The Summer of Cotton Candy (24 page)

“We better get over there and count,” Pete said.

“No, hang on, I know this,” Candace said. What was it Becca had told her that first day they’d met?

“Seventeen! No, wait. That was before the poppy seed ones.”

“Do they still carry those?” Roger asked skeptically. “After all the trouble they caused.”

“I think so.”

“But you’re not sure?”

Candace shook her head. And then they all turned and looked at Pete.

“We have to save time on running if we possibly can. Put down eighteen including poppy seed,” Pete said.

Candace wrote that down.

Question Four: Name four mascots from the History Zone.

Candace didn’t even stop to talk. She just wrote: Zorro, the Lone Ranger, Robin Hood, and Ben Franklin.

Question Five: Besides sports cards and memorabilia, what personal item can you get at the Dug Out?

“Oh, that’s me!” said Roger. “It’s vanity cards with your picture and stats on them.”

Candace wrote that down. They were halfway through, and so far they hadn’t had to go looking for an answer. She hoped their luck held.

Question Six: What is the actual name of the Twirl and Hurl?

“Oh, I know, Atomic Coaster!” Sue said.

“Correction, it’s
The
Atomic Coaster,” Roger said.

Candace wrote it down.

Question Seven: How many women’s restrooms are open to players?

“Twenty-seven and I clean every dang one of them!” Sue shouted.

Question Eight: How many train cars total are used in The Zone?

“Twenty-two,” Pete said.

Candace wrote it down.

Question Nine: What is the song that plays in the Kids Zone?

“I Want Candy!” she screamed while writing it down.

Question Ten: Where can you see the Founding Fathers?

“The colonial area,” Roger said.

“Too obvious,” Pete said.

“Oh, I know. That’s the show at the big theater in the Holiday Zone!” Candace said.

She wrote down
Holiday Zone Theater
.

There was one last line on the paper.

GO THERE!!

“What does that mean?” Candace asked.

“It means, run!” Pete yelled, already in motion.

In a moment they were all running toward the Holiday Zone as fast as they could. When they reached the theater, the main doors were open and they dashed inside. On the stage was a Game Master, sitting in a chair and calmly waiting.

“Team number?” she asked, as they thrust their sheet of paper at her.

“Team 143,” Roger said. Candace glanced sideways at him, amazed that he had run all that way without incident.

The woman wrote their team number on the top of the page and then picked up an envelope from a stack. She wrote something else down on the paper before handing them the envelope.

“How many teams before us?” Pete asked.

“Only one. From now on, you’ll be following Treasure Track 5B. Good luck.”

They ran back outside and then stopped as Pete ripped open the envelope. They read the message in bold letters:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t write Humpty Dumpty again.

“There’s nothing about Humpty Dumpty in this park,” Roger said.

“Maybe it has something to do with fairy tales,” Pete suggested.

“It’s wrong,” Sue said. “It should end with ‘couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.’ The ‘couldn’t write Humpty Dumpty again’ is wrong.”

There was something tickling at the back of Candace’s brain. She could feel it, but couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Maybe it’s in some kind of code,” Roger suggested. “Or maybe only some of the words mean something.”

“That’s it — the word
write
— I wouldn’t expect it to be spelled that way. That doesn’t mean to set him right, but to write something about him.”

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, fell off, and they couldn’t write anything more about him. What does that mean?” Pete asked.

“I think Roger is correct. There are only two words here that are really important:
write
and
wall
. It’s the Painting Wall!” Candace said.

They turned and raced to the Kids Zone, dodging several other teams as they went. There on the Painting Wall was stuck an envelope marked 5B. Candace grabbed it and tore it open.

She read, “He rode fast, long, and hard, and yet he did not carry this sword.”

“Oh, oh, I got it!” Sue shrieked. “The sword… King Arthur… the one in the stone that you have to pull out!”

There was a moment of silence before Pete grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Pull yourself together, woman, that’s at Disneyland!”

“He rode fast! It’s got to be something to do with Paul Revere!” Roger yelled.

Before he could finish his sentence, they were all off running. There was a jerk and the rope stretched taut before Roger starting running too. They ran toward the History Zone, all four abreast. They entered the medieval area and then raced along the edge of the river until Paul Revere’s Ride came into sight.

“Now what?” Sue asked as they came to a halt in front of the carousel.

“Does one of the horses have a sword carved into the saddle?” Candace asked.

Without warning, Pete plunged through the turnstile, causing the rest of them to stagger and nearly fall before passing through as well. The carousel was in motion, spinning around as it played a tinny rendition of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

“Does anyone know how to turn it off?” she heard Roger ask.

Candace was too busy staring at Pete to answer. “What are you doing?” she asked.

Pete was standing right next to the carousel, leaning slightly forward with hands loose at his side. Then, without warning, he sprang up onto the revolving platform. The rope pulled tight through the ring on Candace’s belt, and Roger staggered into her. Pete’s hand snatched at something on one of the horse’s flanks, and then he jumped back off. He held out his hand and in it was a carefully folded bit of paper.

“Wow! Nice going,” Roger said admiringly.

Pete only shrugged as he opened the paper.

“Bask in the applause as you make it to the end zone,” he read.

“The End Zone is the exit. That’s not very specific,” Sue noted.

“The applause must be the clue,” Roger said.

Candace felt like the answer was right in front of her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Pete just shook his head. “I can’t think of anything having to do with applause close to the exit.”

