by David Smith
She returned his gaze and suddenly she felt like she was about to embark on a mysterious journey; taking a step with Blain into some unknown region of space and time.
Cupping Malaysia’s hand with his, effectively capturing the pendant between them, he held her hand tight.
Searching Malaysia’s eyes, Blain could tell that she felt the same heat from the pendant he had felt earlier and was starting to feel again. Suddenly, they were somewhere else, together. The vision was strong, unmistakable, and very, very real.
The vision lasted for only a moment. Blain released Malaysia’s hand and led the pendant back into his pocket. They looked at each other for a long time, absorbing what they had seen. A broad smile crossed between them and simultaneously they came together in a slow, deep embrace.
“Think it was real?” Malaysia whispered, looking up at Blain still holding him.
“Do you want it to be real?” Blain replied.
Malaysia laid her head against his chest for a moment and then she knew the answer. Nodding slowly against him, she knew in her heart and her mind, the vision was exactly what she wanted.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Blain kissed the top of her head, stroking her blond hair. For a moment, Blain could only think of what the pendent revealed. He then thought about what Nathan had written about it:
“A portal to the future; I’ve seen the future.”
Indeed. Blain and Malaysia had seen the future.
Their future.
EPILOGUE
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
4:12pm
“How are the rehearsals going for tonight’s show, Malaysia?” Wolf asked, as he met her and Blain just inside the Disneyland Security Office backstage behind Main Street. He shook hands with both.
Malaysia smiled. Earlier, the band was able to practice in the entertainment studios that were back stage. They worked out a special set of Malaysia’s music for the occasion. “This is such a wonderful experience. The band is so excited about playing here at Disneyland tonight; I can’t tell you how much fun we are all having. However, I think Genevieve is having the best time visiting the Park today! My sister Laura has been taking her to all the best rides and shows.”
Wolf smiled. “Hey, I heard your show last night at the Honda Center was incredible,” Wolf said. “We are so excited for your performance here.”
Malaysia smiled broadly, but it seemed different than a smile of excitement for this evening. In fact Wolf thought both of them seemed to have ‘poker faces’ when he looked at them. But, with her big show at Disneyland tonight and all they both had been through, he passed it off as their sign of anticipation.
The three of them were walking through the hallway that led to the stairs that went up to Wolf’s secluded office. “Thank you both for coming over again,” Wolf said, as the three walked towards the back of the building. “I wanted to let you know about the response from the radio stations, newspapers, and television on the press release we ran this morning for your show tonight,” Wolf said, smiling. “We shared just a bit about your help in solving our little mystery while visiting the Park this week. That got the phone calls coming too.”
“That’s great, Wolf,” Malaysia said.
The three were quiet as they reached the stairs that led up to his office.
“Wolf,” Blain said, stopping Wolf before they started up the steps. “Malaysia and I would like to discuss something else with you in your office, privately, if we could?”
“Of course, Blain. Let’s head up there now.”
Blain and Malaysia were sitting in the same chairs in Wolf’s small office that they had sat in the day before when Wolf described to them the significance of their discovery and their reward for the recovery of the stolen money. This time it was Wolf who seemed to be uncertain of their visit.
Wolf leaned back in his chair, looking expectantly at Malaysia and Blain, wondering why specifically they had wanted to see him. Again, he detected a hint of mystique in both their faces.
Blain indeed had an odd look on his face as he reached out and held Malaysia’s hand.
“Do you want to tell him or do you want me to?” he asked looking at Malaysia.
“Tell me what?” Wolf asked, looking back and forth between the two.
“I don’t think words will be adequate, Blain,” Malaysia said. “Show him.”
Wolf looked at the young couple now with even more confusion. “Show me what?”
Blain reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out the pendant.
“This,” was all Blain said as he let the pendant dangle a moment then lowered it onto the center of Wolf’s desk. Blain leaned back in his chair, watching the expression on Wolf change from confusion to a cross between disbelief and rapture.
Wolf’s eyes widened. “How…” was all he could get out as he slowly reached forward with both hands looking like if he moved too fast the image of the pendant would suddenly vanish from his view as it had more than forty years earlier. The chain and gold setting were heavily tarnished but the red heart-shaped stone was brilliant, radiant under the fluorescent office lighting.
“Today, Malaysia and I…,” Blain stopped, knowing it would be hard to explain the Indian Village and how they came to find the pendant. “Well, let’s just say we stumbled upon the pendant this afternoon while in the Park.” Blain knew that Wolf would definitely want to know where the pendant had been found, especially after more than forty years of wondering. However, at the moment, he just let the moment sink in for Wolf.
Wolf carefully picked up the pendant, looking at it like he had just been given the keys to the pearly gates of heaven. “I don’t know what to say…” Wolf whispered, holding the chain up so the heart-shaped gemstone swung freely between his hands. Blain and Malaysia could not have guessed the depth of value that Wolf placed on the stone. But the look in Wolf’s eyes told them that the pendant was beyond extraordinary or priceless. Of course, the two of them knew what the pendant could do. However, beyond their shared vision back in the Indian Village, they chose not to explore its power any further. They felt they had already been given a wonderful gift. They didn’t feel the need or the desire to know more.
