THE COLORFUL PHOTOGRAPHS and art on the office walls gave a false sense of joy and celebration. The Disney Cruise Line ships. Mickey. Mortimer Mouse.

Joe Garlington had the original art, not copies. And he had a steely look in his eyes that contrasted oddly with his Hawaiian shirt, curly mop of hair, and surfer tan.

Mattie shifted, uncomfortable. She would have preferred a park bench near a playground. This felt like the principal’s office. It felt like Barracks 14.

The personal risk represented by the information she possessed terrified her. She was opening a door to involvement, a door she wasn’t sure she wanted to enter.

“How certain are you?” Joe’s voice was somber and deadly serious.

“I knew them,” she said.

“Fairlies.”

“All of them. Yes.” There it was, a sense of betrayal. This, despite her knowing better. The Fairlies had been family. How could she do this without speaking to them first, to the ones she’d loved?

“Here?”

“It could have been something he was imagining, you know? Reading a person isn’t exactly science. Most of our abilities, our Fairlie abilities, shift and change. Maybe I read a memory.” But she didn’t believe her own words.

“How many, again?” Joe had a pen in hand. It had Mickey ears on top. That pen, writing something down, made her statement all too real. Mattie was ratting out the very people whose friendships had kept her going.

“Lots,” she said quietly.

“As in?”

“I don’t know. A dozen. Maybe more like twenty.” How could she explain her reading to him? It wasn’t like watching a documentary on TV. It was more like a dream/nightmare of images and voices, all mixed up in a swirling stew of someone else’s thoughts. An uncomfortable invasion of privacy, like hiding in a closet and eavesdropping.

“Entering the park?”

She’d told him this enough times. It seemed like punishment to keep repeating herself. “Right. I didn’t see that; he did. He thought it, remembered it. Maybe imagined it.”

Even as she spoke, she despaired. No one understood her.

“And this guy Corwin. Any sense of where he is in regards to Hollingsworth?”

“I didn’t see anything like that. I’m pretty sure he was in charge of the kids. The Fairlies. That makes sense with the way they ran the Barracks.”

“But a reacher?”

“Yeah, that’s the thing. Pretty sure he’s one of us. A Fairlie, but an adult. I didn’t think…What we’ve always said among ourselves, what somebody heard one time in Baltimore, was that our abilities weaken as we get older. They leave us after our early twenties. With Corwin, maybe not.” She shrugged. “Maybe what I heard is true. But maybe it isn’t. He tried to reach, to read me. That much I’m sure of. And he’s no teenager.”

“So maybe some of you retain your abilities. Does that scare you?” Joe asked.

“Are you my shrink now?” Despite her bluster, it did. It terrified her. If someone read her, they might learn everything about the Keepers, about Amanda and Jess. She’d be a traitor to her own team without meaning to be.

Joe stared across the desk at her. Mattie stared right back at him.

“I’m not your enemy,” he said.

“Good. I’m not your daughter. You don’t get to know what scares me. You don’t get to know the things they put us through.”

“So what about your abilities?” Joe asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They’re only getting stronger. So don’t worry: he didn’t read me, if that’s what you’re asking. But he tried. That’s the thing: he tried!”

Silence. Someone was mowing one of the studio lawns. Mattie wished she could leave, could lie out in the sun, smelling the fresh-cut grass. She wished she hadn’t shared anything with Joe. But her friendship with Amanda and Jess overcame all caution. She knew she had to do this, to help in any way she could.

“When he…you know, I made him say what I was thinking. That’s a first for me. Pushing a thought like that. It made me tired, but it happened, which was cool.” She regretted her words the minute they left her mouth.

“I’ll bet it did. That’s useful for me to know.”

“Which is why I told you.” Mattie paused, locked eyes with Joe. “Now, let me ask you this: What happens when I’m no longer useful to you?”

Joe nodded. “That’s a fair question.” He smirked, neither a smile nor a frown.

“Amanda, me, and Jess. We’re tired of people using us. Adults using us. If it’s a fair question, how ’bout you answer it?”

“No reason for that attitude.”

“There’s every reason. You want me to list them?” She gave him a moment. “If you please, sir,” she said sarcastically, “answer the question!” Her voice rose on the last three words, echoing till it drowned out the lawn mower buzzing outside.

“We take care of our own. That’s you, if you want it to be. Jess and Amanda, too. They’re starting over, and we’re helping them.”

“Are you kidding me? You sent them back in time! We may never see them again! Are you kidding me?”

Joe lifted his chin and spoke carefully, as if he were working to stay calm. “This is a difficult time for all of us, Mattie. I need your help. Amanda and Jess need your help.”

“Those Fairlies I saw inside Corwin’s head? They’re coming for you, Joe. They’re coming to wreck your parks. Maybe against their will. I don’t know. And maybe they’re already here. If not, they’re on their way, and they can do stuff you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh, but I would believe. I believe you. And nobody but nobody’s messing with my parks.”

“Then we need a plan,” Mattie said defiantly.

Joe’s eyes warmed, and for a moment, Mattie felt like he could see into her soul. “That’s more like it.”