by Dixon, Jeff
Seconds transformed into agonizing minutes as the group examined the office. Although unable to hear everything, Hawk found himself following Kiran’s voice as she pointed out some of the highlights of the office. While she spoke he imagined her saying, “Pay no attention to the idiot hiding in the corner!” Moments passed, Hawk heard laughter, and then the voices moved away from the window to explore further into the exhibit. He did not move. Unsure of how long to wait and uncertain who else might be in the area, he didn’t dare give up his hiding place yet.
He tried to think through his predicament. Kiran must be leading a tour for VIPs, since the Disney Hollywood Studios was officially closed for the day. After the tour group looked around the exhibit, it would eventually exit into the Walt Disney Theatre for a private showing of the film. If he could time it just right, this would be the opportune moment to make his escape. He had found nothing and risked a lot. The risk was one he had been willing to take, but he found himself frustrated at the futility of his endeavor. Somewhere in the depths of his being, he’d thought he would find something to unlock the mystery of the key. Sadly, he had not taken the time to formulate a strategy for anything he was doing. He was now trapped inside the attraction. Failing to plan had been no plan at all.
Finally Hawk decided it was time to go. Moving away from the wall with a quick glance over his shoulder toward the viewing window, he stepped toward the door. The door handle moved. It clicked and he backed up as the door silently swung open. Kiran stood in the doorway, hands jammed on her hips, her feet shoulder width. It was apparent that she had no intention of allowing him to escape past her.
“Dr. Hawkes, step out of the office. Right now.”
Hawk tentatively moved toward the doorway, not sure how to step out of the office since she was blocking the door. Once he was close enough, she clamped her hand around his arm above his elbow. Roughly dragging him through the door, she wheeled him around and slammed him into the set wall behind them both with a thud. In one motion she closed the door to the office and stepped up in front of him. Eyes flashing with anger, she thrust a finger toward his chin.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t call security and have you arrested!”
Hawk blew out a breath. “It’s a long story.”
“You have sixty seconds to tell it,” she threatened.
Nearly melting from the heat of her glare, Hawk gave her a rundown of the events of the last few days.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
* * *
Day Four
Evening
BY THE TIME HAWK FINISHED the tale he was nearly breathless. He had tried to share every detail and hadn’t wasted time by pausing to inhale. Slowing he looked at Kiran, awaiting her reaction. Her eyes did not reveal what she was thinking as she stood silently processing the information. The silence was painfully deafening before Kiran obliterated it.
“Let me make sure I understand this,” she said in an angry whisper. “Farren Rales, one of the most respected and legendary Imagineers in Disney history, is a friend of yours.”
“Yes,” replied Hawk.
“Be quiet!” Kiran snapped. “He asked you to meet him at a real-life Dwarf Cottage and gave you a key that he called the key to the kingdom. He gave you some vague instructions to take the key and do what Walt did after he left the Dwarf Cottage all those years ago. But you weren’t clear on what he meant, and Rales seems to have disappeared so you couldn’t ask him about it.”
She paused for a moment but Hawk knew better than to acknowledge the accuracy of her review. He didn’t have to wait long before she launched back into her dissertation.
“Even though you aren’t sure what the key is for, you figured you needed to bring it to Walt Disney’s office because there was something inside that the key would open. The only way to get to Walt Disney’s office was to break into the exhibit, inside a closed attraction, inside a closed theme park. But then I came wandering by leading a private tour and noticed a pair of feet attached to a man hiding in the corner of the office. As I was getting ready to alert security I was able to get a glimpse of the burglar and recognized him as the pastor of the Celebration Community Church, who I was supposed to have a date with tomorrow. Did I miss anything?”
“The date is at seven o’clock.” Hawk mustered a crooked smile.
“There is no date,” Kiran fired back. “Your story is the craziest one I’ve heard in a long time. I still haven’t heard a reason I shouldn’t call security.”
“I know it’s unbelievable, but I don’t think it’s crazy,” Hawk countered. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t mess up anything in the office.”
“So you were in the office long enough to search it?”
“Yes, but my key didn’t fit anything. Walt’s desk doesn’t have a locked drawer; there is no drawer in the desk. Nothing else in the office has a lock that the key fits.”
“You really rifled through the office of Walt Disney?” she repeated in disbelief.
“I was trying to do what Farren told me to do.”
“You aren’t sure what he intended for you to do! Somehow I don’t think it involved trespassing in a valuable exhibit.” Kiran dropped her head and looked down at the ground. She drew several deep breaths before she spoke again. “And what did you plan to do after you found whatever you were looking for?”
“I don’t know,” Hawk said.
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t really know what I would do after I was done. The plan was just kind of unfolding as I went.”
“Unbelievable.” Kiran shook her head.
“See, I told you it was unbelievable. Not crazy, just unbelievable.”
