فصل 26

CHAPTER 26

TWO CALLS

“CHECK OUT THE FIRST ITEM,” said J.D., pointing to the menu board in the Gatorland snack bar.

“I don’t believe it,” said Aidan. “They sell gator nuggets?”

“That’s disgusting,” said Sarah.

“You don’t even want to try the gator sampler?” said J.D.

“What I want,” said Sarah, “is a nice, normal, nonreptile hamburger.”

“You get those at Cowland,” said Aidan.

The three shared their first laugh in a while, feeling safe for the moment. It had been J.D.’s idea to go into Gatorland—to get the car off the highway, put them in a place where they could blend in with a crowd. They parked in a far corner of the lot, away from the street, paid their admission, and, with barely a glance at the various gator attractions, headed for the snack bar. When they got their food—nobody ordered gator—they settled at a table and ate hungrily.

It was Sarah, as usual, who got them down to business.

“Okay,” she said, sticking a french fry into her mouth. “‘Feed the bird when Ben says.’ We need to figure out who Ben is. So who are some famous Bens?”

“Ben Franklin,” said J.D.

“What time would he say?” said Aidan.

“Dunno,” said J.D. “I do know he said a penny saved is a penny earned.”

“What does that even mean, anyway?” said Aidan.

“Dunno that either.”

“Ben Affleck,” said Sarah.

“Does he say a time?” said Aidan.

“Not that I know of,” said Sarah. “But he’s cute.”

“Helpful,” said Aidan.

“Ben Stiller,” said Sarah.

“Can’t be a modern Ben,” said J.D. “Has to be a Ben from back when Pete gave Fay the locket. It could have been a friend of his, or an associate of the Starcatchers, in which case the odds against our figuring out who he is are pretty huge.”

They sat silent for a minute.

“Okay,” said Sarah, “let’s try it another way. What could ‘Feed the bird’ possibly mean?”

“The ravens?” said Aidan. “That seems pretty obvious.”

Sarah said, “But then why does it say bird, not birds? Plus, the ravens are only here because they followed us. Back when Pete gave Fay the locket, they were in England.”

“I wish they still were,” said Aidan.

“Wait a minute,” said Sarah, snapping her fingers.

The other two looked at her.

“England,” she said.

“Maybe you could explain that a little more,” said Aidan.

“There’s a famous Ben there,” said Sarah. “Maybe the most famous Ben of all. Aidan, we walked past it like fifteen times.”

Aidan frowned. “Big Ben?”

“Bingo. And what’s Big Ben?”

“A clock,” said Aidan.

“Exactly,” said Sarah. “And clocks do what?”

“Tell time.”

“Yes!” said Sarah. “They say what time it is! You feed the bird when Ben says.”

J.D. shook his head. “You have the same problem you had with the ravens. Big Ben’s in London, not here.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Sarah. “But it just seems…right.”

“Except for the part about Big Ben being in London,” said Aidan. “You’d have to fly over there, which doesn’t make sense if the bridge is over here.”

“Wait a minute,” said Sarah, snapping her fingers again.

“What?” said Aidan.

“Fly over,” said Sarah. “You said ‘fly over.’”

“Yeah. So?”

“So you don’t have to fly to England to fly over Big Ben. We’ve both done it dozens of times.”

“What are you talking about?” said Aidan. “It’s in London.”

“The original Big Ben is, yeah. I’m talking about a miniature Big Ben, in a whole miniature London. Which happens to be right here.”

“In Gatorland?” said Aidan.

“No, moron! Disney World!”

Aidan’s mouth fell open. “You mean…the Peter Pan ride? Are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious,” said Sarah. “That’s my favorite ride. You get in a little ship and fly over London at night, and there’s Big Ben, right below you.”

“Wait,” said J.D. “Are you saying you actually think the bridge could be in Disney World?”

“What I’m saying,” said Sarah, “is that Pete Carmoody brought the bridge here. Disney World is here. Pete left the locket here. The locket says ‘when Ben says.’ There’s a model of the world’s most famous Ben in Disney World.”

