I ran past them, along the road to Adventureland, past the Tiki Room
where I'd been killed, past the Adventureland gate where I'd waded
through the moat, down Main Street. I ran and ran, elbowing early
guests, trampling flowers, knocking over an apple cart across from the
Penny Arcade.
I ran until I reached the main gate, and turned, thinking I'd outrun Lil
and Debra and all my problems. I'd thought wrong. They were both there,
a step behind me, puffing and red. Debra held my wrecking bar like a
weapon, and she brandished it at me.
"You're a goddamn idiot, you know that?" she said. I think if we'd been
alone, she would've swung it at me.
"Can't take it when someone else plays rough, huh, Debra?" I sneered.
Lil shook her head disgustedly. "She's right, you are an idiot. The
ad-hoc's meeting in Adventureland. You're coming."
"Why?" I asked, feeling belligerent. "You going to honor me for all my
hard work?"
"We're going to talk about the future, Julius, what's left of it for
us."
"For God's sake, Lil, can't you see what's going on? They _killed_ me!
They did it, and now we're fighting each other instead of her! Why can't
you see how _wrong_ that is?"
"You'd better watch those accusations, Julius," Debra said, quietly and
intensely, almost hissing. "I don't know who killed you or why, but
you're the one who's guilty here. You need help."
I barked a humorless laugh. Guests were starting to stream into the
now-open Park, and several of them were watching intently as the three
costumed castmembers shouted at each other. I could feel my Whuffie
hemorrhaging. "Debra, you are purely full of shit, and your work is
trite and unimaginative. You're a fucking despoiler and you don't even
have the guts to admit it."
"That's _enough_, Julius," Lil said, her face hard, her rage barely in
check. "We're going."
Debra walked a pace behind me, Lil a pace before, all the way through
the crowd to Adventureland. I saw a dozen opportunities to slip into a
gap in the human ebb and flow and escape custody, but I didn't try. I
wanted a chance to tell the whole world what I'd done and why I'd done
it.
Debra followed us in when we mounted the steps to the meeting room. Lil
turned. "I don't think you should be here, Debra," she said in measured
tones.
Debra shook her head. "You can't keep me out, you know. And you
shouldn't want to. We're on the same side."
I snorted derisively, and I think it decided Lil. "Come on, then," she
said.
It was SRO in the meeting room, packed to the gills with the entire
ad-hoc, except for my new recruits. No work was being done on the rehab,
then, and the Liberty Belle would be sitting at her dock. Even the
restaurant crews were there. Liberty Square must've been a ghost town.
It gave the meeting a sense of urgency: the knowledge that there were
guests in Liberty Square wandering aimlessly, looking for castmembers to
help them out. Of course, Debra's crew might've been around.
The crowd's faces were hard and bitter, leaving no doubt in my mind that
I was in deep shit. Even Dan, sitting in the front row, looked angry. I
nearly started crying right then. Dan -- oh, Dan. My pal, my confidant,
my patsy, my rival, my nemesis. Dan, Dan, Dan. I wanted to beat him to
death and hug him at the same time.
Lil took the podium and tucked stray hairs behind her ears. "All right,
then," she said. I stood to her left and Debra stood to her right.
"Thanks for coming out today. I'd like to get this done quickly. We all
have important work to get to. I'll run down the facts: last night, a
member of this ad-hoc vandalized the Hall of Presidents, rendering it
useless. It's estimated that it will take at least a week to get it back
up and running.
"I don't have to tell you that this isn't acceptable. This has never
happened before, and it will never happen again. We're going to see to
that.
"I'd like to propose that no further work be done on the Mansion until
the Hall of Presidents is fully operational. I will be volunteering my
services on the repairs."
There were nods in the audience. Lil wouldn't be the only one working at
the Hall that week. "Disney World isn't a competition," Lil said. "All
the different ad-hocs work together, and we do it to make the Park as
good as we can. We lose sight of that at our peril."
I nearly gagged on bile. "I'd like to say something," I said, as calmly
as I could manage.
Lil shot me a look. "That's fine, Julius. Any member of the ad-hoc can
speak."
I took a deep breath. "I did it, all right?" I said. My voice cracked.
"I did it, and I don't have any excuse for having done it. It may not
have been the smartest thing I've ever done, but I think you all should
understand how I was driven to it.
"We're not _supposed_ to be in competition with one another here, but we
all know that that's just a polite fiction. The truth is that there's
real competition in the Park, and that the hardest players are the crew
that rehabbed the Hall of Presidents. They _stole_ the Hall from you!
