The Return: Disney Lands Read online

  “There’s more going on here than you realize. That invisibility suit is the property of this company. Ms. Fredrikson is required to obtain written permission to operate any such device outside of this teaching facility. Did she tell you that? Did she tell you what kind of trouble you’d be in for assisting her?”

  “The only slightly related thing I’ve heard is that the school administration values transparency,” Amanda said, raising an eyebrow.

  The woman behind her coughed with what sounded like amusement, but quickly recovered.

  Langford’s face had started to mirror the American flag on the wall: red skin, white eyeballs, blue eyes. He leaned in so close that Amanda could smell his coffee breath. “Let me advise you, young lady! Sixty-eight seconds before you’re seen doing...whatever it is you do in this video, we observe an atmospheric anomaly over a particular carousel horse. It’s what we call ‘oil.’ That phenomenon coincides, on the following rotation, with the identification of two Disney employees whose role in the company is known as DHI. I believe you know these individuals as the Kingdom Keepers. I believe you call them your friends.”

  He straightened, clasped his hands behind his back, and fixed Amanda with a withering gaze. In spite of herself, she squirmed.

  “You are associating with the wrong people, Miss Lockhart. This oil, this phenomenon, is of major interest to the company. It has cost us downtime on our attractions. It has baffled some of the most brilliant minds Disney employs. You have signed confidentiality agreements, so I don’t mind sharing this with you. We will get to the bottom of it. When we do, anyone who has not come forward will be in grave danger of losing not only her standing here at DSI, but may face criminal and civil lawsuits as well. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Is that another pun on transparent?”

  The observer slipped again, barking out a laugh. Encouraged, Amanda added, “The four thirty? I really need to be on that shuttle.”

  “Go!” Langford barked the word so loudly that Amanda jumped.

  Collecting herself, she rose out of her chair. Nearing him on her way to the door, she spoke as softly as she could. “I would never, ever, do anything to hurt this company. If you’ve read my application, I think you know that.”

  She slipped out the door before he responded, before he could call her back and ask her to explain.

  “YOU LOOK AWFUL,” Jess said, from her bed.

  “So we’re speaking now?” Amanda replied, dropping her backpack with a thud and collapsing onto her own bed.

  “Don’t, okay?”

  “You’ve been treating me like dog dirt. What do you expect?”

  “I have not.”

  “I am not interested in Tim, Jess. You’ve got that all wrong.”

  “I’ve had a lot of things wrong.”

  “So now you want to pretend they never happened?” Disbelief radiating from Amanda’s every word. “It doesn’t work like that.”

  “Look, Mandy, not everything revolves around you, as surprising as that may be.”

  “Seriously? This is us making up?”

  “I didn’t say we were making up, did I? Have you apologized? Have I? Though I will if you want.” Jess paused, and then added in a gentler voice, “Honestly, this bites. I hate this.”

  “Yeah? Well, me too.” Amanda rolled up onto an elbow, tried to make out Jess’s features in the dark. “I got grilled by Langford. He has park video of me pushing the cards. He suspects Emily and I were in the basement, too. I assume I should start packing.” Headlights flashed outside; in their brief glow, she got her first good look at Jess. “Whoa! Talk about looking awful. What’s with you?”

  “What was it Wayne told the Keepers? The most recent message?”

  “You know perfectly well.”

  “Mandy, come on. What...was...it?”

  “Gosh, Jess! You don’t have to treat me like I’m a simpleton. It’s funny; Charlene gets that treatment from so many people. Just because she’s pretty, what, she can’t think? So don’t start doing it to me.” Amanda paused, and her voice dropped, trembled a bit. “Besides, I’m not that pretty.”

  “You’re gorgeous. Stunning. And you’d better know it, though I’m glad you never seem to. Why are we even talking about this? Do you think I’m jealous?”

  “There...is...nothing...to—”

  “I know! I got it!”

  “Then what?”

  “What was Wayne’s most recent mes—”

  “‘It’s about time.’”

  “Correct,” Jess said.

  “So what?”

  “Some things bear repeating.”

