PHILBY’S CAT, ELVIS, was a plump, lazy cat. The kind of plump that might get him mistaken for a pet raccoon. The kind that scared off small dogs. Elvis, like all cats, enjoyed warm places to sleep. On the couch, nestled between pillows. Curled up in a shirt that had been tossed on the floor.
Philby’s laptop computer ran hot. Its internal fan emitted a pleasant, catlike purr.
Elvis jumped first to the empty office chair, then up to the desk, and lay across the purring keyboard, luxuriating in its warmth.
At desk height he was nearly level with Philby, who slept soundly in his bed across the room. Elvis got up and circled once, unable to find the perfect position. His back paws hit several keys at once. On the screen a window closed. Then another. Elvis took no notice; he’d found the perfect spot to sleep.
He had no idea that he’d just closed the data traffic monitoring program Philby used to police the DHI server. No idea he’d turned off Philby’s data alarm.
Instead, he settled his formidable self over the keys, wiggling until gravity claimed various parts of him. He placed his considerable cat chin down gently onto his crossed paws and closed his eyes.
Behind him, the laptop timed out and went into sleep mode along with him. The boy in the bed knew no different.
Willa slept with a bear. Not a real bear, a stuffed bear; but no normal stuffed bear, either. A sizable bear. A gargantuan bear of proportions nearing those of a small child. She slept with it alongside of her, its head on a pillow, or sometimes rocked up on its side with its black button eyes looking right at her as she drifted off to sleep. And sometimes, at the same magical moment of finding sleep, she would sling an arm around it and pull it in close, subconsciously enjoying its fuzzy fur as well as the comfort of having something so wonderfully close.
She dozed off, dreaming of school that day, of meeting the Keepers at Crazy Glaze, and of a particularly disturbing exchange of texts with Philby. They’d been texting a lot recently, which she didn’t mind at all. But when she found out that Philby, not Maybeck, had kissed Charlene to break the spell, she’d felt the tug of jealousy. Charlene, with her athletic ability, her incredible looks, and her class-A flirting-if she turned on the charm, a fire hydrant would agree to go to the mall with her. Why had Philby been the one to kiss her and not Finn? Why had his recent texts felt more normal and less crushy? Mr. Totems brought her comfort, but her mind wouldn’t stop churning.
Willa’s dream became intensely realistic. Suddenly, she was laying beside a lake, while clutching tightly to Mr. Totems, her bear. Across the lake-rising out of the water-was a green dinosaur. A brontosaurus, she thought, though she was no expert. It was not daylight, but it was not exactly night either. There was an eerie quality to the color of the light, everything around her was glowing. She let go of Mr. Totems, noticing the familiar shimmer to the outline of her forearm and hand. She held her hand out in front of her, admiring the translucent quality of her skin. Then a breeze blew across her and she shivered. And she gasped.
It wasn’t a dream at all: she was a hologram. A DHI. She had crossed over in her sleep.
It wasn’t supposed to have been able to happen. They had talked about avoiding crossing over until they knew more, until they knew it was safe. Philby would have told her if he’d planned this; otherwise it must be an extreme emergency, she thought. Something that couldn’t wait.
And here she was: in her pajamas with Mr. Totems, somewhere in Disney World. At least her Justice pajamas weren’t too embarrassing-red pants, and a long-sleeve top with a panda bear and fireworks that glittered. Not exactly what she wanted to be seen in; but better than a nightgown, which was what Charlene typically ended up in.
But which Park was it? Willa wondered as she took her bearings. She faced a street-not much of a clue. Some buildings surrounding an open plaza-again, not enough to tell her which Park it was. She sat on a raised platform; it was nearly pitch-black above her, except that she could just make out a patch of nighttime clouds swirling directly overhead in a doughnut of black.
Her lack of familiarity with the place told her two things: one, she wasn’t anywhere in the Magic Kingdom or the Animal Kingdom-she knew both Parks too well; two, by process of elimination, that left only Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Epcot had streets in the various World Showcase attractions, but none as wide, as real-looking as what she faced. A moment later, she had it: she was sitting beneath Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat. Now it made so much sense, she felt stupid. Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Of course.
