“It’s not a coincidence,” he told the others. “This is spreading beyond the park.”
On Saturday morning, the girls decided to use their complimentary passes to enter the Magic Kingdom legally. As kids, not DHIs. That felt safer. They wore disguises in order to keep fans from spotting them and carried 3-D glasses to wear on the rides.
As they stood outside, waiting to board The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a cartoony voice came over the speakers saying, “Happy winds day.” It was this, and other references on the ride, that had led them to pick it as the most wind-oriented ride in the park. Wind was the third clue in the Stonecutter’s fable.
They sat down in the car, and the ride began. Black lights made their teeth glow white and their skin and clothing almost disappear.
“Glasses,” Willa announced, donning hers. Charlene followed. “You look right. I’ll look left,” Willa coached. “If we see any letters—big letters in an unexpected place—we’re supposed to write them down.”
Charlene said, “I’ve got it.” She sounded nervous, and Willa understood her concern. The rides had been anything but friendly since this hunt had begun.
As they traveled along, doors swung open to admit their car into each new scene. Reaching the third scene, Charlene realized she heard no one talking. She looked back and saw there was no one in the car behind them. Rising to her knees, she saw no one in the car behind that one either.
Yet the line out front had been packed.
“Willa…?”
“Over there!” Willa said, pointing out a large, colorful tree drawn onto a panel. She lifted and dropped her 3-D glasses onto her nose in order to make sure—but yes, there was a single letter drawn into the leaves of the tree.
She called out quickly, “It’s an S!”
“S?” Charlene asked, puzzled. “But look behind us!”
Willa was too excited to look back.
“There’s no one behind us,” Charlene announced. “No one in the cars behind us. Why not?”
Willa pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and scribbled down S. As she did, a drop of water appeared on the paper. Then another. And another.
“Behind us!” Charlene cried urgently.
Willa looked back. She looked up.
More water.
The doors to the next scene popped open and shut. They were in the rain scene. Rain drawn in long lines down the walls. Rain falling from the ceiling.
“Since when is this part of the ride?” Willa complained, stuffing the paper into her pocket.
At that moment, their car stopped moving.
“What’s happening?” Charlene whined. “Why are we stopping?”
The few light raindrops changed into a downpour. At first it seemed funny. But then it wasn’t simply rain, it was a torrent. Buckets. Both girls gasped for breath through a steady stream of water pouring down onto them. It was hard to breathe without coughing.
“This isn’t right!” Willa cried.
Now the water beneath their car began to rise. The car lifted, floating. Charlene lunged forward nervously, nearly capsizing them. She leaned out of the car and pushed against the large doors to the next scene.
“They’re stuck! They won’t open.”
As the water rose at an astonishing rate, the car floated higher and higher. Sparks flew as electrical wires were submerged.
“Stay in the car!” Willa hollered. Light sockets sparked and zapped. “We could be electrocuted!”
The car floated quickly toward the ceiling. Willa understood the worst of it: the higher they rose, the less available the air would be. They would either drown or suffocate.
“Willa…” Charlene moaned.
“I know.”
The car rose higher still.
Sparks flew again as more lights went under.
“We’re in trouble,” Willa said, surprisingly calm.
“Duh!”
“We need a way out.”
“Just now occurred to you, did it?”
The rain fell like a waterfall—the car was now less than three feet from the ceiling. Another foot or two and the car would be pinned with the girls inside it.
Why won’t the doors to the next scene open? Willa thought.
“Sit still,” she warned Charlene.
Studying the large scene doors, Willa stood up in the car. Charlene hollered at her to sit down as the car threatened to tip over.
Willa grabbed the overhead pipes to stabilize the car. She then pulled hand over hand to draw the car closer to the doors. But as the water rose, with so little room, Willa was forced back down into her seat.
No time!
Water streamed down her neck and shoulders as she spotted a sawed-off length of pipe jammed across the top of the large doors, blocking them and holding them shut. The “rain” was nothing more than the emergency sprinkler system gone wild. All this trouble could be easily explained: the sprinklers malfunctioning. Maleficent had done her job well.