Finn looked up to see it had landed in a shield carried by one of Shan-Yu’s warriors. Mulan’s two warriors, two boys older than him whom Finn hadn’t seen until that moment, pulled on paddles. The canoe moved swiftly away from shore and out into the flashing lake. Color rained from the sky.
“You are safe now,” Mulan said. “We will pick up your friends at the bridge and we will carry you however far you need to go. The river, it is long.”
Charlene looked down at the spindle in Finn’s hand.
“We got it,” she said.
“We got it,” Finn echoed.
MRS. WHITMAN PICKED UP FINN, Maybeck, Willa, Dillard, and Charlene from Downtown Disney, where Mulan had dropped them. The conversation in the canoe had gone something like this:
“So,” Finn said, “are you really Mulan, or a Cast Member playing Mulan?”
“Let me ask you something,” the beautiful warrior woman responded. “Who were you running from just now? Cast Members?”
“Ah…yeah…okay. I get it,” Finn said.
Dillard looked confused, but impressed. Maybeck and Willa remained silent, kneeling near the second thwart from the stern. They looked back toward the shore, bewilderment on their faces.
Maybeck said, “No matter how much I think I’m used to what goes on here, it still freaks me out.”
The Chinese warriors navigated the lake, weaving the canoe between the exploding barges of fireworks, the air heavy with the tangy smell of gunpowder.
“By now, the Reflections of Earth team, led by Sam, has seen us,” Mulan explained. “Sam is the Crew Chief. His men have powerboats, and we are forbidden from being out here, so, unless you would like to explain yourself to Park Security, which I have no intention of doing, I would suggest you pick up a paddle and help out.”
That put all conversation on hold. Charlene, Dillard, Finn, Maybeck, and Willa grabbed paddles and began digging into the water with all their strength. The canoe raced silently across the black surface of the lake.
The gigantic globe of the Earth was spreading color across the water.
“If we can make it to the bridge at France before Sam catches us,” Mulan called out, “we can play a trick on him.”
Everyone put their backs into it. The canoe moved smoothly and silently. They left the fiery barges behind.
“We’ll be harder to see over there,” Maybeck said.
Mulan explained, “The light from the barges will blind them. It’ll buy us some time.”
Finn saw a powerboat zooming toward them.
“That would be Sam,” Mulan said.
“Faster!” Finn cried out.
Less than five minutes later, Sam’s Security boat motored beneath the bridge leading to France. On the walkway that was meant to imitate the quay along the river Seine in Paris, there were some boxes, a bicycle, a chest, and an upside-down canoe.
Hiding beneath the inverted canoe, tucked into balls and holding their shins, were two warriors, Mulan, and five kids, with barely an inch of space left over. The motorboat turned, heading back into the lake.
Now, riding in the Whitmans’ car, Finn needed yet another favor from his mom.
“We need to make a stop.”
“Finn…”
“Please.”
“Am I not supposed to ask why?”
“If you ask, I’m going to have to lie, and since I don’t lie to you, it might be better if you don’t ask.”
She huffed. “Dillard, what, if anything, do you have to do with all this?”
“I’m an innocent bystander.”
That cracked up everyone in the car.
“My sense is, Dillard,” Mrs. Whitman said, “that no one in this car, including me, is entirely innocent.” That quieted them down. She said, “Where to?”
Finn gave her the address by intersection. He added, “It might be good if you stopped, like, a half block away.”
“Finn?” she scolded.
“I’m just saying.…”
“What have I gotten myself into?” Mrs. Whitman complained.
“We’re trying to save someone, Mrs. Whitman,” Charlene said.
“Someone important to us,” Maybeck said, in a rare moment of genuine concern.
“Someone who needs us,” Willa added.
Mrs. Whitman nodded thoughtfully. “If I were a kid again,” she said, “I would want you all as my friends.” From then on, she didn’t ask any more questions.
