It All Started...

by David W. Smith

  She delightedly pounded on his shoulders and leaned closer to see what was inside. “What is it? What is it?” She was almost halfway over his shoulder.

  Lance, who was enjoying her nearness, had to tease. “Well, if you’d like to climb into my lap, you might see it better.”

  Deciding to jump over the bait and not take it, she nudged his arm again. “Now, don’t get fresh, Brentwood! What does it say? Is that another page out of Walt’s diary? Is there anything else in there? Can I see it?”

  Lance thoroughly enjoyed her enthusiasm. “You’re a lot more fun than Adam was. After we did our ‘breaking and entering’ at the warehouse in San Francisco, Adam gave me a lecture on honesty.”

  She gave him an adorable pout. “We didn’t break and enter,” she reasoned with a light sniff, “we just waltzed and borrowed. Completely different.”

  Lance gave a full-throated laugh. Enchanted by her, his arm moved to give her a hug, but he pulled it back at the last moment. He still wasn’t sure where all this would lead and didn’t want to misstep and ruin things. He pretended like he was talking to a judge at their trial, “Yes, Your Honor. ‘Waltzing and Borrowing’ is a completely legal maneuver. If you will refer to Section 40, Line 14 of the ‘Waltz/Borrow Law of 1942’, you will see that we were completely within our rights as citizens…. Yeah, I can see that going over really well. So, what does our next clue say…assuming it is another clue. It looks like all the others we’ve come across.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t take the Bar.” She was having too much fun to worry about any legalities right then. It was more fun to kid him back and gloss over any wrongdoing they may have committed. As she examined the ragged, yellowed piece of paper, she began to nod. “Yes, this has to be the next clue. Listen to this: ‘The ‘African Queen’ wasn’t shot on Manhattan or Catalina. Too many elephants.… Look for El Lobo’.”

  Also inside the grey capsule, along with the clue, they found a small animation cel. Kimberly and Lance now looked at it very closely, each of them frowning.

  “I don’t remember that scene.” Lance handed the cel over to Kimberly.

  “I don’t either. Perhaps it’s a conceptual drawing that wasn’t actually used in the filming of The Jungle Book. Wasn’t that the last animated film Walt worked on before he passed away?”

  Lance made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Wow, wouldn’t that be something if this was the last thing drawn by Walt?”

  Kimberly looked from the newest cel to the one Lance had found in Columbia—the Evil Queen’s Heart box. “Two hearts,” she murmured. “I wonder if that’s significant.”

  The new cel was a drawing of the villain Kaa, the hypnotic snake from the animated film The Jungle Book. His lower body was wrapped around a tree branch with the jungle drawn in as a background. His upper body was off the branch of the tree and formed a large heart. There were no other characters in the shot.

  “This is a strange scene.” Lance was thinking out loud. “Kaa wasn’t exactly a loving character, was he?.”

  “Well, what all do we have here to work with? The Jungle Book, The African Queen, elephants, a snake, El Lobo again, and two islands, Manhattan and Catalina—one of each side of the United States. And maybe another heart,” Kimberly counted off.

  “I’m going to see what I can find out about the movie The African Queen. I know Bogart and Hepburn starred in it, but maybe we need to know where it was filmed,” Lance suggested as he went over to his computer.

  Going online, Lance brought up various sites dedicated to the classic movie. Among the various tidbits of information, he quickly learned that a lot of the movie had been filmed in Uganda and Zaire in Africa, but about half was filmed on a man-made river in a studio in England as a protection for the actors. There were some scenes shot also in Turkey. “Oh, that reminds me…,” he broke off.

  Thinking it was some revelation about the clue, Kimberly eagerly looked over. “Yes? What?”

  “Turkey. We didn’t have lunch. I’m starved!”

  “Lunch!” she exclaimed, surprised. “How can you think about food at a time like this? We need to figure this out!”

  “But I’m hungry.”

