Disney After Dark (9 page)

“I’m looking for Donnie Maybeck,” Finn said.

“You mean Terry,” she said, a smile overcoming her. “Donnie’s his stage name. Say, aren’t you a sweet-looking girl,” she said, noticing Amanda and studying her features.

“Who should I say is calling? Wait a minute!” she interrupted herself. “Don’t I know you?” she asked Finn. “You’re a host, right? I saw you at MGM, during the film shoot.”

Yes, ma am.

She nodded, proud of herself. “That’s it exactly. I was over there nearly every day you all were shooting. But you, girl. I’d remember you, and I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Amanda. A friend of Finn’s.”

“Well, I’m pleased to meet you both. I’m Terry’s Aunt Bess. I run this place. Own it too!” As she grinned, the room seemed a bit brighter. “Kids around here call me Jelly.”

“Jelly?” Amanda said.

“It’s a long story. It started with jelly donuts, and got out of control from there. Don’t ask me!”

“Is Terry around?” Finn asked.

“Terry’s out back. But he’s taking it easy today. Not feeling exactly top-notch. I’m not sure this is the best day for a visit.”

“He didn’t happen to feel faint, did he?” Finn blurted out.

The woman’s face hardened. She crossed her arms tightly and looked down at Finn. “Now why would you go and ask that?”

“I think I need to see him, Ms.…Jelly.” Finn saw the way his guess had struck her.

“School nurse said there’s a bug going around,” she said.

“And maybe that’s all it is,” Finn said.

“What is it you’re not telling me, son?” Jelly asked.

“I really need to see him,” Finn pleaded.

When she nodded, her double chin turned into a triple. “Okay. Just not too long. Hear?”

* * *

“You!” Maybeck said to Finn, looking up. He was a head taller than either of them. His expression was defiant; there was a hardness in his eyes. He was in the midst of unpacking unglazed ceramics. He didn’t want them there.

Finn introduced Amanda.

Maybeck said “Hey” to her. He looked at Finn curiously. “So what’s going on?”

“Are we okay to talk here?” Finn asked.

Maybeck looked around, closed a door that led into the front of the shop and said, “We’re good.”

“How’s your sleep these past couple nights?”

“What’s with that?” Maybeck asked.

“Had any vivid dreams?”

Maybeck looked searchingly from Finn to Amanda.

Finn said, “She knows. I’ve told her everything.”

Finn said, “She knows. I’ve told her everything.”

“I’m not saying I have or haven’t,” Maybeck said.

“Did you make these?” Amanda pointed to a series of beautifully painted water pitchers on a shelf amid dozens of other bowls and mugs. The image on the pitchers was the Cinderella Castle.

“Tourists like them.”

“But you painted them,” she said.

“Yeah. I sell them on the side.” He lowered his voice and said to Finn, “Listen, the money…

from Disney…being a DHL It’s made a big difference for us—my aunt and me—and I can’t risk their asking for that money back.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“How do you know it won’t?”

Finn hadn’t ever considered such a thing. His mother would kill him if he lost his college money.

“Do you have Internet access?” Amanda asked.

Finn glanced over at her. Why did she always have the best ideas? he wondered.

“Sure,” Maybeck answered.

Finn said, “The others and I…Tonight we’re meeting in my guest room in the Virtual Magic Kingdom Web site to get this stuff straight.” He paused and added, “It’s happening to all of us, Maybeck. The dreams…of being there. The fainting this afternoon.”

“Not me.” Maybeck looked briefly afraid.

Finn said, “The old guy, Wayne? He’s got some kind of mission for us. As a team, I’m talking about. He says we’ve got to go to sleep at some point, and that when we do, we’re going to cross over.”

Maybeck looked completely serious. There was not a laughing bone in his body. “I can’t mess things up for my aunt.”

“We can’t stop this,” Finn warned. “Whatever’s happening, we can’t stop it. At least I haven’t been able to. Have you?” He felt another little chill. He said, “It isn’t safe.”

