Short Story: Disney

Leia Goldberg

Mrs. Belden

Honors English I

10 October, 2014

Disney

The ground was cold and hard, I felt like I was shifting back and forth, probably because I was. I was awake, but too scared to open up my eyes, so I laid there for a while, but nothing changed. I became curious to where I was so I stood up. I was on a monorail, an empty monorail going in circles. Then I heard a voice, “Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse se alejado de las puertas.” I walked over to the window, it was foggy, and everything was blurry. Then I saw something faint, sitting within the gloom, it was a castle, a big beautiful castle with over one hundred windows, blue and gold flags at the tip of every point, and the gorgeous entrance sitting underneath it all. I could remember it like it was yesterday, Disney was the only place I felt safe, from all of my problems, and worries back in Texas. The monorail stopped, and I heard the same recorded voice say the exact same thing. The doors opened, so I got off. I walked down a ramp trying to recall what I did before I woke up on the monorail, but I couldn’t remember anything. I knew my name was Mary, I also knew I was from Dallas, I’m fourteen, and… I stopped there. I was standing in front of the entrance to Magic Kingdom probably my favorite out of all of the Disney Parks. Of course I had to check it out. There was no one at the gates, which was strange because it’s the middle of… of… it’s the middle of some month, but that doesn’t matter Disney always has lines for everything, even the bathrooms. I thought about turning back, but I didn’t exactly have a ride back to wherever I had come from, so I walked in.

Nothing changed about Magic Kingdom since the last time I came, like two years ago, except that fact that it was empty, but that didn’t scare me. I’ve had my share of horrifying movies, and Halloween mazes, where clowns jumped out with chain saws chasing you up the nearest tree. After a few last looks I made my way into Pecos Bill an amazing restaurant, in Magic Kingdom. When I walked in there were rows and rows of different meals, but still no one to eat any of them. I grabbed one, and sat down. I peered over my shoulder and saw the silhouette of a person, and turned back to my meal. Then reality slapped me across the face, I wasn’t alone! I turned all the way around to find a boy who looked about my age maybe a little older. It took a while before he noticed me too.

 I walked over to the boy to introduce myself, “hi, I’m Mary”, I said with a smile. “Hi, I’m Aaron”, he said back to me, standing up and revealing his height, which was about two hundred feet taller than me. “Is today some sort of don’t go to Disney day or something, because if you haven’t noticed I think were the only people here.” Aaron looked at me funny, and replied,” I’m just as confused as you are, but we aren’t the only two people here.” I was disappointed when he said that, Aaron was pretty cute. “My friend Elisa is in the bathroom.” “Oh cool, I bet she’s pretty nice,” I said kicking a fry sitting on the floor. “Elisa’s a guy.” When Aaron said that I lite up, and my attention was immediately off the fry, and back to him. “That’s ok,” a voice said coming from behind a pole. “You must be Elisa, sorry about mixing up your name.” I said as Elisa walked toward Aaron, and I. “It’s cool, happens a lot,” Elisa said like he’s heard it a million times before. “Hey, why don’t we head over to splash mountain, I’ll bet you there’s no line,” I said trying to be funny. We started walking toward Splash Mountain, it was still creepy out, but in a place like Disney, I didn’t have anything to be worried about, or so I thought.

“So what are you doing in Disney,” Aaron asked. “Well I didn’t exactly ask to be here, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I’m happy I’m here anyway. Let’s just say high school is tough, and Disney World helps me slip away from my problems.” “I can understand that,” interrupted Elisa. Elisa started talking about why he loved Disney so much, and how Aaron was his only guy friend who loved it too. Then he stopped, we all heard a noise like footsteps creeping behind us, but as we turned around nothing was there. Aaron and Elisa started circling around, while I stood frozen like a dog with its tail between its legs. “Let’s keep walking,” Aaron said giving me a little shove, to help me start moving. I know I said I was brave, and all but let’s just say I haven’t been to a Halloween maze in a while.

Once we finally got to Splash Mountain I decreed the last person to get to the log had to sit in the front, and block the water from crashing, on to the people sitting in the back. Little did I know even with a head start I couldn’t beat two, junior varsity, cross country runners. So there I was soaking wet, sitting in the front of a log. Luckily I was too small to prevent water from hitting Aaron, and Elisa, so I wouldn’t have to be the only one walking around, all wet, and cold. All of a sudden the ride stopped, and we were sitting there with nowhere to go. I heard a thud behind us, we turned around to find the way we came just closed. As we were staring at each other oblivious to what was going on, another thud made its way to our ears. I slowly turned around to find the entrance into the next part of the ride was blocked off too, and the water was still coming. I felt a scream forming in my throat, but I swallowed it back down. Aaron and Elisa jumped out of the log and on to the flooded path next to us. They both grabbed one of my arms to pull me to the walk way too. We started running toward the door at the end of the walk way, but what I was worried would happen, happened. The door was locked. The log ride started filling with water faster, and the scream I swallowed came right back up again but this time I couldn’t hold it back. As soon as we started treading in the water I had an idea. My hair was up in a bun today which means there’s a bobby pin in it. I reached for my hair and grabbed a bobby pin, which let go of the buns hold, and turned into a ponytail. I pulled the bobby pin a part shoved it in the locked and started, moving it around. I heard a click and felt relived. I dived under the water and opened the door. Once we all landed in the next room, we jetted out of the ride. “What in the world happened?” Elisa exclaimed. “I don’t know, but I’m not happy about it,” I answered. “Mary! How’d you learn how to do that,” Aaron said gasping between words. “I learned it with my friends, but I’m not pleased with the way they decided to use it, so I’ve been avoiding them.” I started walking, and Elisa, and Aaron followed. I told them in more detail how I was avoiding my problems, and they actually listened, up until we heard a noise again. The noise was the same as it’s been all day, footsteps, but the footsteps wouldn’t stop, in fact they got faster, and faster, and faster. As the footsteps behind us sped up, we doubled our speed too. Up ahead came the end of our sprint, because there was nowhere left to go. Aaron dived behind a trash can, and Elisa jumped into a blush, but I, the slow, not cross country runner couldn’t exactly keep up. I came to a stop, it was standing behind me, I could tell it towered over me, and it wasn’t about to leave. I closed my eyes and turned around, then…I woke up.