by Gaby Triana
I bust through to the back edge of the petting zoo, straddle the wooden fence, and climb out onto the service road. The truck I saw before is up ahead, stopped, with lights on. The driver is hanging out the window talking loudly and laughing with someone throwing away garbage behind Pioneer Hall.
“Later.”
“Later, buddy!”
I need an excuse in place in case someone finds me snooping. My only defense is to say I got lost and ended up here quite by accident. Scooting along the road, I pray I don’t run into anybody, and eventually I reach a fenced-in area that says KEEP OUT. I’ve become quite the professional trespasser!
Behind it are the sounds of motors and machines, and I see the back-side, concave openings of the rock boulders from River Country. They hide water pipes and pumps. Leave it to Disney to make the world a stage. Great, so I got this far. But now I have to venture inside without anyone seeing me.
I hear employees inside, moving around, banging garbage containers, the swish-swishing of water being moved around by pipes, brooms, and who knows what. I’m behind the chlorinated pool with the two steep slides, but I can’t get in through here. I have to keep moving down this street. It’s hard to know exactly where you are when you’ve seen a place only once, but if I remember correctly, the Whoop ’n’ Holler slides are farther down that way.
My nerves are on high alert. I make it all the way to the end of the road without being noticed and slide through an open gate in the chain-link fence. Peering from behind a large reddish rock, I see someone coming carrying garbage bags. I scoot back behind a recess. Please, please don’t see me. Keep moving. . . .
I hear the fence gate close, then the sound of a Dumpster opening and closing. Phew.
To my right is the edge of Bay Lake. I’m close to the waterslide I need to find. But how do I get up there from here? I hope there’s a way to access it that’s not from the general-public side. Inching along the rock, I come around the curve and find a set of stairs roped off with a chain. CAST MEMBERS ONLY.
Why, that would be me. . . .
This is it. This leads to the top of the rock formation where I fell. Carefully, I step over the chain and head up the stairs. What if there’s someone up there, cleaning? My heart beats in my throat, and I feel the saliva in my mouth turning hot, as if I’m going to throw up, but I don’t feel a seizure coming on.
And, for once, I’m disappointed.
When I get to the top, I catch my breath and take in the view. It’s easier to understand the layout of the park now that there’s some light still left out. The winding slides are fresh and clean, not consumed by trees and dead leaves like when I last stood here. There’s actually a sandy beach where there was nothing but shrubs and clumps of trees before. River Country employees are lining up the chairs nice and straight and getting the whole place ready for another day of fun tomorrow.
It’s not a big water park like Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, but it’s quaint and private, and I can see how a kid—how anyone—could spend a whole day here having a blast.
I move over to the top of the slide, which now has a chain across it, too, closed for the evening. Okay, universe, God, or whoever is in charge . . . I hold on to the rock wall next to me and close my eyes, trying to feel the vibrations of this place. I really like 1982, seems like a great time. But I’ve learned my lesson. So . . . can I go home now?
Nothing happens. A warm breeze comes in from the lake, wrapping me in a summery glow, but that’s it. Please, this is killing my parents, I know it. I really like Jason and could definitely get to know him better, but . . . I need to go home.
Nothing.
Maybe it needs to be nighttime. Maybe my cell phone, interference, or electrical stuff had something to do with it. My phone was on at the time. I slide it out of my pocket and try turning it on again.
Dead. Deader than an abandoned water park.
I sit down cross-legged in the spot I last remember before I fell. There was someone—a security guard, most likely—chasing me; I won’t forget that.
I’m in the same spot I was two days ago but light-years away from home. Suddenly the stress of it all hits me. A wave of sadness rises into my throat. The anguish stings my eyes. Why is this happening to me? What do I have to do to get home? If my parents eventually accept that I’m missing or dead, how do I continue to live in this place and time?
Come on, seizures, when I finally need you for something, you’re nowhere to be found!
Inadvertently, I kick on the fiberglass slide, and the sound carries a short way, like a muffled gong. A moment later it’s like a genie appears behind me.
Except totally not a genie.
Jake’s arms are crossed, his legs apart, like a genie, but that’s it. “Well, look who we have here.”
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I was just going,” I say, getting up to leave, but Jake blocks my path.
“I don’t think so. First you appear out of nowhere, then you escape the clinic and my boss made us all look for you, and now you show up here after the park is closed. I’d say it’s time I made a call.” He lifts his walkie-talkie to his mouth, but I grab his arm and pull him down.
“No, please. Listen, it’s not what you think. Jake, right?” My eyes beg him to listen.
He glances at me sideways, unsure. “You’ve been hanging around my brother, haven’t you? No wonder I couldn’t find him anywhere after work yesterday.” He scoffs and shakes his head.
“I know it looks like I’m trespassing, but there’s a perfectly good explanation for it.”
“Which is?”
“Which . . . I can’t explain to you right now.”
He lifts his walkie-talkie again, but I block him.
“I will. I’ll explain soon, just please let me go. Don’t call your manager.” I look at him, and it’s amazing how much he looks like Jason, but with darker hair, a mustache, and brown eyes. And an attitude a little more . . .