They did it while you were distracted, they used _me_ to engineer the
distraction, they _murdered_ me!" I heard the shriek creeping into my
voice, but I couldn't do anything about it.
"Usually, the lie that we're all on the same side is fine. It lets us
work together in peace. But that changed the day they had me shot. If
you keep on believing it, you're going to lose the Mansion, the Liberty
Belle, Tom Sawyer Island -- all of it. All the history we have with this
place -- all the history that the billions who've visited it have --
it's going to be destroyed and replaced with the sterile, thoughtless
shit that's taken over the Hall. Once that happens, there's nothing left
that makes this place special. Anyone can get the same experience
sitting at home on the sofa! What happens then, huh? How much longer do
you think this place will stay open once the only people here are
_you?_"
Debra smiled condescendingly. "Are you finished, then?" she asked,
sweetly. "Fine. I know I'm not a member of this group, but since it was
my work that was destroyed last night, I think I would like to address
Julius's statements, if you don't mind." She paused, but no one spoke
up.
"First of all, I want you all to know that we don't hold you responsible
for what happened last night. We know who was responsible, and he needs
help. I urge you to see to it that he gets it.
"Next, I'd like to say that as far as I'm concerned, we are on the same
side -- the side of the Park. This is a special place, and it couldn't
exist without all of our contributions. What happened to Julius was
terrible, and I sincerely hope that the person responsible is caught and
brought to justice. But that person wasn't me or any of the people in my
ad-hoc.
"Lil, I'd like to thank you for your generous offer of assistance, and
we'll take you up on it. That goes for all of you -- come on by the
Hall, we'll put you to work. We'll be up and running in no time.
"Now, as far as the Mansion goes, let me say this once and for all:
neither me nor my ad-hoc have any desire to take over the operations of
the Mansion. It is a terrific attraction, and it's getting better with
the work you're all doing. If you've been worrying about it, then you
can stop worrying now. We're all on the same side.
"Thanks for hearing me out. I've got to go see my team now."
She turned and left, a chorus of applause following her out.
Lil waited until it died down, then said, "All right, then, we've got
work to do, too. I'd like to ask you all a favor, first. I'd like us to
keep the details of last night's incident to ourselves. Letting the
guests and the world know about this ugly business isn't good for
anyone. Can we all agree to do that?"
There was a moment's pause while the results were tabulated on the HUDs,
then Lil gave them a million-dollar smile. "I knew you'd come through.
Thanks, guys. Let's get to work."
#
I spent the day at the hotel, listlessly scrolling around on my
terminal. Lil had made it very clear to me after the meeting that I
wasn't to show my face inside the Park until I'd "gotten help," whatever
that meant.
By noon, the news was out. It was hard to pin down the exact source, but
it seemed to revolve around the new recruits. One of them had told their
net-pals about the high drama in Liberty Square, and mentioned my name.
There were already a couple of sites vilifying me, and I expected more.
I needed some kind of help, that was for sure.
I thought about leaving then, turning my back on the whole business and
leaving Walt Disney World to start yet another new life, Whuffie-poor
and fancy-free.
It wouldn't be so bad. I'd been in poor repute before, not so long ago.
That first time Dan and I had palled around, back at the U of T, I'd
been the center of a lot of pretty ambivalent sentiment, and Whuffie-
poor as a man can be.
I slept in a little coffin on-campus, perfectly climate controlled. It
was cramped and dull, but my access to the network was free and I had
plenty of material to entertain myself. While I couldn't get a table in
a restaurant, I was free to queue up at any of the makers around town
and get myself whatever I wanted to eat and drink, whenever I wanted it.
Compared to 99.99999 percent of all the people who'd ever lived, I had a
life of unparalleled luxury.
Even by the standards of the Bitchun Society, I was hardly a rarity. The
number of low-esteem individuals at large was significant, and they got
along just fine, hanging out in parks, arguing, reading, staging plays,
playing music.
Of course, that wasn't the life for me. I had Dan to pal around with, a
rare high-net-Whuffie individual who was willing to fraternize with a
shmuck like me. He'd stand me to meals at sidewalk cafes and concerts at
the SkyDome, and shoot down any snotty reputation-punk who sneered at my
Whuffie tally. Being with Dan was a process of constantly reevaluating
my beliefs in the Bitchun Society, and I'd never had a more vibrant,
thought-provoking time in all my life.
I could have left the Park, deadheaded to anywhere in the world, started
over. I could have turned my back on Dan, on Debra, on Lil and the whole
mess.