She heard a rhythmic clomp, clomp, clomp, reminding her at first of the sound of the football team crossing the running track as they ran out onto a field before a game. The sounds rang of men and equipment. She sat up, only to realize she was clutching tightly to Mr. Totems. She held Mr. Totems to the side so she could see, and there, coming up Sunset Boulevard was a group-no, she thought, a troop-of soldiers. They were so hard to see that she thought they must be wearing camouflage. But as they drew closer-clomp, clomp, clomp-she saw it wasn’t camouflage. They were a solid, dark green. They were the Army Men from Toy Story, but they weren’t toys at all. They were life-size, and they were coming right at her.
Willa grabbed Mr. Totems and scrambled to her feet, heading away from the Army Men, keeping in shadow until she fled down a set of steps. She sprinted once she reached the plaza, running down Commissary Lane and putting some distance between herself and the troop.
Arriving at the end of the street, she heard more of the organized marching up ahead. She turned left, past some landscaping, and kept running, the sounds of marching soldiers all around her.
Forced by the sounds to move to her left, she now faced Echo Lake. Willa squeezed Mr. Totems all the tighter. This wasn’t going well. To either side of the lake were more Army Men, enough to block her way. Behind her, the two squads arrived, now merged as one large unit.
“Mr. Totems, it’s time to get out of here. Any suggestions?”
Mr. Totems didn’t answer. His expression didn’t change. Willa wondered if something like this had happened to Charlene the night before. Was she under some spell she didn’t know about? What did they want with her? She recalled Maybeck wanting to scare the truth out of one of the green-contact-lens kids. She hoped that wasn’t what was intended for her: if so, it was already working.
She needed to get to Epcot. She needed the Return.
“Close zee ranks!” came a heavily accented Frenchman’s voice. Willa didn’t see him at first; she was far more concerned with the circle of green Army Men tightening around her.
Then she spotted him: a man in a red velvet dinner jacket, beneath which was a frilly white shirt and a bizarrely large black bow tie, the tails of which disappeared into the velvet. His pants were three-quarter length, tight around the calf, and puffy on his upper legs, with hook-and-eye laced brown leather boots spit-polished to gleaming. He had long curly hair-a wig perhaps-beneath an exaggerated hat like those worn by the Three Musketeers. Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
It took her another few seconds to figure out what he was doing here in the Studios-that he was part of the Fantasmic! show. The soldiers continued to close around her.
“You have to understand, my dear,” Judge Frollo said. “I have no patience for young children. As a judge that is. My verdict is a simple one: guilty! Of having too much fun: guilty. Misuse of time: guilty. Irresponsible, unacceptable behavior: guilty. So it’s nothing personal, you understand? It comes down to this: It has fallen upon me to determine what your friend showed you at school. I’m told it is a drawing, and that it was drawn upon a small, square tissue.” He stroked his chin, a nervous habit. “What is the subject matter of this drawing, if you please?”
“But I don’t…” she said.
“Excusez-moi?”
“If you please,” she said. “I don’t wish to tell you.”
Perplexed, he cocked his head, considering her. “I would be careful, my dear. My politeness is but a formality, an inescapable part of my egalitarian French upbringing. So civilized, the French, don’t you think? But make no mistake-I would just as soon direct my minions here,” he said, gesturing toward the hundred soldiers, “to test the water, as it were. To send you bottom-fishing. To drown you, my dear. Did I caution you that I’m not a patient man when it comes to children?”
“I can’t tell you what I don’t know,” she said, lying, though lying well, she thought.
“But you were seen. Witnessed. It was reported.”
Her head swooned. Which was it, witnessed or reported? One way would put the event in her school hallway; another inside the private meeting with the other Keepers. The source of the leak was of vital importance to her. She thought of Philby and what he’d do in her position.