Finn and Willa met Jess in back of Mrs. Nash’s house. Maybeck and Dillard staked out the street in case green-eyes were secretly watching the foster home. Charlene stayed by the car, having borrowed Mrs. Whitman’s phone to call Philby to catch him up.
Jess looked tired and unwell as they huddled in the shadow alongside a freestanding garden shed behind Mrs. Nash’s house.
“How is she?” Finn asked.
“Nothing,” she answered in a whisper. “She hasn’t moved. Hasn’t changed one bit.”
“These should help,” Finn said producing the acrobat’s spindle. Willa passed her the weaver’s spindle. “You’ll need to carve off a splinter and prick her finger.”
“I really do not want to do this,” said Jess.
Willa said, “Think of it as giving her a shot. She’s going to wake up. This is all going to be over.”
Jess’s sad eyes said it all: she didn’t believe Willa. She may have wanted to, but she didn’t.
“We’re going to wait here,” Finn said, “for the good news.”
“You can’t stay,” Jess said. “Mrs. Nash is inside. Supposedly I’m putting out the trash,” she said, indicating the bulging plastic bag at her feet. “I can’t do this until later. I’ll e-mail you,” she said to Finn, “depending what works out.”
“You’ll let us know right away?” he asked.
“As soon as I can.”
“We’ll be waiting,” Finn said.
“Yes. I know that.” She thanked them both.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Willa asked, deeply concerned.
“She’s so still, so…”
Dead-looking, Finn thought. He’d carried her. He knew.
“It’ll be over soon,” Finn said. “She’s going to be fine. Reverse the curse.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Jess disposed of the sack of garbage, slipped the two spindles down her pants to hide them, and returned inside.
“She’s bad off,” Willa said.
“Yes. I noticed.”
With everyone back in the car and Mrs. Whitman driving, she dropped Maybeck off first. Once outside the car, he leaned back in and gave Willa a hug.
“You were great tonight.”
“You, too.”
He ran down the driveway and was gone.
Willa was next. She sneaked around the house to slip inside. There was no car in the drive; thankfully, she’d beaten her mother home. Then came Charlene, whose mother waved to Mrs. Whitman from the front door.
“Dillard Cole,” Mrs. Whitman said, “does your mother know where you’ve been?”
“Ah…”
“He’s been over at our house,” Finn said. “Kinda.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Mrs. Whitman.
Finn stopped his friend with a hand on the shoulder. “Dude, you were awesome tonight.” Finn smiled. “Just don’t ever do it again.”
“It was way cool.”
Dillard said good night and headed inside.
“It’s nice you two are connecting again.”
“Mom, don’t get all mushy on me.”
“It’s Amanda,” his mother said to Finn. “You contacted Jess, so it must be Amanda.”
“It is,” Finn said. Long ago, he’d promised never to lie to his parents, and he worked daily to keep that promise. He could, and did, stretch the truth when needed, but he never outright lied.
“You needed something from the Park to help her.”
“Yes.”
“Did you get it?”
“We think so,
yes.”
“So you stole something from Epcot.”
“Borrowed.”
“Finn?”
“Borrowed. We will return them. I promise.”
“Them,” his mother said.
She was way too smart. He couldn’t give her this kind of data to work with. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, Mom. We should leave it at that.”
“I believe a lot more than your father believes.”
“I know that.”
“Speaking of which, you let me handle your father when we get home. Go along with whatever I say.”
“Aye, aye,” Finn said.
“And don’t try anything without telling me first. We’re in this together now, Finn, like it or not.”
Not, Finn thought, but didn’t say. “Okay,” he answered.
His mother tried too hard with her explanation. She would never make a spy. Finn’s father gave him the corner-of-the-eye look that typically made Finn feel like running straight to the bathroom. Instead, he shrank off to his room feeling troubled, the sound of the blade coming for his neck still fresh in his ears. What if he’d misjudged his sense of all clear? What if the all clear had expired more quickly?
* * *
The simplicity of Jess’s e-mail message compounded Finn’s pain.
