Hidden Mickey 5: Chasing New Frontiers

by David Smith

  At the employee locker room, jumping in the shower, Blain washed his hair, dried off and changed into his black ‘skinny’ jeans, a navy blue V-neck tee-shirt—one with short sleeves the clung tightly around his biceps—and a pair of black tennis shoes, all in a matter of ten minutes. He ran down the steps of the locker room and took a shortcut across the south cast member entrance to Main Street, jogged across the lower Main Street hub, and shot across to the west Parade Gate entrance to Back Stage, next to the Fire Station and the Main Street Emporium. After a quick right turn, Blain went across the maintenance access path behind the back of the Tiki Room attraction and came back out in the “on-stage” area of the Park at the Jungle Cruise exit.

  Luckily, Blain saw that Joe was working the unload dock, part of the rotation for the ride operators on Jungle Cruise. Finding Joe instead of waiting to see if he was skippering one of the Jungle Cruise boats saved him a lot of time.

  “Hey, Joe,” Blain said, his hair still a little wet from his shower, and breathing a bit fast from the jog over from the locker room. “Here is the list for tonight. Give one to Bill and don’t forget we have our sound check in,” Blain looked at his watch, “one hour and ten minutes.” Blain took out two sheets of white paper, each with columns of songs broken down into four eight-song sets.

  “No sweat, Blain,” the much shorter, but good-looking Joe Dennis said, taking the sheets of Xeroxed papers. “See you at Capers around 7:45.”

  “Great. Should be a good show. Lot of CM’s are coming.”

  “Yeah, I know. I invited the cast members from Tiki Room and from Adventureland Merchandise. I also put our fliers up in the break rooms and the 4695 office. We should have another good crowd,” Joe said. The sound of another Jungle Cruise boat was heard coming around the last curve in the Jungle Cruise River. “See you there!” Joe added, as the Jungle Cruise boat filled with guests pulled up to the unload dock.

  Blain could relax. He had plenty of time to walk out to the employee tram, grab his car and drive to the Caper’s Club just down the street on Katella, even get a bite to eat. Having set up their band equipment and lighting the day before, all the five-member band had to do was plug in their instruments, turn on their amps, tune up, and start their first set of music. The only other member working at Disneyland was Grant who worked on the Mark Twain. Because he lived in the apartment above Blain, Grant got his song list slipped under his apartment door when Blain had left for the Part earlier this morning. It was J.T., their female lead singer who, because it was after six, would have already left her work at the Disney Dream Vacations office, a subsidiary of Disney Vacation Club. Her office was across the street to the west of Disneyland at the Disneyland Downtown Resort area. She usually was the first one at the Club and Blain would go over the set list with her when he got to the Club.

  Instead of going back the way he had come, Blain decided to walk out towards New Orleans Square. Thinking back to his day, the meeting of the two girls from Switzerland, Blain couldn’t shake thinking about one of them especially…Missy. Blain did feel a little disappointed that Missy and Laura had not shown up again. Throughout the rest of the day, each trip around the river, Blain scanned the walkways from the river; looking out across the thousands of indiscriminate faces for one face in particular, watching the benches, looking for baseball caps.

  There was something about Missy that he couldn’t put his finger on. She was not just very pretty, she had an air about her that was different than the girls he had seen or met before. And he didn’t think it was just the exotic accent or where she was from that he found interesting either.

  Blain strolled around the front of Pirates of the Caribbean where there were fewer people than earlier in the day. It was like clock-work; by six o’clock each evening, the west side of Disneyland was always far less populated than the mornings or mid afternoon.

  The sun was starting its slow decline in the sky over the tops of tall trees and the buildings of New Orleans Square. Blain loved this time of the day when shadows grew long across the river; the abundant green foliage of Tom Sawyer Island was an even more pronounced essence of emerald. The river itself, calm and flat with the Island rafts and canoes now closed, also added to the tranquil setting. Many people were sitting on the various benches, relaxing, taking in the calm, if for just a few minutes.

