Disney after Dark

“The new girl: Amanda. Doesn’t her mother or father work over at MGM? Did you hear about that?” Many of the students’ parents had something to do with one of the parks.

“Amanda is a girl,” Dillard reminded Fi

“Yeah,” Fi

4

The monorail zoomed past a sea of green trees, heading for a stop at the Grand Floridian Hotel.

“This is pretty cool of you, Amanda,” Fi

“We’re taking photographs?” she asked.

“They’re friends of mine, you see?”

“Sort of.” Then she confessed, “No, not really.”

“I don’t know their full names, so I don’t know how to find them. If I can get photographs of their DHIs and show them around some of the other schools, then maybe someone will recognize them.

I’m not sure what else to do.”

“Word is, you’re going psycho,” Amanda said. “I wasn’t about to get you mad at me.”

“I’m not stabbing girls in showers or anything.”

“That’s a relief.” Amanda allowed a hint of a smile that Fi

Fi

“You haven’t exactly explained it to me. Listen, I don’t mind using a couple of my family’s comp tickets, Fi

“Cool.”

“Is everything cool to you?” she asked. “What’s with you and that word?”

“You’re cool,” he said, looking right at her. Where did that come from?

She blushed and bit her lower lip to keep from gri

“So why’d you agree to help me, anyway?” he asked, coaxing her. The doors hissed shut. A recorded voice a

She glanced out the window too. “Because…I have my reasons. I want to help.” She spoke to the glass. Then she looked directly at Fi

“Very fu

“I thought so.”

When she laughed, it reminded him of bells. He made a mental note not to tell Dillard that.

At the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, Amanda handled the complimentary tickets while Fi

Still looking at the pavement, Fi

“No.”

“They don’t all wear uniforms. They’re pretty hard to spot.”

“Fi

Hey! There’s a host over there,” Amanda said. “It’s not you,” she a

Fi

“You ready?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then. Here goes.”

Amanda slinked over toward the crowd, then posed for a shot with Charlene as Fi

“You’ve gone awfully quiet,” Amanda said a moment later, as she rejoined Fi

“I’d never seen that before. A kid walking through a DHI like that.”

“They shouldn’t be allowed to do that,” Amanda said. “It’s disrespectful.”

It wasn’t the actual act that bothered Fi

“Do you believe in weird stuff?” Fi

“Depends how weird, I suppose.”

“Real weird.”

“Try me.”

But at that moment Amanda spotted another DHI and started toward it.

Maybeck.

Fi

Main Street was crowded with people. Fi

He stopped on a white-haired guy—an old guy—wearing a barbershop costume that made him look even older. Wayne! He was looking right at Fi

Wayne signaled for Fi

There, Fi

Security?

Fi

They’d discussed this possibility and reviewed various options. They had agreed that if they had to separate for any reason, they would try to meet up again at the exit from the Haunted Mansion. Amanda took off at a run without a second thought. Fi

Fi

There he saw a uniformed band musician enter the store.

Coincidence? The band musician glanced to his right. Fi

Fi

They were coming for him: quickly, and with great determination. Fi

“Hey,” said a little boy, looking up at Fi

“Go away!” Fi

“But it’s you, right?” the little boy asked. He stepped closer, sucked in a chest full of air, closed his eyes, and marched right into Fi

“Wow!” the boy said, recovering and coming to his feet. “You’re real!”

The little boy’s attempt gave Fi

The Emporium sold clothing. Fi

He snagged a pair of loud purple shorts and a green surfing shirt and pulled them over his own shirt and shorts. He didn’t like leaving his Devil Rays cap behind, but saw little choice.

He placed his sunglasses into the empty pocket of his own shorts.

Two of the band members saw him and turned. Fi

Several kids spotted him at once. Shouting for autographs, they followed after him. Parents played catch-up, hollering after their kids, “Stop!” and “Get back here!”

Fi