Kiran opened her mouth, then closed it. Her hesitation prompted him to fill the silence that hung between them.
“I promise you I am not crazy. I guess after I was chased out of the Gamble Place and Farren disappeared without any word, I thought that if I figured out what the key meant . . .”
“You might figure out what happened to your friend?”
“I guess.” Hawk nodded. “So are you going to call security?”
Kiran pressed her lips together. “Let me see the key.”
Hawk produced the key from his pocket and unwrapped it. Kiran watched the care and reverence he used as he released it from its bindings. He held it out between them and she reached out and took it from his grasp. Frowning, she turned it over and studied it.
“This key looks extremely old,” she stated. “I doubt there was ever anything in Walt’s office that this would have opened. The exhibit contains Walt’s office as it would have looked when he passed away in 1966. Most of what’s in there are recreations of the original pieces. Anything this key might have opened is something that the family would have kept.”
“Like I told you, according to what Rales said, Walt went back to his studio and the memories of what he had seen at Gamble Place inspired him in amazing ways. After he gave me the key he told me to do the same. A little while ago it made sense to me that it would unlock something in Walt’s office.” Hawk knew his thinking had been more emotional than rational. “Kiran, if you’d been there when Farren gave me the key, you would have seen the look on his face and heard the intensity in his voice when he . . .”
“When he what?” Kiran responded with less intensity than she had moments ago.
“When he told me not just to treasure the key but to use it,” Hawk said softly.
“So he actually told you to use the key?”
“Yes. That’s what has me standing here with you.”
Kiran’s demeanor was less angry and now more puzzled than before. While Hawk waited for her to decide what to do next, she raised her head and gazed off to her left. With a look that balanced caution and confusion, she focused back on Hawk as if trying to decide to say what she was thinking.
“If Walt was in Florida at the Dwarfs’ Cottage in 1939, there’s no way he could have gone back and reflected on his trip in his office,” she said w
ith conviction.
“So Farren was just telling me a story?”
“I have no idea what he was telling you. I’m telling you that Walt could not have come back and sat down and did whatever he did in this office. This was the office from the Walt Disney Studios that didn’t exist until years later. Like I told you, this was what his office looked like in 1966. That would have been twenty-seven years after he went to the Dwarfs’ Cottage.”
Awareness dawned like a sunrise ending a moonless night. Recreating the moment as Walt sat down behind his desk in this office couldn’t happen because it had not existed until years later. Realizing the idiocy of his plan, he nodded.
“You’re right.” Hawk’s voice echoed with a twinge of disappointment. He lowered his face.
“Bad plan, huh?” she said softly.
“Yes, bad plan,” Hawk agreed as he looked back toward her.
She cocked her head over her right shoulder. “To do what Walt would have done, you’d have to get back to the office he had in 1939. That building and office disappeared years ago.”
“Kiran, will you get me out of here?” Hawk asked and waited as silence fell between them once again.
“I am going to regret this.” She shook her head from side to side as she spoke.
Hawk felt a wave of relief that Kiran was willing to help him extract himself from this mess he had created. However, she held up her index finger.
“You can’t visit the office Walt had in 1939, but you could still get behind his desk.” Her voice took on a conspiratorial tone.
“What?” Hawk’s pulse tripped.
“The desk from his office at the old studio is here.”
“Here?”
“Yes, it’s here, in this attraction. You’ve walked past it every single time you’ve walked through it.” Kiran clamped her mouth shut again as though realizing she’d offered too much information.
He waited to hear what she was going to say next. Finally Kiran reached out and took Hawk by the hand. She led him forward through the narrow passageway that curved to the right and then made a slight jog behind additional exhibits. Kiran stopped at a wall with a small door that resembled an oversized doggy door. The door was large enough for a person to get through, and like the others, had a keyed lock. Kiran once again faced Hawk and handed him the old skeleton key Rales had given him. In all of their discussion, he’d forgotten she still was holding it.
“Here, you hold your key to the kingdom. I need to find a key to the door. Don’t go wandering off,” she instructed, then moved away, leaving him standing there.
Hawk looked at the key in his hand. Earlier he had been so sure he needed to get into Walt’s office. Speaking with Kiran had shown him how ridiculous his line of thinking was. Now he didn’t know what to think. Hearing footsteps, he turned his attention to the sound of Kiran returning from around the corner of the passageway. She smiled triumphantly, holding up a key.
“I’m going to open this door and we’re going to crawl through. We only have a few minutes inside. This key is a maintenance key, which means the crew isn’t working inside this part of the attraction yet.”
“What about security cameras?” Hawk inquired.
She looked at him with astonishment. “You’re worried about that now?”
Kiran did not wait for an answer. She knelt down and placed the key into the bolted lock.
