Disney in Shadow (13 page)

“Really,” Finn said,
“we’re good.”

“Thank you for the cookies and milk,” Willa said, trying to help Finn.

“They were delicious,” said Philby. “And your code breaking was awesome.”

“I hope it doesn’t disqualify you that I helped,” Mrs. Whitman said.

Both Finn and Philby screwed up their faces in confusion.

“The competition!” she said.

Both boys nodded. They were becoming trapped by their own story.

Mrs. Whitman returned the empty cookie plate to the tray and accepted the empty glasses as well. She left the room.

“Whoa,” Finn said.

“Museums?” Willa said in a whisper. “Churches? Christmas? What’s he trying to tell us?”

“One Man’s Dream is like a museum,” Philby said.

“It’s not impossible to think of Cinderella’s Castle as a cathedral.”

“At Christmas all the parks go wild with decorations,” Willa added. “There must be a million stars.”

“Fireworks!” Philby said. “That’s one place that stars never grow up. They go up, and they come down.”

“The numbers at the end!” Willa said. “We forgot the numbers at the end.”

“No we didn’t,” Philby said. “I solved that first: ten-fourteen. It’s either a time, or a date.”

“And if a date, it’s tomorrow,” Finn said.

“So what stars just don’t grow up tomorrow, and only tomorrow?”

“We should check a Disney calendar,” Willa said “I’m on it.” Finn took off to Google a Disney calendar. He bounded up the stairs.

He was at his computer—having no luck at all with the calendar—when his mother cleared her throat from his open door.

“Hey,” he said, paying her a passing glance over his shoulder.

“Hey there yourself.”

“You did awesome,” he said.

“Did you solve it yet?” she asked.

“I’m Googling some stuff.”

She didn’t say anything. She just stood there, leaning against the doorframe.

“What’s up, Mom?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me.”

He didn’t dare turn around. If she got a good look at him she’d know something was going on. He couldn’t hide stuff from her even when he wanted to. He’d learned to avoid some of her more penetrating questions, but outright lies were beyond him; he didn’t even want to lie.

“You know,” she said, “when you can’t look at me, it tells me a lot.”

“Who said I can’t look at you?” he asked, not looking at her. “I’m just busy, that’s all.”

“While you’re at it, why don’t you Google, Orlando School Code Contest, or Orlando School Challenge, or…
any other combination you can think of
. Or I could save you the trouble. The last one listed was in 1996.”

Finn panicked. His lungs stung, as did his eyes. His fingers felt cold and his throat dry. All this in a matter of seconds.
Her
, he thought. Only his mother could have such an effect on him.

“It’s the Kingdom Keepers, isn’t it?”

“Mom…”

“Is that your answer? ‘Mom?’ That’s…pretty lame, Finn.”

Lame?
Since when did she talk like he did?

“It’s complicated,” he said.

“You are so grounded.”

“Mom…we’re just figuring stuff out.”

“You’re just putting your college education at risk,” she said. “That’s all. Do you know what your father would do?”

“Please don’t tell him!
You
helped solve it, after all.”

“Under false pretenses.”

“No. Not exactly.”

“Exactly and completely.”

“You’re part of it now. Think what Dad would think of that.”

“You’re threatening me? Do you really think you’re in any kind of position to threaten me? You’re about to turn grounded into grounded forever. As in infinity. Have you studied infinity?”

“The code,” he said, spinning around. “The code is nothing, Mom. A friend
dreamed
it. I swear that’s the truth.
A dream.
But she remembered it exactly, and we decided to try to solve it for her.”

“That is even lamer,” she said.

“But it’s the truth. I promise! Amanda’s friend, Jess. She dreamed the whole thing. We thought it might actually mean something and so we tried to decode it.”

“And it does mean something,” his mother said.

He stared at her, knowing her as he did, knowing that her arms and ankles being crossed suggested a confidence she rarely displayed. This was the Ph.D. mom, the math mom, the rocket scientist.

“You solved it,” he said, aghast. “You solved the riddle.”

“And wouldn’t you like to know the answer,” she said, not denying it.

“You gotta tell me,” he pleaded.

“I ‘gotta’ do nothing of the sort,” she said. “I gotta ground you.”

“So ground me. A couple days, a week? I can take it.”

“Two weeks. And we say nothing about this to your father,” she said.

“As if I’d object to that,” Finn said.

“When I tell you the solution, you’re going to do whatever it is you’re all doing—
here
. Here, tomorrow night, where I can be a part of it. Where I can keep an eye on you. You’ll have your friends over, and if I find out you’re lying to me about any of this, then not only is the deal off, but I’m calling all their parents, and I’m putting an end to this—to whatever it is you aren’t telling me about.”

