Disney after Dark

gave Fi

He caught a look in her eye as if she’d said too much and now regretted it. She looked away, breaking their eye contact.

“Fi

He checked the time. It was going on eight o’clock.

“I can drive Amanda home now,” she hollered upstairs.

“I wish I could go,” Amanda said. She didn’t mean home.

“Yeah, that would be cool.” He caught himself using that word again. She’d teased him about it earlier, but not now.

“It’ll be all right,” she said, standing. “Remember everything so you can tell me.”

He walked her downstairs to the door, where his mother was waiting with a smile. The three of them walked out to the driveway. Fi

She lived on the far edge of their school district, in what had once been a small church. There was a stained-glass window in the center of the roof’s peak: a blue background with a white angel.

Lit from inside, it looked as if the angel were flying. He didn’t know why, but it seemed appropriate for Amanda.

Fi

She looked at him fu

It was like something from Star Trek, or Power Rangers, Fi

Maybeck came walking up Main Street alongside Wayne, who drove a Disney golf cart.

“Well, well,” Wayne said. “The gang’s all here.” He climbed out of the cart and made a point of saying hello to Willa, whom he’d only met once before.

A loud crashing noise came from somewhere in Tomorrowland. Cheering followed this.

“Something wild’s going on over there,” Fi

A concerned Wayne said quickly, “Follow me! And not a word until I say.”

They followed Wayne and his cart up the ramp that led into the enormous castle. Fi

“Memorize all this carefully!” Wayne called back to the DHIs.

He led them through a gift shop and into a storage room, then through a heavy medieval-style door that he unlocked with a large key, and down a nondescript hall, through another door, and into a vast, cavernous space.

Fi

“We call this Escher’s Keep. Walt admired M. C. Escher’s work,” Wayne said, climbing a staircase.

“Who’s Escher?” Fi

“Do your homework,” Wayne admonished. “The keep was built as part of an Alice in Wonderland attraction. But it never opened.”

“Why not?”

“Walt decided to keep it for himself.”

Fi

Wayne said, “Don’t be fooled. You’re fine. But a single misstep and you’ll end up in a slide that will dump you into the moat. So stay to the left, and only step on the blue tiles, never the white or the red. Pass it along to the others.”

Fi

He heard Maybeck say, “Okay! This is way cool.”

Wayne said, “This is a good place to come if you’re ever in trouble or trying to hide. Without a guide to show the way, no one makes it up the first time. Memorize it carefully. The castle has several secret entrances. I’ll show you if we have time. Once in here, you’re safe.”

Itisn’t safe, Fi

Wayne continued, “The other place you should be safe is if you follow the tracks out of the Frontierland train station toward the Indian Encampment. There are some teepees out there that aren’t programmed for DHI projection.”

“Safe from what?” Fi

“Ah!” Wayne said, ignoring Fi

he reminded. “The next two staircases are fakes.”

Fi

Fi

“Have you studied Einstein, Fi

The only thing Fi

As he reached yet another landing, Fi

“Take the middle door,” Wayne’s voice instructed.

Fi

Charlene came in next. Even when the door opened, Fi

“I don’t exactly love this,” Charlene said, a pulsing blue light in the dark.

The way her voice sounded—so close and bright—told Fi

“Look up,” he said.

“Are those stars for real?” Charlene asked.

“Is anything real here?”

The door opened. Philby, Willa, and Maybeck entered. As the door shut, the stars reappeared.

“Wow!” Philby said.

“Yeah,” Fi

“What’s this about?” Maybeck asked.

Fi

The kids crowded together into a group. Fi

“Feel this?” Wayne asked.

“Yes.” It was a smooth, glassy button.

“And this?”

Another.

“Yes.”

“Push.”

Fi

It took a moment, but Willa understood before the others. “It’s an elevator!”

“An elevator without walls,” Fi