Lance grinned at him. “Or, someone else will call me.”
Peter had to acknowledge that was a possibility. “See you.”
Backpack firmly in place, Key hidden deep in a pocket, annual pass in hand, Peter joined the line of guests as they inched toward the entry turnstiles. He had wanted to be an anonymous tourist and not enter with a family pass. The deep honk of Monorail Blue sounded as it sped past the front entrance. Eager faces peered out of the windows at the floral Mickey face below the train station.
At the sound, Peter looked upward and suddenly wondered if the riders would be able to see the top of the Opera House. He hadn’t expected that possibility.
Once he was inside the Park and through the tunnel under the tracks, he looked back. When he couldn’t tell one way or the other, he ran up the brick steps to the train station, the highest point in the Park so far. He decided that the monorail track was too far away and not high enough to see over the train station, let alone the top of the building where he would be.
Relieved, he lightly ran down stairs and went to an unoccupied park bench in Town Square that faced the Opera House. From his backpack he pulled out a satellite map of the area that he had printed out at home. Looking back at the ornate building, he didn’t see the line of children waiting for the tuxedoed Mickey Mouse standing under the awning of the neighboring Mad Hatter Shop. The horse-drawn carriage pulled by the huge Belgian didn’t even get a cursory glance. No, Peter looked solely at the two faces set inside their oval framework. “Wow, that’s really high. Okay, inside or outside?”
Peter decided right then to attack his problem from the outside, around back in the cast member-only section. Knowing the crowds that came to see the Lincoln show and the exhibits inside, he felt it would be easier to go in through the back. ‘I’m looking for my dad,’ would handle anyone questioning him since they were both so well-known in the Park.
At the side of the Disney Gallery, which used to be a Bank of America, was a souvenir stand, a walkway, and an exit for cast members. It was down that shaded, secluded path that he quickly walked. The satellite map reminded him that the building was deceptively larger than what showed from Town Square. About two-thirds of the way, he found a padlocked utility ladder stretching up the side of the white building. With no one in sight, heart pounding, he quickly got the lock opened and scampered up the metal rungs, fully expecting a hand to grab his ankle and pull him back to the ground.
Out of breath from nerves, he reached the top and scurried crablike toward the front of the building on the narrow catwalk. Once he was over the top of the Gallery, he found access to a path used by personnel when they worked on the air conditioning or other equipment on the roof. The masks he wanted were still another level higher than his walkway. It only took a few moments to find another set of steps that took him to a dizzying height.
Always expecting to be discovered, he flattened his body to the level roof and edged closer to the curved arches that protected the masks. “Right or left? Which one was Comedy? Oh, great. I can’t remember. Sheesh.”
Resisting the urge to peek over the edge to see the masks and what the view of Town Square looked like from up there, Peter concentrated on the back of the huge oval disc. While the faces of the masks were gilded in bright gold, their backing was simply painted white. At the base on the right side, behind Comedy, he found what he wanted. There, secured to the wood and painted to match the surrounding area, was a flat capsule. “Come to papa.”
Once the canister was hidden in his backpack, Peter had to decide if he wanted to go back the same way he came, or try to find a safer place to get down, maybe near the hat shop. Feeling exposed due to the height of City Hall on the opposite side of Town Square, he chose the known route. Back at the access ladder, he peered both ways and had to wait for a costumed cast member headed for work at the Emporium. With a sigh of relief he started down the ladder.
“Hey, what are you doing up there?”
Thinking he was in the clear, only two steps to go, Peter’s head jerked to the right. One of the Disney Gallery cast members had just come around for a break. Hands on her hips, she didn’t look too pleased to see a young boy up on the ladder.
“You! Get down from there!”
Peter had to think fast. The ‘I’m looking for my dad’ line wouldn’t work in this precarious position. “I…uh…thought I saw a cat on the roof.”
The cast member, Laura, looked upward, obviously confused. “There’re cats everywhere. It’s dangerous to be playing around on the ladders. Where are your parents?”
