Disney After Dark (3 page)

On a break, Finn hung out with Maybeck and the last of the five, a boy who introduced himself as Philby. Like Maybeck, he obviously preferred to be called by his last name.

Philby looked older than all of them, but was in fact the same age. He had a British accent or something close to it—Australia or New Zealand, Finn guessed.

“Quite the motley group,” Philby said.

“We’re the Orlando assortment pack,” Maybeck quipped. “One of every flavor.”

Finn said, “We’re all from different schools, right? What’s with that? It’s like they wanted to make sure none of us knew each other. Why would they do that?”

“Control,” Maybeck answered. “These kinds of guys…with them it’s all about control. That guy, Brad? I don’t trust him. He’s keeping stuff from us. Count on it.”

Finn liked Brad, but he knew what Maybeck was talking about. It did feel like they weren’t being told everything.

“We’d better be able to trust him,” Finn suggested. “He’s the one turning us into holograms.”

“I don’t know about you,” Maybeck answered, “but I never trust anyone but myself.” He added a little late, “No offense.”

Finn wanted out of his tights.

Philby said, “Did you know that DHI—Disney Host Interactive—also stands for Daylight Hologram Imaging?”

“Seriously?” Finn asked.

“Totally.”

“See?” Maybeck said. “That’s what I’m talking about—right there. First I’ve heard of it.”

Philby continued, “This has never been done before. DHIs. Not like this. We’re going to be turned into absolutely perfect three-dimensional images. Duplicates of ourselves. We’ll look real, but we’ll be made of nothing but light. It’s pretty cool technology, actually.”

“But if it’s never been done before,” Finn said, “how do we know it’s safe?”

The boys glanced back and forth between themselves. Philby said, “It’s like taking pictures, that’s all. How can it not be safe?”

“It pays,” Maybeck said harshly. “That’s all I care about. My aunt could use the extra money.”

“Your aunt?” Finn said, before he took the time to think that his question might sound rude.

“Yeah,” Maybeck said. “I live with my aunt. My parents…They aren’t around.”

Finn felt awful for having asked. Maybeck grew silent. He seemed less tough all of a sudden.

“Sorry,” Finn said, “for asking.”

“Not your problem,” Maybeck said in a softer voice. “My aunt’s cool. She tried to get me in a toothpaste ad, but I lost out. Then this thing came up. Brad told me that if I’d gotten that ad I’d never have been asked to be a host. They want nothing but fresh faces.”

“So you got lucky,” Finn said.

“We all got lucky,” Maybeck agreed. “A DHI in the Magic Kingdom? We’re going to be famous.”

“We’re going to be ghosts,” Philby corrected. “Electronic ghosts, provided that this technology actually works.”

“Don’t say stuff like that,” Maybeck pleaded. “Of course it works.”

“Of course,” Philby said. “My bad.” But he sounded less than convinced.

3

“I
don’t get it,” Dilard said as he gripped Finn’s ankles for sit-ups. There were about forty kids on the crabgrass doing various forms of exercise out behind the school, in a field enclosed by a corroded chain-link fence. The South Florida climate ate metal down to rust and turned wood to sponge. Only concrete had a fighting chance. The kids, spread around the field in clumps, tried to make it look like they were exercising. Dirt stuck to Finn’s arms and the back of his neck. He looked up at the ocean-blue sky full of billowing white clouds.

“The other DHIs,” Finn explained. “The Disney Hosts…I’ve got to hook up with them before I go back.”

“You know how stupid that sounds?”

“Yeah, but I don’t care. No matter what, I’ve got to find out if they’ve had similar…dreams.”

Dillard glanced up and immediately let go of Finn’s ankles. Finn went head over heels backward. He found himself looking at an upside-down version of a girl named Amanda Lockhart, who had transferred to the school in late September, a few weeks earlier. She had exotic-looking eyes, a deep, natural tan, and a few freckles on her cheeks. She was stretching along with a dozen other girls. Finn wasn’t big on girls, but something about Amanda grabbed and held his attention.

Dillard clasped his ankles again. Finn struggled back up to sitting.

He squeezed out a couple more sit-ups. “It’s
experimental
,” he explained. “The DHI technology. Not exactly photography, not exactly computer graphics.”

“You’re going psycho on me,” Dillard complained.

Finn said, “When I woke up, the moon was right where it belonged. You want to explain that?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” Dillard said, “but I think they fried your brain.”

“I don’t know any of their full names. Willa, Charlene, Maybeck, and Philby. Maybeck and Philby will be easier to find than the girls, because those are their last names, unusual names at that. There was this guy at MGM who ran things. He would know who everyone is, though I’m not sure he’d tell me.”

Dillard gave Finn a puzzled look. “I feel sorry for you, man. You’ve lost it.”

“The new girl: Amanda. Doesn’t her mother or father work over at MGM? Did you hear about that?” Many of the students’ parents had something to do with one of the parks.

“Amanda is a
girl
,” Dillard reminded Finn. “Have you lost your mind?” Dillard thought of girls as a separate life-form.

“Yeah,” Finn said. “Maybe I have.”

4

T
he monorail zoomed past a sea of green trees, heading for a stop at the Grand Floridian Hotel.

“This is pretty cool of you, Amanda,” Finn said. He wore a Tampa Devil Rays basebal cap and a pair of his father’s old sunglasses, which looked too big for his face. Some disguise. Amanda wore hip huggers and a shirt that exposed her belly button.

“We’re taking photographs?” she asked.

“They’re friends of mine, you see?”

