The Return: Disney Lands (2 page)

“At least he’s alive,” Willa said. “He didn’t look it at first.”

“It’s coincidence,” said Charlene. “Nothing more.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Philby.

“What? You can’t be serious!” Finn objected.

“Don’t go all conspiracy theory on us, Whitman,” Maybeck said. “Do
not
start with that whole ‘Wayne left
us a message’ thing again.”

“He did, but so did Amanda and Jess. Out there in the hall, Amanda tried to stop us from coming in here. Jess knew it was dangerous! Look, we all agreed to figure out the connection
between Wayne’s watch and Walt’s music box. What happened to that idea? Why didn’t we see it through?”

“See?” Maybeck raised his voice, angrily. The Keepers occupied a large, round
table. He and Willa drank coffee. With the paramedics gone, this was their first opportunity to talk
privately.

“Please, Finn, do not blow this thing up to more than it is.” Charlene looked at him over the rim of a plastic cup.

“What it is,” Finn said loudly, “is tampering. That poison was intended for us!”

The other Keepers scoffed.

“Did you see how big that guy was?” Finn said.
“He survived because he didn’t eat that much. Anybody want to dig through the trash and eat a whole sandwich, and see how
you do?” Finn waited. “Didn’t think so. There was only one group of people that food was meant for. Us. This is our greenroom. Think about it.”

“The Overtakers are dead, dude,” Maybeck said.

“I’m not saying they aren’t. But Walt’s pen is not in those photos, and not
in Jess’s sketch of Walt’s desk, either.”

“That’s because if we hadn’t found his pen in One Man’s Dream, we’d never have redrawn the park with Wayne.” Maybeck sounded defensive. “We’d
never have saved the park. Solving the Stonecutter’s Quill would have been for nothing.”

“And my argument was,” Willa said, “that the park
is
whole again, so obviously none of this message stuff matters.”

“The park is whole because we fixed it!” Finn cried. “We fixed it using a pen that isn’t in the original photos of the attraction. So how did the pen get
there?”

No one had an answer.

“You’re saying we chase down some recording in Walt’s apartment—a recording we don’t even know exists.” Charlene sighed, and then added, “I have a TV
show to shoot, let’s not forget.”

“I have college
coming up,” Willa said.

“Imagineering school,” Philby said.

Maybeck said proudly, “Art Center.”

“You gotta let it go, Finn.” Charlene sounded genuinely concerned. “I know Wayne anointed you as his successor. I get how that weighs on you. But seriously, you are
obsessed.” Her eyes softened. “We just want to help you.”

“We’re still the Keepers. We’ll always have that,” Willa said,
“but we’re moving on.”

“Someone tried to poison us,” Finn repeated. “Jess saw it coming. That means nothing to you guys?”

“Food poisoning, dude. No worries.” Maybeck tried for a joke that didn’t land.

“Have any of you considered the alternative?” Finn directed this at Philby. Although the two boys often found themselves on opposite sides of the playing field, they had also figured
out how to work well together over the past several years.

“Why don’t you tell us?” Willa said.

“Don’t act like you’re my therapist!” Finn said bitterly. “This is
me
, you guys!”

“You’re paranoid,” said Maybeck.

“Slightly psycho,” said Charlene, “but we love you.”

“Seriously, though,” Philby said. “What’s the alternative?”

Finn moved his attention around the table slowly,
meeting each of his friends eye to eye. Then he spoke in a smoky, furtive voice that didn’t sound anything like him.

“Why does Wayne leave us a message from the grave? Why did he instruct Wanda to give me his watch with a code on it?”

“You need to grieve, dude. The rest of us have come to terms with losing him.”

“Okay. I need to grieve. Note to self. But,
why would he do that
? I’ll
tell you why! Wayne has been working for years, maybe decades, to figure out
how all of this
happened in the first place
. Where did the Overtakers come from? That means he’s done all sorts of research. Right? Stop smirking, Maybeck. Hear me out. Philby, after the Disneyland
thing, you tried to tell us that the Overtakers were still around.”

