Kingdom Keepers(12)
“No one.”
The big kid reached out and lifted Finn’s sunglasses. “Think you’re too cool?” Seeing Finn, he did a double take.
“Hey! How come I know you?”
“Give me back my glasses, please.”
“Aren’t you like on Zoom or something?”
“I’d like my glasses back, please.”
“Give ‘em back, Roy,” a girl at the next table said. “It’s not Zoom, stupid. He’s a host—over at the Magic Kingdom—like Charlene Turner.”
Charlene Turner. Finn had her last name now.
“Oh, yeah!” the big kid said, reluctantly returning the sunglasses to Finn. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Charlene,” Finn said.
“Can’t help you,” the big guy said, sitting back down.
Finn looked to the girl expectantly, but she shook her head. “Sorry,” she said.
Finn looked up to see Amanda waving at him. Having won his attention, she pointed to a window that looked out onto the playing fields. She moved her hand to mimic dribbling a basketball.
Leave it to Amanda: she’d found Charlene.
7
Charlene was talking with three other girls, all dressed for P.E. in gray gym shorts and yellow T-shirts. Charlene’s expression changed instantly as she saw Finn approaching. He wondered why she should be so disappointed to see him. They’d gotten along well enough during the shoot.
“Hey,” he said, greeting her, suddenly made painfully aware of Amanda standing by his side.
Charlene excused herself from her friends, saying, “Back in a whack,” and approached Finn.
“What are you doing here? Are you cutting?” she asked, viewing Finn skeptically. “And who’s she?”
“I have to talk to you,” he said. Then, “She’s a friend.”
Charlene looked him over, and then met eyes with Amanda. “I don’t think so,” she said, and started to walk back toward her friends.
“The dreams. Disney after dark,” Finn said. That stopped her cold.
Amanda looked at Finn curiously, but knew better than to say anything.
“Dreams that aren’t dreams,” he added.
Charlene spun to face him, excitement and alarm in her sparkling eyes. “No way you could know that,” she said.
“Unless…” Finn said. “I’ve been there, too.”
“What’s this about?” Amanda asked. A whisper meant only for Finn, yet Charlene overheard.
“Where’s she fit in?” Charlene asked.
“I told you: a friend willing to help me out,” Finn explained. He added quickly, “Wayne, the old guy. Have you met him? He needs us all together. At night. Tonight, or tomorrow. As soon as I can find everyone: the five of us, all together.”
“This isn’t happening,” said Charlene, suspicious of Amanda, puzzled by Finn. But the expression on her face told him she’d also been in the park in her dreams.
Charlene was the kind of girl you might see on a cereal box.
“Do you know how to reach any of the others?” Finn asked.
“I run into Willa on VMK sometimes, though it’s more by chance.” Virtual Magic Kingdom, a new “massively multiplayer” online game, was all the rage.
Finn played too. “Can you tell her to meet us?”
“It’s not like I know her like that.” Her friends called over to her. “Listen, I can’t do this now,” Charlene said.
“Contact Willa if you can. But whatever you do, go to bed early tonight. Eight o’clock. Eight o’clock, exactly.”
“I’ve been trying to stay up. I don’t exactly love my dreams lately.”
“We need to know,” he said. She had to be as curious about this as he was. Could they possibly meet in the park in their dreams?
“Yeah, okay…” Charlene said reluctantly.
Charlene looked straight at Amanda but spoke to Finn. “No one can know about this,” she said. Then she lowered her voice and hissed, “It isn’t safe.”
The coach’s whistle sounded shrilly. Charlene took off running but glanced back at Finn one last time. He saw fear in her eyes.
“Meet me!” he called out.
Charlene didn’t answer, but her eyes registered that she’d heard.
After a moment, Amanda said, “We’d better be getting back.”
“Yeah,” Finn agreed.
“It isn’t safe.”
Charlene’s warning seemed to hang in the air between them.
8
“I'm going to bed,” Finn announced, standing up from the dinner table and carrying his plate to the kitchen sink. He hadn’t been to bed at this hour since elementary school.