Kingdom Keepers(57)

“No way,” Philby said. “We’ll try again.” He reshuffled the ten letters.

E

N P

S T M

Y F R I

“I’m killer at Scrabble,” Charlene announced, “if I do say so myself.”

“Have at it,” Philby said.

Charlene arranged the letters into groups, broke up those groups and tried again. Her hands moved very fast, like a card dealer.

She assembled them into:

M Y P I T F E R N S.

“Very good!” Willa said encouragingly.

M Y T I P F E R N S

“Again,” Philby said. Finn kept track, writing down all the variations.

F I R M S P Y N E T

“That’s an interesting one,” Philby said.

Finn made sure to get it down.

M E N F I S T P R Y

“You are good at this!” Willa said, impressed.

“We all have our talents,” Charlene quipped.

Then, two right in a row:

MET FRY SPIN, MY PINS FRET.

Suddenly Maybeck sneezed, sending the letters airborne. Finn and Philby snagged a few of them and returned them to the table.

Others floated down like large snowflakes. They settled, one by one.

“Wait!” Finn called out. He gasped as he saw what the letters were spelling all by themselves:

W Y

F IR S T

P EN

Finn licked the tip of his finger, touched the W and turned it over. He then neatened the rest:

MY FIRST PEN

“The Stonecutter’s Quill. It’s Walt Disney’s first pen,” Philby said. “Oh my gosh!”

“But what does it mean?” Charlene said.

“It’s the next clue. It means we’ve got to find Walt’s first pen,” Philby answered.

Maybeck groaned, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“But where?” Charlene asked.

Silence.

“Is there a museum or something?” Finn asked.

The kids all shook their heads.

“There’s that thing, One Man’s Dream,” Willa stated. “Over in Disney-MGM. It’s kind of like a museum, I suppose.”

Philby said, “That sounds…relevant.”

“What are you, a lawyer?” Maybeck said.

Willa continued, “As I remember, there’s stuff there, like an old desk and models and things like that.”

“Worth a try,” Finn muttered softly.

“Wayne,” Philby said, drawing everyone’s attention. “This is a question for Wayne.”

Maybeck said, “I paid him a visit. Asked him to join us in the apartment. He said his hip was bothering him, and that if we wanted to see him, it would have to be at his place.”

“Well, then,” Finn said. “I guess that’s that.”

They split up into two groups—Finn with Willa; Maybeck and Philby with Charlene—and left the restaurant five minutes apart.

The area of greatest risk was Main Street, which was the park’s sole entrance and exit. You couldn’t leave or enter the Magic Kingdom without walking down Main Street. The fire station was up at Town Square, at the opposite end of the street from where they were.

When Finn and Willa reached the park end of Main Street—the area near the castle—they stayed close to the storefronts, ducking into doorways and sneaking glances out onto the empty street. Twice they hid in the shadows against a door as Finn spotted the taillights of golf carts in the distance. He checked his watch: in two minutes the other three would leave the restaurant. The idea had been for Finn and Willa to be safely inside Wayne’s by then.

The most risk came with crossing the street. Finn signaled to Willa and counted down with his fingers. Three…two…one…

They took off across the street, two blurs of dull, colorful light. As they did, Finn had the pronounced feeling that someone was watching him. He glanced over his shoulder and thought he saw a shadow move in one of the doorways. But who?

Door to door they moved up Main Street. Finn looked back, but there was no more sign of anyone following. When he was sure they were in the clear, he led Willa toward the fire station and up the back stairs. Wayne answered the door as if he’d been waiting for them.

“I think you’ve done it,” Wayne said, with all five DHIs gathered in his apartment. Philby and Finn had explained their solution to the fable.

Wayne continued, “It was the glasses, you see? That reference to perspective was where we failed all these years. You should be very proud of yourselves.”

“Is that it?” Maybeck asked. “Can we start sleeping again, for real?”

“You can try,” Wayne answered, “but I’m willing to think you’ll have to see it through.”

“See what through?” Maybeck complained. “You wanted us to solve the fable, and we did.”

Wayne stared at Finn until the boy said, “It’s not solved. Maybe the pen is the end of it.”