Disney after Dark

Noticing this, Dillard said, “You think she likes you?”

Fi

Dillard asked, “You think girls are smarter than us?”

“In some things.”

“Like what?”

“Like school stuff, and friendships, and family stuff.”

“So we’re better at…?” Dillard asked.

“Computer games. And farting,” Fi

“What’s so fu

It was Amanda, wearing a white T-shirt over a swimsuit and a pair of jean shorts. Fi

Dillard opened his mouth to say hello, but belched instead. He’d never been much around girls. Both boys laughed hard.

Amanda dug into the snug pocket of her jeans and pulled out several bills. She handed Dillard a dollar. “Hey, Dill,” she said, calculatingly coy, “would you mind getting me an orange soda?”

“No—no—no…” he stuttered. “Happy to.”

Dillard asked if Fi

Amanda said, “The nearest orange soda is at the gas station, across the street. It’ll take him a while.”

“He’s not a servant, you know?” Fi

“I wanted to hear about It’s a Small World,” she said. “That was you guys, I assume.”

Fi

“You guys trashed the place?” She took a step back. “Why?”

“It wasn’t anything like that. It was—” He felt boxed in. “Impossible to explain.”

“Impossible because you won’t, you mean.”

“Impossible because you wouldn’t believe it.”

“That’s not true. Try me.”

Fi

Amanda looked stu

Fi

He pulled up the leg of his shorts and showed her where he’d been bitten. Amanda gasped.

“Fi

“I know,” he said. “It’s getting serious.”

“Getting?” she fired back sarcastically.

“And what’s worse, we didn’t find any clues to the fable.”

“You’ve got to stop this somehow, Fi

Fi

“When I do things I shouldn’t do, my mother says I need a new pair of glasses—that I should be looking differently at the choices I make.”

A silent alarm went off in Fi

“You can’t go getting hurt. That’s just stupid.”

“About the glasses,” Fi

“Just some dumb thing my mother says.”

“Like a different perspective,” he said.

“Yeah.” Her concern mounted. “What if you just stayed up all night and didn’t go to sleep? By the time you did go to sleep the Magic Kingdom would be open. Even if you ended up there, it would be safer!”

“And this for the rest of my life, I suppose?” Fi

A new pair of glasses.

“Hey, isn’t that guy a host?” Amanda asked.

Fi

Jez took Maybeck by the arm and led him over to a lemonade stand. She snatched up two cups and offered him one.

Only then, as he peered over the rim of the paper cup, did Maybeck spot Fi

His eyes went wide with recognition, and he gave Fi

For some reason Fi

Disguising the direction in which he was looking by pretending to scratch his head, Fi

“Check out that black four-wheel-drive that just pulled up to the curb.”

“Yeah?” Amanda said.

“Look closely. Tell me what you see.” Fi

“Okay. A woman. A grown-up.”

“Her hands. On the wheel.”

“White gloves,” Amanda supplied. “That’s a little weird.”

“A little?”

“Yeah. White gloves are a little weird, even for Florida.”

“Like totally insane,” Fi

“You’ve got to see this,” Amanda told him.

Fi

“Does she look familiar to you?”

“She looks scared,” Amanda said.

Fi

The driver had dark hair, pulled back sharply.

“I can think of one reason you might wear gloves and a ton of makeup,” Fi

Amanda was off in her own world, still describing Jez. “She looks so unhappy.”

“You think that’s her mother?”

“No!” Amanda snapped sharply.

“It’s possible,” Fi

“They don’t look too friendly to me,” Amanda said. “But you’re right about the gloves. What’s with that?”

Fi

18

That same Saturday night, the DHIs met at the Indian Encampment across from Tom Sawyer Island. At eight o’clock the park was still open, so they waited for its closing by hiding invisibly inside the teepee.

Fi

“Why not just wait until closing?” Charlene asked, never one for u

Philby answered, “After what happened at It’s a Small World, Disney a

Fi

Philby answered with a question. “How do we come to life?”

“We were designed to cross over, if you believe Wayne. The dolls most definitely were not designed to march around attacking people.”

Maybeck said, “A certain woman with a green face comes to mind. A spell?”

Fi

Philby a

No one objected.

“Maybeck,” Fi

“Yeah,” Maybeck answered. “Hang on. I left them by the door.”

Maybeck’s arm appeared by the teepee’s open door. He produced five pairs of plastic glasses. “I got here a little early,” he said.

“What’s with that?” Philby asked.

Fi