Peter used an old trick. His lower lip began to quiver. “I…I only wanted to help the little kitty. Mom’s over in the Emporium shopping. I…I didn’t mean to hurt anything.”
Laura rushed over to the obviously upset boy and put a kind hand on his arm. “There, there, it’s all right. You didn’t hurt anything. You just aren’t supposed to be back here, honey.”
“Oh, I’m sorry! I won’t do it again. Thank you. Can I go find my mom now?”
Laura fell for those puppy-dog green eyes. “Yeah. You go find your mom. Here, would you like a Park button?”
Peter accepted the green I’m Celebrating balloon-covered button and flashed a smile, one well-honed by his dad. “Oh, thank you! Bye.”
“Such a polite young man.” Laura checked her watch and saw her break was over, forgetting the part with the boy on the roof access ladder.
Once clear of the cast member-only area, Peter pulled out his phone and called his dad. “Found it. Can I go ride Big Thunder?”
There was a moment of silence. Lance had expected to hear something else. “I guess. So, what did you find?”
“I dunno. Didn’t open it.”
Disappointed, Lance shook his head. “Yeah, sure. Go have some fun. Be here when I get off, all right?”
“Yeah. Bye.” The capsule stuffed in the bottom of his pack, Peter didn’t even look at the door to his secret apartment there on Main Street as he headed for Frontierland.
Flashback – Disneyland—1956
“That’s a real alligator, Harold.” Elaine paused at the shaded entrance to the Jungle Cruise to glance inside a chicken-wire pen standing off to the side. Lazily fanning herself with her straw hat, she pushed her white-rimmed sunglasses down her nose. When she leaned closer, a loud hiss came from the three-foot-long reptile inside the cage. Startled, she jumped back. “See? I told you it was real!”
Harold looked up from his guidebook as their son pelted the captive with popcorn. “Don’t waste your treat, Marty. It’s obviously made out of rubber. That’s the sound of the gears inside the jaws. See? They’re going up and down just like they do inside the ride.” He peered more closely at what he thought was a marvel of engineering. “Amazing. It’s practically seamless. Hmm, wonder why there are green pieces of rubber wedged in-between its teeth? It sort of looks like that snake we just bought Marty at that souvenir stand.”
Marty was just about to dangle his new green rubber snake into the cage. When the creature became motionless, he lost interest and started his favorite pastime—whining. “Can we go on the ride now? I’m hot! You promised.”
Ignoring the persistent drone of his son’s voice, Harold consulted the guidebook once again. “Tell you what. This brochure says the Golden Horseshoe is air-conditioned. Why don’t we go over there and come back here tonight when it’s cooler? Then we can compare this alligator with the ones in the river.”
“That’s odd, Harold. Wasn’t there an alligator in this cage when we were here earlier?”
“Of course there was. We talked about it. Why do you ask?”
Elaine pointed at the cage. One side now had a gaping hole and the chicken-wire was all bent outward. “It’s empty now. Wonder if they moved it somewhere else?”
As they moved through the line, Harold thought he had it figured out. He gave an appreciative chuckle. “That’s probably just some Disneyland Magic they want us to believe! If we think a ‘real�
�� alligator escaped, it would make this ride much more exciting. I’m going to ask one of the guides if that’s true or not.”
Near the front of the line, the cast members seemed surprised to hear six shots fired from a skipper deep inside the ride. Harold and Elaine could hear them talking. “That was a warning signal. One of the boats either derailed or can’t move. We’ll have to send out a diver to help if the boat went off the rail.”
One of the cast members listening jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the guests in line. “Didn’t you hear what that one guy just said? The cage out front is empty! That alligator escaped again.”
All heads immediately turned to stare at the murky water. “I ain’t going in there. Call the Buena Park Alligator Farm. They’re going to have to come and find it.”
“Their handler is pretty fast. I don’t get it, but he just stands here and makes funny noises in his throat. That dumb gator comes right up to him. You’re the diver. Why don’t you try it?”