“It was a dream, Mom. I swear.” Was she going to make him beg for the solution? The official Walt Disney World Resort calendar had nothing of interest for the following night. It left him with the fireworks displays at the various parks, and not much more.

“Television,” his mother said.

“Excuse me?” Finn said, as politely as possible.

“On television, stars don’t grow up. They stay the same age.”

Finn’s jaw dropped. She could have put a golf ball into his open mouth.

“Genius,” he said.

“D
UMBO?”
Maybeck groaned in complaint.

“It’s so sad,” Charlene said. All the kids looked over at her in disgust, including Amanda and Jess, both too embarrassed to admit they’d never seen the movie.

“What?” Charlene said defensively. “Those ears?”

“Give me a break,” Maybeck said. “
Bridge to Terabithia
is sad.
Dumbo
is just…stupid.”

“Is not!” said Willa.

“Is so,” said Philby, supporting Maybeck and quickly drawing a line between the boys and the girls.

Gathered in Finn’s basement family room around a behemoth of a rear-projection television, they talked through the ads while Finn had it on mute.

“I think Wayne meant
Wizards of Waverly Place
,” said Philby.

“
Cory in the House
,” said Maybeck. “Has to be.”

“We’re missing the bigger point,” Finn said.

“Which is?” asked Amanda.

“Cartoons,” Finn said. “There’s a place where stars don’t grow old: cartoons. Even child actors grow up at some point. Not Dumbo. Not any of the other cartoon characters. That’s why this show is important to us.”

“And because any of those other shows could be on any night,” said Willa. “This is the fourteenth. This is the night he wanted us to watch, and this is the only night
Dumbo’s
going to be on. The only night it has been on the Disney Channel in…what?” She addressed Philby, the fount of all knowledge.

“Two years,” Philby said. “It’s tonight’s special movie.”

“It’s gotta be it,” agreed Finn.

“But it’s torture,” Maybeck said.

“It’s not either. It’s a good movie,” Charlene insisted. “And it has a good message.”

“Which is: ‘You’re never too young for plastic surgery,’” said Maybeck. They all laughed, even Charlene.

The ads stopped and the movie continued. Over the next hour, Mrs. Whitman delivered popcorn, soda, cupcakes, milk, and hot chocolate. Finn and Philby took notes about the characters in the movie as well as tracking the plot. Willa wrote down the settings of the various scenes. Maybeck snorted and made derisive comments, some of which would have gotten him thrown out of class at school. Amanda and Jess watched enraptured, with Jess displaying a serious appetite for kettle corn and Amanda for lemon cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting.

By the end, Maybeck said, “I don’t get it.”

Finn muted the television. “Wayne never makes it easy, you know that.”

“Admit it, Whitman,” Maybeck said. “You don’t have a clue why we just watched that movie.”

“We watched the movie,” Finn answered, “because Wayne told us to watch the movie.”

“That’s only if you interpret the coded message a certain way.”

“And how do you interpret it?” Philby asked.

“How should I know?” Maybeck said.

“Meaning you don’t have a better idea,” Philby said.

“All I’m saying is, none of us knows why we just watched that movie.”

Silence settled between them. Finn studied his notes and Willa leafed through hers. They looked at each other and Willa shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

“Any ideas, people?” Finn proposed. “Remember, the Stonecutter’s Quill was no cakewalk. He never makes it easy.”

“No one could accuse him of that,” Charlene said. “Elephants? Ears? Mother–daughter? Determination?”

“Try, try again,” contributed Philby.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” said Maybeck. “It’s a geek elephant with ear-wings. An overweight Will Smith.”

He won another laugh from everyone.

“The circus,” said Jess.

They all looked at her. She hadn’t spoken a word in nearly two hours.

“It’s true,” Willa chimed in. “We’re talking specifics like elephants and ears, but the theme, the overall setting is the circus.”

“The horses are from a carousel,” said Amanda. “In Jess’s diary. The picture she drew. The horses aren’t being stabbed. They’re on a carousel.”

“I pointed that out before,” Maybeck reminded, “and nobody thought to consider it.”

“A chair in front of a carousel,” Finn said.

“The Dumbo ride in Magic Kingdom!” Charlene said.

“Just one problem with that idea.” As the resident expert Philby won the group’s attention. “Dumbo the Flying Elephant is not a carousel and there are no horses on the ride.”

“Other than that,” Maybeck said, “it’s pretty much a perfect match.”

“So, it’s Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel,” Charlene proposed.

“I hate to be a stinker,” Willa said, “but one of the horses in Jess’s drawing has straight legs.”

The boys eyed Willa suspiciously. Was this a girl–boy trap they were being led into? A joke or prank?

Charlene quelled that notion. “She’s right! And on Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel all the horses have bent knees.”

“You can’t possibly know that,” said Philby, believing himself the expert in everything.