Gather intelligence, she thought. Gain enough data, enough information to form an exit strategy, an escape plan. Finn would have schooled her to rely upon her DHI status-to maintain all clear. But she was so scared her teeth would have been chattering had she not been biting down on her tongue. If she were fifty percent DHI at the moment she’d be lucky. The thin blue outline that should have been surrounding her arms had dimmed to nearly nothing. All clear was not an option-not at the moment, anyway.
Judge Frollo smiled, a snarl of gnarly teeth and a twist of lip that turned her stomach.
“If it please the court,” he said, then guffawing (since he was the court), “I will ask the defendant again: What did you see drawn upon the tissue?”
“It was a napkin, Your Honor,” she said, trying to appeal to his sense of importance. “A tissue meant to catch crumbs in your lap. It is not something one writes upon. That task is better served by a pad of drawing paper, or notepaper. There may have been a logo, or business name I was meant to take note of. I’m sorry to say, I don’t happen to remember.”
“You do, however, recall what it is I intended to do to the infant boy in the animated motion picture that bears, in part, the name of a certain famous Parisian cathedral?”
“Notre Dame.”
“The same!”
“You were going to kill him,” she said. “Quasimodo.”
“Your memory is not so bad after all, I see! Excellent. Now, try again-one last time-what was drawn upon the…napkin-the crumb-catching tissue?”
“And again, as much as I’d like, I can’t describe something that wasn’t there,” she said, trying to speak somewhat like him, trying to befriend him.
“More’s the pity! My lack of patience is something I must improve upon. Very well. Seize her! Into the lake with her. A wet nap. A swim with the fishes. DROWN HER!” he roared, waving his hand like a ballet dancer’s toward the lake.
Strangely, she thought only of Mr. Totems. If they drowned her, what would it mean for Mr. Totems? Would they tear him to pieces? As much as she loathed the idea of leaving Mr. Totems behind, a plan began to form in her mind. The soldiers were about to pick her up and throw her into the lake. If, at the exact moment, she could substitute Mr. Totems for herself…
She couldn’t feel sorry for Mr. Totems. She had to think of it as Mr. Totems sacrificing himself for her. Maybe she could come back and get him later. Who knew? They’d come through a lot together: bubble gum stuck in his fur; the replacement of one of his button eyes; a torn seam that left him spewing stuffing, tiny plastic balls that smelled something like fish.
If she charged the line of Army Men, they would simply catch hold of her. No, the answer was the water itself: give them Mr. Totems and then dive in and swim for the opposite side, hoping to beat the cloddy soldiers.
With a second dismissive flick of his wrist, Judge Frollo signaled the green soldiers to close around her. Willa felt light-headed. She held Mr. Totems tightly.
Three…two…
A soldier reached for her.
She stuffed Mr. Totems into the soldier’s open arms, pushed Judge Frollo into the others, turned, and ran five steps to the lake’s edge.
“SHOOT HER!” she heard.
She dove.
White lines raced around her, bullets zooming through the water. She couldn’t surface without being shot. Down, down, she swam, pulling against the water and traveling deeper and deeper. She had thought Echo Lake was only a few feet deep, but suddenly it was much deeper. The bullets weren’t reaching her now, but-as she looked up-they were zooming overhead like shooting stars.
And there, in silhouette, was Mr. Totems floating on the lake’s surface. Snow was falling all around him as bullets riddled his body. Not snow, she realized, but his stuffing. Mr. Totems had given his life for her.
Willa screamed underwater, bubbles rising above her like silver Christmas balls. She was smart enough not to breathe in, to avoid inhaling a fatal lungful of lake water, but she was sinking now, her lungs aching. She felt light-headed.
Something up ahead…A dark, flowing shape interrupting the light on the surface: a fish the size of a porpoise or a shark, yet even more graceful. It grew larger with its approach.
Her lungs about to burst, Willa saw a flash of green, a glimpse of rust-colored seaweed. No, she realized, not seaweed but hair. It was a mermaid.
