It All Started...

by David W. Smith

  Well, I’ll just have to follow this clue myself and do the best I can. Lance took up the papers to study the second sheet he hadn’t looked at yet.

  Unlike the first page, the second sheet had the Disney Studio’s logo on the top. It was unlined and the clues, as Lance could see that they were clues, were listed top to bottom on the right side of the page. The left side had a line apparently for writing in the answer to the clue. He counted nine lines in all. Two of the lines, in the third and fourth positions, were off-set from the others. Lance wasn’t sure if this was done on purpose or was because it was hand-drawn. “Time will tell.”

  The time for questions was over. Now was time for action. As he read the first clue, he smiled to himself and looked around for his car keys. It looked like he was going back to Disneyland.

  Lance made a photocopy of the second page and took this with him to the Park. He didn’t want to risk either damaging or losing the original page as it had been written by Walt. As he looked it over again, he felt the excitement like he had felt earlier in May, back when Adam and he had run the Mouse Adventure race through the Park. This would have fit right in with what they had to do back then during the exciting scavenger hunt the Park hosted twice a year.

  He looked across from the Main Street plaza, over toward the Fire House. Up above the Fire House was Walt’s private apartment—where Adam had found Walt’s diary. Instead of remembering Wendy, the curvy cast member who had been on duty that day and who had later accompanied Lance on a few memorable dates, Lance thought about Adam and how much fun they had had on their adventures together. He again wondered if Adam would ever forgive him. Knowing Adam as well as he did, he told himself, probably not for a long, long time.

  The shadow of regret that had crossed Lance’s face was momentary because he knew he had to get to work. There would be some time, some way in the future to make it up to Adam and Beth.

  “Lance? Is that you? I haven’t seen you in ages!”

  At the sound of his name, Lance turned to see Julia smiling at him. His face broke into its customary grin. Julia worked at the Haunted Mansion as a ‘Ghostess’, greeting people in dead-pan seriousness at the entrance. Her bubbly personality was the exact opposite of the character she was supposed to portray. Lance had taken her out a few times. Once, when the ride had been down for maintenance, they had waltzed in the Ballroom Scene of the Mansion, dancing in and out of the ghostly residents. It obvious she would like to go out again.

  He could see she was dressed for work in the somber costume of the Mansion. Safe for the moment, he amicably chatted with her without actually answering any of her subtle questions about seeing him again. A pair of green eyes that belonged to another beauty kept appearing in his mind’s eye, and this proved to be distracting as he tried to talk to Julia.

  When Julia couldn’t put off heading to the Mansion any longer, she gave a good-natured ‘see you later, Sweetie’ to Lance and hurried to her assignment. She gave one backward glance before rounding the corner and was disappointed that his dreamy brown eyes hadn’t followed her. I’ll get you next time, she promised herself with a smile. She had had too much fun with Lance to give up on him that easily.

  Even before Julia had stepped off Main Street, Lance’s attention was on the paper in his hand. He read and reread all the clues before he would fill in any of the answers:

  ________________________107 Main Street

  ________________________1st Completed Building

  ____________________________Down, down, down, down

  ____________________________ You need a magic feather

  ________________________Holiday Hill

  ________________________31 Royal Street

  ________________________1964 World’s Fair

  ________________________Richfield Oil sponsor, better have a C ticket

  ________________________Kiss-O-Meter copyright date

  “This trip inspired the first Hidden Mickey in film. Look for El Lobo and tell him WED sent you.”

  Lance’s photographic memory came to his assistance. From all the research he had done with Adam, Lance remembered reading that the first completed building when Disneyland was built was the Opera House. After writing that on the second line, he slowly walked down Main Street looking for addresses to the different shops. This proved to be more difficult than he expected. Hardly any of the buildings had actual addresses on them. By the time he located a street address of 217 on the final building called the Refreshment Corner, it showed he had gone too far. He did realize the desired store would be on the same side of the street. Retracing his steps, he came to the huge, curved arch of the Crystal Arcade, the words spelled out in white lights. He wondered how he could have missed the address—it was on both sides of the marquee—107. He wrote Crystal Arcade on the first line.