  “I know that expression,” Amanda said. “Mrs. Nash used to lay that on us all the time.”

  “Yes, she did. When did she use it?” Jess’s voice was steady and calm. She was leading them somewhere, but for the life of her, Amanda couldn’t see the destination.

  “When she was trying to hammer something into us.”

  “Correct.”

  “What is this, a quiz? What’s going on, Jess?”

  “Play along.”

  “With what?”

  “Some things bear repeating to others.” Jess rolled off her bed, got up, and closed the window shades, casting the room into pitch darkness.

  “Wait a second! You’re not quizzing me. You’re trying to tell me something.”

  Jess said nothing. She flipped on the desk lamp beside her; as she did, she allowed a casual smirk to cross her face—a look that confirmed Amanda’s theory.

  “You can’t tell me something, but you need to tell me something.” Amanda had sat up too, was leaning forward, every inch of her body quivering with intensity.

  “There are limits on all of us.”

  “Limits,” Amanda said, deciphering. Decoding. “‘Repeating to others.’ The Keepers.” She waited. “Oh, come on. A wink? You smiled just now. Do it again.” Another pause. “You’re not going to, are you?”

  Jess shook her head gently.

  “That must have been some oath!”

  Amanda was onto something. She could tell by the way Jess nodded.

  “The paperwork when we enrolled? No one really takes that ser—”

  Jess shook her head, cutting her off.

  “Oh. I see.”

  Jess nodded.

  “Limits. The Imagineers are upset about the carousel, the cards. I know that much. Langford’s so ticked off by all of it he could start a fire with his eyes. The Keepers have pushed the limits too far.”

  Was she onto something? Jess just stared, her eyes fixed on the far wall of their room. Amanda racked her brain, desperate to come up with some—any—answer. “Oh, please!” she exploded. “Come on.”

  Jess remained unflinching, unmoving.

  “Limits...” Amanda repeated the word several times. “‘It’s about time’ bears repeating to the Keepers. They’re being investigated...attacked...limited...switched off.”

  Jess’s eyes flared unintentionally. She looked to the floor, where Amanda’s dirty laundry lay in a heap. “You really should do your laundry at least once a month.”

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  “What subject? I haven’t said anything.”

  “This is a stupid game.”

  Jess shrugged.

  “Switched off? Why? Is it because the OTs are back?”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jess said. “We’re done here, all right?”

  “Done?” Amanda’s face expressed surprise so strong it bordered on outrage. “We’re done.” Her voice quieted again as the meaning sank in. “No. They’re done. Finn? Philby?”

  “We’ve got five great friends.”

  “All of them! You want me to contact all of them. They’re in trouble?”

  “They’re always in trouble,” Jess said, shrugging and reaching for the desk lamp. But she didn’t turn it off, not yet.

  “Time is running out,” Amanda whispered.

  “Who can stop it?”
/>   “Their time is limited. Someone’s going to stop something. I need to tell everyone.” Amanda looked as if she might jump out of her bed and run out the door.

  From her position by the desk, Jess sighed, releasing a flood of pent-up tension. She hung her head like a marathoner at the end of a long race. “It’s good to be talking again,” she said, stepping forward across the laundry-strewn floor and grinning as Amanda accepted her hand.

  “WE CAN’T TELL ANYONE,” Philby said. He spoke with biting authority. “Not our parents, not Wanda, not Joe. No one.”

  The five Keepers had come together in a video chat room. On the screen, each face was roughly the size of a playing card.

  “The clothes are important,” Finn said. “Thrift stores. Costume shops. There isn’t a lot of time.”

  “What exactly is the rush?” Charlene sounded peeved. She’d missed a fancy party to attend the conference, and was still sulking about it.

  “We don’t know, but we’ve been warned,” Philby said. “Amanda was very clear. She thinks maybe something’s being shut down. One of the parks? The DHIs? Who knows? For maintenance? Security? It doesn’t really matter. The point is to get across, find Walt’s pen, and get it where it needs to be.”