It was Ariel.
A girl’s long fingers reached out for her. Willa took hold. Ariel pressed her face close to hers and blew bubbles in a steady stream into her lips, and Willa drank them in. The pain in her lungs subsided. The two swam side by side, Ariel stopping every few yards and blowing another stream of bubbles for Willa to inhale.
Ariel led her across the lake and they surfaced together on the far side of a large white ship tied up to shore. Willa sucked in the fresh air, and Ariel held a finger to her lips, silencing her.
There was much shouting and yelling from Judge Frollo, and the sound of the soldiers’ feet pounding the pavement as they surrounded the lake. Ariel pointed down, signaling for them to go underwater again. Willa was reluctant but nodded her consent.
Where had Ariel come from? Were there more Characters like her willing to help the Keepers?
They dove. Ariel led her along the tank wall-the lake was nothing more than a giant swimming pool-until they reached a large hole, the end of a pipe. Ariel filled Willa’s lungs with air and smiled beautifully, and Willa knew it was going to be okay. Ariel swam into the opening first and Willa followed.
The pipe grew increasingly darker. Unable to see, Willa felt outward and caught Ariel’s hand. Suddenly the powerful tail propelled them. Willa had never moved so fast in the water. Twice Ariel stopped to charge Willa’s lungs in the dark. Twice Willa drank in the air, only to feel herself whisked away into the darkness again. Ariel pulled her upward. Willa’s head broke the surface. Again, she gasped for air, marveling that she was still alive.
They were in a large tank with a ladder and a metal platform. She spotted a sign on the wall that read, voyage of THE LITTLE MERMAID-BACKSTAGE ENTRANCE. An arrow pointed to a door. Ariel focused on the door, then eased Willa toward the stairs in the water.
Willa shook her head. “I can’t thank you enough for saving me. But if the soldiers saw us they will come looking. They will start here,” she said, pointing to the sign. “I need to get to Epcot…My friends and I-”
“The Keepers,” Ariel said in a beautiful, lilting voice.
Willa coughed. “You know about us?”
Ariel blinked and smiled at her. “My dear girl, everyone knows about you. You are our saviors.”
Our saviors? What did she mean by that? Willa wondered. Are there more of you?
“No, no, no. We’re just kids. We’re nobodies, believe me.”
“I’m afraid no one would believe such nonsense,” said Ariel. “We know who you are. We are most grateful for what you are doing. We all-any of us-will do whatever we can to keep the magic. The magic is what feeds us.”
Us! There it was again!
“It isn’t safe here,” Willa said. “I don’t want to leave you. Please don’t think me rude, but I don’t want to get you in any more trouble than you’re already in.”
“You are shaking,” Ariel said.
“I’m cold.”
“One last swim,” Ariel said. “I know a place. The perfect place. Warm. And I can be with you without concern.”
“I couldn’t ask that. You’ve done enough.”
“It’s okay, dear girl-”
“Willa.”
“Ah! You are the Willow!”
“Willa,” she corrected.
“Yes, I know. Of course. And Shirley-”
“Charlene…”
“Of course. I know. You ask nothing. It is after hours. I can go back and forth, tail or legs, as I choose. I am happy to help you. Come, please swim with me.”
“A short distance?”
“I promise.”
Willa didn’t want to use that backstage door. She nodded. Ariel dove. Willa followed and grabbed her hand. Again the water was dark. Ariel’s powerful tail drove them left, right, and up-straight up. Harder and harder the tail pushed. Higher they swam.
Willa didn’t understand how it was possible. When they’d started, they couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen feet underground, yet now it felt as if they’d climbed fifty feet or more.
Ariel had not fed her any air. Her lungs were bursting as they broke through the surface. She coughed and gasped for air.
They found themselves in a much bigger tank. Again, a metal ladder ran down below the water’s surface, stretching high above them to a circular catwalk surrounding the tank.
As Ariel pulled herself up the rungs, Willa watched as her mermaid’s tail changed into a girl’s long, bare legs and bare bottom.
