’t answer him. With a tilt of her head, she just put her hands on her hips.

  Peter had to smile in spite of himself. “You look like you’re thinking the word ‘duh’,” as he came down the stairs.

  “I am.” She took him in her arms for a quick hug before he even had a chance to protest. “Now, come on in the kitchen. I think your dad left some fruit untouched. And we can talk.”

  “No cookies?”

  “After you tell me what happened at school.”

  Peter first opened the back door to let in Dug, their Golden Retriever, which resulted in several minutes of a joyous reunion. Kimberly watched as the boy played with their dog. She could see some of the tension ease out of him as he fended off drooling kisses and a whipping tail that could probably decapitate someone. Now seated at the big island in the middle of the kitchen, it was duly noted that most of Peter’s apple was being stealthily dropped into a waiting mouth below. That, too, was allowed to pass.

  When two pairs of expectant eyes looked to her for the next, more savory, treat, she could only grin as she passed over the plate of chocolate chip cookies. “You still haven’t told me anything. And don’t give Dug any chocolate. It’s not good for her.”

  “I know I’m not supposed to feed the dog from the table.”

  Wow, a look of wide-eyed innocence! How does he manage the same trick as his dad? Kimberly held up the apple core as she pointed at the excited Dug who obviously expected more.

  When it didn’t work, Peter dropped the look on his face and stuffed another cookie into his mouth. Seeing the movement, the dog’s head eagerly swung back to him. Dug had to settle for licking his sticky fingers. Disappointed, she turned away to head for her enormous pillow in the far corner of the kitchen. With three full turns and a loud sigh, all eighty pounds of delicate golden fluff settled down and promptly went to sleep.

  “Well, now that you’ve allowed Dug to distract us for ten minutes, let’s get back to the original question. What happened at school?”

  Peter made a face behind the napkin he had been handed to wipe the chocolate from around his mouth. Somehow, someway, his mom never seemed to forget her original question—no matter how long he stalled. He gave a longing glance at the kitchen door.

  “Your brothers are upstairs doing their homework and won’t interrupt. Or save you, as the case might be.”

  “I do have math and history….”

  That earned a grin. “Glad to hear it, Pete! You usually tell me you finished it on the bus.”

  Rats. “Okay.” There was no use trying to stall any longer. He figured he might as well get it over with. “You remember that girl from school, Lisa?”

  “She’s the one who went to Disneyland with you and Catie Saturday, right?” Kimberly grabbed the last cookie and slowly nibbled on it. “You didn’t seem to have a very good time with her. All you said was that she was mean to Catie and Catie left early. Did something happen today? Was she still acting the same way?” Catie and Peter had been friends forever and she knew Peter was protective of her. She just hoped whatever happened today wouldn’t escalate into a problem she and Lance would have to step in to handle. Peter was usually pretty forgiving after he had been wronged. He might pout for a while, but he usually got over it.

  “Well, I avoided her all day—not easy since we’re in some of the same classes.” He momentarily perked up and looked rather proud of himself. “I showed up late to class and then got out right away. Oh, that reminds me…. You’ll have to sign a couple of tardy notes from my teachers.”

  “Peter!” Kimberly had to stop and bite back her ready lecture on being late to class. There was more here that she needed to know. I couldn’t have had a nice, peaceful, obedient little girl. No, I had to have three boys. Well, four, counting Lance… “Okay, so you never talked to her. Then why are you so angry?”

  Peter fingered the notes from his teachers that he dug out of his backpack. He would rather work it out for himself and try to get Catie to talk to him again. There was also a gray capsule hidden under his bed that he was dying to open—and he wanted Catie to be part of it when he did. “She finally caught me at my locker before I could get to my bus.”

  “And she made fun of Catie again?”

  “No! She tried to apologize, I think. I don’t know. I made a run for it.” He broke off, suddenly realizing what he said.

  “Oh, no! She apologized! How awful.”

  Peter didn’t bother to hide rolling his eyes when he saw the small grin on his mom’s face. “You’re making fun of me.” The notes were crumpled into his fist. “Catie won’t talk to me. I’ve tried texting her and she doesn’t answer. It’s all Lisa’s fault. And then she says she can’t remember anything that happened! She acted all confused and stuff. Like she couldn’t even remember that ugly necklace she was playing with all day. Hmph.” He tossed the paper onto the countertop so he could fold his arms across his chest. “And
then, after Catie left, we found another capsule from Walt in the apartment and I can’t even open it ‘cause Catie won’t talk to me!”