  Blain walked down to the river wall where the railing curved out like a metallic ribbon of dark green all the way from the Mark Twain landing which was several hundred yards to his right, to the now vacant raft dock to Blain’s left. Couples could be seen holding hands or with arms around each other, standing along various parts of the river wall. The Mark Twain, the only river vehicle that continued to run most of the night, was docked well to Blain’s right at its landing pavilion. Turning around, Blain casually leaned back against the rail. He looked back at the bench he had spotted the Missy and Laura at earlier. Taking a deep breath Blain sighed heavily as he let his lungs clear out the held breath. Some optimistic, romantic twinge in his body had silently hoped that there they would be, sitting where he had seen them before as if he living in some movie and the script called for a reunion back at their ‘special spot.’ Instead, an older couple sat, the man with a hat in one hand, his other arm around the shoulder of his wife.

  Blain smiled but was also disappointed.

  The Disneyland railroad could be heard chugging into the station up by the French Market, drawing Blain’s attention. To his right, he looked at the Haunted Mansion, now with real ‘ghostly shadows’ climbing the walls of the plantation-styled mansion.

  Just as Blain turned to go back, his heart jumped as he spotted Missy and Laura walking from the New Orleans train station towards Haunted Mansion. Blain eagerly walked around the planter and was about to walk up from behind them to say hi, but he slowed as he noticed that there were two guys behind them seemingly talking to the two girls.

  Something looked out of place. The guys were dressed in clothes that were a cross between “Goth” and “Grunge” or Heavy Metal, Blain couldn’t decide. Both the guys looked to be in their late teens or early twenties; both had silver, pointed studs on leather wrist bands and wide, matching belts.

  And both looked like they were trying to get the girls’ attention.

  Blain quietly moved behind the four, following now from a short distance. The two men suddenly stepped around the girls and then halted in front of them, turning to face the two women. Blain held back his approach and watched for a moment; he stood back by the large, round planter that separated the Haunted Mansion from the French Market.

  “Hey, come on ladies,” the first guy could be heard saying. As the guy came around to face Malaysia and Laura, Blain could see that he had a stud pierced in the side of his nose and two studs poking out from his lower lip; accessories, no doubt, to draw attention away from a very pitted complexion, Blain thought to himself.

  “Yeah, come on, join us on some rides,” the other guy who had two dangling pierced earrings on both ear lobes said and then added, “We’ll show you a good time.”

  Even from his position standing behind Missy and Laura, Blain could tell they were very defensive. Missy gave a quick glance to her side, obviously looking for some kind of help or a way out. Had she looked back behind herself, she would have seen Blain standing fifteen feet behind her. Blain saw that her shoulders were tense, pulled up and back. They were a little cornered, Blain could see, as they were at a narrow point where the railing of the planter on their right was fairly close to the wall and fence of the Haunted Mansion to their left. He couldn’t hear what Laura said back but he could tell it wasn’t what the two gawky-looking men wanted to hear.

  “Jeez! You two need to be taught how to have fun,” the first guy said; his black tee shirt had a small skull in white on the chest.

  The girls didn’t say anything; putting their heads down, they went around the two men and started walking faster. The two guys quickly turned towards the girls as they walked away and
yelled out, “Hey, come back here.”

  Blain walked quickly and almost caught up with them just as the one guy with the pierced lip grabbed the arm of Malaysia and spun her around. “Hey, I’m talking to you,” the guy said, grasping her upper arm.

  “And I’m talking to you,” Blain said with a low, authoritative voice behind the young man. Blain quickly moved in behind the guy holding Malaysia’s arm, tapping the man firmly on the shoulder. “I suggest you let go of that woman’s arm or you may just lose yours,” Blain said just as all four turned to face him. The expression on Missy’s face, as well as Laura’s, was of delayed identification after a brief moment when they didn’t recognize Blain in his street clothes and free-flowing blond hair. What they did notice quickly was Blain’s expansive chest and arms in his blue tee shirt.

