Finn felt outnumbered. He was boiling hot and boiling mad for having his plans interrupted. By the time he reached the kitchen all three of them were jabbering away about how quickly cookies went stale in the Florida weather…something about Girl Scouts…Jez mentioned the car wash.
The clock read 8:15.
“I’m beat!” Finn announced from the hall. The two girls glanced over, the conversation interrupted. His mother gave him an Oh, no you don’t! face.
He said, “I mean, I don’t feel so hot…Actually, I do feel—hot. Like a fever or something.”
“But you said you felt fine,” Jez corrected him.
He swiped his damp forehead with the sleeve of the bathrobe. “Hot,” he repeated. “Did you need something, Amanda?” he asked.
“No. I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I’d stop by.”
In the neighborhood? Finn didn’t think so. She lived several blocks away.
Jez asked, “Will I see you at the car wash?”
Amanda said earnestly, “Absolutely!” as if Jez had intended this for her.
“Night, then!” Finn said softly, backing up the stairs. “See you both tomorrow, I guess.”
Amanda scrunched her face and snarled secretly at him. She did not want to be abandoned.
His mother said, “Finn, we’re going to have some cookies—”
Amanda saw his panicked expression; then she looked at the clock. She understood. “It’s okay, we can do it another time,” she said. She pulled Jez toward the hallway.
The girls said good-bye. Finn tried to thank Amanda with his eyes.
After the door shut, his mother asked, “Is it true you’re not feeling well?”
“Must be why I’m so tired,” Finn said.
“Well, get to bed and we’ll see how you feel in the morning.”
Music to his ears.
THE CINDERELLA CASTLE SHONE in the night sky. For all the make-believe in this place, everything seemed so real that Finn briefly understood how the lines had blurred. Even at this hour music floated on the air, coming from Frontierland. Must be a private party, Finn thought. Hadn’t Wayne said that private parties had been canceled because of the problems the park had been having? Had Finn imagined that?
A damp evening chill stung the air. It felt like rain was coming. Finn didn’t know how his DHI would react to rain. He didn’t know a lot of things. Like where to find the others. They had crossed over ahead of him, no doubt, but were now nowhere to be seen. He considered checking the apartment first, followed by the teepee, but then remembered that Philby had mentioned It’s a Small World when they had all met at the sports park. They were looking for attractions that corresponded to the sun clue in The Stonecutter’s Quill, and though the Sunshine Tree Terrace, the Swiss Family Tree House, and the Carpets of Aladdin were all plausible candidates, Philby and Willa had picked It’s a Small World.
The ride had two references to the sun. One, in its theme song:
There is just one moon
And one golden sun
Two: the ride’s Central American section included a blazing Mayan sun, the biggest sun in the Magic Kingdom.
So Finn headed to It’s a Small World first, knowing he would have led the others there had Philby or Maybeck not arrived on time. He found the four waiting outside the attraction, Philby anxiously looking at his wrist-watch. Willa waved excitedly as she saw Finn approaching. He heard her say, “I told you he’d make it.”
“Sorry I’m late. Trouble at home,” Finn said.
As they stepped inside, the ride seemed to wake up. The familiar song started playing, a tune that they all knew by heart.
“It’s after closing, so why did the music suddenly start?” he asked.
Philby answered, “Don’t worry about it.”
Maybeck warned the others that it could be a trap. “Stuff like this doesn’t just happen.”
Finn told them about the music he’d heard coming from Frontierland. “Maybe there’s a party over there.”
Charlene said, “Wayne told me the rides and attractions are left on at night. Let’s just get it over with.”
“But the lights are off,” Finn said.
Indeed, the farther they moved down the ramp, the darker it grew. Only some emergency floodlights and exit signs were glowing. They provided enough light to see by, but just barely.
They all climbed into a boat, Finn sitting with Philby, Maybeck between Charlene and Willa on the bench behind.