The cast member who should have been on his way to help the stranded boat shook his head. “Nope. That gator is more trouble than he’s worth. What would I do with it if it came up to the dock? That little demon is mean. I don’t care what the handler says. Let him fix it. And then he can take that thing back to the Alligator Farm with him!”
The men on the dock stood in their places and continued to gaze into the water, alert for a pair of yellow eyes. When another six shots were fired into the air, one of them headed for the rubber rescue boat while another headed for the phone.
Disneyland
“So, how’d you know it was me?”
Lance held up the leafy piece of evidence in his hand. “Oh, I had a pretty good idea when the call came through to Security.” After a glance over his shoulder, Lance clasped his son by the shoulder. “Let’s get out of sight and then you can tell me all about it.”
“I’m not in trouble?”
“Well, if my boss comes by and sees me with a kid with leaves sticking out of his hair, then, yes, you are. But, the faster we get inside and out of sight, the better the odds that the kid in the jungle got away.”
Without another word, Peter opened the door on the side of the Market House that seemingly went to nowhere. Once inside the closet-like interior, the door safely closed and locked away from curious eyes, father and son climbed the metal ladder to the second-floor apartment. The rooms, furnished in the same manner as Walt’s private apartment above the Fire Station, had been a gift from Walt at the end of one of Peter’s previous quests. Outfitted with a small kitchenette and bathroom, it had already been put to good use by the Brentwoods and the Michaels when they wanted to spend the night in the Magic Kingdom.
Seated on the red velvet-covered daybed, Peter pulled out the gray capsule. “I found this in the backpack on the lowest native.”
Lance shook his head in wonder. “Amazing it was still there after, what? Forty-some years? You’d think someone would have found it with all the traffic the jungle gets.”
“Traffic? What traffic?” Peter’s head shot up. Apparently there were a few stories he hadn’t yet heard.
That secret smile that so infuriated kids played over his dad’s face. “Oh, there’ve been a few tales that have made their way backstage among the cast members.”
“About you and Wolf?”
The smile spread to a huge grin. “No. About your mom and me.”
Always ready to deflect any interest in any possible wrongdoing on his part, Peter was all ears. “Tell me.”
Lance bit down the urge to let Peter know that he had tried to tell him the story, but the boy hadn’t been interested. Maybe this was a good sign. “This was just after your mom and I met. Your grandfather was still alive then and he told us that Uncle Adam and I had missed a clue in our first Hidden Mickey hunt. Once we—your mom and I—figured it out, we found we had to search inside the Jungle Cruise for one of the clues.” He nodded at the capsule Peter gripped in his hands. “Just like you had to. Well, we felt it was best to do our exploring at night and we worried about the cleaning and repair crews. So….” He paused for dramatic effect and inwardly smiled when Peter leaned forward. “So, we spent the night up in Tarzan’s Treehouse and I zip-lined over the Indy queue and into the jungle.”
“Zip-line? You? Wow, that must have been something to see.”
“Yeah, it was pretty fun.” With an upheld hand, Lance felt he had to add, “Not that you are hereby given permission to do anything like that. Understand?”
“Umm, sure. But, is the line still there?”
Lance shook his head. “No, I took it down as fast as I could. But, you can still see the hole in the tree if you look hard enough.” Before Peter could ask any more, Lance indicated the canister with a tilt of his chin. “So, are you going to open it? I’m curious to see where you have to go next.” Inwardly he hoped Peter was likewise as interested.
“Oh.” Peter broke eye contact with his dad and looked down at the cool length of plastic. “Umm.” A tinge of red crept up his cheeks while Lance waited for a reply. “I kinda told Catie I’d open it with her.”
Glad his son was at least engaged enough to want to continue, Lance had to be satisfied. “Okay, that’s fair. Maybe your mom and I can drive you over to the hospital after I get off work. That way you won’t have to ride your bike over at midnight. Again.”
Eyes wide, Peter wisely kept silent. With a brief nod, he merely muttered, “That would be nice.”