  “What the…” the guy who had been holding Malaysia’s arm let it go and quickly turned towards Blain. Caught by surprise, the guy made a fist in his right hand before he got a good look at muscular Blain standing comfortably with his arms at his side. Confused, the other guy put his hands on his hips as he too turned to confront Blain. Casually, Blain set the manila folder he was still holding on the ground, as if he was going to need both hands to do something. He stood back up, looking even taller.

  “I suggest you think twice about using that,” Blain said nodding to the man’s fist which suddenly went slack. He quickly saw that Blain’s arms were as big as his own legs.

  The other guy either wasn’t so bright or was high on something making him feel invincible, considering the nature of the situation.

  “Go find your own chicks, you fool,” the other guy said.

  Blain laughed at the man. His buddy tried clearing his throat, as if to say, ‘Are you trying to get us killed?’ to his friend.

  Out of the corner of his eye, among the guests noticing the commotion, Blain saw across the way, Janette, the tall security guard that had given Blain his “birthday kiss” the previous summer. She was walking toward them as she noticed Blain obviously addressing two very homely looking men and two women who were standing just a couple steps away.

  Blain took a calm but deep breath, exaggerating the exhale while looking back at the two men in front of him. “I’ll tell you what; get away from these two very nice young ladies, and get the hell out of my face, or you both may not have a face by the time I get done with you,” Blain said in a quiet yet unmistakable voice. Crossing his arms, Blain’s chest seemed to expand and his arms looked like he had just done a rep of twenty curls with fifty pound dumbbells.

  Finally the guy with the stud in his lip realized that this guy, whoever he was, was very serious. Both of the men seemed to cower a bit as Blain took a casual step forward.

  “So, what do we have here, Mr. Walters?” Janette asked as she came up from behind the group who were facing Blain at the moment. All four of them turned to face the voice that had joined the party.

  Blain greeted the security guard who stepped up between Laura and Malaysia. “Hello Janette. Nice to see you on such a beautiful day,” Blain said sweetly. The two men looked at the security guard towering over them. Blain continued, “How about you pop that walkie-talkie off your belt and call Anaheim P.D. We have a couple stalkers here who don’t seem to know when to leave—or when to shut up.”

  “Cool, Blain. I haven’t had the opportunity to use my handcuffs for a while,” Janette said with a sly look at Blain. She turned to the girls. “Are these fellas bothering you?”

  Laura spoke. “Yes, they were being not just pests, but they tried to grab me and my sister.”

  “Really,” Janette said, with a ringing in her voice. “Assault too…interesting.” She looked at the two ‘undesirables’ who suddenly looked very scared. Then Janette turned to Blain. “Blain, I hope you don’t end up doing to these two boys what you did last week to those three unfortunate men who tried to assault one of our girls in merchandise. Didn’t the one require a cast and a few dozen stitches?” Janette paused for effect then added, “And wasn’t he the least injured?”

  “Well, Janette, we can’t have losers behaving like animals, can we?” Blain said, playing along since what Janette was describing never actually happened.

  Janette looked at the two young men. “So, what we have here is a similar case of assault? Is this what you saw, Blain?” Janette continued eyeing the two boys. Blain thought he could hear the studs in the one guy’s mouth clattering against his teeth.

  “Yep. Metal-mouth here grabbed this young lady’s arm and spun her around,” Blain said, looking directly at Missy. “And, quite frankly, I don’t think she felt like dancing.” Blain paused and then chuckled. “Heck, look at these guys. Would anyone want to be caught dead—let along caught dancing with such, ‘individuals’?” Blain accented the last word.

  He could see the two men squirming a bit; sweat was dripping down their foreheads.

  “We…we didn’t mean anything, just wanted to see if they wanted to go on some rides,” metal-mouth said, stammering.