  He now headed to New Orleans Square to see what was located at 31 Royal Street, hoping it was a restaurant. His stomach began to growl at the sweet smells coming from the Candy Palace that he had already walked by twice, the sugary aroma intentionally pumped through small round vents located at knee level.

  He smiled when he saw the number 31 was over the entrance to the Blue Bayou restaurant. Turning on the full power of his smile to a hostess at the reservation desk whose nametag identified her as Kerri, he managed to get a table right away. Ordering a bowl of clam chowder from the server, Lance munched on the sourdough rolls that were set quickly on his table. Dimmed to a perpetual dusk, the Blue Bayou sat on the edge of the well-known Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Sounds of the bayou that drifted across the dark water mingled with the sounds of boatloads of guests embarking on their journey into the world of pirates. A flash from a camera would light up the surroundings briefly, only to dim to nothing and leave the flashing fireflies as the only source of light around the bobbing houseboats. Croaking bullfrogs and distant screams of riders going down the waterfalls inside the attraction mixed with the dim clatter of silverware and plates being set and removed and the constant, soft murmur of guests eating inside the restaurant.

  Gregarious by nature, Lance was unused to dining alone. Yes, there were a few wistful glances being thrown at him by some of the female diners—some of whom thinking they’d like to change his solo status, or at least, spend time on a dark ride with him. But these glances went unseen by Lance as he intently looked at a piece of paper sitting next to him on the table while he ate. Not once did Lance even glance around the restaurant or make eye contact with any of the ladies. Lance did look up from his bowl one time, only to look at the ceiling and then he cast a longing look at the boats of the Pirates of the Caribbean as they drifted by. This place, this ride especially, held many memories for Lance: some good, some very, very bad. He supposed he was keeping himself in a self-imposed exile as punishment for his reprehensible actions. As he returned his attention to his steaming bowl of clams and broth, he figured he would eventually get over it, and probably far sooner than he ought. He smiled as he remembered the quote Beth had said to him once. For a brief moment, the image of Kimberly flashed in his mind, her soft green eyes crying over her deceased father, and that overshadowed his memory of dear Beth. For some reason, the woman had him transfixed. He was driven to solve the clue this time, not just for himself, but also to somehow help her. He hoped that the image of Kimberly crying was not going to be his last memory of her.

  Refreshed by the meal and leaving alone, Lance turned his attention to the quest at hand. He had no idea what ‘Holiday Hill’ meant nor the reference to a ‘Kiss-O-Meter’—even though he did like the sound of that one, and he knew there were at least two attractions that were brought into Disneyland after the World’s Fair in 1964.

  There was a display of old ride tickets inside the Opera House, so he headed back to Main Street and wondered why he didn’t think of it while he there earlier. The ride tickets used to be required to enter the different rides and attractions at Disneyland. From ‘A’ to ‘E’, each ticket had a different mo
netary value and was only good for certain rides. The ‘A’ tickets were only ten cents and were good for the vehicles that traveled up and down Main Street, like the Omnibus, and were also good to ride the Carrousel in Fantasyland. The ‘E’ tickets were for the best rides. Depending on which decade they came to the Park, the guests would see new rides printed on these premium money-green-colored tickets: Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Monorail, the Submarine Voyage, or Space Mountain.

  Lance found the glass-enclosed table that contained various Disneyland memorabilia. He located the spread of vintage Disneyland tickets, an information plate describing the various tickets, their historic beginnings, and when they were finally discontinued in 1981 in favor of unlimited Passports. Lance concentrated on the rides listed on the ‘C’ tickets shown in the display. Most of the dark rides in Fantasyland were on this white-colored ticket in the middle of the ticket book. Rides like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan, and Dumbo, in addition to the Autopia car ride that had a queue entrance in Fantasyland as well as Tomorrowland. Beth’s old ride, the Mike Fink Keel Boats, no longer ran, but it was recorded for posterity on the ‘C’ ticket as well. He looked back at the Autopia attraction printed on the ‘C’ Ticket—the cars that could be driven by children and ran on a track to keep them within the confines of the ride.