It didn’t work. Thanks for trying.
He stared at the computer screen as if by just looking it might change the message.
Neither spindle had worked. What a stupid idea it had been! Finn had been so convinced that reversing the curse would do it.
He convened an emergency video conference. Philby, Willa, and Maybeck were able to attend. Charlene’s mother had turned off the family Wi-Fi for the night, so she followed along on the family’s landline telephone, with random updates from Willa.
Philby said, “I thought one of the spindles would work. I have to tell you, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.”
Charlene said, “They were the only two Google hits that make any sense. But remember, in the movie it’s a spindle from a spinning wheel.”
“She’s right,” Philby said. “I’ve been doing some research…”
Surprise, Finn thought.
“…and in the original fairy tale, after the curse is put on the princess, the king forbids anyone from owning a distaff or spindle. The distaff holds the raw fiber; the spindle collects the spun thread. Spinning wheel,” he emphasized. “And when you Google Disney World plus ‘wooden wheel’ you get a single decent lead: the waterwheel on—”
“Tom Sawyer Island,” Finn said.
“You got it. A wooden wheel.”
“I’m not liking this,” Maybeck blurted out. He and Finn had once been attacked on Tom Sawyer Island by Stitch and had been made to swim among alligators.
“The spindle thing was your idea!” Philby protested.
“But this is so totally OT,” Maybeck said. “They put a spell on Amanda and the only solution leads us into a trap. I mean, come on!”
“Relax. We can’t steal a waterwheel,” Finn said.
“No,” Philby said, agreeing. His voice held that know-it-all tone that Finn had come to resent. “But what if we could bring Amanda to it?”
“She’s down for the count,” Maybeck said.
“That’s right,” Philby said. “She’s asleep.”
Maybeck broke the resulting silence. “Are we done?”
Finn answered, “Philby’s saying that if Amanda is asleep then technically he could cross her over.”
“WHAT?” Maybeck exclaimed.
“Why not?” Philby asked. “When we’re asleep we cross over.”
“Is that possible?” Charlene asked. “You’re saying she’d awake as her DHI?”
Philby answered, “It’s possible. I think it’s worth a try. We cross her over, prick her finger with a piece of the waterwheel, and when I Return you all, the Amanda at Mrs. Nash’s wakes up.”
“Let me spell this out for you,” Maybeck groaned. “T-R-A-P.”
Charlene objected. “The OTs couldn’t possibly think we’d cross her over, Terry. Whatever they may have planned, it can’t be this.”
“And remember,” Finn said, “they wanted Jess in that spell, not Amanda. Depending on the green-eyes, they may not even know it’s Amanda who’s down.”
“It doesn’t change it from being a trap,” Maybeck said.
“We owe it to Amanda to try anything we can think of,” Finn proposed.
“But what about the bigger picture?” Maybeck said. “The jailbreak? It’s going down tonight, right? Sally Ringwald basically told us so.”
“So you and Charlene will go to sleep dressed to cross over in case Philby detects network traffic. Does that satisfy you?”
“I don’t like it,” Maybeck said.
“By tomorrow morning,” Finn said, “Mrs. Nash is going to drag Amanda off to the hospital. Maybe even sometime tonight. We know how dangerous that is for her. Philby knows.”
“It only makes things worse, Maybeck,” Philby said. “Much worse.”
“We can’t just sit around talking,” Finn said. “We tried and failed. So what? We’ve got to try everything. A wooden wheel. Who knows? That could be it. I can let Wanda know our plans. She might help.”
“Or she could be the traitor,” Maybeck said. “We’d never suspect someone who’d been arrested, would we?”
“So noted,” Finn said, experiencing a chill. “And if it is a trap, or she’s a traitor, then it’s going to be up to you and Charlene to get us off the island.” He would send Jess an e-mail keeping her in the loop, keeping her hopes up.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Maybeck said.