“That song drives me nuts,” Charlene said. “The way it gets stuck in my head.”
“That song is why we’re here,” Philby reminded her. “It repeats the word sun over and over, and this is one of the original rides.”
The boat started moving. As it rounded a bend into the first scene, the music grew louder. Finn and his friends faced hundreds of dolls, all representing the different countries and continents of the world. They were Audio-Animatronics, so their limbs and mouths moved as they sang. The low light cast eerie shadows. An open arch up ahead led into the next scene.
“Do we even know what we’re looking for?” Charlene whined.
“A Fastpass back to our normal lives,” Maybeck snorted.
Charlene said, “It’s creepy in here. Real creepy.”
Willa pointed. “Hey! Did that doll move?” she asked.
Maybeck said, “They’re all moving, girl. They’re singing.”
“No, I mean—moving. As in walking.”
Maybeck laughed. The others followed—even Willa, who was glad for the chance to release the tension they were all feeling.
Their boat passed under the arch and into the next scene.
Behind them, when the DHIs were no longer looking, one of the British dolls leaned forward and snapped its glued feet off the deck of the display. It took a long stride forward. Four others did the same—two from France, two from Switzerland—their mouths moving along with the song lyrics as their feet broke free.
Looking for clues, Willa and Philby called out the various European countries represented by the dolls.
“It’s cold tonight,” Charlene complained. She crossed her arms.
Finn felt the unusual chill as well. He’d come to recognize that chill. He looked around for any sign of Maleficent.
Philby said, “Think in terms of the fable. It’s originally an ancient Chinese story, so we should focus on Asia, the ride’s next scene.”
“There!” Willa said, pointing. “I just saw a German move!
Now Finn looked back as well. “Philby?” he said.
The others turned to look. The boat rocked as they moved.
Charlene screamed. Maybeck said a word he wasn’t supposed to say. Philby plunged his hand into the dark water and shouted, “Paddle!”
Behind them, several dozen dolls had broken loose from the scene and were marching toward the water. Toward the boat.
The kids paddled, but the boat didn’t move any faster. It was locked onto a track and moved mechanically.
Behind them, the loose dolls banged into each other and tumbled over, but then stood up again. More and more of them leaned and wiggled and stretched and broke free from the various platforms. They marched down through the panoramas, throwing their legs forward like little soldiers, and fell over face-first into the water like lemmings.
The boat dragged slowly forward. The kids could not steer it right or left, nor move it any faster. More wide-eyed dolls fell off the platforms and plunged into the shining water. Miraculously, their arms began to stroke freestyle, and their feet to flutter kick. They were swimming.
“They’re coming right at us!” Willa shouted.
Finn heard little thuds as the first dolls arrived and banged into the hull of the boat.
“This isn’t happening,” Maybeck said, trying to sound calm.
“Shut—up!” said Charlene. “Do something!”
There were more of the dolls now—maybe fifty or more, all swimming toward the boat, their national costumes reduce
d to wet rags. They converged on the boat, stacking one atop the next, higher and higher in a floating pile. One doll flopped over the rail and into the boat. Then another, and another.
The boat passed into the Asia scene. None of the kids was looking for clues now.
The dolls’ little singing mouths opened and shut, snapping viciously. A few more tumbled over and into the boat. They were climbing! As they landed, they rolled, crawled, and then pulled themselves up to standing.
One bit down onto Finn’s arm, locking its jaw. It drew blood. Finn knocked it off and back into the water.
Two other dolls attacked Philby. Maybeck pushed them off as if they were live lobsters, then picked one up and threw it. It struck the wall and smashed into pieces.
The other kids cheered.
Charlene and Willa knocked the dolls off the edge of the boat before they could climb in. Finn tore a biting doll off Philby’s leg.
Maybe a hundred dolls were now swimming toward them. They were definitely losing the battle.
Finn glanced ahead through the next arch to the Americas scene. There he saw dozens of dolls, lined up and waiting for the boat.