  A smile of satisfaction crossed his face. “Now, what other ride could possibly have been sponsored by an oil company?” Lance tapped the glass top then pulled out his paper again and wrote ‘Autopia’ in the second line from the bottom.

  He had another thought about one of the answers and left the Opera House on Main Street. He headed north up toward the hub in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and proceeded to weave through groups of people. He gave a tip of his imaginary hat to the Partners Statue of Walt and Mickey holding hands, displayed in bronzed glory in the center of the Central Plaza Hub. Lance walked around the center garden and casually glanced at the smaller bronze statues that all faced inward toward the Walt and Mickey statue. He paused just for a moment, looking all around the circular walkway, noting for the first time how appropriately each of these characters that Walt had created—or had embellished with his brand of story-telling—were all turned toward the middle, all facing Walt and Mickey; literally looking up to Walt as a child would look up to his father or mother. Lance smiled, nodding his head at the subtle reference the Imagineers intended when they designed the hub’s layout.

  Crossing the portion of Main Street that curved around the front of the castle, Lance walked across the drawbridge, under the dark arches of the Sleeping Beauty Castle and into the noisy bustle of Fantasyland. Peter Pan’s Flight was the first, most popular ride on the right; a few steps further was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Going around the glittering white Carrousel, he could hear its calliope playing a traditional carnival tune as horses galloped around in a circle to the delight of dozens of happy children sitting on their gallant steeds. He approached the soaring elephants of the Dumbo ride and watched the smiling gray elephants with outstretched ears as wings. Children and their parents flew around the Ringmaster Timothy, who stood upon a shiny mirror ball in the center of the attraction. Lance stood quietly near the exit as the gray pachyderms made their wide circle, going up or down at the whim of their young pilots. But, now, he wasn’t watching the circling ride vehicles. He was watching the ride operators as they walked along the line of waiting, eager guests. After asking how many would be riding, they would hand the youngest member a black plastic feather, telling them they would need this ‘magic feather to make Dumbo fly.’ The feathers would be collected as the guests entered their elephant and would then handed out to the next group waiting at the gate.

  Turning away from the ride, Lance pulled out the paper and looked at the fourth line clue: ‘You need a magic feather.’

  On the first of the off-set lines, Lance wrote ‘Dumbo.’

  Lance now had five out of the nine answers he needed. With a sigh, he headed back to Main Street and the City Hall. The large sign identifying the City Hall also had smaller letters that spelled out ’Information.’ It was the one place guests could find answers to questions and also served as the Park’s Lost and Found department. Adam would have had it all planned out rather than all this running back and forth. Lance gave himself a self-deprecating chuckle as he ran up the few steps into the cool interior of the ornate building.

  With the help of an old map behind glass on the wall, Lance found out that ‘Holiday Hill’ had been a mound of dirt that eventually became the site for the Matterhorn Mountain. It had also been named ‘Snow Hill’, the helpful cast member, Joe, informed Lance. “In the mid-1950’s, it was a popular place for picnics before the massive renovation of Tomorrowland and the addition of the Matterhorn.” Glad to have a receptive audience, Joe, a tall crew-cut, red-head, continued with his history lesson. “I guess there were lots of trees and picnic tables up on the hill.” Looking around to see where the other cast members on duty were, Joe then added with a smiling whisper, “And places for making out.”

  That reference reminded Lance to ask about the Kiss-O-Meter, which, at first, drew a blank look from the young worker. Then he got on the phone and called someone. After much pausing and an “I’m not kidding,” some old placement chart was found. “It’s in the Penny Arcade!” was the triumphant response. Not seeing an equal response out of his guest, the cast member added a reserved, “Really…,” as Lance had a look on his face that said, “I don’t believe you.”