“I keep these handy just for this transition,” Ariel said once they’d reached a steel catwalk at the top. She had her back to Willa as she slipped on a pair of bikini bottoms that she’d had cleverly wrapped around the back strap of her halter top, hidden by her long hair.
She led Willa out a heavy metal door and onto another catwalk. Willa nearly screamed as she reached to steady herself. They were a hundred feet above ground, high up on a catwalk balcony surrounding the Park water tower. But Willa, like Philby, was a climber, and had no trouble with the height once she realized where she was. Ms. Cheerleader, Charlene, could do some climbing too, but more of the gymnastic variety. Willa and Philby were the Keepers who did the rope courses and climbing wall as after-school activities. It was where she’d first started liking him.
“It’s…beautiful,” Willa said.
“Yes. I love it up here. There’s a lot to be said for being human.”
“You saved my life.”
“Mermaids,” Ariel said, interrupting, “have a long-standing tradition of rescuing sailors at sea. It would seem that is about all we’re good for. That, and exciting homesick sailors in the first place.”
“In my house, you’re known for your singing.”
“Yes, well…that came later.”
“What do we do now?” asked Willa.
“I am not sure. I only know that no one will find us here. No one will see us. I often spend time here-overlooking the Park, watching the guests, playing the occasional prank. Did you know that mermaids like to make practical jokes?”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
“Yes, well, how would you feel if shipbuilders were constantly carving sculptures of you on the front of their ships from the waist up? It’s undignified. Such things deserve practical joking.”
“Can I ask you something?” Willa said.
“You just did.”
Willa giggled. “You said you knew of the Keepers.”
“Of course.”
“Are there…others who would consider helping us?”
“I told you: You have many friends here. You might be surprised to discover how many stand with you. Here in the World, and in the Land as well, we lack only a leader. We assume that is why you and the others have come. To lead us.”
Willa’s head spun. Finn had often talked about Wayne making reference to leadership. She’d always thought of it in terms of the Keepers-never the Disney characters themselves. Willa had never considered that she and the others were there to lead a movement. She doubted Finn or anyone else had, either.
“My father, King Triton, says a kingdom has room for only one ruler,” Ariel said.
“Our group is more of a democracy,” Willa said. “But maybe we’re here to help you find a leader. What about Mickey? Isn’t Mickey your leader?”
Ariel locked into a distant stare. She’d gone somewhere far away. “We can discuss this another time, I think.” Her entire demeanor had changed.
Willa filed the information away for later. Why had mention of Mickey closed off Ariel?
Willa said, “Let me ask you this. If you’re here…” she reached over and touched the beautiful girl, “does that mean Ursula’s here, too?”
“Of course. Everyone’s here. Aren’t they? There are so few you can trust here, believe me.”
“We need a plan,” Willa mumbled.
“Or a script. There’s always a script to follow.”
“Not always, I’m afraid,” Willa said. “This is one of those times. We need to write our own script.”
Willa looked out on the empty Park. Occasionally she caught movement from a particular direction, but by the time she turned to look in that direction the street would be empty, the Park a ghost town.
Willa recalled with some dread Judge Frollo’s eagerness to drown her. How the soldiers had appeared so well organized.
They had been waiting for her to cross over. They had wanted her to describe the sketch Jess had shown her at school. It meant only one thing: someone had told them about Jess showing it to her.
The spies were real.
“Something’s going on here,” she allowed to slip out.
“Oh, there’s a great deal going on, dear girl. We just so seldom see it.”
“We’re in danger.”
“Yes.” It was as if this was old news to Ariel.
“I need to get to Epcot.” To the Return, she was thinking.
“But you just got here!” Ariel complained.
“My friends and I want to help,” Willa reminded. “But we can only help if we’re together. Like a team.”
“Friends? A team? My friends are a crab and some fish. I’m all alone here,” Ariel said, wistfully.
“Not anymore you’re not,” said Willa. “You’re part of the team now.”