Chapter 20
The line for the Mad Tea Party was short and Dizzy, Travis, and Ana were able to get on the ride with only a few minutes wait.
“Are you sure you don’t want to just watch from the side?” Travis asked as they climbed into their pink tea cup. “Ana and I can look.”
“No,” Dizzy answered. “I have to do this.”
The three kids began looking on the seat and floor of the ride. Travis leaned over the side of the tea cup to see if there was any engraving on the outside. Dizzy leaned low and inspected the base of the spinning wheel.
“Oh my God,” Dizzy said pointing to the base. “You aren’t going to believe this.”
“And you aren’t going to believe this,” Travis said, tapping Dizzy on the shoulder.
Dizzy sat up and turned to where Travis was pointing. Justin, his friends, and his sister were standing against the railing watching them.
“That jerk is following us, hoping we lead him to the last number,” Travis said. He gave Justin a dirty look and sat back down in the tea cup. “What were you saying now?”
“Oh nothing,” Dizzy said coolly. “Just that I found the next clue.”
The ride began and the tea cup slowly started spinning.
“You what?!” Travis said loudly.
“Shut up,” Dizzy said trying to calm him down. It had only been a few seconds and he was already feeling sick. He tried to focus. “Right down there at the base, look.” Dizzy was pointing to the bottom of the stand holding the spinning wheel. “Don’t make it obvious, just look casually.”
The tea cup was picking up speed and Travis looked down. He saw a spiral of words, numbers, and math symbols followed by an equal sign.
“What does it say?”
“I didn’t get a good look,” Dizzy said. “And I don’t want to look now with those guys watching us. We have to act like there isn’t anything here.”
“Let me take some pictures with my phone,” Travis said, reaching into his pocket.
The tea cup had reached its maximum speed. No one was turning the wheel in the middle, so it wasn’t spinning very fast. But to Dizzy it felt like he had been thrown into a washing machine on spin cycle.
“Just wait,” Dizzy said grabbing his arm. His face had lost color and beads of sweet were on his forehead. He looked miserable. “Take a bunch of pictures as we are climbing out.”
“But they’ll see us take the pictures,” Ana said with a huge smile on her face. Unlike her brother, she loved the ride and had her arms high in the air.
“She’s right,” Travis said. “We’re going to need a diversion.”
“Just leave that to me,” Dizzy said.
The ride was ending and the tea cup was slowing down. The cup stopped right in front of Justin’s group.
“When I get out of this thing, you better move fast and get that picture,” Dizzy said. He opened the door and took three steps in Justin’s direction.
“What do you want?” Justin asked.
“Nothing. I just…” Dizzy’s spinning head and upset stomach worked in unison to interrupt his ability to speak. Dumbo, the Carousel, the Tea Cups, and the burrito for dinner he was now regretting all hit him at once. Dizzy put both hands along the top of the railing in front of Justin to steady himself and a wave of vomit erupted from Dizzy onto Justin’s pants and shoes. Dizzy would have laughed if it hadn’t come out of his own mouth.
“What the…” Justin shouted. His two friends jumped sideways to avoid the vomit, but Dizzy had gotten some on their shoes as well. “You are dead!”
Dizzy looked back and Travis and Ana were not by his side, supporting both of his arms around their necks. Ana was much shorter than Travis, causing Dizzy to lean awkwardly to one side. Two Cast Members appeared quickly with cleaning materials and stood between Justin and Dizzy.
“I’m sure it was just an accident,” he said as he wiped the floor. “Would you like someone to help you get cleaned up?”
Justin’s face was red and he ignored the friendly Cast Member. He motioned for his friends to follow him and they walked away toward a restroom.
“Thanks for not getting any on me,” Megan said with a smile. “Are you OK?”
“Never felt better,” Dizzy said, trying to force himself to smile.
Megan laughed and waved goodbye before running to catch up to her brother.
“So did you get it?” Dizzy asked as they sat on a nearby bench.
“Yeah I got it,” Travis said tapping his phone with his finger. “I wish I would have had my phone pointing at you though. That was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. I would have loved to have that on video.”
The kids laughed as Travis mimicked Justin’s reaction. They walked to a nearby cart and bought Dizzy a bottle of water. He was feeling better. A combination of getting the next clue, humiliating Justin, and talking to Megan all helped.
Travis opened up the photos on his phone and scrolled through them, looking for the picture of the last clue.
“It looks like a giant math problem,” he said zooming in on the picture of the tea cup base.
“A math problem?” Dizzy was confused. He was certain they were looking for the last number of the combination. It was after 6:00 and they had less than an hour before the Quest ended. He didn’t think they had enough time to solve a math problem. “What kind of math problem?”
“It’s like a rhyming equation,” Travis began, squinting at the screen. “There are parenthesis, some rhymes with subtraction or addition signs between them and an equal sign at the end. Do you think maybe the answer is the last number of the combination? Here, take a look.” He handed the phone to Dizzy allowing him to see the clue for the first time.
Dizzy read the clue.
(Elephants in the air - Candles for the bear) +
(Auction wenches x Storybook benches) -
(Splash Mountain drops + Train station stops) =
The Disneyland Quest Page 21