  Joe stood there for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s some sort of game in the Penny Arcade…I guess.”

  With a “Thanks for your help,” Lance left the City Hall building and headed back up Main Street to turn into the brightly lit entrance of the Penny Arcade. As he went past Esmeralda, the talking robotic gypsy woman who promised to reveal his future for a quarter, he was tempted to see what Esmeralda saw in his future. However, he passed on her clairvoyance and walked into the Arcade, looking around at the various coin-operated machines that lined the walls of the room and older, more antique machines that were lined up in the center of the room. The Penny Arcade still held machines that dated back to the 1920’s. For a penny, you could look into the view screen and turn a crank to watch an old, black and white silent movie. For twenty-five cents, you could turn a handle and make a marionette of Pinocchio dance from his strings. And, backed against the wall, near the corner that lead into the Candy Palace, for ten cents, you could squeeze a bright silver handle and learn the power of your kisses.

  Smiling, Lance stood in front of the tall, bright machine. Every ten spaces up the scoreboard had a light bulb to tell you if your kiss was only a ten and ‘Amateurish,’ or a forty and ‘Intoxicating,’ or all the way up to one hundred and ‘Dynamite.’ The last poor soul who tried it had left the machine lit in the humble number thirty spot and would forever be known only as ‘Amorous.’ At least it wasn’t in the negative ten spot and he would be declared ‘Frigid’! Lance looked at the red heart on the top of the machine that enveloped a kissing couple. He would guess from the look on that man’s face that he ranked at least a ninety and was ‘Devastating.’

  After a glance at his quest sheet, Lance looked at the faceplate of the machine and quickly spotted the copyright date of 1940. He entered that number on the last line of the page.

  “I’d like to see how you rate.” A woman’s voice suddenly whispered in Lance’s direction as he finished writing the date on his sheet. Beside him was a tall, slender blond woman wearing a lime-green tank top and a short denim skirt.

  Lance turned and looked at the woman who appeared to be in her late twenties. “With my luck, I’d probably end up on ‘Lukewarm’.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” The woman smiled at Lance’s laugh and the dimples it carved into his cheeks. “I’d like to test your luck.”

  Normally, he would have played along, gotten the woman’s phone number, and looked forward to having di
nner with her at some point in the future. Now, with his preoccupation with the quest, the seriousness of what had happened to him, his thoughts of Kimberly and her dad, and the task at hand, Lance found himself viewing at this situation differently. “I guess we’ll never find out.” Lance saw the woman’s surprised pout and was sure she had seldom, if ever, faced rejection. “Sorry. Gotta go.” Lance turned and walked toward the arcade entrance.

  He didn’t even look back.

  Back on Main Street, Lance stood near the curb so as to not block traffic streaming down the sidewalk or on the street. He was left with only one open answer—the 1964 World’s Fair attraction. It would be either Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, or It’s a Small World. Wait, weren’t the dinosaurs in the diorama from the Fair also?

  The answer sheet now looked like this:

  Crystal Arcade

  Opera House

  Alice in Wonderland

  Dumbo

  Matterhorn

  Blue Bayou

  __________________

  Autopia

  1940

  Looking down the answer sheet, Lance tried to find a starting point on how all these answers related to each other. Two were buildings on Main Street, one was a restaurant, at least four of them were rides here in Disneyland, two were animated movies, one could be a location out of the country…. He shook his head. That wasn’t helping. There was no obvious reason to put them together that way. It had to be something else. Time frames? Alice and Dumbo, if they were talking about the movies, came out in 1951 for Alice and 1941 for Dumbo. The Matterhorn Mountain here in the Park was built in 1959; the Matterhorn in Switzerland…well, that wouldn’t work. The Opera House and the Crystal Arcade were there in 1955 when the Park opened. The World’s Fair was 1964. No, the years were all over the place. There had to be another angle.