“Did you…?” Wolf started to ask a question looking from the pendant to Blain.
“Touch it?” Blain asked, raising his eye brows. “Of course.” Blain looked over to Malaysia who was smiling; a knowing look passed between her and Blain.
“And Wolf,” Blain said, moving his eyes back to the Wolf, holding his gaze for a moment. “I understand the pendant’s power.” He paused and then added, “I can’t explain it. But, I understand it.”
Absently, while moving his eyes back to the pendant, Wolf almost whispered, “What…What did you see?”
Blain and Malaysia smiled at each other with an expression of deep contentment…a sense of happiness that could only be described as two people who were not just in love, but somehow knew where their love would take them.
It was Malaysia who answered Wolf’s Question. “We saw what we already knew.”
Monday Morning, March 1966
3:12am
Winds swirled, lightening crisscrossed the heavy air, and the waters near the back side of Tom Sawyer Island curved inward forming a vortex of circulating currents. In a sudden flash, the lightening subsided leaving behind a trailing tail of sparkling, twinkling light. There was no explosive boom to follow, no crackle of thunder, only the diminishing curtain of what looked more like fireflies than the strange electrical confluence that ignited the darkness for a moment.
Wolf paddled the Zodiac inflatable boat that he had taken directly into the portal of chaos, traversing across the threshold of time and space. He knew his arrival would have been observed by any witness as something extraordinary—if not indescribable. One moment the river was dead calm, the next it resembled something of biblical description, and then the next moment it was as void of movement as it was before. However, the sudden appearance of a m
an in a strange looking watercraft would have made anyone witnessing the event second guess their own sanity. Wolf had made sure that his arrival would be during the time of day in 1966 that he knew would be least likely observed. The Park was closed on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, and most of the early morning maintenance work was done on Tuesdays.
Staying close to the foliage that lined the shore along the river, Wolf paddling in the darkness towards Fowler’s Harbor where the three-mast sailing ship, Columbia was moored in her narrow dock. Wolf found where he could tie up the Zodiac in a narrow space between the Columbia and the dock, a space where a ladder was located, a ladder which divers would occasionally use to work on the underwater track which both the Columbia and the Mark Twain steamship used to circumnavigate Tom Sawyer Island.
After he pulled himself up the ladder, Wolf walked towards Frontierland, skirting the construction barricades of the new area, New Orleans Square, which was nearing completion. The area was shadowy, dark, void of color and any significant light. A couple nightlights perched atop temporary telephone poles within the construction zone provided minimal illumination on the construction side of the barricades. The lights cast eerie shadows of cranes and building facades visible from over the tops of the plywood barricades.
Wolf walked quickly, moving from Frontierland to Adventureland and then out to Main Street, U.S.A. Turning right, he glanced at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and the ominous Matterhorn that towered to the right of the castle. Against the predawn darkness, the snowcapped mountaintop looked more like a shadowed iceberg protruding from an ocean of landscape below.
He had not allowed himself a smile yet, though Wolf knew he was close to making everything right. He reached down to his pocket, feeling the small box safely secured within as he walked towards an unmarked door on the left side of Main Street. Wolf walked up the two steps that lead to a small porch in front of the nondescript door where he paused; turning around he looked out from the slightly elevated porch. Glancing down Main Street to the south and then back to the hub at the north end of Main Street, Wolf, for the first time since he had come through the vortex, let the side of his mouth curl up, his blue eyes now framed with a look of accomplishment. Quickly, he pulled out an otherwise ordinary key-ring from his pocket and turned back towards the door. He slipped the lone key on the ring into the lock and opened this very special door.
With all the respect and solemn reverence deservedly offered, Wolf carefully lifted the glass bell-jar that sat on the small table in the middle of the unique room that was up a narrow flight of stairs from the door he went through on Main Street. Looking around, he smiled at all the boxes with the various dates and labels that filled the room. Memories, accomplishments, personal mementos filled the hidden room. Wolf knew that he finally had accomplished the last key request with which Walt Disney had entrusted him.
After slowly setting the glass dome down on the floor, Wolf took the pendant out of the special box he had transported it in. He carefully lifted the pendant by its chain, holding it up. Even in the limited light provided by the single bulb that was in the small ceramic fixture on the ceiling, Wolf could see the gem cast radiant beams of refracted light around the room. Wolf spread the chain across the special frame he had designed for the exquisite necklace so that the red heart diamond remained suspended above the table. Once the pendant was hung on the display, Wolf watched, mesmerized momentarily, as the large jewel swayed back and forth slightly from its braided gold chain.
Reaching down, Wolf picked up the glass dome and lifted it up over the pendant. With care, he slid the protective container over the spectacular gem, sealing it inside.
