The Disneyland Quest

by Matt Ainsworth

  Chapter 21

  Dizzy stared at the phone, more confused than he had been all day.

  “This looks like gibberish to me,” Dizzy said after a few moments. “The rhymes make sense, but I don’t get the math stuff. This might take some time to figure out.”

  “Well we don’t have a lot of time left,” Travis said. “Where can we go and work on this thing?”

  “I think I know a place where we can have privacy. Follow me.”

  Dizzy lead Travis and Ana past the Storybook Canal Boats, Dumbo, and Casey Jr.’s Circus Train. He stopped in front of the walkway leading up to the Skyway to Tomorrowland Station where they had found the first number of the combination.

  “Up there?” Travis asked.

  “Why not?” Dizzy said. “The gate is still open so it isn’t off limits. And who would be looking for the first number this late into the contest. Trust me.”

  The three kids made the familiar trip up the steps leading to the abandoned station. The building was much darker than it had been that morning when they first arrived. Travis checked the time on his phone. It was 6:15.

  Dizzy took out the pen his mom had given him and the napkin he had stuffed in his pocket. He handed them both to Travis.

  “Ok math guy,” he said. “What does this thing mean?”

  “It’s a simple PEMDAS question,” Travis said.

  Dizzy remembered a math teacher using that word before, but he had no idea what it meant.

  “Speak English Travis,” Dizzy said. “What’s PEMDAS?”

  “You don’t know what PEMDAS is? It’s the order of operations. Each letter is a different math function, but people remember it by replacing the letters to make a funny sentence. Like ‘Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally’. Everyone’s heard of that one.”

  “People eat moldy donuts and sausages,” Ana said. Dizzy and Travis both looked at her not realizing she was paying attention.

  “I’m impressed,” Travis said. He turned back to Dizzy. “P stands for parenthesis, you do those first in all math problems. E is exponents, then you multiply and divide, then add and subtract. Once we replace these words with numbers I can solve this thing no problem.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Dizzy said as Travis copied the math problem down on the napkin. “Some of these are easy. You ready?”

  “Ready.”

  “Ok,” Dizzy began. “Elephants in the air has to be talking about Dumbo. There are 16 of those.” Travis wrote down 16 above the elephants part of the equation. “Candles for bear must mean the Winnie the Pooh ride. We are going to have to ride that one to find out.”

  “Keep going,” Travis said. “We will ride what we have to after. Let’s get as many of these numbers down as we can.”

  “Auction wenches is from Pirates. There are five women up to be auctioned off as brides, Splash Mountain drops is 3, and train station stops is 4.”

  Travis wrote each number down as Dizzy said them.

  “You skipped storybook benches.”

  “That’s because I have no idea what that one means.”

  “Well that is going to be a problem, isn’t it?” Travis said.

  They were two numbers away from filling out the equation and Travis was sure he could calculate the final number of the combination.

  “Let’s run over to Winnie the Pooh,” Dizzy suggested. “Maybe the storybook benches will make sense after I think about it.”

  Travis stuffed the napkin and pen in his pocket. “If Justin or Big Red tries to take this napkin from me they are going to wind up in the hospital.”

  Dizzy was about to laugh but saw the seriousness in Travis’s face. He was glad Travis was on his side.

  The kids ran down the stairs, took the Big Thunder Trail around Thunder Mountain, sprinted past the entrances to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, past the line for Splash Mountain and to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

  “How many Fast Passes do we have left?” Travis asked breathing hard from the long run.

  “Only three,” Dizzy said. “Do you think we should use them?”

  “It’s your call,” Travis said. “Any luck figuring out what storybook benches means?”

  Dizzy shook his head as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “Just the kid I wanted to see,” Justin said. His pants were still wet where he had tried to wash Dizzy’s puke off and he smelled awful. Neither his two friends nor his sister were with him. Dizzy was terrified and hoped Travis was right about an adult not being able to hurt a kid.