He presses the button on his walkie-talkie anyway. “This is Jake at RC. I have an unregistered guest wandering the facility.” Evil.
“No!” I grab the walkie-talkie from his hand and hold it over the slide. He lunges forward to get it. “I’ll drop it! I swear, I will.”
“I could get in trouble if I lose that.”
A voice crackles through the speaker. “Copy, Jake. Security will be right there. Name your location.”
I pretend to fling the radio down the waterslide. “Don’t tell them. I told you I had a good reason.”
“I don’t care what that reason is.”
Great, now what? “Well, do you care that your girlfriend was hanging out with another guy yesterday while you were working?”
At this, he stops. His whole expression changes. “What do you mean? Oscar? He’s just a friend.”
“Are you sure?” I’m so using him. Of course he knows he’s just a friend, but I hope I’ve given him enough to think about so he’ll leave me alone. “I don’t know, she really seemed to like him. I’m just sayin’.”
“Give me the radio.”
“Don’t report me.”
“I already did. They’re on their way.” Our eyes lock. I want to punch him for being such a jerk. “I had to, I’m sorry. I can’t lose this job.”
My eyes shoot mental fireballs at him. “Thanks a lot.” I crouch down and hurl the walkie-talkie down the slide, hearing it make its way around the first bend. The water is turned off, but the slides are still wet enough for it to go winding its way around.
“No!” He jumps in after it, and I take advantage of the time it’ll take him to catch it before it hits the lagoon and climb back up to run off.
Quickly, I hustle down the stairs and over to the gate I came through, but it’s been locked tight with a chain. Ack! I climb the fence, curling my legs over the top edge, and jump down, losing a flip-flop on the other si
de. I reach under the fence to grab it, even though it’s slowing me down. But I won’t get far without shoes on boiling hot pavement.
Reach . . . and . . . got it!
Run. Run, Haley. . . .
I race down the service road, but halfway down I see a truck coming up the road. I duck behind some bushes next to a building behind the pool rock formation I saw when I first got here. There’s another gate open, and a lady standing right there, cleaning the sidewalk with a powerful spray hose. I stop to catch my breath for a second.
Her back faces me, and the hose is really loud, so I whisk right past her without her even noticing me. I’m in the bathroom and locker area. It’s still inside the water park, where there’s a network of sidewalks leading back to Pioneer Hall, but almost to the outside. No one notices me. Not one person.
Except my mom. Of course.
“Oh my gosh, you scared me.” She turns around and holds her chest while leaning over. “Haley, right?”
What is she doing here? I’m pretty sure the front gate must be closed at this time. How did she get in? And how do I tell my past-mom I don’t have time to talk to her?
I scan around, making sure Jake is not after me. “Yeah, Haley.”
“I guess I wandered in here by accident. Oops! Where is the exit again?” She laughs nervously. My mom, trespassing too? I see how my straight-laced dad thought she was a little too adventurous. She could get in trouble! Where’s my grandma if not watching her? “Hey, can I ask you something?” she says, leaning into me.
“Yeah, sure.”
“I saw that you were having lunch with that guy from the towel shack. What’s his name?”
Uh-oh. Don’t tell me she likes him too. That would be too much. “Jason?”
“Right, Jason.” She looks around, gathering her courage, then back at me. We walk to the front gate, which I see now was left ajar with a garbage can on wheels propping it open. “I guess that’s why you were in here too, waiting for him to get off work, huh?”
Yes, let her think that. “Oh, sure, right.”
“Well, do you know the guy that he and his brother sometimes spend time with? Medium height, brown hair, not his brother, but the other one?”
Aha. And so it begins.
I look at her fresh face, her beautiful mouth, her hair half picked up on the sides and held with two barrettes. I’m looking at the beginnings of me. Of Haley Petersen. I smile at her. “Yeah, Oscar. Oscar Petersen.”
“Oscar Petersen,” she says, trying the name out in her vocal repertoire. She pokes her head out the gate and opens it for us. “Come on, nobody’s looking. Yeah, that one. He stays in my loop every year. He’s so cute.” It’s almost as if she’s forgotten that I’m standing right here with her.
“He is. He’s perfect for you,” I say, and she looks back at me and smiles giddily.
“You think? But he never even notices me. He’s always with that girl.” She says that girl like Marsha is a bug that should be crushed.
“Oh, he will,” I say, looking at the way those words seem to make her whole being come alive. A moment ago she wasn’t sure of herself, and now I’ve made a goddess out of a geek. “He’ll get over her, don’t worry.”
She stares at me in disbelief. “Wow. Thanks, Haley. You’re a good friend. I know I’ve only known you a couple of days, but I don’t know what it is. . . . It’s like I’ve known you forever.”
I guess, in some way, we have known each other forever. And always will. I love you, Mommy. “Me too. Some people just click like that, huh?” I smile.
“Click, yeah.” She likes that word.
As much as I want to stand here talking to my mom, I have to move along. Jake could come running with security guards any moment now. A couple of cast members walk by the front entrance and glance our way, though they’re gabbing too much to realize we shouldn’t be here.
“We have to get out of here,” I mumble, hurrying toward the exit. “Catch you around later?”
“Sure. Where will you be?”
