KK01 - The Kingdom Keepers aka Disney After Dark

by Ridley Pearson

  “Did you make these?” Amanda pointed to a series of beautifully painted water pitchers on a shelf amid dozens of other bowls and mugs. The image on the pitchers was the Cinderella Castle.

  “Tourists like them.”

  “But you painted them,” she said.

  “Yeah. I sell them on the side.” He lowered his voice and said to Finn, “Listen, the money…

  from Disney…being a DHL It’s made a big difference for us—my aunt and me—and I can’t risk their asking for that money back.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “How do you know it won’t?”

  Finn hadn’t ever considered such a thing. His mother would kill him if he lost his college money.

  “Do you have Internet access?” Amanda asked.

  Finn glanced over at her. Why did she always have the best ideas? he wondered.

  “Sure,” Maybeck answered.

  Finn said, “The others and I…Tonight we’re meeting in my guest room in the Virtual Magic Kingdom Web site to get this stuff straight.” He paused and added, “It’s happening to all of us, Maybeck. The dreams…of being there. The fainting this afternoon.”

  “Not me.” Maybeck looked briefly afraid.

  Finn said, “The old guy, Wayne? He’s got some kind of mission for us. As a team, I’m talking about. He says we’ve got to go to sleep at some point, and that when we do, we’re going to cross over.”

  Maybeck looked completely serious. There was not a laughing bone in his body. “I can’t mess things up for my aunt.”

  “We can’t stop this,” Finn warned. “Whatever’s happening, we can’t stop it. At least I haven’t been able to. Have you?” He felt another little chill. He said, “It isn’t safe.”

  Maybeck met eyes with him, a mean look, both angry and afraid. He’d heard those words before.

  “No way…” he said darkly.

  “Way,” said Finn.

  Maybeck said, “Yeah, well…then I guess we gotta do this.”

  12

  Finn’s mother fumbled around with the serving plates, as nervous as could be. Her son had never brought a girl home for dinner before, and she was quite beside herself.

  She served meat loaf, with green beans and bacon, salad, and cornbread, only to discover that Amanda was a vegetarian.

  Finn’s father was quieter than usual. About halfway through the meal he asked Amanda to pass the salt.

  Finn’s mom told his father, “Amanda and Finn are going to chat online together after dinner.”

  “Is that right?” he asked.

  Mr. Whitman challenged their guest. “I don’t see why you have to go online to talk. Why can’t you just talk if you want to talk?”

  “We don’t own a computer,” Amanda answered. “Or a TV.”

  Mr. Whitman looked up from his plate, possibly for the first time. “Well, good for you,” he said.

  “Nothing wrong with that. Finn spends way too much time on his, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Donald!” Finn’s mother snapped at him.

  “I’m just making conversation,” Mr. Whitman complained.

  “Hey, Dad,” Finn said, trying to salvage things. “You know that hurricane—I forget its name—

  the one that turned out in the ocean and came back ashore?” Gary.

  “Yeah, Gary. Is it true it lost a lot of its power after it went over us?”

  “Over half its wind speed. Yes. Downgraded to a tropical storm. But that’s pretty typical when storms pass over land. Why?”

  “Oh, nothing. Never mind,” Finn said.

  He glanced at Amanda. She nodded toward her watch.

  “We’re gonna go up now,” Finn said. His parents looked at each other but said nothing.

  On their way up the stairs Finn heard his father say, “If those pants of hers get any lower, they’ll fall off.”

  “They all wear them that way, dear,” Mrs. Whitman said. “She’s adorable.” She’d lowered her voice to a whisper, but Finn had stopped on the stairs in time to hear.

  “Nothing wrong with him having a new friend. He can’t spend all his time with Dillard.”

  His mother then called out loudly, “Leave the bedroom door open, please, Finn.”

  “I will!” Finn called back.

  He gave Amanda his chair in front of the screen. He sat on a wooden chest that he dragged from his closet. It contained an old model train set.

  “Five minutes to seven,” Amanda said, checking her watch.

