Disney after Dark

“What do you know about this?” he asked, feeling agitated and impatient. “It’s a sign of what?”

To their right was a community center and adjoining it an enormous skateboard park with a half pipe, a full pipe, jumps, and four tubs—a landscape of smooth concrete basins, like empty swimming pools, interco

Amanda said meekly, “Rhyming is…it’s one of the signs of—witches.” With that, she rose up onto her pedals and zoomed off, turning in to the skateboard park.

The park was full of skaters,

Full of concrete alligators,

Kids in hoards, riding boards.

Sun was sinking, growing later.

Fi

This is weird,

Like a man with a beard.

Green skin and pigs’ eyes,

Frog legs and fireflies,

A dark cave with loud cries.

A girl with tears in her eyes.

Fi

“Amanda…”

“I can’t tell you,” she said.

A motorized minibike zoomed noisily around the corner and dropped into the skate park. The rider was thin and wore a black leather top and pants and a black helmet with a silver-mirrored visor that hid his face.

The minibike came straight at them, showing no signs of slowing. On the contrary, it was on a collision course.

Amanda rose up onto her pedals and dropped her bike into the first big concrete bathtub.

Fi

The minibike followed.

Fi

Amanda dropped into the half pipe to the left.

Separated like this, the minibike driver had to choose; it came at Fi

The other boarders and bikers stopped what they were doing and watched the contest.

Amanda flew down the steep wallof the half pipe, picking up speed and launching into a high jump. Fi

As the minibike entered the full pipe, Fi

Out the end of the pipe, riding together now, Fi

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“On three,” Fi

They released their brakes on the count of three, zooming toward the oncoming minibike, their arms extended and ready to clothesline the rider.

The bikes flew down. The minibike wound its way toward them. Amanda and Fi

The few onlookers let out a wild cheer.

Amanda and Fi

The driver, lying next to the minibike, appeared okay. He (she? it?) stood up, brushed off, and gestured toward the two. Fi

Amanda shouted something that sounded like a foreign language. She crossed her arms and then threw them forward toward the rider, and the cold stopped abruptly. The leather-clad rider was lifted from the ground and thrown to the concrete.

“Ride!” Amanda hollered at Fi

Fi

“Who are you?” he shouted, as their bikes reached the street.

“We’ve got to split up,” she said. With that, she pedaled furiously away from him.

23

At di

Watching him, his mother wore a look of curiosity, while his father, in typical fashion, ate quietly. Fi

“How was school today?” his mother asked. Every night, the same question. Next would come: did you do anything fun today? What are your friends up to?

“Did you do anything fun today?” she asked brightly. She couldn’t stand it when Fi

“I don’t know,” Fi

“You can do better than that,” his father said. His father always thought Fi

“I’m good,” Fi

“No snacks later, sweetheart. This is di

“I know,” Fi

He thought he might pass out.

“Fi

Then there was her painted mouth moving above him, her voice sounding detached and several octaves lower than normal, like a tape playing at half speed. She’d rushed to his side.

The lights in the room dimmed. A power failure? He saw his father, chewed food in his open mouth, looking…scared.

“Fi

“I’m…fine,” he replied.

His mother hovered over him. He felt his parents taking him under his arms and leading him upstairs. Fi

They led him toward his bed.

“No! No! I don’t want to go to sleep!” But his eyes felt so heavy….

He closed his eyes, and it happened again.

24

Fi

He looked down to see his arms and legs faintly glowing: he was his DHI self Some kids saw him, and he knew he was in for trouble if he didn’t get out of there.

A flash of light to his right. Fi

Yes, there it was again: another flash of light. For an instant, the crowd parted and he saw Philby waving.

Fi

“I thought that was you,” Philby said, pocketing a flashlight.

“You don’t look so hot,” Fi

“Have you tried a mirror?”

“Another brownout?” Fi

“I assume so.”

“We’re early,” Fi