  “Listen Justin,” Dizzy said. “I feel really bad about what happened. It was an accident, I swear.” Dizzy doubted any kind of apology would work with Justin. He was just trying to stall for time until they were close enough to the ride operators. He didn’t think Justin would try anything with employees watching.

  “You sure you don’t want to go back to your hotel and change,” Travis said plugging his nose. Dizzy stared at Travis and raised his eye brows. You are going to get me killed, he wanted to scream.

  Justin let go of Dizzy’s shoulder and turned to Travis.

  “Run!” Travis shouted as soon as Dizzy was loose of Justin’s grip.

  Dizzy, Ana, and Travis ran forward through the line, pushing their way past the confused guests ahead of them. Justin chased after them and caught up to the three kids just as they reached the front of the line. Dizzy held up the three Fast Passes to the Cast Member.

  “We have these,” he said with a panic.

  “And that guy is not with us,” Travis said pointing back at Justin.

  The Cast Member took the three Fast Passes and faced Justin. “You are going to have to get in the back of the line.”

  Dizzy, Ana, and Travis climbed into the next honeycomb car and were off to the Hundred Acre Wood.

  “Don’t you think he is going to be waiting at the exit to pound us?” Dizzy asked as they gently rocked back and forth in their honey bee car.

  “No way,” Travis said. “He came here for a reason. I am guessing he found the last clue on Tea Cups and is here to count the candles, just like we are. He wouldn’t give up a chance for $250,000 just to beat us up.”

  Dizzy was relieved.

  “Besides, he still can find us after the Quest and beat us up then,” Travis continued. He looked at Dizzy who had a look of fear on his face. “Relax, I’m only kidding. You think anyone is going to be able to get to us after we open that vault? We are going to be treated like kings!”

  “And a queen,” Ana added.

  “That’s right,” Travis said, rubbing her hair. He leaned back and turned his attention to the ride. “So where are these candles?”

  “They are at the very end of the ride,” Dizzy said. “A birthday party for Pooh.”

  Ana was enjoying the ride and pointed out each character that she saw. Dizzy hoped she was having a good time. Being dragged from ride to ride all day without getting much say about it couldn’t have be fun. He watched her and the sight of her being excited relaxed Dizzy for the first time since the Quest started.

  The ride continued into a very strange scene. Pooh was having a psychedelic nightmare about Hefelumps and Woosels stealing his honey. Bright lights and neon colors filled the honey covered room that Pooh had dreamt.

  Ana pointed to a splatter of honey on one of the honey pots painted on the wall.

  “Look Dizzy,” she shouted. “A hidden Mickey!” The splatter of honey looked like a Mickey Mouse head, too perfect to be a coincidence. “I should tell that girl about it, huh?”

  “Yes, you should,” Dizzy said. He hoped after the Quest was over he would be able to sit with Megan and talk. Dizzy was sure that she had given up on the Quest by now, no doubt tired of having to work with her brother. He had only known Justin for a day and was already sick of him. He couldn’t imagine having to live with him like she did.

  Pooh’s dream ended and their honeycomb car made a slight
turn right as they entered Pooh’s birthday party. Tigger, Rabit, Owl, Piglet, and Pooh were gathered around a table. On it sat a birthday cake with a single candle.

  “One candle,” Ana pointed out proudly. “I solved a clue!”

  “Great job Ana,” Dizzy said. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

  They exited the ride, looking closely for Justin, his friends, or Big Red. The coast was clear and they began running back toward Adventureland.

  “So any idea on those storybook benches?” Travis asked as they ran.

  “There are benches everywhere,” Dizzy said, slowing to a stop. “I thought maybe we count the benches in Fantasyland, but that didn’t seem right.” Dizzy checked his watch. It was now 6:32, less than 30 minutes left in the Quest. They couldn’t solve the math problem without all the numbers. Time was running out and Dizzy had no idea what to do.

  “Dizzy,” Ana said quietly, pulling on her brother’s arm. “I know where we have to go.”