  Finn entered the Virtual Magic Kingdom Web site. He logged on, selected GUEST ROOMS from the map of the Magic Kingdom, and then the option of picking a room from an alphabetical list. He located FINN’S ROOM and double-clicked.

  The screen went black. Some music played. His room appeared.

  It was a stone room, as if they were in a dungeon or castle. Using credit he’d earned by winning challenges on the site, he’d furnished the room with a pair of lime-green couches, two chairs, a soda machine, and three posters on the walls.

  “What’s with the color of those couches?” Amanda asked.

  “What? I like them.”

  “Trust me, you’re color-blind.”

  Finn’s character was an illustrated boy who wore brightly colored jams and a light-blue T-shirt.

  Finn used the mouse to move his character across the screen, get a soda from the machine, and return to one of the two chairs. The smal figure sat down and waited, occasionally raising his arm, under Finn’s direction, to lift the can to his face.

  “This is wild,” Amanda said.

  “Have you never seen VMK?” he asked. “Everyone at school’s on here twenty-four seven.”

  A few minutes after seven, a second figure, a girl, appeared in the room. She wore hip huggers and a lemon-yellow top that showed her stomach.

  A dialogue bubble appeared above her.

  Angelface 13, it read.

  Cool room appeared inside the bubble.

  Finn: Thnx, said the bubble above the boy in the chair. Grab a soda.

  The girl character bought herself a drink and took a seat on the couch near Finn.

  Angelface 13: U got any tunes?

  Finn: Yeah, but we’re going 2 chat. Let’s hang.

  Others coming soon.

  “It’s Charlene,” Amanda said out loud. “I can tell by the way she dresses.”

  “Yeah,” Finn said, agreeing.

  Willa and Philby’s characters appeared almost simultaneously. Philby, with red hair. Willa, dressed like a hippie. They too got drinks and gathered by the others, both standing. Philby (philitup) complimented Finn on his choice of posters, clearly impressed that Finn had earned enough credits—“creds”—to purchase them. Willa chatted with Charlene about some new clothes that she’d found in one of the merchandise stores.

  “This is a really weird thing to say,” Amanda said, “but I feel like I’m in the room, not just watching.”

  “I know,” Finn said. “It’s highly addictive.” He added, “I’d make you a character, but for now I’m not sure the others should know you’re listening.”

  “No, no! I agree. I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to be seen as a problem.”

  “You’re not a problem!” Finn said, thinking he should go ahead and register a character for her. “Far from it. Without you, this meeting wouldn’t be happening.”

  Dilltoast showed up in the room and asked, What’s up?

  “That’s my friend, Dillard.”

  “We met,” Amanda said.

  Finn’s character stood and led Dillard’s into the far corner of the room to talk to him. Finn explained to Amanda, “You have to be near each other to talk. It’s called proximity, for obvious reasons. Dill and I can talk over here, and the others won’t see it and…”

  His explanation was made clear as Charlene and Willa continued talking, presumably about clothes, but the dialogue in their bubbles was replaced with exclamation points, dollar signs, and ampersands—unreadable
gibberish.

  Finn tried to politely ask Dillard to go away. Dillard didn’t get the idea at first and forced Finn to get a little blunt once Maybeck arrived. “That didn’t go so hot,” he told Amanda as Dillard’s character left the room.

  “Tell him about it tomorrow in person. If you make it into something secret, that you’re sharing, he won’t even remember this.”

  “Good with people are you?” Finn thought about this: she was good with people. For one thing, she’d survived his dad at the dinner table.

  Maybeck passed on the offer of a drink. He’d given his character a sizable Afro, blue jeans, and a white T-shirt. Somehow it made him look taller than the others, which he was in person as well.

  Mybest: Let’s do this. I got homework.

  Finn: Okay. We’re all here.

  Each of the others said hello. Then Finn continued.

  Finn: we’ve all had basically the same “dream”

  or we wouldn’t be here. Maybeck and I both felt

  kinda sick, like fainting, earlier today, anybody else?

