The brooms stood facing him.
“Thank you!” the boy said, cherishing his autograph.
Finn had nearly forgotten about him. “No problem.”
Then something occurred to him. “You see those brooms over there? They look real familiar, but I can’t remember why.…”
“Fantasia,” the boy said.
“Fantasia,” Finn said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one.”
“It’s a pretty weird movie,” the boy said. “The brooms show up in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’I think. Mickey, the apprentice, can’t control the magic—you know? It gets all out of hand. The brooms are part of that.”
Uncontrollable magic, Finn thought. Yes, he knew exactly what that was about, just like uncontrollable holograms. The brooms were there for him. He felt certain of it all of a sudden.
Finn thanked the boy, who ran back to his mother’s side.
Were the brooms part of Park Security? Were they going to bust him for being in the Park? Or were they something more sinister: uncontrollable magic?
The brooms swept their way across the street and drew closer.
He walked quickly away. He looked back: the brooms were definitely following.
Up ahead, he heard music from High School Musical. A huge crowd of onlookers formed a half moon around a street show of cheerleaders and basketball players dancing and singing.
Finn worked his way into the dense crowd, glad to see the brooms stop at the back. But then the three split up. The one with the bucket went around the crowd in one direction; one stayed put; the other swept off in the opposite direction. He was surrounded. If they weren’t Security, then they were something much worse.
The leader of the High School Musical street show called for volunteers to dance with them. A number of kids raised their hands. Finn followed one of the kids as the music started. He kept his back to the crowd and headed toward the movable stage.
The brooms all were trapped with the crowd.
Finn dodged his way through the cheerleaders and ducked behind the stage. He hurried through the plaza beneath the sorcerer’s hat, running hard now. He arrived at The Great Movie Ride.
The brooms regrouped and moved through the crowd—but they didn’t seem to be in any hurry.
Finn entered the ride. He was directed into one of the cars, joining a family of three on a long bench. He lowered his head to keep from being seen. But he looked up to steal a peek toward the entrance.
For some reason, the brooms hadn’t followed him inside.
28
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, with no sign of the brooms, Finn joined the line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The ceiling was painted to look like water. His heart beat excitedly: he was “under the sea.”
There was no telling what he might find. Big or small, ordinary or out of the ordinary, it could be anything.
He heard a commotion behind him—the people waiting for the doors to open were oohing and ahhing. Finn turned carefully around and spotted the three brooms. They danced and bowed and entertained as they progressively moved closer.
Finn nudged past several people. “Excuse me…I got cut off from my family…pardon me…I’ve lost my family and I think…” He never quite completed a sentence, thinking this made each excuse less of a lie.
People complained, but no one physically stopped him. He pushed to the very front of the line, putting a good distance between himself and the brooms. What did they want? he wondered. Would they possibly try to hurt him with all these people as witnesses?
The doors swung open. Finn hurried across a row in the middle of the large auditorium. If he kept going he’d have reached the seats closest to the exit doors, but he was afraid he might be more easily spotted there. So he took a seat near the middle.
The theater filled quickly. The brooms appeared at the end of the line. They spread out and moved along the wall to the back of the auditorium.
Before he had time to think, the lights dimmed and the theater went dark. Very dark. As an artificial rain began to fall, Finn took a chance and peeked over his shoulder. The brooms seemed to be watching the show along with the crowd. A wet mist blew from the stage, surprising the audience. A child cried out. Then there were laughs as the audience settled in for the show. The theme music rang out: “Under the Sea.”
The song was the connection to Jez, and Finn searched the stage for possible clues as dozens of brightly colored sea creatures, glowing in the pitch black, began swimming across the stage to the music. Ariel arrived onstage, and the audience applauded.
Flashes of color drenched the auditorium. He stole a look to the back: only one broom.
He fought off a sense of panic. There! Midway down the auditorium, a broom on each side. To his relief, they still appeared focused on the show, not the audience. To play it safe, he lowered his head and pulled the brim of his cap down farther. How long until they spotted him? And then what?
The crowd laughed, but not Finn.
A cell phone rang in the audience. Several heads turned in his direction. His father’s BlackBerry was ringing in his pocket. He’d forgotten all about it. He fumbled with it and shut it off, but by the time he had, it seemed as if half the theater were looking at him.
Including the two brooms on either side.
The music grew louder. The auditorium darkened once again.
Finn dropped to all fours and began crawling to his left toward the exit doors. Guests moved their legs to allow him past, creating a commotion. A storm erupted onstage. Finn reached the end of the aisle and hesitated. Light flooded the theater. People applauded.
Finn jumped up and made for the exit.
He ran straight for the broom and pushed it over.
Hitting the blinding sunlight, he took off at a full run, unwilling to look back to see if a crow was following, or a broom chasing him. It seemed to him he’d picked up nothing of value. A waste of time.
Or maybe not, he thought. Had the Overtakers been following him? Why had the brooms seemed more interested in the stage show than in finding him? Maleficent’s powers clearly extended throughout all of the Disney Parks—the existence of the brooms confirmed that much.
On his way back to Animal Kingdom, he sent a text warning to the others.
Four members checked in on D-Gamer: Philby, Maybeck, Charlene, and Amanada. All but Willa.
Finn tried several times to reach her, finally giving up and hoping her DS was somehow off-line.
But it didn’t make sense. There was free Wi-Fi all over the Parks.
So why wasn’t she answering?
29
WILLA TRIED TO USE HER ID to jump the line for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, but to no use. So she joined a long line that moved in waves, as a group of three hundred guests was admitted into the auditorium.
With each surge in the line, she passed more posters—all with a funny play on words. The line moved ahead, and it wasn’t long before she faced the one Maybeck had mentioned. It showed Ariel and Triton, as Maybeck had remembered. It was titled, “A Must Sea!”
A plaque on the bottom of the frame read: ARIEL BROUGHT PART OF HER WORLD INTO OUR WORLD.…
Willa knew this was somehow significant. She sat down to make a note of it, to copy it out exactly as it was written.
Some of the smaller kids were also waiting out the line by sitting on the floor.
Jez had brought a part of her world into our world, as well, Willa thought. She’d brought her dreams about the future. She had foreseen things happening in the world that had now taken place: the lightning striking the castle, for one. Finn was right. If they were to find Jez, her drawings were the answer! The poster seemed to confirm it.
Willa wrote the note and put it in her pocket. Then she leaned her head back—just for a minute, she told herself—and tried to think of what else the message might mean. The more she concentrated, the heavier her head became. Her eyes began to blink away the stinging fatigue.