“Applause, clapping, cheering. They do some of that at the games in the Game Zone,” Sue said.

“Yes, but that’s not close enough to the exit,” Pete said.

“Can I see it?” Candace asked. Pete handed her the paper.

“Bask in the applause as you make it to the end zone,” Candace re-read.

“End zone
is a football reference. Maybe it doesn’t mean the exit, but something to do with football,” Roger suggested.

And suddenly she knew exactly what it meant. “It’s the Spiral!” Candace shrieked, louder than she had meant to. “Come on!” She turned and everyone ran after her.

“They yell ‘touchdown’ and the crowd cheers at the end of the ride,” she panted.

“All right, way to go, Candy!” Pete said.

When they reached the ride, Pete and Roger pulled ahead and made for the entrance. The rope tightened and Candace reached out and grabbed it, yanking to get their attention. “It happens at the end of the ride!” she shouted. “We need to go through the exit.”

The guys turned, and racing slightly ahead of her and Sue, they ran up the sloping ramp. At the top they came out on the platform and stopped so abruptly that Sue and Candace ran into them.

“Where?” Roger gasped.

Candace looked around wildly. The ride was shut down for the evening, and the cars were neatly lined up in the station.

“The cars are the footballs, so let’s check them,” Pete suggested. They started with the rear car and worked their way forward, looking for something. Suddenly Roger gave a shout.

“What is it?” Candace asked.

“Never mind,” he said after a minute, pointing to an envelope taped to the nose of one of the cars. “It says team 3E on it. We’re team 5B.”

“This has got to be the right place, though, let’s keep going,” Sue urged.

Taped to the nose of the first car they finally found an envelope with 5B emblazoned on it. Sue grabbed it and ripped it open.

“It says, ‘Love is in the air and this cupid has felt it too.”

“That’s got to be at Aphrodite’s,” Roger said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Sue said with a groan. “That’s all the way on the other side of the park, and we were just over there.”

“It’s a test of endurance just as much as anything else,” Pete said, already on the move and causing the rope that connected them to pull tight. Candace took a deep breath. In a moment they were all running again, this time down the exit ramp and back toward the History Zone.

It was harder getting back to the History Zone. More teams seemed to be leaving or entering it than before. Candace watched as three teams tried to thread the needle only to nearly throttle two people and land everyone in a heap on the ground that Candace and her team had to run around.

When they made it inside Aphrodite’s, they discovered at least ten other teams there as well. “You’ve got to be kidding!” Sue gasped.

Every cherub in the room had an envelope taped to it.

“There must be one for every team,” Roger said.

“Start at that end,” Pete said, pointing to the one where the fewest people were clustered. It was a lucky choice; a quarter of the way down the wall they found their envelope.

“To play the impossible game and to win a dog of incredible size,” Pete read. “It sounds like a parody of ‘The Impossible Dream’ from
Man of La Mancha
.”

“But it’s referencing my first Zone miracle,” Candace said. “Let’s go!”

They followed her, not bothering to ask where they were headed. She led them straight to the Game Zone and to the game where she had won Happy. “It’s got to be somewhere around here,” she said.

They searched for a full minute before Roger gave a shout. Candace saw that he was pointing at the glass bottles. Barely visible, several envelopes were peeking out of the tops of bottles. To get close enough, they all had to vault the wall. Candace cringed as Roger went over, having a vision of him crashing into the entire display of glass bottles, but he landed just fine.

“It’s this one here,” Sue said, yanking an envelope free. “Take your trophy and head to the finish line. You’ll find it locked up in 223. Just don’t forget the Swingers’ leader.”

“Locked up sounds like a locker to me,” Roger said.

“With the number, definitely,” Pete said.

“Where are the player lockers, at the front of the park?” Candace asked.

“Actually, there are several scattered all over, usually close to the restrooms,” Sue said.

“So, where is Locker 223?” Candace asked.

“Problems, Cotton Candy?”

She turned around to see Josh. “Nope. We’ve got everything under control,” she assured him. She and her team hopped back over the wall.

“Glad to hear it,” he said. “See you in the Splash Zone later.” He winked at her, and then his team climbed in to search for their own envelope among the bottles.

Something about that wink gave her a hunch. “I think I know where to find our locker,” she said and began to run.

“Where are we going?” Pete asked.

“The Splash Zone.”

It made sense. There were loads of lockers in the Splash Zone so people could lock up their cameras and other valuables before going on the water rides. She was sure Josh had been giving her a hint.

They found the lockers in the Splash Zone and, moments later, number 223.

“How do we get it open?” Roger asked.

“The guest lockers are opened using one of these central computers,” Sue said, pulling them over to the one nearby. “You put in your password, and it opens your locker.”

“How do we know what the password is?” Roger asked.

“It’s got to be in the rest of the clue,” Pete said.

“Just don’t forget the Swingers’ leader,” Sue re-read.

“Well, the Swamp Swingers sing with Freddie McFly,” Candace said.

“The codes are five letters. It’s got to be McFly,” Sue said. She punched it in, and there was a buzz as their locker opened.

Inside was a miniature trophy. Candace grabbed it out. “To the finish line!” she shouted.

Back outside they had to weave around several teams that were growing increasingly agitated. At last, the finish line was in sight! A large, white chalk line had been drawn at the entrance to the Home Stretch. Another team came running from the direction of the Game Zone, steps ahead of them.