Maybeck shouted, “We’re losing the war, in case anyone’s keeping track!” His leg was bleeding from a bite. Willa smacked a doll back into the water. It rose to the surface, turned, and swam again for the boat.
Legions of dolls closed in from all sides.
That chorus of singing screamed in Finn’s ears: “It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all.…”
Finn felt like he was being driven half-crazy by the sound.
“There’s a way out of this! We’re missing something,” he cried. “Think! Everyone think!”
“An automatic weapon?” Maybeck suggested.
“A baseball bat,” Willa said, grabbing several more dolls and tossing them over the side.
“Form a circle!” Finn ordered. “Back to back!”
Without argument the kids turned back to back, like the five points of a star.
“We must have whatever it is we need to beat them,” Finn said.
“Why?” asked the cynical Maybeck.
“Because good conquers evil,” Charlene announced. “This is the Magic Kingdom! Finn’s right.”
“We’re missing something,” Finn said.
“An outboard motor?” Maybeck quipped. “A stick of dynamite?”
Finn looked up. They were into the Americas scene now, and there on the wall was the huge Mayan sun.
Finn caught himself humming along with the theme song.
Willa heard Finn humming. She joined in with the lyrics.
The dolls kept advancing. Every kid bore a bruise or an open wound. They swept the dolls off the edge of the boat, but it was clearly a losing battle. Dolls jumped for the boat and held on to its sides.
Maybeck banged their little hands with his fists.
Charlene joined in singing:
“There is just one moon and one golden sun—”
Sun! Finn thought. What were they missing?
“And a smile means friendship to ev’ryone—”
Smile! The sun had brought them here. The sun is often shown with a smile on its face. Friendship, Finn thought.
“It’s all about friendship!” Finn declared. “The lyrics! Our ability to spread friendship like the rays of the sun!”
“You’re out of your mind!” Maybeck roared, smashing an encroaching doll.
“A smile means friendship to everyone!” Willa cried. She considered this a moment while still battling the dolls. “We have to smile at them!”
Finn hollered, “Try it!”
Maybeck complained, “You have got to be kidding!”
“Smile!” Willa and Finn hollered simultaneously.
And with that, all but Maybeck broke into massive fake smiles. They looked like jack-o-lanterns.
Finn watched as the effect of those smiles registered in the frozen glass eyes of the dolls. The expressions on the small faces changed from blood lust to surprise, then curiosity, and then outright affection.
The effect quickly spread through the faces of other dolls. Some stopped swimming. Others turned around.
“Keep smiling!” Finn said, through clenched teeth, his fake smile never faltering.
As the swimming dolls encountered the smiles, they fell back over the side of the boat, back into the water.
Finn and the others began clearing dolls out of the bottom of the boat. Inside the vast room, the song continued, over and over, over and over. Within a few minutes, the boat was cleared. Dozens of dolls floated, lying still in the water.
It’s a Small World was going to be closed for “restoration” for quite some time.
The boat passed the giant sun at the end of the Americas scene.
Finn studied it carefully. He saw nothing that even remotely resembled a clue.
SATURDAY MIDMORNING FOUND the sky without a cloud. A hot sun burned a yellow hole in the rich blue background, promising thunderstorms by late afternoon. The corner parking lot of Dangerous Dan’s Used Cars was marked by little red and yellow plastic flags on a string that ran from light pole to light pole, giving the school car wash the feel of a circus. A four-foot-long mock blimp and a big bunch of colorful balloons hovered fifty feet above the asphalt in an effort to draw attention. That was also the job of the girls at the stoplight, who wore jean shorts over their bathing suits and held a sign proclaiming: GIRL SCOUT CAR WASH—$5.