“I don’t know. Pioneer Hall maybe?”
“Well, I’m going back to Magic Kingdom with my family in a bit to see the fireworks. They’re over at the marina about to get the launch. I was here hoping . . .” She smiles sheepishly. “To find Oscar. I know I shouldn’t be.” She laughs to herself. “But he’s really cute. I just wanted to find him, thought he’d be with those guys who work here. You know what I mean?”
I nod. I totally know what she means, but, uh, we have to get out of here. “Yup. Anyway . . .” I try to hurry her along, but she doesn’t seem to care that we could get into trouble. Typical Mom.
“Wow, I’m hopeless, aren’t I? Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow, Haley.” She smiles.
“Okay, bye . . . Jenni.” There, I said it. Jenni Campbell. Soon to be Petersen. Then back to Campbell. Sigh.
As I scuttle off my way and watch her walk in her direction, something inside me twists. I know she will meet the boy of her dreams. She’ll fall in love with him. They’ll get married and have me. But for some reason—reasons that don’t make sense—things won’t work out between them.
So maybe . . .
I shouldn’t try so hard to get home yet. Maybe I should take advantage of this rare opportunity and tweak things however I have to. So that it won’t happen. So that my parents won’t have to go through that sadness, and neither will I. Then I’ll come back here and try forcing an episode again.
There’s one reason to postpone my leaving.
Way up ahead, as Jenni-Mom turns left down the marina path, I see Jason behind her to my right. He’s arriving in his cart, parking, and walking into the Settlement Trading Post. Make that two reasons.
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It doesn’t look like Jake is coming after me. He might’ve listened to my plea and told the security guards that it was nothing. Or he might be swimming in the lagoon searching for his walkie-talkie.
The Settlement Trading Post is a grocery and souvenir shop. I look around for Jason but don’t see him anymore. Inside, I find another T-shirt to wear, a solid green one with Chip and Dale over the pocket. I like it better than his mom’s shirt. Checking out what other girls are wearing, I also get a pair of long blue shorts with an elastic waistband that looks like something Anma would wear, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to put them on.
As I’m pulling out the fifty Jason gave me, I notice something—my phone is missing. Great. On top of everything else, I lose my phone. Where did I leave it? Suddenly, the horror hits me that I left it at the top of the Whoop ’n’ Holler slide. It must’ve slid out of my pocket when Jake caught me. I can’t even go back to get it. Ugh! I’m not worried about them turning it on. There’s no iPhone charger in 1982, but my pics . . . I took pics!
“You okay?” the cashier asks. Her feathered hair looks like it might crack if I tap on it, from all the shellac hair spray.
“Yeah, I just lost my phone,” I tell her. Stupidly, I realize.
“Your phone number, you mean? To the trailer?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” I hand her the fifty, and she gives me back a ten and a five, while some coins come rolling out of her machine into a little tray. I actually have change?
“Ooh, these are pretty trendy,” she says, folding up the pair of shorts. “Perfect for replacing your broken ones.” She smiles a sweet, grandma smile.
I’m too annoyed about my phone and hunger to be bothered by her comment right now. “How much for the Snickers?”
“Fifty cents, plus tax,” she says. “Do I ring one up?”
Bargain! “Two, please.” I would never, in a million years, have a Snickers bar at home. Coach would kill me. But I don’t see anything healthier, and at least this has protein in the peanuts. “Thank you.” I take my Disney World bag, rip open a candy bar, and head out the wooden doors.
I f
ollow the bathroom sign around a soft-serve ice-cream stand that I don’t remember being there in the future and change my clothes inside a stall. I can’t do the shorts. I just can’t. I leave my shipwreck shorts on but put on my Chip and Dale shirt. I put his mom’s back in the tote bag and head outside.
I stroll down to the marina, veering off under the pines, still reeling from the Jenni-Mom sighting. The night is alive with the sounds of crickets and kids laughing.
“Man, I’m too late.” I hear a voice next to me. When I turn, I see Jason standing there, looking fresh and showered and in a Journey concert shirt. Hey, isn’t that the “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” band? I’m totally impressed with my vintage music knowledge and, okay, Glee watching! He’s holding a brown paper bag in his hands. “I thought you might be hungry. Brought you something to eat.”
“Oh my God!” He looks so HOT! And I am very, very happy to see that food! I throw my arms around him in complete relief. Jason does not try to pry me off. In fact, he just laughs, and I feel his hand lightly wrap around my waist. Nice! “What’d you get me?”
“Some barbecue chicken and a sloppy joe. If you don’t like either, I can get you something else at the tavern.”
“No,” I say, opening the bag and ripping into a chicken drumstick. “This is perfect.”
He smiles. “A girl with a hearty appetite. I like it. Want to go sit?”
I nod, knowing I look like a troglodyte, not even able to answer with my mouth full of chicken, and, boy, do I know how to charm a man on a first date. Is this a date? We walk together to the edge of the water, me glancing around for any sign of Jake and the Mickey Police.
“Have you seen your dad?” Jason asks. I notice he’s wearing longer shorts now, like basketball shorts. “Are these more to your liking?” he says when he sees me eyeing them.