Kingdom Keepers II(3)

“Where did they come from?” Charlene asked. Even now Finn heard a tinge of jealousy in her voice. Or was that suspicion? There was a lot unanswered about Jez and Amanda. “And check out that hair color. Since when is she a strawberry blonde? Last time we saw her she had hair like my granny’s.”

“What the heck are they doing here?” Philby called out. He didn’t mean the sisters.

Two big monkeys were moving in the bushes, swinging and keeping perfect pace with…was it possible?… the float. Their float.

“Since when are there monkeys in the Magic Kingdom?” Maybeck said.

“Are they wild?” Charlene asked, having noticed them as well.

Finn saw something his friends apparently didn’t: the monkeys weren’t following the float; they were following Jez and Amanda, keeping perfect pace with their movements.

“There aren’t any primates in the wild in northern Florida,” Philby said, ever the expert. Philby was a walking encyclopedia—he knew everything, and what he didn’t know he knew how to research. His red hair and rock-climbing, thrill-seeking mind-set played against the geek he really was. A favorite of the girls at school, he wanted nothing to do with them. He spent his weekends with a climbing wall and a laptop.

The parade turned just then, making a graceful arc past the Hall of Presidents. The crowds thickened. Amanda’s efforts to keep up with the DHI float failed. She and Jez stopped, caught in a bottleneck of Park guests. Finn waved, and Amanda waved back, but it wasn’t a pleasant or friendly wave; it was more like panic.

Growing smaller now and being absorbed by the crowd, Amanda pointed to Cinderella Castle. Then sharply up. Finn nodded, hoping to communicate that he too was aware of the oversize gray balloon. But Amanda shook her head violently, as if he didn’t understand. He nodded, again trying to say that he did understand. He felt constrained by not being able to shout down at her. Amanda frantically pointed toward the sky. Then she tore a leaf off a plant and pushed it against her face. Again she pointed toward the castle. Then the float rounded the corner, and Amanda was gone.

Finn looked up at the swirling, dark clouds. They’ll cancel the parade, he wanted to shout. Maybe she was concerned that he and the others were so high above ground when lightning threatened. But surely the Park authorities had it under control. He wasn’t worried about their safety—he just didn’t want the parade canceled.

Maybeck edged closer to Finn, pushing past Charlene, who was waving two pom-poms. “What do you suppose they’re doing here?” Maybeck asked, while bobbing his head and trying to keep a smile on his face.

“No clue.”

“AWOL all this time, and they suddenly reappear for our reopening celebration. Doesn’t that strike you as just a little bit odd?”

“Everything about them is odd, if you ask me,” said Charlene, overhearing.

“What was with the leaf?” Finn mumbled. No one heard him.

“I like them both,” said Willa, joining in. Willa looked constantly on edge. She had chocolate-colored, captivating eyes and a somewhat grating voice.

“You like everybody,” Charlene said.

“So what?” Willa complained.

“It just doesn’t work. You can’t like everybody,” Charlene said.

“Why not? Of course you can!” Willa said.

“Oh, forget it,” Charlene said, shaking her pompoms. She looked more eighteen than fourteen.

“Amanda knows where I live,” Finn said. “Otherwise I might have said that they came here to catch up with us after reading about the grand opening.”

“If she’d wanted to catch up with you, she’d have come by your place,” Maybeck said.

“So it’s you, I suppose,” Finn said. Maybeck believed every girl was in love with him. “She knows where you and Jelly live, too, don’t forget.”

“I’m just saying the timing’s kind of interesting,” Maybeck said. “We know there’s something strange about those two, and there just happens to be a pair of monkeys following them.”

Both Jez and Amanda reappeared, staying with the parade float once again.

With Amanda stabbing the sky and looking worried, Finn pointed back, behind her, trying to show her the monkeys. But before he could tell if she saw them, he lost sight of Amanda.

“She could have been pointing to the balloon,” Finn said. “Even though it disappeared, maybe they saw it too. Whatever she saw, she was…I don’t know…agitated. I don’t think they came here to celebrate. I think they came to warn us.”

“Warn us?” Charlene said.