Kingdom Keepers(53)

Willa pulled on the sawed-off length of pipe but couldn’t budge it. She called for a stunned Charlene to help as the water rose steadily higher.

Together they pulled.

Water spilled over the side of the car, quickly filling it.

Willa chanted, “One—two—”

On 'Three!’ both girls heaved on the pipe, pulling it free.

The doors blew open. The girls fell back into the car as a few thousand gallons of water rushed into the next scene, and the car rode the leading edge of the wave like a surfboard.

The plume of water spun and turned and twisted its way out toward the ride’s finish, leveling off as it reached the exit. Their car lowered and settled into the track, right where it had started.

The waiting guests stood there drenched head to toe. A lake of water had flooded the pavement outside the attraction.

In all the confusion, the two girls hurried from the car and ran for their lives.





26


Late that afternoon, nearing the dinner hour, the DHIs met in Finn’s guest room in the Virtual Magic Kingdom. This had become something of a routine for them. Lately, Charlene’s and Willa’s characters took the couch while Finn, Maybeck, and Philby stood and moved around the room.

A text bubble appeared above Willa. She told them about nearly being drowned at Winnie the Pooh, and that she had called Philby prior to this meeting and had told him about the S she and Charlene had discovered. It was Philby’s job to make sense of the clues.

Philby’s character explained that he’d run the letters FMEYIR and S through an Internet anagram generator. The program rearranged the letters into every possible combination and then printed up the results.

philitup: there are only two decent possibilities. MY FRIES and YES FIRM. Neither makes much sense.

Finn: So we need more. The last clue mentioned in the fable is “stone.” Any ideas what ride that might be?

philitup: I thought about Tom Sawyer Island. There are rocks over there. But then I realized it has to be Thunder Mountain. I mean, give me a break! Talk about rocks. That place is all rocks.

Finn: So we’ll start there, at Thunder Mountain—

Philby and I.

Mybest: Sounds good to me.

angelface 13: But we’ll all cross over, just as we do every night. Are we supposed to just wait for you?





Finn could just imagine Charlene whining as she typed.

Finn: At some point, we’ll need to get Wayne. He lives above the fire station. By the time Philby and I are off Thunder Mountain, we should have all the letters. We’ll get back together and try to solve the riddle. If we do, if we’re successful, we’ll need Wayne. He should be told what’s going on.

Mybest: I can get over there and give him a heads-up. The girls can keep a lookout from the apartment. It looks right down Main Street. We’ll set up some kind of signal in case they see trouble. That’ll help.

philitup: sounds like a plan.





The five characters formed a huddle in the middle of Finn’s guest room. They all put their hands into the center, like players on a sports team. And then they left the room.

Finn headed downstairs and found his mother bent over the kitchen sink doing dishes.

She asked, “Do you want to help me?”

“Sure.”

Finn bagged and took out the trash. He cleaned the kitty litter. He was about to put some dishes away when his mother reminded him where his hands had just been; so he washed his hands and was putting away some dishes when she said, “We need to talk.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s sit at the table.”

The table? This was bad—very bad.

“I need something explained to me, and I want you to be honest,” she said. The kitchen table grew impossibly long in his mind, as if his mother were a judge way down at the far end.

“Okay,” he said.

“The laundry.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I’m your mother, Finn. Each day you come home from school, I look at you, both because I love you and because it’s my job to keep your clothes clean. If your pants are clean, for instance, I say nothing and you can wear them another time. If they’re dirty, I ask you to put them in the laundry.”

“So?”

“Remember, I need you to be honest. That’s more important to me than anything else.”

“Mom…”

“I’d rather not involve your father, but if you insist on lying to me, I most certainly will.” She paused and then said, “Your clothes are dirtier in the morning than they are when you go to bed. A week ago, they were damp and smelled like…well…awful.”

Evidence! He hadn’t thought about this aspect of his adventures. He had tried to keep himself looking the same: taking showers in the morning to get the dirt off. Yet he had just tossed his clothes into the hamper. Now he saw the stupidity of that.