  The dialogue bubble above Willa’s character started “talking.”

  willatree: yes. I felt awful, but only for a few minutes.

  angelface 13: me too

  philitup: yup

  Mybest: so what’s with that?

  Finn: they aren’t dreams, charlene and philby and I were all in the park last night. I got burned on the arm. when I woke up, I had the same burn on the same arm. it’s for real. It wasn’t a dream.

  Maybeck’s character moved around the room but stayed close enough to chat. Willa got up off the couch and moved over next to Charlene. No writing appeared above any of the characters.

  Amanda said, “I think you freaked them out.”

  Finn complained, “What was I supposed to do?”

  angelface 13: I saw him get burned. It’s for real.

  philitup: what’s weird is that over there we look like our DHIs, but Finn getting burned means we must be part

  Finn: human. Part DHI, part human. That’s what Wayne, the old guy, said we were.

  Mybest: does anyone hear how completely stupid this sounds?

  philitup: we all got sick at basically the same moment. That may sound stupid, but it felt awful.

  Mybest: so what we do?

  Amanda, looking on, said, “Now, Finn. You’ve got to tell them now.”

  Finn: if we all go to bed—to sleep—at the same time tonight, maybe we’ll arrive there together.

  Mybest: tell me you’re kidding?

  Finn: That’s the way it works, I’m sure of it. Wayne wants us all there at the same time.

  Finn felt a rush of heat: all five of them had crossed over at various times. They all shared this same experience. His fingers hovered above the keyboard.

  Finn: the only way we’re gonna know what’s up is to go to bed at the same time and hope we wake up over there 2gether. tonight. K?

  One by one, the characters answered.

  willatree: I’ll be there.

  angelface 13: I’m having trouble falling asleep, but I’ll try.

  philitup: I’m there.

  Mybest: word.

  Finn’s character stood up from the couch. He went to the corner and dropped the can into an open box—his makeshift trash can. Charlene followed his lead and did the same.

  Mybest: we all play VMK, right? What if that’s got something to do with it?

  He had a point, Finn thought. The game had an otherworldly quality.

  Finn: we’ve got to talk to Wayne. How about 9:00 tonight?

  Each of the characters agreed to the time, a text bubble appearing above their heads. Then, one by one, they checked out. Finn’s character stood alone in the empty room.

  “You look kinda lonely just standing there,” Amanda said.

  “I think I’m afraid,” Finn admitted. He couldn’t believe he’d said that aloud.

  “I bet they all are too,” Amanda said. “Remember that fear is a human emotion. A DHI wouldn’t feel fear.”

  The way she said it, so calm, and like she knew what she was talking about—really knew it—

  gave Finn this strange tingling feeling. He thought how strange it was that Amanda had just showed up the way she had, become his friend right as he began crossing over. How could he ask for a better friend? And yet…Was there something she wasn’t telling him?

  He caught a look in her eye as if she’d said too much and now regretted it. She looked away, breaking their eye contact.

  “Finn?” It was his mother calling from downstairs. It disturbed the moment. Finn didn’t ask Amanda anything—but he’d wanted to.

  He checked the time. It was going on eight o’clock.

  “I can drive Amanda home now,” she hollered upstairs.

  “I wish I could go,” Amanda said. She didn’t mean home.

  “Yeah, that would be cool.” He caught himself using that word again. She’d teased him about it earlier, but not now.

  “It’ll be all right,” she said, standing. “Remember everything so you can tell me.”

  He walked her downstairs to the door, where his mother was waiting with a smile. The three of them walked out to the driveway. Finn took the backseat. Amanda and his mom talked about boring girl stuff: favorite shopping malls and places to get your hair cut.

  She lived on the far edge of their school district, in what had once been a small church. There was a stained-glass window in the center of the roof’s peak: a blue background with a white angel.

  Lit from inside, it looked as if the angel were flying. He didn’t know why, but it seemed appropriate for Amanda.

  Finn hurried his mother to drive faster on the way back home.

  She looked at him funny when he told her he was going to be late to bed.

