Kingdom Keepers III(76)
“And a Simpsons episode.”
“I love the Simpsons,” Maybeck said. “There’re a couple where Bart is the Fly.”
“Blake,” Amanda said, “A dead poet. Dead for a long time. Dead as in can’t be changed. That’s Blake.”
“An old dead poet?” Finn said. “That’s got to be near the top of our list if Wayne’s behind this.”
“The Dave Matthews song is about being saved,” Charlene repeated. “How much more do you need than that? Wayne needs to be saved.”
“Wayne wouldn’t have a clue who Dave Matthews is,” Finn insisted.
“You can’t know that.”
“I do know that,” Finn said. “And there’s no way he’d know about U2 either.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Charlene protested. “Everyone knows U2.” Philby angled the phone in the limited light. “Here’s the poem.”
“Read it,” Finn said.
Philby looked around. No one objected.
“Okay….
‘Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush’d away.
‘Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
‘For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
‘If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death;
‘Then am I
A happy fly.
If I live,
Or if I die.’”
For a moment, no one said a thing.
“Whoa,” Maybeck grunted out. “Heavy.”
“Note to self,” Charlene said, “the U2 song is about stars falling and secrets being kept. I mean: come on, people!”
“And this is about life and death,” Finn said.
“And dancing and drinking and singing,” Amanda added, “all of which happen in Epcot and the other parks.”
Willa said, “It’s the part about how thinking is the strength of life, that gets me. And about how not thinking is death, and how as long as that’s true, he’s happy. That is so Wayne. And I think he’s telling us something deeper—”
“Oh, please, give it a rest,” said Maybeck.
She ignored him. “That it’s not about him. It’s not about whether he lives or dies but that he wants us to figure this out—to think.”
“Flying,” Philby said.
He won everyone’s attention.
“Don’t you see?” he continued. “Willa’s right: it’s about thinking. It doesn’t matter if it’s the poem or a U2 song. It’s a fly. It could be something in The Land, or A Bug’s Life over in Animal Kingdom. But think about it. Fly. Right here in Epcot: Soarin’ is about flying. And…” He pulled out and unfolded a sheet of paper from his back pocket, and read it. “Soarin’ just happens to be on the maintenance list for areas with unexpected temperature drops.”
“You carry that thing with you?” Maybeck said. “What are you, a Boy Scout?”
“Finn and I took a big risk collecting this data. I intend to make use of it.”
“Mission: Space!” Finn added. “It involves flight.”
Philby checked the sheet. “Also on here.”
Jess touched her forehead and closed her eyes. Amanda noticed the reaction, though the others were too excited to spot it.
“And on Test Track you go fast enough to fly,” Willa said.
Philby nodded. “Ditto,” he said.
“There’s that Star Wars ride where you’re in a space pod,” Maybeck said. “Over in Hollywood Studios.”
“I don’t have that data,” Philby said.
Maybeck scoffed.
Amanda leaned into Jess. “What’s wrong?”
“Not sure.” With her eyes closed she reached out in front of her, like a blind person groping in the dark. Then her eyes popped open. “That was strange….” she whispered.
While the other kids continued talking—arguing, was more like it—Amanda probed Jess’s sudden confusion with an inquisitive look. Jess shook her head. “I saw something—a pattern. Three rectangles. Just for an instant.”
Finn had the attention of the others. “We keep the sword with us. It has to have something to do with either finding him or finding the Overtakers,” he said. “It’s got to be a clue.”
“Of course it’s a clue, Whitman,” Maybeck said. “The question is, what are we supposed to do about it?”
“We have the entire night to check it out,” Charlene said. “We can sit here for six hours, or we can actually do something.”
“For instance?” Maybeck said.