“Sort of.” Then she confessed, “No, not really.”

“I don’t know their full names, so I don’t know how to find them. If I can get photographs of their DHIs and show them around some of the other schools, then maybe someone will recognize them.

I’m not sure what else to do.”

“Word is, you’re going psycho,” Amanda said. “I wasn’t about to get you mad at me.”

“I’m not stabbing girls in showers or anything.”

“That’s a relief.” Amanda allowed a hint of a smile that Finn knew she would rather not have revealed. It wasn’t cool for a girl to show she liked a boy any more than the opposite. Boys and girls seemed to spend a lot of time and energy trying to convince one another that they didn’t exist.

Finn explained, “The problem is, if I’m going to visit the Magic Kingdom, my admission has to be pre-approved. That means telling my parents, and I can’t exactly explain this to them.”

“You haven’t exactly explained it to me. Listen, I don’t mind using a couple of my family’s comp tickets, Finn. If you’re worried you owe me, you don’t.”

“Cool.”

“Is everything
cool
to you?” she asked. “What’s with you and that word?”

“You’re cool,” he said, looking right at her. Where did that come from?

She blushed and bit her lower lip to keep from grinning. She looked out the monorail car’s window, as if she hadn’t seen the Grand Floridian a hundred times.

“So why’d you agree to help me, anyway?” he asked, coaxing her. The doors hissed shut. A recorded voice announced that the next stop was the Magic Kingdom.

She glanced out the window too. “Because…I have my reasons. I want to help.” She spoke to the glass. Then she looked directly at Finn and said, “Besides, I’ve never met a real psycho before.”

“Very funny.”

“I thought so.”

When she laughed, it reminded him of bells. He made a mental note not to tell Dillard that.

At the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, Amanda handled the complimentary tickets while Finn kept his head down so as not to be recognized. A minute later they were inside the main gate, passing the spot where parents picked up and returned the rented baby strollers.

Still looking at the pavement, Finn asked her, “Do you see any obvious security types?”

“No.”

“They don’t all wear uniforms. They’re pretty hard to spot.”

“Finn, you’re not exactly one of the ten most wanted, or something. We’re going to be fine.

Hey! There’s a host over there,” Amanda said. “It’s not you,” she announced.

Finn looked over. A crowd had gathered around the DHL “That’s Charlene,” he said.

“You ready?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then. Here goes.”

Amanda slinked over toward the crowd, then posed for a shot with Charlene as Finn raised his father’s digital camera. Charlene looked perfectly real—absolutely real—until a kid walked through her. The DHI never stopped talking, never noticed that a kid was playing with her.

“You’ve gone awfully quiet,” Amanda said a moment later, as she rejoined Finn.

“I’d never seen that before. A kid walking through a DHI like that.”

“They shouldn’t be allowed to do that,” Amanda said. “It’s disrespectful.”

It wasn’t the actual act that bothered Finn. It was the concept. A hologram was nothing but light—a three-dimensional image. How could he become one by falling asleep? What was he thinking?

“Do you believe in weird stuff?” Finn asked her.

“Depends how weird, I suppose.”

“Real weird.”

“Try me.”

But at that moment Amanda spotted another DHI and started toward it.

Maybeck.

Finn’s legs didn’t move. He felt something odd. Like someone was watching him. He spun around.

Main Street was crowded with people. Finn searched faces, his focus shifting.

He stopped on a white-haired guy—an old guy—wearing a barbershop costume that made him look even older. Wayne! He was looking right at Finn, the same way Finn’s dad looked at him when Finn had done something wrong.

Wayne signaled for Finn to look to his left.

There, Finn saw four older guys in band uniforms—red jackets with brass buttons. It took him a second to realize they were headed right for him.

Security?

Finn turned to Amanda, who was posing with Maybeck, expecting Finn to shoot a picture. He called out to her, “Trouble!”

They’d discussed this possibility and reviewed various options. They had agreed that if they had to separate for any reason, they would try to meet up again at the exit from the Haunted Mansion. Amanda took off at a run without a second thought. Finn tucked his father’s camera into his pocket and ducked into the Emporium. Made to look like an old-time general store, it sold everything Disney—clothing, dolls, stuffed animals, CDs, and DVDs. It was packed wall-to-wall with shoppers.

Finn hurried past several displays, deeper into the store. He passed shelves of princess costumes. A rack of hats and caps. A poster hung from the ceiling by a string, announcing the Virtual Magic Kingdom. He stopped and used a mirror to watch the store windows behind him.

There he saw a uniformed band musician enter the store.

Coincidence
? The band musician glanced to his right. Finn followed that line of sight—to another band member. They exchanged a look, and then they turned and scanned the store.

Finn felt sick with fear. He’d blown it, entering the park without the proper authorization. His family would probably lose their comp tickets. He supposed his DHI might even be terminated.

They were coming for him: quickly, and with great determination. Finn worked not to be seen. He found himself cornered in the hat section.

“Hey,” said a little boy, looking up at Finn with awe and wonder. “Are you him?”

“Go away!” Finn told the kid, not wanting to be bothered.

“But it’s you, right?” the little boy asked. He stepped closer, sucked in a chest full of air, closed his eyes, and marched right into Finn. Finn stumbled back as the boy fell over.

“Wow!” the boy said, recovering and coming to his feet. “You’re
real
!”

The little boy’s attempt gave Finn an idea.

The Emporium sold clothing. Finn spotted a rack of DHI merchandise, including the outfit that his own host character wore.