  It was like something from Star Trek, or Power Rangers, Finn thought. He was standing at Central Plaza, a circle of grass and sidewalks in front of the castle. Over the next several minutes, one by one, the other four DHIs appeared. Charlene first, lying on the grass to his left, wearing her nightgown. She stretched her arms as if waking up. Philby was next—his red hair electric as a DHI. He came hurrying in from Tomorrowland. Willa showed up on the road to Finn’s right. She also wore pajamas—shorts and a matching T-shirt.

  Maybeck came walking up Main Street alongside Wayne, who drove a Disney golf cart.

  “Well, well,” Wayne said. “The gang’s all here.” He climbed out of the cart and made a point of saying hello to Willa, whom he’d only met once before.

  A loud crashing noise came from somewhere in Tomorrowland. Cheering followed this.

  “Something wild’s going on over there,” Finn said, pointing.

  A concerned Wayne said quickly, “Follow me! And not a word until I say.”

  They followed Wayne and his cart up the ramp that led into the enormous castle. Finn noted that the DHIs glowed and shimmered once inside the shadow of the castle arches.

  “Memorize all this carefully!” Wayne called back to the DHIs.

  He led them through a gift shop and into a storage room, then through a heavy medieval-style door that he unlocked with a large key, and down a nondescript hall, through another door, and into a vast, cavernous space.

  Finn stopped. Staircases led in every direction, interconnecting in impossible ways, some upside down. A variety of oddly shaped doors of all sizes faced him at every level. Each corridor and staircase connected to the next in the most unlikely, impossible ways. All interlocked. It was a giant puzzle that somehow all fit together. And yet it made no sense: inverted stairs?

  “We call this Escher’s Keep. Walt admired M. C. Escher’s work,” Wayne said, climbing a staircase.

  “Who’s Escher?” Finn asked.

  “Do your homework,” Wayne admonished. “The keep was built as part of an Alice in Wonderland attraction. But it never opened.”

  “Why not?”

  “Walt decided to keep it for himself.”

  Finn re
ached the top of some steep stairs, out of breath. He continued down a darkened hall and looked up to see Wayne standing upside down on a landing a few yards ahead.

  Wayne said, “Don’t be fooled. You’re fine. But a single misstep and you’ll end up in a slide that will dump you into the moat. So stay to the left, and only step on the blue tiles, never the white or the red. Pass it along to the others.”

  Finn repeated the weird instructions in a whisper. A moment later he stood with Wayne. To the others, now arriving, both Wayne and Finn appeared to be standing upside down.

  He heard Maybeck say, “Okay! This is way cool.”

  Wayne said, “This is a good place to come if you’re ever in trouble or trying to hide. Without a guide to show the way, no one makes it up the first time. Memorize it carefully. The castle has several secret entrances. I’ll show you if we have time. Once in here, you’re safe.”

  It isn’t safe, Finn remembered Charlene saying. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go any farther.

  Wayne continued, “The other place you should be safe is if you follow the tracks out of the Frontierland train station toward the Indian Encampment. There are some teepees out there that aren’t programmed for DHI projection.”

  “Safe from what?” Finn asked.

  “Ah!” Wayne said, ignoring Finn’s question. “Here come the others. Follow me! Memorize!”

  he reminded. “The next two staircases are fakes.”

  Finn was stunned by how incredibly real each of the many staircases appeared. The first staircase turned out to be nothing but paint on a wall. Wayne led him to the real staircase and together they climbed it.

  Finn looked back, carefully committing the route to memory. He called ahead to Wayne. “If I’m half hologram, half human, as you said, how can I touch anything? Shouldn’t I only half touch it?”

  “Have you studied Einstein, Finn?” Finn didn’t want to sound dumb, so he didn’t answer. “It’s time you did. There’s more space between atoms than there are atoms. And yet atoms hold together somehow and form what we think of as a solid. We can touch, smell, taste. It all comes down to what you believe. What you think you can do.”

  The only thing Finn knew about Einstein had to do with bagels. He stuck to more practical matters. “How will we ever get back down?”