Power Play (30 page)

“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.

Pluto nudged between them and leaned into Amanda.

“I think,” Finn said, “he wants you to hold onto his collar.”

Pluto’s tail went wild with excitement.

Amanda reached down and took hold. Pluto lifted his head proudly. His tail shot up like a flagpole.

“This is definitely strange,” Finn said.

* * *

Jess was not a mother. She had never even owned a pet. Like the other Fairlies, she had never met her mother, had no idea if she had living relatives. The closest thing she had to a family member was Amanda, whom she thought of as her sister. In fact, she and Amanda often introduced themselves as sisters. So, as the Kingdom Keepers carried out their plan to cross Amanda over into the Magic Kingdom in hopes of reversing the curse, Jess sat by her sister’s bedside.

A few minutes earlier, she thought she’d witnessed the cross over: Amanda had twitched and shuddered and, more encouragingly, her eyes had begun moving rapidly beneath her closed eyelids.

The other girls in Mrs. Nash’s house were supportive of her effort to keep Amanda’s condition secret. This included their roommate, Jeannie Pucket, who until now had often been a real knucklehead. But Jeannie had come through for Jess, not once but a number of times—holding off the curious Mrs. Nash and buying her unconscious roommate precious time.

It wasn’t going to last much longer, Jess thought. It seemed inevitable that Mrs. Nash would find out. That, in turn, would mean doctors, and a long downward spiral for poor Amanda.

With her diary open to the kiss, a page she had photocopied for Finn, her eyelids drooped and she briefly nodded off. Her diary slipped from her hands, landed on the bed, and fell to the floor. The sound of the book landing shocked her awake, and she looked around the room as if she’d been asleep for hours.

“It’s nothing,” Jeannie said. “You dropped your diary, is all.”

Jeannie leaned down to retrieve it. About to hand it to Jess, she hesitated.

“If you don’t mind,” Jess said, “that’s private.”

Jeannie knew it was private—it was her diary—a source of ongoing tension between the two. Jeannie could allow her curiosity to get the better of her.

“I know. I know.” Still, Jeannie was reluctant to hand it over, her attention fixed on the sketch. Finally, she passed the diary back to Jess. “Have you been there?” she asked. “What’s it like?”

“School?” Jess asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Winter Park. Where Finn and Amanda go.”

“That’s not Winter Park High,” Jeannie said. “That’s the Lake Buena Vista power plant. I just wrote a paper on it for science class.”

“Science class? Lake what?” Jess said.

Jeannie traced the stair-step profile of the structure in the background of the kiss.