  “You’re always hungry.” Pointing at the computer screen, she waved him back to work. “Keep at it. We already have England and Africa to cover, and The Jungle Book took place in India. Now you’ve apparently added Turkey to the list. That’s a pretty broad spectrum.”

  Muttering to himself about slave drivers and starving to death, Lance cleared the search engine on his computer. “I’m going to try something different. I want to see if there’s any tie to the movie The African Queen and Walt himself. He had to have put it in the clue for a reason.”

  He brought up a different search engine and typed in his request. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Gosh, I thought I had a brilliant idea. Wait.… Bingo! Look at this, Kimberly.”

  She came over and leaned over his shoulder to see his computer screen. He closed his eyes briefly as the scent of her subtle perfume washed over him. Down boy, he told himself yet again. You have work to do. “Look at the seventh entry down. ‘One of the head designers frequently used the movie The African Queen as inspiration for the Disneyland attraction, The Jungle Cruise’.”

  “Okay, now that you mention it, I do recall the first boats were designed to look like the one in the movie. But what about the Manhattan and Catalina references? Is there any mention of that?”

  Lance kept reading and then went back to try a different search. “No, I can’t find anything relating to either Disneyland or the Jungle Cruise. But Walt did mention elephants. The majority of the elephants were added to the Jungle Cruise around 1964. That would fit in our timeframe for the clues.”

  “How in the world did you remember that little tidbit? Did you just read it?” Kimberly wanted to know.

  Lance was still engrossed in his search. “No, not now. But, I must have read it at some point in time. If I read it, I will remember it.”

  “Fascinating.” She gave a half smile. “I’ll have to remember that…. There has to be something from either the movie or the ride that relates to those islands. Do you know anyone who works on the ride who might know for sure—someone who wouldn’t ask too many questions?”

  Lance thought for a minute. His face broke into a wide smile. “Drew. Drew Briggs. You know him? He’s been around forever. If anyone would know something about the Jungle Cruise, it would be Drew. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn he had even ridden in the ‘Disneyland Rambler’! I’ll give him a call.… He’s probably forgotten I dated his sister by now.... Lovely little red-head,” Lance muttered as he looked for his phone book in his middle desk drawer.

  “What in the world is a ‘Disneyland Rambler’? I’ve never heard of that.” Intrigued, Kimberly perched on the edge of Lance’s desk.

  “You’ve never heard of the Rambler? I thought for sure your father would have told you about it.” Lance finally found the address book buried under a sheaf of papers in his drawer. He hoped Kimberly wouldn’t notice that it was what would commonly be referred to as ‘A Little Black Book.’ He tucked it off to the side as he turned to answer her, his gaze falling on the pink tips of her toes peeking out of her sandals.

  Kimberly gave a knowing, feminine smile as she saw his attention waver and his eyes starte to travel up her leg. “Rambler? Hello!”

  Unabashed at getting caught, Lance threw her a wide grin as he leaned back in his leather chair and told her the story of the ‘Disneyland Rambler.’

  February 8, 1955

  Earthmovers and huge excavation buckets were hard at work, gouging deep trenches and holes in the dry soil of Anaheim. With the tires alone being higher than the men working near them, the machinery looked like fierce prehistoric beasts, crisscrossing back and forth across the sandy soil. One lone palm tree, only the top few feet showing above a tall berm of dirt, seemed to magically float across the skyline, the flatbed truck transporting the tree unsee
n behind the huge wall of dirt.

  A camera crew was set up in the bottom of the excavated riverbed; a large camera mounted on a tripod faced west where a dust-covered American Motors Rambler station wagon sat.

  “This is our latest progress report from the beautiful region of Southern California. We are ahead of schedule and making good progress,” Walt Disney reported with a coy smile, proud of not just what was taking place around him with the massive excavation and sculpting the river bottom and shorelines, but proud of the surroundings that soon would encompass his vision, foresight and imagination. Much like his many years of acting out unseen stories to his animators back at the Disney studios, conveying what he saw in his mind’s eye, Walt now shared his future with the world through the magic of Television.