  Kimberly held up a restraining hand. “Wait, wait a minute. There’re two things that bother me here. One, you took Lisa into the secret apartment. And, two, you never mentioned another capsule. Pete, you know what we find from Walt is not for general knowledge. We have a special duty as Guardians to keep Walt and his plans for the future of Disneyland safe. If he leaves us something special like an unknown room above Main Street, it is for our use only. I thought we made that clear.”

  “But, Mom, she said she saw us coming out of the door! How could I say there wasn’t anything there when she saw the door open and close?”

  Looking out the window over the sink, Kimberly thought back to that exciting Saturday night. She could not remember seeing anyone nearby who even gave them a second look. That girl Lisa hadn’t approached Peter until later when they were almost at the Opera House. She turned back to her son. “Did she say anything about the apartment today?”

  The boy just shook his head. “No, she was more interested in talking about the necklace she apparently lost. She didn’t even mention the capsule or want to know what was in it.”

  Kimberly leaned back against the kitchen counter. “What is in it?” As she asked, she was picturing the holographic map of Disneyland in the War Room on the third floor of their house. Kimberly knew the map hadn’t shown any undiscovered capsule in that vicinity. The house itself had been built by Walt Disney for the first Guardian, her late father. That special room, though, was a technological wonder, and was the central hub for the Guardians of Walt. Kimberly, Lance, Wolf, and now Junior Guardian Peter, all took turns making sure the Park ran smoothly—just as Walt had wanted.

  “I don’t know yet. I haven’t opened it.”

  This wasn’t like Peter. He was usually so excited when he discovered one of the canisters that he would attack it with anything at hand to get it open. “Really? Why not, honey?”

  He paused before he answered, stalling by trying to press the crumbed notes from school smooth again. Embarrassed by the admission he knew to be true, he didn’t want to say it out loud. His shoulders raised in a sigh of defeat. Kimberly would just keep asking. “I wanted Catie to be there.”

  Mumbled in a low voice, she barely heard his words, but caught ‘Catie’ and knew what he meant. His body language was clear enough. She didn’t want him to get any more self-conscious by making him repeat it. With a kind hand on his shoulder, she let him off the hook. “Well, you’ll figure it out. If you need any help, you know you can come to me or your dad. Now, about those late notes….”

  Peter’s head shot up when he realized the interrogation was over. With a big grin on his face, he sprinted for the door with an energized Dug barking at his heels. “Won’t happen again. Thanks, Mom!”

  Yorba Linda

  Catie looked at the blinking light on her phone again. It was another text from Peter. About to hit the delete button, curiosity got the better of her. “This’d better be good, Peter.”

  I’m sorry. Didn’t talk to Lisa all day. I want you to open the capsule with me not her.

  Catie’s face lit up with a big smile. He didn’t want Lisa. He wanted her.

  The hurt and anger that had lingered over the past two days was slowly melting away. Peter had acted so strangely at Disneyland that he had seemed like a different person. He never acted like that toward her. Maybe her mom had been right: Let him sweat for a couple of days. He’ll come around. Worked on your dad!

  Still, she waited another hour before she replied to his message.

  I guess. I’ll see if we can come over next Friday. It’s a school holiday.

  Fullerton

  “Dad! Can we go to Walt Disney World?”

  Seated in the living room with their guests, Adam and Beth, Lance heard Peter’s yell as three pairs of feet thundered down the stairs and headed toward their location. Always ready for anything, he gave the Michaels a grin. “So, you guys busy tomorrow? Want to go to Florida?”

  Andrew and Michael, playing with the steering wheel of the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride vehicle over by the fireplace, became all ears. Initially irritated at getting booted out of Peter’s room while he, Catie, and her twin brother Alex, worked on some clue, they immediately perked up. “I want to go to Florida!”

  Andrew’s confirmation was right behind his brother’s. “I wanna go to Florida! Me, too!”

  “Quit copying everything I say, Andrew!”

  “I didn’t copy you! Quit copying everything I say, Michael.”

  “Boys! Your dad’s just kidding.” Kimberly glanced over at Lance, a ‘you-are-joking-right?’ look on her face. “At least, I think he is….”

  Adam glanced at his watch. “Well, we could catch the red-eye.”

  “What’s a red-eye?”

  Beth lightly punched him in the arm as she pulled Andrew into her lap. “You’re not helping.”