Fullerton
When Lance and Kimberly suggested a walk outside the hospital with Adam and Beth, Alex stayed behind. Wondering what was up with Peter, he ventured, “You want to play on the Wii with me? You could take over Michael’s racecar. I’m beating him pretty bad so he probably wouldn’t mind.”
Peter glanced up at the muted television and the animated road race that had been paused. “No, Mikey would be upset. He thinks he’s winning.”
Alex gave a laugh. “Well, if he wants to think that. So, why’d you stay behind then?”
“I wanted to talk to Catie.” Not sure why Alex was so curious, Peter hesitated to see if he was about to be teased.
Alex didn’t volunteer the fact that he solely missed his sister. He, too, talked to her whenever they were alone. “That’s cool. Can I stay?”
Relieved he didn’t have to defend himself, Peter shrugged to indicate he didn’t care one way or the other. “Sure. I found another clue in the Jungle Cruise and wanted to open the capsule with her.”
The boys approached the silent girl. The bruising on her face had begun to fade from deep purple to tinges of yellow. Alex had already told Catie all about his day, so he waited for Peter.
“Hi, Catie. It’s me again. Peter.” He half expected Alex to snicker. “I found the next clue. You’ll never guess where it was. You know the guys the rhino chased up the tree? Well, it was in the lowest guy’s backpack.”
Rats, I miss out on all the fun stuff. “How’d you get in there to find that out?” Alex was all ears now.
Peter went silent as his mind began to spin. Catie had been his sole partner on their adventures only because Alex hadn’t been interested enough to join them. Now Peter wasn’t sure how much he should tell his friend. “Oh, well, you know the Jungle Cruise is right next to Main Street, right?”
Not wanting to appear stupid, Alex had to nod. His field of interest in Disneyland extended to the roller coasters, not the history and demographics. “Oh, yeah. Sure. That makes sense.”
Peter let it go with that. He’d fill Catie in on the rest of the details later when no one else was in the room. “Anyway, Catie, I was going to open the next clue with you like I promised. Alex can help me open the capsule and then we’ll read it to you.”
With a shrug, Alex accepted the container. “It isn’t very big. Must not have much inside.” The end cap easily twisted off in his hand and revealed a lone piece of notebook paper. “That’s weird. It says: Thaddeus Walker gave it his all in 1812. Bring a shovel.”
Peter’s look of interest changed into a frown. “What does ‘gave it his all’ mean? I don’t understand.”
“It means that person died in his efforts, whatever it was he had to do. He did his best but didn’t live through it.”
The boys’ heads shot up as their parents returned to the room. After his explanation, Adam went to Catie’s side to softly touch her brown hair. The heart-rending gesture was one of reassurance. For a moment, the beep beep of her monitor was the only sound in the still room.
Beth went to his side to lean her head against his shoulder. Only Adam could hear her whisper. “She’s going to be all right, honey.”
To allow the family a moment together, Kimberly herded Lance and Peter out into the hallway. In a similar gesture to acknowledge that her oldest son was fine, she gave him a hug. “So, you found the next clue. Are you excited?”
Peter leaned into the warm embrace for a moment longer before the change of topic gave him the excuse to pull away. “Do you want to see the paper? It’s definitely Walt’s handwriting. Not sure where I need to go. Do you have any ideas?”
Lance accepted the note to look it over, his heart again speeding up at the prospect. Peter, though, looked as if they were discussing school clothes. Patience, patience. “Not sure. I don’t recognize the name as someone associated with Walt, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t.” Thinking back to his very first clue with Adam, he suddenly grinned. “But, I do know this: When Walt says to bring a shovel, he means it.”
“So I have to dig up something buried in Disneyland?”
“Possibly Disneyland. There are many other places in Walt’s history you might have to search.”
Peter nodded. “Yeah, like at the Studio where I dug up the Gold Pass to Disneyland.”
“Is that how you found the Pass? I never did hear that story.” Kimberly took the clue so she could compare it with what she and Lance had found years ago.
HIDDEN MICKEY ADVENTURES 5 Page 7