  “What Philby means is...or, I should say, what it’s important we all understand,” Willa addressed the group as a whole, “is that if whatever’s going on includes shutting down the projectors, it’s probably going to be a day or two or more until we return.”

  “My show’s on hiatus for ten days,” Charlene said, reminding them for the fourth time. “It sucks, you guys. I wanted to get back home and be with you all. But I’ll tell my mother I have to do some looping, that it’s going to be another day or two. Any more than that, she’s going to freak.”

  “Ten days! Look,” Philby said, “the whole idea is that we do this quickly. That’s why the five of us have to go together.”

  “Right,” Charlene said. Her face had become more expressive as her acting career blossomed. Right now, it expressed her contempt for everything Finn claimed was true about time travel.

  “It’s worth a try, don’t you think?” Maybeck said, pleading with Charlene. “Plus, hey, we get to hang out.”

  Finn suppressed a smile. Clearly, Maybeck didn’t mean the Keepers as a whole. He meant he’d get time with his girlfriend.

  “I’m just saying,” Charlene said. “We can’t put off trying to return. And if it doesn’t work, we keep trying. We can’t get stuck, you guys.”

  “Of course not!” Philby said, waving a hand as if to brush Charlene’s objections away. “To be safe, we’re bringing two Returns. I made one that works off transistors.” He held the new device up to the video camera on his laptop. It was about the size of a box of butter, much clunkier than the key fob to which the Keepers were accustomed. “I won’t bother you with the details. But it runs off the radio spectrum in use back then.”

  Charlene sighed, slumped her head into her hands. “God, this time travel nonsense...Willa and I have to wear skirts? Seriously?”

  “Stop whining, Charlene. We have to wear chinos and button-down shirts, or work clothes.”

  “Philby’s talking to me, Charlie,” Maybeck said. “Look, I’m not thrilled, either. African-Americans were called ‘coloreds’ back where we’re going. If I’m going to be in the park, it’ll have to be as a worker.”

  “That’s awful!” Willa said, crinkling her brow.

  “That’s America in the fifties,” Finn said. “Land of the free. Home of the brave.”

  “I can handle it.” On the screen, though, Maybeck winced visibly. “Just remember, you guys can’t be too friendly with me. Polite, but not chummy. Especially you, Charlie.”

  They all complained as one, but after a minute Philby called them to order. “Maybeck brings up a good point. If it really is back then and not now—and I believe you, Finn—but if it is, we have to be super careful about expressions: how we talk, how we act. Everything was different in the nineteen fifties. Half the stuff we have today, from plastic to GPS to our phones, didn’t exist or looked a lot different. Air conditioners weren’t that common. The running shoe hadn’t evolved. That’s why we’ll wear leather shoes or white Keds sneakers when we cross over. There’s no spandex or Sharpies. The peanut M&M is only a couple years old, and it just comes in the tan color.” Gasps all around.

  “If we slip up on that stuff, we’re going to stick out. And we’re already going to stick out.” His mouth twisted. “Being black-and-white, I mean.”

  “Wayne asked for two days,” Finn said. “We’ve given him that. Maybe we won’t be black–and-white. Maybe he managed to fix it.”

  “Some of us could have messed-up memory,” Willa said. “Like what happened to Maybeck, and Finn, the first time they traveled. We’ve got to go with whatever Finn says.” She aimed this directly at Philby, though she didn’t use his name. “Dell will find a way to return us. One day, maybe two, and then we’re back.”

  “Our parents are going to freak,” Philby said.

  “Especially when they see how we’re dressed,” Maybeck added.

  “But at least they’ve been through it before,” Finn said. “They’ll know what’s going on.”

  “Not my roommate,” Charlene said. “I mean, she knows about us, but I’m not going to tell her what we’re doing.”

  “Tell her you’re exhausted,” Philby said. “I’ll return you before the rest of us if we have to.”

  Charlene nodded, though she didn’t look at all convinced.

  “All good?” Finn said. No one complained. “Pleasant dreams, you guys. See you on the other side.”

  EXPLOSIONS CRACKED THE AIR and shook the earth. Philby sat up quickly, struggling to collect himself.