“I was delusional.”

“Maybe. But if it’s not
the Overtakers, who tried to poison us? I mean,
if
you’ll accept for a moment that it wasn’t coincidence that food intended only for us
nearly killed someone,” Finn added sarcastically. “That’s a big stretch, I know. But let’s say I’m right—as crazy as we all agree I am. Wouldn’t that point
to someone, as in a human, a living human, who’s trying to put an end to us? This is the only time we’ve
been together in public since the final battle. That’s
coincidence?”

A few seconds of silence overtook the four others. Then they all nodded at once, mumbling, “Yup.” “Coincidence.” “Of course it is.”

“I’m going to say what no one else is going to say.” Charlene sounded grim. “And only because I care so much about you, Finn! No other reason than that.” She paused
for effect. “We’re
moving on. Our holograms are still in all the parks. We’ll live on there until they replace us. Hopefully that’ll be a long, long time from now. But the
real us…We’ve graduated, Finn. From high school, and from the Kingdom Keepers. The war’s over, and you’re like one of those guys on a street corner in an army uniform with
a cardboard sign. I feel sorry for you, okay? We all do. And that’s a
creepy, awful way to feel about someone you’re so close to.”

More heads bobbed. Finn felt about two inches tall. His throat caught. He couldn’t speak.

“We need to get to that music box and find whatever Wayne left for us.” Finn tried to hide his trembling, but his voice belied his efforts. “We need Walt’s pen to end up
in One Man’s Dream. Without that pen, the parks don’t make it.”

“Once you let go of this, any one of us is eager to help, at any time,” Willa said. “All you have to do, Finn, is reach out. But if you won’t listen, what are we supposed
to do?”

“And what am I supposed to do if
you
won’t listen to
me
?” Finn was almost shouting now. “That guy was foaming at the mouth. He nearly died! That means
nothing to you?”

No one spoke. They all looked sad
and disappointed.

Finn stood. “Nothing?”

Nothing.

He marched out without looking back.

“I
KNOW WHAT YOU
’
RE UP TO
,” Finn’s
mother, a former NASA rocket scientist and the
smartest person in any room, said, glowering at him from across his bedroom. She drank from a mug of tea, flavored with milk and fake sugar.

“Don’t know what you mean.” A plane flew loudly overhead.

“Pull down the covers.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Finn. The Overtakers are defeated. Are you crossing over for fun now? The Imagineers allow
that?”

“Don’t involve them, please.”

“So there
is
something going on!”

“I’m trying to tie up some loose ends.”

“That’s what I’m supposed to tell your father? He will have your head. You’re supposed to be focused on college.”

“How exactly does one focus on college, anyway?”

“Don’t get smart with me! You know I fight for you at every turn.”

It was true. His mother had
personally suffered at the hands of the Overtakers—they’d put her under a malevolent spell that had lasted for weeks. She understood their power and the
danger of that power better than anyone outside of Finn and his friends.

“It’s got to stop. It did stop.”

“Let me ask you something,” Finn said. He still had the bedcovers pulled ridiculously high to cover his street clothes, which he
wore for the purpose of crossing over. “Do you
remember me telling you about Walt’s pen? In the Magic Kingdom?”

“Of course.”

“Right. Well, we got Walt’s pen off his desk from the exhibit inside One Man’s Dream.”

“The reconstruction of his office. Yes.”

“It was in a mug, you know, with pencils and stuff.”

“I recall.”

“That pen saved the Magic Kingdom, Mom. It saved us.
But just recently, we saw the last photographs taken of Walt’s desk before his stuff was archived. Warehoused. Years later, these
are the exact things installed in One Man’s Dream.

“Mom, there’s
no pen
in those photographs. It’s not there. Plus, before this, Jess dreamed Walt’s drawing table. She sketched it out the way she’d dreamed
it. You know what her visions mean! Those things come
true. Her drawing showed the same mug. Walt’s mug. Pencils, ballpoint pens. No fountain pen.”