“It is now where it belongs, Walt, waiting for you,” Wolf said out loud. “Welcome home.”
Monday, July 26th, 2010
The Air France Airbus A320 landed smoothly on the runway in Belp, Switzerland. The soft double bump of the wheels making contact with the runway signaled to those on board that they had arrived, many waking up from the long flight from Los Angeles, California as the cabin lights were turned on and people pushed up the shades covering the small windows on board. Passengers stretched and began gathering up their carry-on luggage around them. When the front door of the plane was swung open, the passengers slowly migrated off the airplane onto the jetway then dispersed throughout the upper floor of the terminal.
Moving down an escalator, some passengers exited the ramp and turned towards to the baggage claim terminal; a few went directly to ground transportation just outside the sliding glass doors below signs that said “EXIT” written in both English and German. At the base of the escalator scattered to the side, dozens of people were gathered, some holding up signs with people’s names, others just waiting with excited, anticipating expressions.
Adrien and Savannah Hosiner anxiously waited with others who were also looking for familiar faces.
Suddenly, the couple started waving as they saw their daughters Laura and Malaysia coming down the escalator. In front of the girls, who were standing side by side on the moving steps, was Genevieve Schroder who had an anxious look on her face as she didn’t know if Malaysia’s unannounced return home had leaked out to the Swiss media. Scanning the people around the waiting area beyond where the escalator let out, she was relieved to not see any television cameras or newspaper photographers present.
“Mama, Papa!” Malaysia said in her native Swiss-German language, stepping off the escalator and running up to her parents who hugged her tightly. Laura followed closely and took her turn in their parent’s embrace.
“Welcome home, Genevieve,” Savannah said giving her daughter’s manager a warm hug as well.
Genevieve smiled. “It is good to be back,” she said. “Let me go check on the baggage while you catch up.” Genevieve smiled at Malaysia, actually wanting to stay and hear what Malaysia was going to tell her parents about her little trip to the U.S. Certainly, the tour was not only a wild success, but Malaysia’s adventures were on a whole new level of excitement.
“So, tell us all about your trip to America!” Savannah asked, holding Malaysia and Laura’s hands. “Was it exciting? How were your shows?” Malaysia’s mom peppered them with questions. “Your letters and phone calls spoke about some mystery? What was that all about?”
Malaysia could only grin, thinking back to all that had happened to her at Disneyland and other places she had visited. “Mom, I don’t even know where to start!”
“So did you see fascinating places or meet any interesting people?” her dad, Adrien asked as the group stood out of the way of other exiting passengers who were stepping off the escalator. A few others stood back behind the four, out of the way.
Malaysia grinned at her sister who smiled and then nodded. Malaysia stood there for a long moment looking from Laura to her mom and then her dad. Taking a deep breath she, squeezed both their hands.
In English, Malaysia said, “Mom, Dad…I want you to meet someone.”
Coming slowly around from behind the group, Blain smiled.
“Mom, Dad, this is Blain Walters,” Malaysia said, proudly taking Blain’s left hand in hers, interlocking his fingers with hers as he extended his right hand to Malaysia’s parents. “Blain, these are my parents, Savannah and Adrien.”
“It is a pleasure meeting you both,” Blain said in practiced Swiss-German.
Shaking Blain’s hand, both Adrien and Savannah turned to Malaysia then to Laura and then back to Malaysia with most puzzled looks on their faces.
Malaysia tilted her head back and laughed for a moment, shaking her head as she put her arm around Blain’s waist. “Mom, Dad…you won’t believe my trip to America!
THE END
References
While much of the details and information about Disneyland are from my own personal experiences both working at as well as visiting the Park on hundreds of occasions, there are many more detailed elements that I researched which I felt contributed not only to the story, but to the understanding of how Walt D
isney may have thought. Below is a list of specific books that provided additional information that I used to create a better understanding of elements within the book as well as offering insights that I felt were as important to the story and might have interest to the reader.
Disney Quote: “The important thing is the family...” Disneyland: The First Quarter Century; Walt Disney Productions; Page 115.
Prologue: Sequence based on Walt Disney’s statements represented in Disneyland: The First Quarter Century; Walt Disney Productions; Page 11.
Disney Quote: “The important thing is the family. If you can keep the family together—and that’s the backbone of our whole business, catering to families—that’s what we hope to do.” Disneyland: The First Quarter Century; Page 115.
Quote before Chapter 1: “I put in all the things I wanted to do as a kid—and couldn’t.” Reader’s Digest, 1960
Quote before Chapter 3: Eric Sevareid, CBS Evening News, Dec., 1966. Quoted from, Disneyland, The First Quarter Century, Walt Disney Productions. Page 83.
Quote before Chapter 4: “Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.” Quoted from Disneyland, The First Quarter Century, Walt Disney Productions, Page 111.
Chapter 4: 1954 Flashback: WED Offices: reference: Disneyland: The Nickel Tour; Page 17. WED information: The Nickel Tour; Page 16.