Disney after Dark

She looked like a college girl. Her cape swished dramatically as she walked. It wasn’t made of cheap costume material, but something much nicer. She drew looks from a good number of boys as she passed.

She headed directly to Fi

Jez spoke softly, privately. “Great minds think alike,” she said. “Our masks,” she added after Fi

“Hey, Jez,” Fi

“Look out, Zorro,” she warned, “I might put a spell on you!” She briefly dropped the mask and met eyes with Fi

Dillard coughed. A coughing crab with dancing legs. He cleared an even bigger space for himself in the crowd.

“Maybe you already have,” Fi

She said, “A good spell, I hope.”

“Are you a good witch?”

“The best,” she said. “Can’t you tell?” She spun, her cape rising. She ended her twirl facing Dillard and said to him, “Aren’t you going to offer to get me something to drink, Sebastian?”

“Hey! She guessed I’m Sebastian!” Dillard said proudly to Fi

“You’ve got enough hands, don’t you?” she asked, tweaking one claw and sending it bouncing up and down.

Fi

“Hey! I don’t mind,” Dillard said. He raised his oven mitts, made claw motions, and waddled off in search of something for them to drink.

“He’s a good guy,” Fi

She ignored what he’d said. “Want to do the Haunted Mansion with me?” Jez asked.

Fi

An awkward moment settled between them.

“Miss Congeniality,” Fi

“What?”

“The Sandra Bullock movie?” Fi

Charlene looked Jez up and down. “Adorable,” she said insincerely.

“Imaginative,” Jez said back to her.

Charlene ignored Jez. “Sorry if I’m late” she said.

“No prob.”

“Fi

Charlene complained, “But Fi

She was giving him the excuse they needed to get over to Pirates and be with the others.

“When you’re right, you’re right!” Fi

She frowned.

Dillard returned, bearing too many drinks to hold. He dropped one.

Jez reached out and caught it as it fell. She not only snagged the cup but somehow managed to catch all the soda as well. Not a drop spilled to the ground. It was an impossible feat.

Fi

Charlene took the third cup from Dillard and thanked him.

“I…ahh…” Jez said.

Dillard had intended one of the three for himself, but didn’t tell that to Charlene. When he moved, his various arms bounced wildly. He mumbled and headed off to get another.

“You didn’t answer me,” Fi

Jez stumbled over her words as she made what was clearly a lame excuse. “My mom doesn’t like me messing up the kitchen. I’ve gotten pretty good at not spilling.”

Catwoman approached. Fi

Fi

Dillard returned fairly quickly and said hello to Amanda. Her attention remained on Fi

“Fi

Fi

Fi

Amanda snuck up behind Fi

“I saw her, Fi

Again, Fi

Amanda continued, “Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? A little too coincidental, her being there like that? Right then?”

“You were there, too. That struck me as odd as well.”

“I just explained.”

They stepped away from the soda line. Fi

You just said so yourself.”

“Think about her name, Fi

He was not exactly a Bible scholar.

“Jezebel is wicked. Evil. Just like a witch. And that fits with the cold, right?” Amanda asked.

“It could have been anyone doing that,” Fi

She leaned back and looked at him as if she didn’t know him. “What are you thinking? Are you serious? Me? Listen, there’s something you need to hear…something I have to tell you about her. I’m not supposed to—do you understand that? This could get me in big trouble….”

Suddenly, Amanda shuddered. Her head jerked up toward the sky. Her shoulders shrugged and stiffened. Her eyes rolled in her head. Fi

Fi

A commotion erupted behind him. He turned to see Charlene now sitting down on the sidewalk, her head hanging slack over her knees. She had apparently fainted as well.

An adult hurried toward Charlene.

“Fi

“No time to explain,” he said. “You’ve got to get Charlene over here before people start asking questions. The giant crab—that’s Dillard—he’ll help you. Hurry!”

Willa, who’d come as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, rushed across to Dillard, took hold of one of his oven mitts, and dragged him over to the wilted Charlene.

Fi

A brownout, he thought. But a brownout affecting a human, not a DHL.

If you’re not careful, I’ll cast a spell on you. Hadn’t Jez said something like that? Was he imagining that she’d said that?

He looked around, his eyes searching for Jez.

Hadn’t Amanda been just about to tell him something to do with Jez when she’d fainted?

Willa and Dillard had Charlene walking between them. Definitely a good sign.

There! Fi

Then, just for an instant, Jez accidentally met eyes with Fi