  A loud jumble of voices all discussing the likeliness, the impossibility, the fun, the choices of rides, and the dining experiences of Walt Disney World greeted Peter, Catie, and Alex when they reached the living room. Coming to a halt in the doorway, they could only look from face to face as four adults and two boys all chimed in with their own reasons for going or not.

  Peter glanced over at his two companions. “Wow. I think I started something.”

  Enjoying the fray, Alex leaned against the entryway and folded his arms over his chest as he got a grasp on what was being said. “From what I can tell, my dad and your dad are for it. Our moms keep talking about school. Michael is planning out the day in the Magic Kingdom and Andrew wants to go to Animal Kingdom.”

  “But we need to go to Epcot.”

  Peter, still enthralled at the chaos in front of them, grinned at Catie. “I think Michael is getting to that park now, Catie! Gosh, I thought we’d have to talk them into it.”

  “Uh oh, your mom spotted us, Peter. She doesn’t look like she wants to go.”

  The loud clanging of a brass bell that had come off the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship stopped everyone mid-sentence. When Adam and Lance resumed their talk about air flights, Kimberly rang it again.

  “Okay, okay, honey! What? Wow, I didn’t remember that bell being so loud.”

  Beth, seated closest to the bell, seemed to be checking the hearing in her right ear. “That’s because it used to be in the middle of Fantasyland, not an enclosed room. Am I yelling? I can’t tell if I’m yelling.”

  Adam patted her knee. “Yeah, you’re yelling. You’d better not talk anymore.”

  She shot him a dubious look and then glanced at her hostess for confirmation. Kimberly gave a short shake of her head. Before Beth could get back at Adam, Kimberly motioned the troublemakers into the room. “You three, come on in here. What’s this about Walt Disney World? I thought you were opening that capsule and working on a clue.”

  Not sure if they were in trouble, their walk into the room was a slow one. Peter found himself in the lead as the twins stood behind him, somewhat out of sight.

  “Umm, yeah, we were working on the clue, Mom.” He pulled a yellowed piece of paper out of his pocket and glanced at it.

  The four adults felt their hearts beat a little faster. They were all experienced clue-solvers, having all been on joint and separate clue hunts in the past. While Adam and Beth had come across an actual treasure chest deep under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Lance had probed further by himself. Then later, with Kimberly’s help, they had discovered their own secret room on Main Street and an eerily beautiful treasure no one else knew about. They each had private mementoes from Walt Disney, not the least of which were pieces of paper—like that one in Peter’s hands—that contained clues written by Walt himself. And now Peter had just pulled another one out of his pocket and they became as excited as the kids.

  Lance spoke first, having to hold himself back from grabbing the ancient paper out of
his son’s hand. The adults had agreed the first time Peter found a clue to let the kids have their own adventures and see where it took them. Usually Wolf was with them, but he hadn’t been seen for a month since he ran down Main Street after Omah. “So, why do we need to go to Walt Disney World? The clues never included Florida because Walt didn’t actually work on that park. His brother Roy got it built after we lost Walt.”

  Kimberly looked puzzled for a moment. “Didn’t you say Wals went to Florida for one clue? Something about the Carousel of Progress?”

  “Yeah, but that was just because the ride got moved from Disneyland to Florida. It was the only way for him to find out where the trail led.”

  “What other rides moved to Florida? There’s the Country Bear Jamboree, but that was built after Walt’s time. What else?”

  “Don’t they still have the PeopleMover?”

  “Yes, but that was their own model, not our ride transplanted.”

  Alex edged closer to Peter so he could whisper in his ear. “I think we can back out of here and not be noticed. They’re in their Ancient History mode now.”

  Lance’s ears were sharper than Alex thought. His head swiveled in their direction just as the three kids started to edge backwards. “Hold on, guys. We’re getting off track, aren’t we, Alex?”

  Alex got a sappy grin on his face when he realized he had just been caught. He gave Peter a light shove in the back. “Peter has the note.”

  “Traitor,” Peter hissed at Alex. When he saw that all eyes were on him, Peter held up the yellowed paper. “From what we can tell, I think we need to go to Morocco.”

  “First Walt Disney World and now Morocco? What’s next? Transylvania?”

  Adam sat back with a smile. “Sounds like an even more exciting trip than ours was. We just got to go to Marceline, Missouri, and Tobago.”

  “Don’t forget San Francisco. That was fun.”