Maybeck met eyes with him, a mean look, both angry and afraid. He’d heard those words before.

“No way…” he said darkly.

“Way,” said Finn.

Maybeck said, “Yeah, well…then I guess we gotta do this.”

12

F
inn’s mother fumbled around with the serving plates, as nervous as could be. Her son had never brought a girl home for dinner before, and she was quite beside herself.

She served meat loaf, with green beans and bacon, salad, and cornbread, only to discover that Amanda was a vegetarian.

Finn’s father was quieter than usual. About halfway through the meal he asked Amanda to pass the salt.

Finn’s mom told his father, “Amanda and Finn are going to chat online together after dinner.”

“Is that right?” he asked.

Mr. Whitman challenged their guest. “I don’t see why you have to go online to talk. Why can’t you just talk if you want to talk?”

“We don’t own a computer,” Amanda answered. “Or a TV.”

Mr. Whitman looked up from his plate, possibly for the first time. “Well, good for you,” he said.

“Nothing wrong with that. Finn spends way too much time on his, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Donald!” Finn’s mother snapped at him.

“I’m just making conversation,” Mr. Whitman complained.

“Hey, Dad,” Finn said, trying to salvage things. “You know that hurricane—I forget its name—

the one that turned out in the ocean and came back ashore?” Gary.

“Yeah, Gary. Is it true it lost a lot of its power after it went over us?”

“Over half its wind speed. Yes. Downgraded to a tropical storm. But that’s pretty typical when storms pass over land. Why?”

“Oh, nothing. Never mind,” Finn said.

He glanced at Amanda. She nodded toward her watch.

“We’re gonna go up now,” Finn said. His parents looked at each other but said nothing.

On their way up the stairs Finn heard his father say, “If those pants of hers get any lower, they’ll fall off.”

“They
all
wear them that way, dear,” Mrs. Whitman said. “She’s adorable.” She’d lowered her voice to a whisper, but Finn had stopped on the stairs in time to hear.

“Nothing wrong with him having a new friend. He can’t spend all his time with Dillard.”

His mother then called out loudly, “Leave the bedroom door open, please, Finn.”

“I will!” Finn called back.

He gave Amanda his chair in front of the screen. He sat on a wooden chest that he dragged from his closet. It contained an old model train set.

“Five minutes to seven,” Amanda said, checking her watch.

Finn entered the Virtual Magic Kingdom Web site. He logged on, selected GUEST ROOMS from the map of the Magic Kingdom, and then the option of picking a room from an alphabetical list. He located FINN’S ROOM and double-clicked.

The screen went black. Some music played. His room appeared.

It was a stone room, as if they were in a dungeon or castle. Using credit he’d earned by winning challenges on the site, he’d furnished the room with a pair of lime-green couches, two chairs, a soda machine, and three posters on the walls.

“What’s with the color of those couches?” Amanda asked.

“What? I like them.”

“Trust me, you’re color-blind.”

Finn’s character was an illustrated boy who wore brightly colored jams and a light-blue T-shirt.

Finn used the mouse to move his character across the screen, get a soda from the machine, and return to one of the two chairs. The smal figure sat down and waited, occasionally raising his arm, under Finn’s direction, to lift the can to his face.

“This is wild,” Amanda said.

“Have you never seen VMK?” he asked. “Everyone at school’s on here twenty-four seven.”

A few minutes after seven, a second figure, a girl, appeared in the room. She wore hip huggers and a lemon-yellow top that showed her stomach.

A dialogue bubble appeared above her. 

Angelface 13,
it read.

Cool room
appeared inside the bubble.

Finn: Thnx,
said the bubble above the boy in the chair.
Grab a soda.

The girl character bought herself a drink and took a seat on the couch near Finn.

Angelface 13: U got any tunes?

Finn: Yeah, but we’re going 2 chat. Let’s hang.

Others coming soon.

