what had happened there and how the present-day Finn would want me to think about it.
Should I be stuck, it’s yours for the knowing.
Finn was stuck in SBS. That needed no translation.
Yours for the knowing
proved more challenging. I wasn’t sure if I would know, if I had to figure something out, if whatever I was
supposed to know would then reveal something else. I’d keep alert for anything.
I found the Cast Member backstage entrance in Tomorrowland, which accessed that area’s trash chute. Wayne had told all of us that Disney didn’t cart or carry the trash out of the
Magic Kingdom; they sucked it out through negative-pressurized tubes housed in the underground network of tunnels known to Cast Members as the Utilidor. The tube system was accessed through a
variety of backstage chutes. The chutes themselves looked like submarine hatches—heavily weighted, hinged lids sitting atop a wide metal tube rising up through concrete in a specially
designated trash station.
Here I had held the lid open, allowing Finn to jump
into
the trash system. Had he not been able to attain All Clear and turn himself into a hologram, Maleficent, who’d entered
behind, might have killed him. I thought about “time” and how quickly Finn had been sucked out of the park through the trash tubes in matter of minutes. I thought about
“time” in terms of his battle with Maleficent, which had pulled Jess back from a deep, dark curse that made her Maleficent’s daughter-slave. I searched the area for a clock. I
wandered from trash can to trash can, wondering if the “overflowing” reference had to do with trash. I searched for any kind of jar. I came away frustrated, impatient, and angry, having
found nothing of significance.
Fresh in my mind’s eye, a boy lay in bed, fully dressed, occasionally twitching, only able to drink from a straw. My boy, a boy I’d come to cherish and think about constantly. A boy
who mattered to me. So far I seemed incapable of helping him. Defending him was only going to get more difficult; Mr. Whitman’s determination to take him to doctors would soon win out. Finn
was out of “time” in more ways than he’d probably imagined.
Time was running out for me as well. I’d spent far too much of it searching Tomorrowland. I had to get to the Haunted Mansion before the park closed for the night.
Waiting in line, memories played before my eyes like videos. Hurrying into the attraction with a seventh-grade boy I barely knew, a boy I’d lied to in order to share his company. Working
to avoid security Cast Members in pursuit of Finn.
I snapped out of my daydream as the spot on the back of my neck, beneath my hair, began to overheat. A barometer I’d come to trust, it meant danger. Not the kind of warning system involved
with decision-making, but an alarm that signaled hostile intent. People or animals or Overtaker
villains
were either in my vicinity or spying on me.
I knew better than to immediately turn to look. As long as whoever, whatever, was out there believed I was oblivious to their presence, they’d be in less of a hurry. Surveillance was an
art form. Maybe they wanted to capture or harm me; maybe they were merely curious about what I was doing in the park alone. I suspected I would discover Greg Luowski or the girl with the vivid
green eyes back there. I wanted so badly to look that my neck tensed.
The standby line steered us into an interactive area of graves and tombstones, pieces of which moved or reacted to each guest, their tremors enhancing my already excessive paranoia. However,
interacting with the set pieces allowed me to finally get a look back at the line.
I nearly screamed.
Two women, both too old for college. One wore a white knit polo shirt. Shirts like those were part of the costume for Cast Members who worked the merchandise shops. The woman next to her, who
had dark hair and wore too much makeup, had on a blue T-shirt. I couldn’t see more than their heads and
Should I be stuck, it’s yours for the knowing.
Finn was stuck in SBS. That needed no translation.
Yours for the knowing
proved more challenging. I wasn’t sure if I would know, if I had to figure something out, if whatever I was
supposed to know would then reveal something else. I’d keep alert for anything.
I found the Cast Member backstage entrance in Tomorrowland, which accessed that area’s trash chute. Wayne had told all of us that Disney didn’t cart or carry the trash out of the
Magic Kingdom; they sucked it out through negative-pressurized tubes housed in the underground network of tunnels known to Cast Members as the Utilidor. The tube system was accessed through a
variety of backstage chutes. The chutes themselves looked like submarine hatches—heavily weighted, hinged lids sitting atop a wide metal tube rising up through concrete in a specially
designated trash station.
Here I had held the lid open, allowing Finn to jump
into
the trash system. Had he not been able to attain All Clear and turn himself into a hologram, Maleficent, who’d entered
behind, might have killed him. I thought about “time” and how quickly Finn had been sucked out of the park through the trash tubes in matter of minutes. I thought about
“time” in terms of his battle with Maleficent, which had pulled Jess back from a deep, dark curse that made her Maleficent’s daughter-slave. I searched the area for a clock. I
wandered from trash can to trash can, wondering if the “overflowing” reference had to do with trash. I searched for any kind of jar. I came away frustrated, impatient, and angry, having
found nothing of significance.
Fresh in my mind’s eye, a boy lay in bed, fully dressed, occasionally twitching, only able to drink from a straw. My boy, a boy I’d come to cherish and think about constantly. A boy
who mattered to me. So far I seemed incapable of helping him. Defending him was only going to get more difficult; Mr. Whitman’s determination to take him to doctors would soon win out. Finn
was out of “time” in more ways than he’d probably imagined.
Time was running out for me as well. I’d spent far too much of it searching Tomorrowland. I had to get to the Haunted Mansion before the park closed for the night.
Waiting in line, memories played before my eyes like videos. Hurrying into the attraction with a seventh-grade boy I barely knew, a boy I’d lied to in order to share his company. Working
to avoid security Cast Members in pursuit of Finn.
I snapped out of my daydream as the spot on the back of my neck, beneath my hair, began to overheat. A barometer I’d come to trust, it meant danger. Not the kind of warning system involved
with decision-making, but an alarm that signaled hostile intent. People or animals or Overtaker
villains
were either in my vicinity or spying on me.
I knew better than to immediately turn to look. As long as whoever, whatever, was out there believed I was oblivious to their presence, they’d be in less of a hurry. Surveillance was an
art form. Maybe they wanted to capture or harm me; maybe they were merely curious about what I was doing in the park alone. I suspected I would discover Greg Luowski or the girl with the vivid
green eyes back there. I wanted so badly to look that my neck tensed.
The standby line steered us into an interactive area of graves and tombstones, pieces of which moved or reacted to each guest, their tremors enhancing my already excessive paranoia. However,
interacting with the set pieces allowed me to finally get a look back at the line.
I nearly screamed.
Two women, both too old for college. One wore a white knit polo shirt. Shirts like those were part of the costume for Cast Members who worked the merchandise shops. The woman next to her, who
had dark hair and wore too much makeup, had on a blue T-shirt. I couldn’t see more than their heads and
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