“Actually there is a security camera inside this exhibit. Behind this door is the desk from Walt’s office in the late thirties and early forties. We used to have the special Academy Award that Walt had received for Snow White and the Seven Dwarf. sitting on the desk itself. That was the one with the large statue flanked by seven smaller ones. While that was on display this part of the exhibit was monitored closely. Now that piece of memorabilia is on display elsewhere, so the camera isn’t monitored anymore.” She paused as she turned the lock and prepared to open the door. “At least I hope it isn’t monitored anymore.”
Kiran got on her hands and knees and managed to navigate her way through the door opening. Hawk watched with distracted amusement and admiration as she did so in a skirt which made the trek through the door even more difficult to accomplish with the appropriate degree of modesty. Seeing her straighten up and step out of the way through the opening, he heard her whisper.
“Are you coming in here or not?”
Crouching and then moving to his hands and knees, Hawk navigated the path through the door as Kiran had just done. Straightening up, he found himself standing inside a compact display with an old wooden desk as the focal point. Hanging on the back wall above the desk was a picture of Walt Disney receiving the Academy Award for Snow White. from Shirley Temple. The spotlights that illuminated the desk were intense and Hawk once again looked out at the interior of One Man’s Dream from behind the glass of another display.
“This was the desk Walt used in his office when Snow White. was created. If he went back to his office and sat behind his desk after his Florida trip to the Dwarfs’ Cottage, this would be the desk.” Kiran’s eyes sparkled. “This is what you came for. See if your key fits.”
Hawk stepped to the back of the desk. This was what you could see from the tour of the exhibit. Kiran had been right. Hawk had walked past this every time he had been in the attraction. He had never paid as much attention to this desk or the history behind it as he had the other things in the exhibit. With his back against the glass separating the desk from the touch of the tourists, he reached down to the center drawer of the desk. He pulled it toward him. It did not open. Hawk looked up at Kiran, and without saying a word, confirmed for her that it was indeed locked. Standing to the side of the desk, she placed both hands on it and leaned forward to better see what Hawk was about to attempt.
Hawk placed the key to the kingdom that Farren Rales had given him into the lock on the desk drawer. The old antique skeleton key slid into the lock without resistance. Now with the key firmly placed inside the lock, he exchanged a glance with Kiran. She nodded slightly, prodding Hawk to continue. He attempted to turn the key to the right and immediately felt resistance. It would not turn in that direction. He turned the key to the left and held his breath. A satisfying click and then another broke the silence as the lock opened, releasing the mechanism holding the drawer closed. Removing the key from the lock, Hawk hesitated, and for a moment, pondered the value of the key and wondered how Rales had managed to come into the possession of it. He slowly rewrapped it and placed it back into his pocket.
Kiran whispered impatiently, “Are you going to open the drawer or not?”
Tensing his arm, he gently flexed and pulled the drawer toward him. After a slight resistance, the drawer of Walt Disney’s desk slid open. Hawk stared with disbelief at what he saw inside.
CHAPTER TWELVE
* * *
Day Four
Night
HAWK AND KIRAN STOOD STARING at the contents of Walt Disney’s drawer. The elation he’d felt when the key actually unlocked the desk drawer was now surpassed by the confusion created by what the drawer contained.
“Is that it?” Kiran inquired.
Reaching into the desk drawer, Hawk pulled out the prize that had been awaiting him. He retracted his arm, clutching a stuffed Mickey Mouse attired in a dress tuxedo and tails. Holding it in his hand, Hawk looked into the drawer again, but there was nothing else to be seen. Bending down closer so he would be sure not to miss anything, he examined every nook and corner of the drawer. Now that Mickey had been removed, the drawer was completely empty.
“Tremendous,” Kiran exclaimed. “Close the drawer, we have to get out of here.”
Hawk slid the drawer back into place and moved around the desk toward the diminutive doorway. Kiran placed her hand on his back and pushed him down toward the opening. Complying and repeating his actions from before, he quickly was back on the other side of the exhibit. In a moment Kiran was through the opening. Hawk helped her to her feet, and she spun to close and relock the acce
ss door.
“I risked becoming your accomplice in this disaster so we could find a stuffed animal,” she scolded. “Stay right here while I put the key to the door back.”
She moved back toward the unseen area where she had found the key earlier. Hawk awaited her return, examining the Mickey Mouse doll. It was ten or eleven inches tall, had the familiar cute face, a hard plastic nose, but was slightly different than a normal stuffed animal. At the moment, although Hawk knew it was different, he wasn’t entirely sure what the difference was. Momentarily Kiran returned, her face a mask of frustration. Hawk wasn’t sure which one of them was the target of her frustration, or if it was both.
“Follow me,” she said as she moved past him, retracing their steps. “So this is why you couldn’t have dinner with me. Because you wanted to break into a theme park so you could find a stuffed Mickey Mouse?” It didn’t seem a question that she wanted an answer to, but Hawk couldn’t resist.