Dan’s older-model Hyundais, Fords, and Buicks had been parked to the side, leaving a large area now covered with hoses, buckets, and lots of white foam, as skinny girls struggled to scrub, polish, and shine the cars that lined up for the five-dollar wash. Most of the time the process included a water fight, or a bucket brigade, the general chaos kept under control enough to be fun for all, even onlookers like Finn.
There was already a rumor going around that It’s a Small World had been vandalized the night before and would be closed for months. Police were investigating.
Finn stood away from all the water with his friend Dillard, who had taken the occasion to borrow one of his father’s Hawaiian shirts. Finn thought he looked pretty cool.
Finn spotted Jez as she left the collection table, where she’d been taking in the money. She kicked off her pair of shorts to reveal a dark purple one-piece Speedo and jumped into the middle of a water fight. Suds flew. The girls giggled and screamed. They hosed down a Volvo and sponged it clean. Now wet, with her hair slicked back, Jez looked over at Finn. She’d known he was there all along.
Noticing this, Dillard said, “You think she likes you?”
Finn said, “She’s a girl. No telling what she thinks.”
Dillard asked, “You think girls are smarter than us?”
“In some things.”
“Like what?”
“Like school stuff, and friendships, and family stuff.”
“So we’re better at…?” Dillard asked.
“Computer games. And farting,” Finn said, cracking up his friend.
“What’s so funny?” said a girl behind them.
It was Amanda, wearing a white T-shirt over a swimsuit and a pair of jean shorts. Finn said hi and she said hi back to both boys.
Dillard opened his mouth to say hello, but belched instead. He’d never been much around girls. Both boys laughed hard.
Amanda dug into the snug pocket of her jeans and pulled out several bills. She handed Dillard a dollar. “Hey, Dill,” she said, calculatingly coy, “would you mind getting me an orange soda?”
“No—no—no…” he stuttered. “Happy to.”
Dillard asked if Finn wanted anything and Finn passed him a dollar, asking for a cola, and thanking him. Dillard took off.
Amanda said, “The nearest orange soda is at the gas station, across the street. It’ll take him a while.”
“He’s not a servant, you know?” Finn said.
“I wanted to hear about It’s a Small World,” she said.
“That was you guys, I assume.”
Finn said, “You can’t say anything to anyone.”
“You guys trashed the place?” She took a step back. “Why?”
“It wasn’t anything like that. It was—” He felt boxed in. “Impossible to explain.”
“Impossible because you won’t, you mean.”
“Impossible because you wouldn’t believe it.”
“That’s not true. Try me.”
Finn met eyes with her, considered if this was the right thing to do, and said, “The dolls came alive and…attacked us.”
Amanda looked stunned, but she did not make fun of him.
Finn returned his attention to the noisy girls and the car wash.
He pulled up the leg of his shorts and showed her where he’d been bitten. Amanda gasped. “Finn…”
“I know,” he said. “It’s getting serious.”
“Getting?” she fired back sarcastically.
“And what’s worse, we didn’t find any clues to the fable.”
“You’ve got to stop this somehow, Finn. It’s too dangerous. It’s just stupid to continue.”
Finn said, “Wish I could, but I don’t think I can.”
“When I do things I shouldn’t do, my mother says I need a new pair of glasses—that I should be looking differently at the choices I make.”
A silent alarm went off in Finn’s head. He tuned out everything around him—everything but Amanda—and focused on her. “What did you just say?”
“You can’t go getting hurt. That’s just stupid.”
“About the glasses,” Finn said.
“Just some dumb thing my mother says.”
“Like a different perspective,” he said.
“Yeah.” Her concern mounted. “What if you just stayed up all night and didn’t go to sleep? By the time you did go to sleep the Magic Kingdom would be open. Even if you ended up there, it would be safer!”
“And this for the rest of my life, I suppose?” Finn asked. But his brain was working overtime. A new pair of glasses.
“Hey, isn’t that guy a host?” Amanda asked.
Finn spotted Maybeck at about the same moment that Jez did. Maybeck went over to her, said something, and the two started laughing.
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