“How many times have you ridden it?” Charlene inquired. “Trust me: bent legs.”

“And there’s the jacket, people,” Maybeck said. “Let’s not forget the jacket.”

“The Epcot jacket Wayne is wearing,” Finn said, nodding.

“Carousel horses in Epcot?” Willa questioned. “I don’t think so.”

“When in doubt…?” Philby said to Finn.

“Google it!” Finn answered. He returned less than five minutes later carrying a printout.

“So, I tried a bunch of things. Epcot carousel—got all these hits for Carousel of Progress. It’s in MK and is rarely opened. Circus, Epcot was a waste. But circus tent, Epcot, was it. Fun Facts of Epcot came up with the words circus tent highlighted. It’s a blog,” he said, showing them the printout, “from 1997. I searched it for circus tent, and got this part that talks about a field trip to Wonders of Life. There was a hallway with a circus tent at the end of it. And in the very next paragraph, there’s a lounge mentioned that has a Mary Poppins theme with…get this…carousel horses painted on the walls.”

“Mary Poppins!” an excited Charlene shouted too loudly. “I knew I recognized those horses. That’s it!” At Charlene’s beckoning, Jess handed her the photocopy from her diary and placed it for all to see. The kids gathered around. “These carousel horses are from Mary Poppins. Absolutely. I can’t believe,” she said to Jess, “you got it as perfect as you did.”

“I’ve never even heard of Wonders of Life,” Maybeck complained.

“Neither had I, so I Wiki’d it,” said Finn. “It was closed in 2004. And get this: it’s used sometimes for receptions and—”

“Field trips,” Philby said.

“That’s where they’re holding him,” Maybeck said, sitting up and paying more attention.

“I thought you didn’t believe any of this,” Willa sniped.

“I was locked up by those bad boys,” Maybeck reminded everyone.

“So was I,” said Willa. “The Animal Kingdom Lodge, remember?”

“So you know, and I know, how bad it is. I was waiting for you geniuses to figure it out. But now that you have and it’s time for action…”

“Maybeck to the rescue,” Charlene said.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Maybeck said.

“Tonight?” Finn asked. He slowly looked around the room, from face to face. He realized how these six people had become his closest friends. He didn’t see that much of Dillard, a neighborhood pal, anymore. These six and their mission to stop the Overtakers consumed him. He could use his being a Kingdom Keeper as a convenient excuse with his other friends. The role required him to record vocal tracks and occasionally model a new move or two for the hologram Imagineers. But more than any excuses, he wanted to be with the Kingdom Keepers; he wanted to find Wayne and take on Maleficent and Chernabog and get them locked up again. To voice that aloud would get him an appointment with a psychiatrist, but these six others understood; they had been there.

“Tonight,” Maybeck said. “Tomorrow is Saturday. We can sleep it off.”

“What time?” Amanda asked. “We’re kind of new at this.”

“It’s late already,” Finn said. “If we all try to get to bed by quarter of eleven, we should cross over about a half hour later.”

“We left the fob at the Studios,” Philby reminded him.

“I’ll pick up the fob,” Finn said. “Fantasmic! Friday will mean there are buses running late.”

“Won’t you be spotted?” Jess asked.

“My projection will die somewhere outside the Studios. I can get on a bus without being seen. If I happen to pop on and off a couple of times, it’ll only convince the other guests that I’m my DHI. That’s all that matters.”

“So,” Philby said, “eleven-fifteen, the bathrooms on the way to Test Track.”

Each of them nodded.

“We wait for everyone,” he said. “I’ll use the back-door in the software to send us all. I’ll turn the Studios on for you, Finn.” Finn nodded. “Once Finn is there with the fob, we’ll wait until eleven-thirty and then head for the Wonders pavilion. If you’re late, you can catch up to us there.”

“The lounge,” Finn said, “is on the second floor.”

“What if the Overtakers are using Wonders as a kind of base?” Charlene asked.

“We’re not going to just barge in there, if that’s what you’re asking,” Philby answered.

“We should go to bed wearing dark clothing and running shoes,” Finn advised.

“I’ll bring some rope,” Charlene said.

“Bring your phones with you,” Philby told them.

An anonymous benefactor—Wayne?—had sent all five Kingdom Keepers free phones as a reward for their efforts in the Animal Kingdom. The phones, which could connect to the Internet as well as send texts, had a direct-connect feature—like an intercom—just between the five of them. “And flashlights,” Finn said. “And, Jess, make sure you have paper and pencil, in case you have one of your…you know….”

“Trances?” Jess said.

“Whatever it is you have,” Finn said.

“Anyone up for s’mores?” Mrs. Whitman shouted down into the basement.

“Quick!” Finn said, “get out of here before you don’t fit through the doors!”