Kingdom Keepers II(42)

He heard the voice too late. “Aren’t you…him?” A boy of ten or eleven. His parents stood a few feet back, his mother’s face bright with expectancy. Finn glanced around. How had the boy possibly recognized him? He didn’t want this to get out of hand; sometimes signing a single autograph could start a big line.

“Do you like the Magic Kingdom?” Finn asked the boy, who then nodded vigorously.

“The Kingdom Keepers,” the boy said. “You’re Finn. You beat up Maleficent.”

Finn bit back a smirk. “Not hardly. Those are just stories,” he said, accepting an autograph book from the boy. “I’ll sign this, but only if you promise not to tell anyone.” He lowered his voice and said conspiratorially, “I’m here on a mission.”

The boy’s eye went wide. He shook his head, too awed to speak.

“Good.” Finn led the boy over to the sidewalk, where he could sign the autograph book with his back turned to the street. In the Disney Parks, anyone signing anything attracted attention.

The boy followed. As Finn put pencil to paper, he briefly glanced up and into the reflection in the store window. Three brooms, one holding a bucket of water. He spun quickly around, dropping the autograph book. The boy bent to retrieve it.

The brooms stood facing him.

“Thank you!” the boy said, cherishing his autograph.

Finn had nearly forgotten about him. “No problem.”

Then something occurred to him. “You see those brooms over there? They look real familiar, but I can’t remember why.…”

“Fantasia,” the boy said.

“Fantasia,” Finn said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one.”

“It’s a pretty weird movie,” the boy said. “The brooms show up in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’I think. Mickey, the apprentice, can’t control the magic—you know? It gets all out of hand. The brooms are part of that.”

Uncontrollable magic, Finn thought. Yes, he knew exactly what that was about, just like uncontrollable holograms. The brooms were there for him. He felt certain of it all of a sudden.

Finn thanked the boy, who ran back to his mother’s side.

Were the brooms part of Park Security? Were they going to bust him for being in the Park? Or were they something more sinister: uncontrollable magic?

The brooms swept their way across the street and drew closer.

He walked quickly away. He looked back: the brooms were definitely following.

Up ahead, he heard music from High School Musical. A huge crowd of onlookers formed a half moon around a street show of cheerleaders and basketball players dancing and singing.

Finn worked his way into the dense crowd, glad to see the brooms stop at the back. But then the three split up. The one with the bucket went around the crowd in one direction; one stayed put; the other swept off in the opposite direction. He was surrounded. If they weren’t Security, then they were something much worse.

The leader of the High School Musical street show called for volunteers to dance with them. A number of kids raised their hands. Finn followed one of the kids as the music started. He kept his back to the crowd and headed toward the movable stage.

The brooms all were trapped with the crowd.

Finn dodged his way through the cheerleaders and ducked behind the stage. He hurried through the plaza beneath the sorcerer’s hat, running hard now. He arrived at The Great Movie Ride.

The brooms regrouped and moved through the crowd—but they didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

Finn entered the ride. He was directed into one of the cars, joining a family of three on a long bench. He lowered his head to keep from being seen. But he looked up to steal a peek toward the entrance.

For some reason, the brooms hadn’t followed him inside.





28


TWENTY MINUTES LATER, with no sign of the brooms, Finn joined the line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The ceiling was painted to look like water. His heart beat excitedly: he was “under the sea.”

There was no telling what he might find. Big or small, ordinary or out of the ordinary, it could be anything.

He heard a commotion behind him—the people waiting for the doors to open were oohing and ahhing. Finn turned carefully around and spotted the three brooms. They danced and bowed and entertained as they progressively moved closer.

Finn nudged past several people. “Excuse me…I got cut off from my family…pardon me…I’ve lost my family and I think…” He never quite completed a sentence, thinking this made each excuse less of a lie.

People complained, but no one physically stopped him. He pushed to the very front of the line, putting a good distance between himself and the brooms. What did they want? he wondered. Would they possibly try to hurt him with all these people as witnesses?