Disney after Dark

Hundreds of kids ate at long tables.

As Fi

He saw Amanda a few tables away. She carried copies of the photographs they’d taken at the Magic Kingdom. She was showing them around to kids and asking questions. Fi

It was really loud in here. An abundance of food smells combined into a stink he found sickening.

A big guy suddenly jumped up in Fi

“No one.”

The big kid reached out and lifted Fi

“Hey! How come I know you?”

“Give me back my glasses, please.”

“Aren’t you like on Zoom or something?”

“I’d like my glasses back, please.”

“Give ‘em back, Roy,” a girl at the next table said. “It’s not Zoom, stupid. He’s a host—over at the Magic Kingdom—like Charlene Turner.”

Charlene Turner. Fi

“Oh, yeah!” the big kid said, reluctantly returning the sunglasses to Fi

“Looking for Charlene,” Fi

“Can’t help you,” the big guy said, sitting back down.

Fi

Fi

Leave it to Amanda: she’d found Charlene.

7

Charlene was talking with three other girls, all dressed for P.E. in gray gym shorts and yelow Tshirts. Charlene’s expression changed instantly as she saw Fi

“Hey,” he said, greeting her, suddenly made painfully aware of Amanda standing by his side.

Charlene excused herself from her friends, saying, “Back in a whack,” and approached Fi

“What are you doing here? Are you cutting?” she asked, viewing Fi

“I have to talk to you,” he said. Then, “She’s a friend.”

Charlene looked him over, and then met eyes with Amanda. “I don’t think so,” she said, and started to walk back toward her friends.

“The dreams. Disney after dark,” Fi

Amanda looked at Fi

“Dreams that aren’t dreams,” he added.

Charlene spun to face him, excitement and alarm in her sparkling eyes. “No way you could know that,” she said.

“Unless…” Fi

“What’s this about?” Amanda asked. A whisper meant only for Fi

“Where’s she fit in?” Charlene asked.

“I told you: a friend willing to help me out,” Fi

“This isn’t happening,” said Charlene, suspicious of Amanda, puzzled by Fi

Charlene was the kind of girl you might see on a cereal box.

“Do you know how to reach any of the others?” Fi

“I run into Willa on VMK sometimes, though it’s more by chance.” Virtual Magic Kingdom, a new “massively multiplayer” online game, was all the rage.

Fi

“It’s not like I know her like that.” Her friends called over to her. “Listen, I can’t do this now,”

Charlene said.

“Contact Willa if you can. But whatever you do, go to bed early tonight. Eight o’clock. Eight o’clock, exactly.”

“I’ve been trying to stay up. I don’t exactly love my dreams lately.”

“We need to know,” he said. She had to be as curious about this as he was. Could they possibly meet in the park in their dreams?

“Yeah, okay…” Charlene said reluctantly.

Charlene looked straight at Amanda but spoke to Fi

The coach’s whistle sounded shrilly. Charlene took off ru

“Meet me!” he called out.

Charlene didn’t answer, but her eyes registered that she’d heard.

After a moment, Amanda said, “We’d better be getting back.”

“Yeah,” Fi

“It isn’ t safe.”

Charlene’s warning seemed to hang in the air between them.

8

“I'm going to bed,” Fi

“Are you not feeling well?” His mother said, in shock.

“I’m feeling fine,” he said. “I’m just going to bed early, if that’s all right?”

“Have you finished your homework?”

“Yes, it’s done. I stayed after for study hall.”

“You what?” She set down a bowl of mashed potatoes and crossed her arms. “Fi

“No way!” Fi

“I’m going to check on you when your father gets home.”

“Okay,” Fi

He checked his computer. No interesting e-mail. He debated logging on to VMK and looking for Charlene, but instead he changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth, passing his mother in the hall on the way back from the bathroom.

She wore her concern openly. “It’s only seven-fifteen,” she reminded him. “We could catch the Simpsons.”

She’d trapped him. This was an offer he would never normally turn down.

“I’m going to pass, Mom, but thanks.”

“It’s a bad rule, making you get approval before going. A stupid rule, really. If you…if you took a friend to the park…well…your father and I would understand how you wouldn’t have wanted to tell us.”

Fi

Relief spread across his mother’s face. He feared she might hug him.

She was smiling now. Beaming.

“’Night, Mom.”

She looked like she might cry.

“I’ll talk to your father,” was all she said.

Fi

He shut his bedroom door. If he crossed over into the park, he didn’t want to be in his pajamas, so he changed back into jeans and a T-shirt. He lay there for fifteen wakeful minutes with the lights out, checking the clock regularly. He tried to relax. Dusk played at the edges of his shades. It felt like the middle of the day. He cleared his mind, dozed off, and finally sank into a deep sleep.