His mother said nothing.

“Wayne wanted us to notice the missing fountain pen, Mom. He wanted us to know it wasn’t where it needed to be.”

“I think I see where you’re going with this.”

“Where?” Finn said, meeting her gaze belligerently. “Where am I going?”

“You believe the pen’s placement
is your responsibility. But how does that make sense, Finn?”

“It doesn’t. I know that. Willa and Charlene would be the first to point it out. They say the pen ended up where we found it, so that’s that. But you’re the rocket
scientist. What would Einstein say?”

“What does your becoming a DHI tonight have to do with any of this? Is what you’re doing dangerous?” Spoken with a mother’s
deep concern.

“I don’t think so. I don’t see how it could be.”

“That doesn’t sound convincing.”

“I appreciate the effort you make with Dad.”

“He’s worried about you. That’s all. He loves you. We just think…you’re holding on to all this stuff.”

“Sounds like the parents have been talking.”

“Not just the parents. Your friends are worried about you, too, Finn. I can’t condone
your crossing over. If it puts you in danger, physical danger, what kind of mother could sign
off on that? Especially when it might be for nothing!”

“What about Imagineering school?” Finn said, testing the waters.

“Don’t change the subject.”

But he felt forced to change the subject. If he allowed the argument to continue, she was going to forbid him from crossing over; and that wasn’t
an option.

“I could take a gap year,” he proposed. “You know how few people are ever offered this chance? No one even
knows
about Imagineering school, not unless they’re
invited to join. A year, two at most, and I can transfer knowing a lot more about what I want to study. Dad’s just jealous because he hates his job.”

“That’s unkind and uncalled for, Finn, and you know it. I can’t believe
you’d say that!”

“It’s true! He says I earned my full college tuition by being a Kingdom Keeper? Well, that was the deal you and Dad made with Disney, not me.”

“I see what you’re doing! Changing the subject! Nice try. We’re talking about crossing over.”

Exasperated, he gave in. “Wayne left me a clue. Me, Mom. Not the others. Me.”

“Some say that you’re exaggerating that.”

“Do
you think I am?”

Mrs. Whitman gave her son a long, hard look.

“No,” she said.

“Thank you.”

“Wayne told you that it was your kingdom now. He should never have said that. You’re eighteen. You are not the second coming of Walt Disney. That was the kindness, or maybe the
delusion, of a dying man.”

“He meant it, Mom. He meant every word.”

“You’re upset.”

“Wow, you’re a
real mind reader.”

“Do not take that tone with me, young man!”

Finn’s phone buzzed. He pulled it from the pocket of his pants under the bedcovers.

“Philby’s all set. It’s time I get to sleep.”

“Then I’m going to keep you awake.”

“Let me tie up these loose ends, Mom. Please. If I’m going to move on, this is something that has to happen.”

“That’s the first well-reasoned argument
you’ve made.”

“Thank you.”

“The pen, Walt’s pen, was put into the mug sometime after his office went into storage,” she said, as if mulling over what her son had told her. “But before his office
came back out as part of One Man’s Dream.”

“Right. But by who? And why would Wayne think we could help that? Change that? It must have happened thirty years before we were even born.”

“You know the answer, Finn. It happened! The pen made it into the exhibit. That makes it a rhetorical question.”

“Wayne wants us, me, to identify whoever did it.”

“Because whoever added that pen to Walt’s desk mug eventually saved the Magic Kingdom,” Mrs. Whitman said. Her eyes were far away.

“More importantly: knew the Magic Kingdom would need saving!”

“So I suppose it’s Finn to
the rescue?” She made him sound like a lunatic.

“Et tu, Bruté?” Finn said.

His mother smiled. “You’re quite clever, knowing how I react to you showing off your education.”

“Please, Mom.”

“This once. And I want a full report.”

She switched off the overhead light and closed the door before Finn could thank her.