  A crowd. Children and families, laughing and clapping. Music. Fireworks.

  “Disneyland,” Philby mumbled.

  “No place better!” A complete stranger said back to him. The exceptionally hairy man wore a sleeveless undershirt with a sweat-stained image of Bob Parr from The Incredibles on the front. He eyed Philby’s outfit. “Newsies? Am I right?”

  Philby remembered Finn’s description of 1950s Wayne, how he’d made the same comparison. “Right as rain, sir!” An expression he’d learned from his grandparents. The man smiled and nodded.

  Central Plaza teemed with thousands of onlookers. Orchestral music swelled; cymbals crashed. As planned, most people were looking up, not down at the ground where Philby had materialized. As always, it took him a minute to fully inhabit his DHI, to establish his surroundings and make the mission real in his mind. He looked around for the others, only realizing belatedly that they could be three yards from him and he still wouldn’t see them.

  No time to waste. Now came the tricky part: moving through the crowd as a DHI without passing through people.

  He closed his eyes, concentrating. It didn’t take a lot of thinking to get fear and anxiety to overtake him. All Philby had to do was consider the possibility that he was about to time travel. It bothered him that losing memory was critical to his well-being. He didn’t want to forget one second of what was about to happen. But he accepted his fate.

  Lost in thought, Philby bumped shoulders with a small woman. He apologized, but hid a smile: a good sign; he’d lost some of his hologram already.

  He was on the front end of Central Plaza, past the Partners statue, when he first spotted the Dapper Dan stalking him. The Cast Member was a good twenty yards away, standing on the sidewalk, but Philby felt the almost palpable existence of a string connecting the two of them. Moving precisely, the Dapper Dan matched his progress nearly stride for stride.

  To Philby’s left, Jack Skellington and Sally walked away from the castle, tracking him and the Dapper Dan. It wasn’t as if they were the only ones heading down Main Street toward Town Square, but once again they seemed invisibly connected to Philby, pacing along with his every step.

  “Dell!” Willa’s voice, coming from behind him
. He didn’t want to bring her into this. Jack Skellington gave Philby the creeps, and Sally was no looker, either. If they were Overtakers, not Cast Members, he was in trouble. For one thing: if Jack was already dead, could he be hurt or killed? How could you fight the already dead?

  Philby raised a closed fist—the Keepers’ hand signal for stop. Hopefully Willa would get the message.

  He took it as his responsibility to distract his stalkers. No matter what, the rest of the Keepers had to make it to Walt’s apartment as quickly as possible. The park was closing. They had only a brief window in which to start the music box and reach the carousel before their presence would invite security.

  Distract. Was a good defense the best offense, or the other way around? He couldn’t remember! Philby turned abruptly and ran through the crowd, heading straight for Jack Skellington. As he did, he pushed all fear away.

  Willa saw Philby’s raised fist and stopped. A few heartbeats later, she spotted the Dapper Dan, a man who seemed curiously out of place and awkwardly alone, despite being situated in the heart of Disneyland. She moved onto the same sidewalk, staying behind him, making sure he stayed in sight and ahead of her.

  She didn’t know whether to trust him or not. As Cast Members in decidedly human form, the Dappers walked a line between fantasy and reality. Worse, they were adults.

  It didn’t take long to be sure that the Dapper was stalking Philby. He was pathetically bad at it, turning his whole head in Dell’s direction, instead of just his eyes; slowing when Philby slowed, moving as Philby moved. She quickly became suspicious.

  The thick crowd bobbed and surged on all sides, preventing her from spotting Jack Skellington and Sally. Philby was headed toward the two in full stride, brimming with the determination she’d come to love about him. When he put his mind to something, nothing could stand in his way. Though concern pained through her chest and briefly stole her breath, she found herself feeling sorry for Jack and Sally.

  She had work to do. Two against one was bad odds for Philby. She couldn’t be sure of the Dapper’s intentions, but if hostile it only made things worse. She aimed to stop him, stepping off the sidewalk, charging through the mass of people, powered by a feverish impulse to help her boyfriend.