* * *
Finn arrived in front of Cinderella Castle alone, sitting a few feet from the Walt Disney–Mickey Mouse statue at the center of the hub. He waited, and waited, knowing Philby’s next attempt would be to cross over Amanda.
He caught himself holding his breath as a shimmering image of Amanda lying down appeared, and then fizzled and faded as he watched.
“Come on.…” he muttered.
The same image reappeared. It grew stronger and more solid, and the blue line formed around it.
Amanda blinked and opened her eyes.
Finn swallowed away a knot in his throat.
“Can you hear me?” he said.
She blinked, but did not look in his direction. The spell seemed to still be holding her.
“It’s me,” he said. “We crossed you over into the Magic Kingdom. I think we can help you.”
Her eyes popped open again.
Finn scouted the area for signs of OTs. He felt vulnerable with her apparent inability to move.
“Can you sit up?” he asked, moving over to her and helping to raise her back.
He spotted motion in some shrubs by the ramp up to the castle.
“Don’t move,” he whispered in Amanda’s ear.
He froze. A dog came out of the shrubs. A big dog.
“It’s…Pluto,” he told Amanda. Pluto was no villain. If he’d come to help, it had to be Wanda’s or Wayne’s doing.
Amanda still hadn’t fully come around. Her eyes moved more freely, but she wasn’t speaking.
“Here, boy,” Finn hissed, holding out his hand. Pluto was big, and stronger-looking than Finn would have expected. The dog faced him, sniffing the air. He wagged his tail and sat down.
“We are here to help,” Finn said.
Pluto turned toward the bushes, wagging his tail violently.
“What is it, boy?”
Pluto barked. Just once. But loudly, causing Finn to again jump back. Pluto was trying to warn him of something or someone in the bushes.
“Amanda?” he said softly, without taking his eyes off the bushes.
“I’m here.”
He turned to look. She looked tired, but she was working on smiling.
“I feel a little zoned.”
“I can explain it all at some point. But
for now: can you move? We should get away from here.”
Pluto darted over to the bushes, his tail still wagging. Finn tentatively followed, crossing the street and edging closer to the bushes. Pluto’s tail was going like a windshield wiper.
Finn sneaked up and parted the bushes. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “Minnie?” he said in a whisper.
She gave him a sweet, humble look, lowering her head while looking out the tops of her big eyes.
“I’m Finn,” he said. “Over there, that’s Amanda.”
Minnie nodded.
Finn looked around the area. “Mickey?” he asked her.
She lifted her arms and shrugged. She looked crestfallen.
“He’s not here,” Finn said, making it a statement.
She shook her head.
“Not here with you?” he said, thinking aloud, “Or not here in the Magic Kingdom?”
She shrugged for a second time.
“I…” He couldn’t think what to say. He was awestruck. Mickey and Minnie were rock stars. He recalled what Wanda had told him. “Are there more of you?”
Minnie hesitated. Pluto nudged him from behind. He looked back to see Amanda trying to get to her feet.
“Thanks!”
He hurried back to her. Minnie and Pluto followed.
He helped Amanda stand up and held her by the arm. “My friend’s in trouble,” he told the other two. “I, we, need to get onto Tom Sawyer Island.”
Minnie smiled and nodded. She lifted a finger as if to say, “Just a minute!”
Pluto came around and heeled at Finn’s side.
“You’re staying with me,” Finn said. The dog nodded.
Minnie saluted Finn and took off running in the direction of Frontierland.
“I’m guessing,” he said, “you’re staying to protect us.” The dog yipped. “And she’s gone ahead for some reason.” He barked again.
“Are you talking to Pluto?” Amanda asked with a dry voice.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’ve been better. My head weighs a thousand pounds.”
“We need to go,” he said.
“I can manage. Are you going to tell me how I got here?”
“I kissed you,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “That’s not something I would forget.”
“I promise. I kissed you. It was a spell, intended for Jess.” He walked her off the hub and toward Frontierland, condensing and summarizing her story into as brief an explanation as possible.
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