“But,” said Aidan, “how…I mean, to put this machine in a Disney ride…how in the world would he do that?”

“I don’t know,” said Sarah. “But word is that he was a really, really smart guy.”

“That’s your argument?” said Aidan.

J.D. was drumming his fingers on the table. “Okay,” he said. “I think Sarah’s probably crazy.”

“Thank you,” said Aidan.

“But,” continued J.D., “we don’t have much else to work with. Is there a pay phone here?”

“Over there, near the snack counter,” said Sarah, pointing. “Who’re you going to call?”

“You’re going to call them, actually,” said J.D., rising.

“Call who?”

“Disney. You’re a high-school student working on a research project. And you need to know what year they built the Peter Pan ride.”

“Ah,” said Sarah. “Because Mrs. Carmoody said Peter moved the machine out of the basement in…”

“…in 1971,” said J.D., heading toward the phone. “C’mon.”

It took Sarah several calls, followed by twenty minutes of being transferred, but finally she reached a helpful man at Imagineering by the name of Alex Wright.

“Right,” she was saying, as Aidan and J.D. stood by, listening. “The Peter Pan ride. No, the one at the Magic Kingdom. Yeah. Oh, really? Okay, I didn’t know that. Anyway, so the year it was built was…uh-huh…right…uh-huh…okay, thanks very much.”

She hung up.

“Well?” said Aidan. “What’d they say?”

“He said the correct name of the ride is ‘Peter Pan’s Flight,’” Sarah answered. “He was really strict about that.”

“But what did he say about the year it was built?” said J.D.

Sarah smiled. “1971,” she said.

“Whoa,” said Aidan.

J.D. picked up the phone handset. “One more call,” he said, punching in a number. “Who?” said Sarah.

J.D. held up his hand to indicate hang on.

“Hello,” he said into the phone. “Mrs. Carmoody? This is J.D. Aster again…Fine, thanks…We did, too, thanks. Listen, I’m sorry to bother you again, but I had one more question. You mentioned that Pete worked as a consultant…right…right. So I was just wondering if you happen to remember any of the specific places he worked around 1971? When you finally got your basement back? Uh-huh…right…right…right. Oh really? He took you? Right…uh-huh. Well, that’s great, Mrs. Carmoody. Thanks for your time. Okay, I will. Thanks again. Bye.”

J.D. hung up and turned to Sarah and Aidan.

“What’d she say?” said Sarah.

“She said to be sure to say hello to both of you nice young people.”

“J.D.! What’d she say?”

“She said Pete consulted for Disney.”

“I knew it!” said Sarah.

“It gets better. He consulted for a couple of years, impressed them with his management skills, and ended up pretty much running one major project. Guess which one.”

“No!”

“Yes. He took Fay to the grand opening of Peter Pan’s Flight. Their last real date, she said.”

“Aw,” said Sarah.

“Okay,” said Aidan. “I guess we know who Ben is. Or what Ben is. What about the bird we’re supposed to feed? Where’s that?”

J.D. arched his eyebrows at Sarah. “Any ideas about the bird?” he said.

She shook her head. “Not at the moment.”

“So what do we do?” said Aidan.

“I don’t know about you,” said J.D. “But I’m going to Disney World.”

Fay Carmoody hung up the phone and headed for the living-room sofa. She found herself drawn to that particular place—the place where J.D. had opened the locket, and where for a moment that wonderful golden light had filled the room. It had made Fay feel wonderful—as if she were young again, as if in that instant all the pain and weariness of all the years were gone. Whatever had been in the locket, it was still there, in her house, in the air, just a little. She could feel it. And in some strange way it made her feel as though Pete were near.

She sat on the sofa, eyes closed, smiling, lost in memories.

She opened her eyes. She’d heard a sound outside, from the front of the house, a sound like rushing wind.

She rose and turned toward the door. There was a window to the right; on the sill sat a large black bird.

Odd, she thought. In all the years she’d lived here, she’d never seen a bird like that. She walked toward the door, and stopped again; through the window she could see more of the birds. Many more.

What on earth? she thought. She decided to go outside and have a look.