Ridley Pearson - Power Play

“It doesn’t change it from being a trap,” Maybeck said.

“We owe it to Amanda to try anything we can think of,” Finn proposed.

“But what about the bigger picture?” Maybeck said. “The jailbreak? It’s going down tonight, right? Sally Ringwald basically told us so.”

“So you and Charlene will go to sleep dressed to cross over in case Philby detects network traffic. Does that satisfy you?”

“I don’t like it,” Maybeck said.

“By tomorrow morning,” Finn said, “Mrs. Nash is going to drag Amanda off to the hospital. Maybe even sometime tonight. We know how dangerous that is for her. Philby knows.”

“It only makes things worse, Maybeck,” Philby said. “Much worse.”

“We can’t just sit around talking,” Finn said. “We tried and failed. So what? We’ve got to try everything. A wooden wheel. Who knows? That could be it. I can let Wanda know our plans. She might help.”

“Or she could be the traitor,” Maybeck said. “We’d never suspect someone who’d been arrested, would we?”

“So noted,” Finn said, experiencing a chill. “And if it is a trap, or she’s a traitor, then it’s going to be up to you and Charlene to get us off the island.” He would send Jess an e-mail keeping her in the loop, keeping her hopes up.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Maybeck said.

Finn arrived in front of Cinderella Castle alone, sitting a few feet from the Walt Disney-Mickey Mouse statue at the center of the hub. He waited, and waited, knowing Philby’s next attempt would be to cross over Amanda.

He caught himself holding his breath as a shimmering image of Amanda lying down appeared, and then fizzled and faded as he watched.

“Come on…” he muttered.

The same image reappeared. It grew stronger and more solid, and the blue line formed around it.

Amanda blinked and opened her eyes.

Finn swallowed away a knot in his throat.

“Can you hear me?” he said.

She blinked, but did not look in his direction. The spell seemed to still be holding her.

“It’s me,” he said. “We crossed you over into the Magic Kingdom. I think we can help you.”

Her eyes popped open again.

Finn scouted the area for signs of OTs. He felt vulnerable with her apparent inability to move.

“Can you sit up?” he asked, moving over to her and helping to raise her back.

He spotted motion in some shrubs by the ramp up to the castle.

“Don’t move,” he whispered in Amanda’s ear.

He froze. A dog came out of the shrubs. A big dog.

“It’s…Pluto,” he told Amanda. Pluto was no villain. If he’d come to help, it had to be Wanda’s or Wayne’s doing.

Amanda still hadn’t fully come around. Her eyes moved more freely, but she wasn’t speaking.

“Here, boy,” Finn hissed, holding out his hand. Pluto was big, and stronger-looking than Finn would have expected. The dog faced him, sniffing the air. He wagged his tail and sat down.

“We are here to help,” Finn said.

Pluto turned toward the bushes, wagging his tail violently.

“What is it, boy?”

Pluto barked. Just once. But loudly, causing Finn to again jump back. Pluto was trying to warn him of something or someone in the bushes.

“Amanda?” he said softly, without taking his eyes off the bushes.

“I’m here.”

He turned to look. She looked tired, but she was working on smiling.

“I feel a little zoned.”

“I can explain it all at some point. But for now: can you move? We should get away from here.”

Pluto darted over to the bushes, his tail still wagging. Finn tentatively followed, crossing the street and edging closer to the bushes. Pluto’s tail was going like a windshield wiper.

Finn sneaked up and parted the bushes. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “Minnie?” he said in a whisper.

She gave him a sweet, humble look, lowering her head while looking out the tops of her big eyes.

“I’m Finn,” he said. “Over there, that’s Amanda.”

Minnie nodded.

Finn looked around the area. “Mickey?” he asked her.

She lifted her arms and shrugged. She looked crestfallen.

“He’s not here,” Finn said, making it a statement.

She shook her head.

“Not here with you?” he said, thinking aloud, “Or not here in the Magic Kingdom?”

She shrugged for a second time.

“I…” He couldn’t think what to say. He was awestruck. Mickey and Minnie were rock stars. He recalled what Wanda had told him. “Are there more of you?”

Minnie hesitated. Pluto nudged him from behind. He looked back to see Amanda trying to get to her feet.

“Thanks!”

He hurried back to her. Minnie and Pluto followed.

He helped Amanda stand up and held her by the arm. “My friend’s in trouble,” he told the other two. “I, we , need to get onto Tom Sawyer Island.”

Minnie smiled and nodded. She lifted a finger as if to say, “Just a minute!”

Pluto came around and heeled at Finn’s side.

“You’re staying with me,” Finn said. The dog nodded.

Minnie saluted Finn and took off running in the direction of Frontierland.

“I’m guessing,” he said, “you’re staying to protect us.” The dog yipped. “And she’s gone ahead for some reason.” He barked again.

“Are you talking to Pluto?” Amanda asked with a dry voice.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’ve been better. My head weighs a thousand pounds.”

“We need to go,” he said.

“I can manage. Are you going to tell me how I got here?”

“I kissed you,” he said.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “That’s not something I would forget.”

“I promise. I kissed you. It was a spell, intended for Jess.” He walked her off the hub and toward Frontierland, condensing and summarizing her story into as brief an explanation as possible.

Pluto nudged between them and leaned into Amanda.

“I think,” Finn said, “he wants you to hold onto his collar.”

Pluto’s tail went wild with excitement.

Amanda reached down and took hold. Pluto lifted his head proudly. His tail shot up like a flagpole.

“This is definitely strange,” Finn said.

Jess was not a mother. She had never even owned a pet. Like the other Fairlies, she had never met her mother, had no idea if she had living relatives. The closest thing she had to a family member was Amanda, whom she thought of as her sister. In fact, she and Amanda often introduced themselves as sisters. So, as the Kingdom Keepers carried out their plan to cross Amanda over into the Magic Kingdom in hopes of reversing the curse, Jess sat by her sister’s bedside.

A few minutes earlier, she thought she’d witnessed the cross over: Amanda had twitched and shuddered and, more encouragingly, her eyes had begun moving rapidly beneath her closed eyelids.

The other girls in Mrs. Nash’s house were supportive of her effort to keep Amanda’s condition secret. This included their roommate, Jeannie Pucket, who until now had often been a real knucklehead. But Jeannie had come through for Jess, not once but a number of times-holding off the curious Mrs. Nash and buying her unconscious roommate precious time.

It wasn’t going to last much longer, Jess thought. It seemed inevitable that Mrs. Nash would find out. That, in turn, would mean doctors, and a long downward spiral for poor Amanda.

With her diary open to the kiss, a page she had photocopied for Finn, her eyelids drooped and she briefly nodded off. Her diary slipped from her hands, landed on the bed, and fell to the floor. The sound of the book landing shocked her awake, and she looked around the room as if she’d been asleep for hours.