“It’s Charlene,” Amanda said out loud. “I can tell by the way she dresses.”

“Yeah,” Finn said, agreeing.

Willa and Philby’s characters appeared almost simultaneously. Philby, with red hair. Willa, dressed like a hippie. They too got drinks and gathered by the others, both standing. Philby
(philitup)
complimented Finn on his choice of posters, clearly impressed that Finn had earned enough credits—“creds”—to purchase them. Willa chatted with Charlene about some new clothes that she’d found in one of the merchandise stores.

“This is a really weird thing to say,” Amanda said, “but I feel like I’m in the room, not just watching.”

“I know,” Finn said. “It’s highly addictive.” He added, “I’d make you a character, but for now I’m not sure the others should know you’re listening.”

“No, no! I agree. I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to be seen as a problem.”

“You’re not a problem!” Finn said, thinking he should go ahead and register a character for her. “Far from it. Without you, this meeting wouldn’t be happening.”

Dilltoast
showed up in the room and asked,
What’s up?

“That’s my friend, Dillard.”

“We met,” Amanda said.

Finn’s character stood and led Dillard’s into the far corner of the room to talk to him. Finn explained to Amanda, “You have to be near each other to talk. It’s called proximity, for obvious reasons. Dill and I can talk over here, and the others won’t see it and…”

His explanation was made clear as Charlene and Willa continued talking, presumably about clothes, but the dialogue in their bubbles was replaced with exclamation points, dollar signs, and ampersands—unreadable gibberish.

Finn tried to politely ask Dillard to go away. Dillard didn’t get the idea at first and forced Finn to get a little blunt once Maybeck arrived. “That didn’t go so hot,” he told Amanda as Dillard’s character left the room.

“Tell him about it tomorrow in person. If you make it into something secret, that you’re sharing, he won’t even remember this.”

“Good with people are you?” Finn thought about this: she was good with people. For one thing, she’d survived his dad at the dinner table.

Maybeck passed on the offer of a drink. He’d given his character a sizable Afro, blue jeans, and a white T-shirt. Somehow it made him look taller than the others, which he was in person as well.

Mybest: Let’s do this. I got homework.

Finn: Okay. We’re all here.

Each of the others said hello. Then Finn continued.

Finn: we’ve all had basically the same “dream”

or we wouldn’t be here. Maybeck and I both felt

kinda sick, like fainting, earlier today, anybody else?

The dialogue bubble above Willa’s character started “talking.”

willatree: yes. I felt awful, but only for a few minutes.

angelface 13: me too

philitup: yup

Mybest: so what’s with that?

Finn: they aren’t dreams, charlene and philby and I were all in the park last night. I got burned on the arm. when I woke up, I had the same burn on the same arm. it’s for real. It wasn’t a dream.

Maybeck’s character moved around the room but stayed close enough to chat. Willa got up off the couch and moved over next to Charlene. No writing appeared above any of the characters.

Amanda said, “I think you freaked them out.”

Finn complained, “What was I supposed to do?”

angelface 13: I saw him get burned. It’s for real.

philitup: what’s weird is that over there we look like our DHIs, but Finn getting burned means we must be part

Finn: human. Part DHI, part human. That’s what Wayne, the old guy, said we were.

Mybest: does anyone hear how completely stupid this sounds?

philitup: we all got sick at basically the same moment. That may sound stupid, but it felt awful.

Mybest: so what we do?

Amanda, looking on, said, “Now, Finn. You’ve got to tell them now.”

Finn: if we all go to bed—to sleep—at the same time tonight, maybe we’ll arrive there together.

Mybest: tell me you’re kidding?

Finn: That’s the way it works, I’m sure of it. Wayne wants us all there at the same time.

Finn felt a rush of heat: all five of them had crossed over at various times. They all shared this same experience. His fingers hovered above the keyboard.

Finn: the only way we’re gonna know what’s up is to go to bed at the same time and hope we wake up over there 2gether. tonight. K?

One by one, the characters answered.