  Disney held out one arm in a wide, sweeping motion, while he held a microphone in the other. “You can see how the earthmovers are scooping out rivers and lakes, literally transforming this area into a Tahitian setting fit for the embarkation of Disneyland guests on a wonderful excursion through Nature’s Secret World.

  “Let’s climb on board our personal transport—our very own Rambler Cross Country.”

  The four-door station wagon began its journey down a wide trench dug into the soil, traveling over a raised trail that would later become the guide rail for the boats that would follow. A few trees were seen on the high sides of the trench as the car made its bouncing way along the dry riverbed.

  “The first part of our magical journey will be these beautiful floating tropical gardens. You might not see them with your eyes just yet, but if you close your eyes and use your imagination, you will begin to see the flora and color that exists in tropical river valleys. As we go around this wide turn, we are now in Central and South America. See the bright flowers and birds that line the banks of the river on each side? This next sweeping turn heads us into the Caribbean, right into the heart of the everglades. These dry banks of dirt become a mangrove swamp with the help of your imagination. You can just see how it is infested with alligators.”

  The television cameras show viewers at home eager alligators slipping into the dark waters, noses up as they approach nearer and nearer. Jaws snapping, the clip now changes to show three alligators on a circular track going around in a pool of water. In a voice-over, Disney’s voice is heard, “Made of plastic and steel, these life-like creatures are ready to menace unwary guests.”

  The television transmission goes back to showing Walt in the Rambler, making a left hand turn along the dry river bottom. “One more turn and we go to Africa with birds calling from the treetops. Hear that noise? This is elephant country!”

  The scene shifts to show a baby elephant playfully squirting water over its own head as the mother protectively hovers nearby.

  The picture shifts to a backstage warehouse where a full size elephant stood on a wooden platform. Walt continues the narration: “As we can see, this huge bull elephant in our studio is a perfect match for the True-Life Adventure scene. Our artists are hard at work to make this big fellow identical to his real life companions!

  “Our Rambler is now approaching the makings of a waterfall.” The camera pans to a slightly taller load of dirt that is being formed to the right of the station wagon, with a large backhoe building up its sides. “It may look like just a mound of dirt, but, with the use of our working model, we can see how beautiful it will be with the cascading water—all 4000 gallons a minute of it!

  “We now turn onto the Congo River, the Zambezi, and Lake Tanganyika. See the lions stalking prey and the animals of the Serengeti Plain? Watch how the elegant giraffe bends down to eat the topmost branches of that tree. Now you can see how seamlessly the real blends into the plastic model as it bends down to nibble on some plastic leaves.

  “This is Zulu Land, a forbidden and dangerous territory where we will sail past a cannibal village.” Walt paused, then pointed to a flat area on the port side of the Rambler. “See that clearing? That will be the natives’ village as they celebrate the kill of a lion! This dry waterbed we are seeing will become the marshy home of the huge hippopotamus. Look how lifelike our models are as they are being tested in that huge pool.” A large metal pool of water three feet deep was now being shown; a family of hippos moving higher and lower at the water’s surface could be seen, water cascading over their bodies as they emerged before sinking down again. “Now they are sinking out of our sight, ready to spring again at the next boat!”

  The car continued its journey, weaving a little to avoid some potholes in the sandy bottom. “We are now at Lake Victoria, headquarters of the Nile. Our Rambler is now actually sailing under what will become a swinging bridge and an overhanging rock formation that will support the flowing waters of the waterfall we had passed in front of earlier.”

  The scene shifted again to a small striped-canopy boat as it made its tentative way under the waterfall. Water cascaded over the top, split into three streams by huge boulders on the top of the fall.

  “Hang on tight now. The Rambler gets rough running the rapids through this narrow gorge. It might look like barren piles of dirt, but imagine the white water rushing past our boat as we navigate the treacherous waters!

  “As we make this last turn, we now emerge into the quiet waters of the International Dock. After disembarking, we invite you to wander through the tropical bazaar and find exotic plants and curios from around the world.”