  “And didn’t the girls tell you ‘NO’?” Blain asked, now talking to the two men as if they were both ten years old. “You DO know what ‘no’ means, right guys? I mean it is only a one-syllable word. Or do we need to start with colors and numbers first and then move on to more difficult concepts?”

  Janette grinned, stifling a laugh with a slight cough.

  “We, I…” the guy continued to stammer.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Janette said, wanting to clear the area since a number of guests had stopped to hear the confrontation. She looked down at the two men while unclipping her walkie-talkie. “You boy’s head off in that direction,” Janette pointed towards Critter Country with the rubber antenna of the radio. “If I so much as see you making a face at another guest in this park, I will personally call the Anaheim Police Department and escort you to our holding cell…yes, we have several of them here…and I will make sure you are indeed arrested for trespassing, harassment, assault and attempted kidnapping.” The two guys’ eyes opened wide, and their mouths opened simultaneously as if they were both going to say, ‘what!?’ Janette held a finger up. “I’m not finished. AND, I will have you both searched for weapons, drugs, and anything else you might have on your persons, and in whatever vehicle you arrived here in.” Janette paused and then leaned towards the two. “Do I make myself clear?” she asked, looking down on both men who were both shaking their heads up and down.

  “I can’t hear you,” she said sternly, her hands on her hips.

  “Yes, we hear you,” metal mouth said, speaking for both.

  “Okay, then start walking and don’t even think to look back.”

  The two men took their cue and walked quickly in the direction of Critter Country.

  “I’m sure sorry that you two had to experience that,” Janette said, talking to Malaysia and Laura after the two men were well away.

  “Oh, it was, um, interesting,” Laura said. “We have a few guys like that back home too,” she added.

  “I’m sure every civilized culture has a few moronic imbeciles running loose,” Janette said, nodding, looking back behind her, seeing the two men continuing to walk quickly away.

  Janette turned back to the girls. “You two know this guy?” She asked turning her attention to Blain who had gone back to pick up his folder still lying on the walkway where he had left it.

  Malaysia smiled. “We met earlier today, on the canoes.”

  Janette gave a knowing smile. “Yes, all of us female types here like to associate with those guys. They do make you feel a little safer, don’t they?”

  Malaysia smiled even more. “He certainly made us feel safe,” she said, looking at her sister then at Blain who was turning a bit red in the face as he stood next to the girls.

  “Why, Blain. Are you blushing?” Janette teased. Then she turned back to the girls. “You two have a wonderful, magical evening, okay?”

  “Thank you. I’m sure we will,” Laura said.


  Janette looked at Laura and then looked at Malaysia. “You look really familiar,” Janette said to Malaysia. “Have you ever been, like, in commercials?”

  Malaysia laughed. “Commercials? We’ve never been on television!”

  Janette shrugged. “You look like a movie star. You have that ‘look’.”

  Malaysia pulled her baseball cap down. “Thank you,” she said, now blushing.

  “Hey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You are stunning!”

  Janette then turned and punched Blain in the shoulder. “Good job, big guy,” she said with a wink as she turned and walked toward Critter Country, most likely making good on her threat to the two men.

  “Thank you sooo much,” Malaysia said. “You were in the right place at the right time.”

  Blain laughed. “Oh, something tells me the two of you could have handled the situation just fine,” Blain said.

  “Well, we didn’t feel that threatened here,” Laura said, looking around at all the people. “Lots of witnesses,” she said as a matter-of-factly. “But still, you helped out a lot.”

  Blain looked around then quickly looked down at his watch. “Oh, dang. I’m running late.”

  “We’re sorry, Blain,” Malaysia offered.

  “No, not your fault. My band is playing tonight and we have a sound check in,” Blain referred to his watch again. “Thirty-five minutes.”

  Malaysia knew exactly what he was getting ready for; yet again she felt a sense of disappointment. Here the green-eyed man appears in her life, only to vanish just as quickly.