Kingdom Keepers(13)

“Are you not feeling well?” His mother said, in shock.

“I’m feeling fine,” he said. “I’m just going to bed early, if that’s all right?”

“Have you finished your homework?”

“Yes, it’s done. I stayed after for study hall.”

“You what?” She set down a bowl of mashed potatoes and crossed her arms. “Finn?” She eyed him suspiciously. “You stayed after school to do your homework, and now you’re heading to bed at seven-fifteen?” The night before last, his mother had received a call from her contact on the DHI team, asking if Finn had been to the Magic Kingdom lately. Finn had denied going, feeling awful about lying, but knowing she wouldn’t believe him. She’d grounded him. Finn didn’t even try to challenge her, and that had convinced her of his guilt. “If you’re planning to sneak out—”

“No way!” Finn said. “I’m not, I promise.” He stepped forward and kissed her. “Good night, Mom.”

“I’m going to check on you when your father gets home.”

“Okay,” Finn said. “Just don’t wake me up. Please,” he added. “I need a good night’s sleep.”

He checked his computer. No interesting e-mail. He debated logging on to VMK and looking for Charlene, but instead he changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth, passing his mother in the hall on the way back from the bathroom.

She wore her concern openly. “It’s only seven-fifteen,” she reminded him. “We could catch the Simpsons.”

She’d trapped him. This was an offer he would never normally turn down.

“I’m going to pass, Mom, but thanks.”

“It’s a bad rule, making you get approval before going. A stupid rule, really. If you…if you took a friend to the park…well…your father and I would understand how you wouldn’t have wanted to tell us.”

Finn considered her olive branch. “Amanda,” he said. “Her name’s Amanda.”

Relief spread across his mother’s face. He feared she might hug him.

She was smiling now. Beaming.

“’Night, Mom.”

She looked like she might cry.

“I’ll talk to your father,” was all she said.

Finn knew he wouldn’t be grounded by morning.

He shut his bedroom door. If he crossed over into the park, he didn’t want to be in his pajamas, so he changed back into jeans and a T-shirt. He lay there for fifteen wakeful minutes with the lights out, checking the clock regularly. He tried to relax. Dusk played at the edges of his shades. It felt like the middle of the day. He cleared his mind, dozed off, and finally sank into a deep sleep.

“You’re learning,” said the old man’s voice from behind him.

Finn turned to see Wayne, in khakis and a plaid shirt, sitting behind the wheel of an electric golf cart with the Walt Disney World logo painted on the front. The sky glowed faintly on the horizon. It took Finn a moment to register his location as somewhere in Frontierland, not far from Tom Sawyer Island.

“You just missed the fireworks display,” Wayne said, stopping the cart alongside Finn. “Park closed a few minutes ago. I love this time of night. Especially the music.”

“What music?” Finn didn’t hear any music and realized now that he’d always heard music in the park. The old guy was a bit daffy.

Finn reached out and grabbed the steel bar that supported the cart’s awning. He saw his glowing hand wrap around the metal but could also faintly see through his hand as well. Not only that, but the metal didn’t feel exactly like metal.

“This is so weird,” he confessed.

“Don’t fight it,” Wayne said.

“This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve done some weird stuff,” Finn said. “This one time, a friend of mine and I—” He caught himself blabbering. Instead, he told Wayne, “I found Charlene. I’m still trying to locate the others.”

“It has to be all of you. You understand that, don’t you? All or nothing. Youngsters your age, you always think it’s all about you, only you. I can promise you, it has to be all of you.”

“I want to help you.”

“You have no choice,” he said. “At some point you’ll understand that.”

Finn felt the words like drumbeats in his chest. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I thought it was a dream at first,” Finn said.

“And now?”

“Now I don’t think so. I don’t know exactly what it is if it isn’t a dream, but I don’t think it could be a dream.” He hesitated and said, “I saw the moon.”