Disney after Dark

Above the giggles and shrieks of excited children and the scornfull reproaches of their exhausted parents, the purr of a train approaching could be heard.

“We’re off to a late start,” Philby a

“One Man’s Dream closes at five,” Willa informed them. “We’re okay. We’ll make it.” She turned to Fi

Philby shot down her suggestion. “There’s no way five of us will be able to hide out in there and get locked in. Forget it.”

Fi

Philby said, “There are at least nine security cameras inside One Man’s Dream. If even one of us is seen in there after closing, we’re in big trouble.”

“Maybe not.” A familiar voice came from behind Fi

She was sitting in the front part of the train car, her back directly to them, exactly behind Fi

This is anything but coincidence, he thought.

Fi

Fi

She told Fi

The four other DHIs looked at Fi

“Jez?” Maybeck blurted out.

Amanda said, “Jez never left the park at closing. She went into Pirates of the Caribbean and never came out. I hid in the bathrooms behind Pirates and waited for the park to clear. Then I hid in a stairwell and waited.”

“Are we supposed to believe this?” Charlene asked.

“Believe what you want,” Amanda snapped at her. “After closing, it was her turn to hide. She took a place on Main Street. You guys just…arrived all of a sudden. I mean, one minute no one was there on the bench, and then there you were. It was the weirdest thing. And she followed you.”

“And you followed her,” Fi

Philby tested her. “She followed us where?”

Amanda answered, “She followed you and Fi

Maybeck nodded. What he heard made sense. “This is solid, guys. This girl Jez is trouble.”

“Later she went over to Cosmic Ray’s,” Amanda said.

Charlene went pale. “But why?”

“Yeah. Why would Jez follow us?” Philby asked curiously.

Amanda said, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

Fi

“She followed you, Fi

Charlene snapped, “Since when did you become our guardian angel?”

“My mother works at MGM,” Amanda said. “In administration, in one of the old bungalows. I’ve been there, like, a zillion times. They know me. The main security office for the park is in that building.” She hesitated a moment and then said, “I know those guys. I can distract them. If I think they’re going to see you on one of their screens, I can draw their attention.”

“I’ll just bet you can,” snarled Charlene.

“I don’t know about that,” Fi

“I can help you,” she suggested. “I can signal if they’re on to you.” Still Fi

He’d known for some time that she wanted to be a DHI, wanted to be part of the adventure.

Showing off her knowledge of the area, Amanda told Philby, “Listen, there’s a sound-and-light tower right there at the side door to One Man’s Dream. From up there, one of you would be able to see pretty much all around the park. You’d be able to spot the security patrols way before they reached the attraction.”

Willa suggested, “All in favor of Amanda helping us out?”

Everyone’s hand went up, but Fi

“I just don’t want you getting into trouble—or worse!—for something you’re not involved in,” he said. “This can be dangerous, Amanda. You need to know that before you volunteer.”

Amanda’s nostrils flared. She looked angry. “I can take care of myself.”

Willa and Charlene gri

Charlene, usually the most reluctant of the five, said, “Okay then, it’s decided.”

Once inside MGM park, they quickly split up to avoid recognition.

Fi

“You don’t look so hot,” Willa told Fi

“I’m just…nervous, I guess,” Fi

He asked, “What if they count heads? What if they know how many go in and out of the theater?”

Willa considered this and then said, “Nah, they don’t do stuff like that. Maybe they count people going into the park, but not onto the rides. That doesnt make sense.”

“They might.”

“They might, but they don’t.”

The two passed the fifty-foot-high replica of Mickey’s sorcerer hat that stood in front of the Chinese theater and served as a bandstand. They stopped at a kiosk selling pins and film, hats, stuffed animals, and postcards.

One Man’s Dream was crowded with grandparents and mothers with strollers trying to escape the muggy heat. Fi

One of the displays showed Walt Disney’s second-grade school desk from Marceline, Missouri. Fi

“Not exactly like your desk at school, I’ll bet,” said a woman standing behind Fi

Fi

“I didn’t say you did, young man.” She looked at him curiously.

“Am I too late to watch the movie on Walt Disney’s life?”

“No, not at all . There’s a final showing in…” She checked her watch. “Well! You’ll have to hurry. It’s just down the hall and to your right. It’s biographical, you understand? It’s not like the Bug movie or PhilharMagic. Nothing like those.”

“I know,” Fi

“Here we go, young man,” the woman said. “Wait here and they’ll show you inside.”

Fi

The doors to the theater opened. Fi

The lights dimmed almost immediately and the film started. Fi