  Models of shops and restaurants are then shown, lining a busy shopping bazaar along the edge of the river. The arched dome of the Bazaar seems to offer guests cool shade from the bright sun outside. Pastel-colored buildings draw the eye and excite the adventurer’s mind.

  Walt turned back to the camera. “What will we find inside?” With a wink, Disney smiled and finished with a cliff-hanger. “You’ll have to wait until this summer to find out!”

  It felt odd to be in the regular line to ride the Jungle Cruise. Kimberly and Lance joined the other guests in the queue, weaving back and forth between the metal bars that were designed to look like bamboo. Since both of them worked in the Park, they could have simply walked into the ride’s backstage area…if they had been wearing their respective costumes. Kimberly, instead of an elaborate Princess dress and tiara, wore comfortable white shorts, a beige tank top that framed her lovely shoulders and striking figure, and equally comfortable sandals. Her looks were not lost on Lance; his eyes seldom left hers. For the first time, he saw Kimberly for what she truly was: a stunningly beautiful woman. His eyes softened more each time he looked at her. Kimberly was no longer his captor’s daughter. Even though he had never really been kept at the mansion against his will, the memory of her father holding a chrome-plated Magnum aimed at his head was something that was not soon forgotten. It had taken him this long to not only recognize and trust the man’s intent, but equally, it had taken him this much time to trust the daughter. His desire to trust her had overtaken his desire to suspect her intentions.

  Here, next to Kimberly in line for the Jungle Cruise, Lance had other feelings surface as well. Those, though, would have to be kept to himself until more time had progressed.

  “When you and Wolf discovered the capsule at El Lobo, where exactly did you find it?”

  Her question forced Lance out of his pleasant thoughts of Kimberly and her feminine virtues. “Hmm? The what? Oh, it was buried down a ways under a layer of dirt and rocks. It was hidden well enough to protect it from any random discovery.” Lance had already compared the find he and Wolf had made to the different finds he and Adam had made a few months earlier. Walt’s ingenuity against accidental detection had, once again, amazed him.

  The line moved a number of paces forward before stopping again near the steps that led to the upper level of the queue. This newer area wasn’t needed with the lighter-than-usual crowd at the Park that day. They could hear the hornbill bird squawk in the rafters of the upper boathouse. Kimberly stopped abruptly and turned around to face Lance. Lance, who had been thinking about
the capsule and the WED that had been carved into the rock formation, didn’t see that she had stopped and he bumped into her.

  “Oops. Sorry, Kimberly. I seem to be doing that a lot.” Lance gave an apologetic mutter and moved back a step.

  Kimberly smiled, enjoying the fact that, for once, he seemed totally disarmed. “Don’t worry, Lance.” A little teasing never hurt. “I don’t get mad. I get even.”

  Lance’s eyes lit up. Ah, this is an interesting development.Let the games begin, flashed through his mind. He gave a laugh. “And how do you propose you will ‘get even’?”

  “Oh, I have my ways,” was her mysterious reply as the line again moved forward.

  When the line stopped, Lance, with a forced attempt to get his mind back in focus, got back to their task at hand. He had to speak a little quieter considering the people all around them. “According to the map Drew got for me, the Jungle Cruise does have two islands. For as long as he can remember, they have been affectionately called Manhattan and Catalina by the cast members. These two islands separate the mainland from the internal ride elements. Drew told me that the rock formation behind Bertha, the elephant in the waterfall, is on the mainland side. I don’t remember seeing anything on the other side of the river as we pass the elephant bathing pool.” He paused, thinking about the few times he had ridden the Jungle Cruise. He had many friends, though, who worked the ride; Drew being one of the ‘lifers’ as cast members would label anyone who had made a career out of working at Disneyland. “I guess because of all the action and the way the boat turns away from the elephant pool, most people probably never even look out the other side of the boat.”

  Kimberly nodded as she, too, thought about the visual elements of the ride. “I guess we’d better take a better look this time. Maybe we can request to sit in the back.”