The Return: Disney Lands Read Online Free PDF Page B

looking hostile.
    The guards did not look happy. They were goingto want answers Finn didn’t have. Like, why was he black-and-white and two-dimensional?
    It was then that he saw the boy, a college-aged kid, maybe a few years older, standing calmly at the back of the auditorium. The boy had a penetrating, all-knowing expression on his face. Serene
and confident.
    With seeming ease, he lifted a poster board sign. And Finn’s heart nearly jumped out ofhis black-and-white chest.
    On the sign was drawn a single image.
    A large fountain pen.

F OR SEVEN YEARS , Finn’s life hadbeen as much about conquering his fears as battling Disney
villains. As a DHI, crossed over inside the parks, Finn always knew and understood the mission. So why couldn’t he remember what he was doing now?
    In fact, he couldn’t remember a thing about the past few hours. All he had were random, fleeting images and some bizarre music as his signposts.
    He remembered stuff like Jess and Amandabeing enrolled in the Disney School of Imagineering; that the other Keepers were eager to move on with their lives; that his parents worried about him;
that Wayne had been killed while trying to help Finn save the kingdom…
    But no matter what was really going on, the look of determination on the faces of the two security guards told him he did not want to be caught.
    Work with what you’regiven, he reminded himself.
    Currently he didn’t have much. He was no Philby when it came to math and science, but he knew his geometry. If two-dimensional, presented from the side he should be nothing but a line. A
thin, nearly
nonexistent
line.
    He rotated ninety degrees, the approaching men now to his left.
    “What the…?” called one of the two guards as he skidded to a stop. “Where’dhe go?”
    “Gee whillikers! He was right here!” exclaimed the other.
    “You check over there. I’ll take—” As the man took a step forward, he swore like a sailor.
    He’d spotted Finn.
    Finn rotated again. The gruff guard reached down and swiped. Finn burst into sparks of black-and-white photons like a scattering of fireflies in the backyard.
    A fraction of a second later, Finn’s black-and-whiteshoulder reformed, the sparkling particles coming back together.
    He couldn’t wait to tell Philby about this!
    The guard reached for Finn a second time. Again, a starburst of sparkling light scattered and reassembled. Finn felt mild pain, but the sensation vanished with the reassembly.
    The frustrated guard grabbed repeatedly for Finn. But Finn danced out of the man’s reach each timethe guard tried.
    “You don’t want to do this,” Finn warned in a high-pitched cartoon voice he didn’t recognize. “Joe will have your badge.”
    “It can speak!”
    “Don’t know no Joe,” the other guard barked.
    “Joe Garlington. Him or the head of the Imagineers. Bruce Vaughn.”
    “Nice try, kid. You mean Mr. Irving. He’s the executive in charge.”
    “Dagnabit, if I don’t got the willies,”whispered the second guard.
    “Because of this?” Finn turned sideways and slipped through the gap separating the two men, silently thanking Mr. MacDonald—his middle school math teacher. Jumping offstage, he
fled through the nearest exit.
    The boy holding the sign was gone. Outside, Finn passed the Carousel of Progress—and what he saw made his two-dimensional head spin. This place was identicalto, and yet unlike the
Disneyland he knew. He had little time to reflect on the extra space, the design of the signage. All he knew was that it was Different—with a capital D. Somehow not the Disneyland he knew,
while at the same time the park he loved.
    As he whirled about, unsure where to go, Finn was struck by it being daytime; typically the Keepers crossed over at night. Also, the parkwas teeming with people dressed like the audience inside
the attraction. Park guests stared; children pointed, their mothers grabbing their arms to correct their impoliteness.
    The sky was like a velvet