A CIRCLE OF OVERLY BRIGHT lights atop tripods illuminated King Arthur Carrousel. Fat black cables ran from all sides to a portable generator, while other cables stretched to antennas, also placed around the carousel in a perfect circle. Seven ambulances waited, the motors running. A Disney fire crew stood by.

The carousel was slowing.

Joe was there, as was Mattie. A man named Brad. Kim Irvine and Teresa. They stood watching from beyond the lights as, amid an oily swirl of time and dimension, a group of teens appeared between the moving horses. The teens shimmered, dissolved like smoke, and reappeared, taking on an ethereal quality.

On the next revolution they were gone. A collective sigh of disappointment rose from the crowd, breaking the intense energy that pervaded those in attendance.

“Come on…” Joe muttered under his breath. Then, into a walkie-talkie, “More amplification. We’re losing them.”

The small radio squawked. “Risky, chief.”

“Now or never.”

“Roger Rabbit,” said the Imagineer on the other radio.

Kim Irvine grinned and murmured, “I love this company.”

Joe nodded.

The following revolution brought more clarity to the images. Around once again, and they actually looked…

“Opaque!” Joe said. He shouted into the handset: “Keep that. Right there! You’ve got it!”

Another revolution, the carousel winding down to a crawl.

“No more fluctuation,” gasped Brad.

“What’s that in the middle?” said Teresa.

“You mean who’s that?” The words were barely out when Mattie collapsed, caught by Joe at the last minute.

“Finn,” she said, looking up at Joe. “The name I couldn’t remember.”

“Finn!” Joe said, nodding. For the past twenty-four hours, the name had escaped him as well. “How could I have forgotten Finn?”

Mattie wobbled. Joe helped her to her knees. “Why is that sheet over him?” she asked.

“Let’s not jump to judgment.” Joe took a wary step toward the carousel. His knees also gave out, and he dropped as well. “No, no, no!” he mumbled.

“Medic to the platform!” shouted Kim Irvine in a calm, professional voice.

The fuzzy DHIs on the platform moved.

“Let’s go, people!” Brad shouted.

From behind him emerged more than two dozen Disney security guards, Cast Members, and paramedics. The team swept up onto the carousel, each first responder assigned to a particular Keeper. Individually, the dazed teens were encouraged to their feet as their DHIs prevented anyone from physically helping them. The Keepers staggered off the attraction.

Joe, Brad, and a full team of engineers had discovered how to keep Max alive after failing with some caged butterflies and a pair of lizards sent across time by Philby and Wayne. It hadn’t been easy; Max had left the carousel barely able to stand, and had fallen into a deep sleep within a few minutes of the return. The Cryptos and Imagineers had anticipated a similar reaction from the Keepers.

But as the teens stepped down onto firm ground they looked each to the other and smiled widely.

“Where are we?” Charlene said.

Philby looked up at the sky. “Looks like Disneyland to me. Our Disneyland.”

“You’re home!” Mattie stepped forward as if to give Philby a hug, but Joe stopped her, reminding her that the Keepers were holograms.

Barely able to walk, Maybeck tried to lean on the shoulder of the man helping him, but his DHI passed through, forcing him to find his own balance. “Home,” he muttered. “But if this is home, where’ve we been?”

“Their memory,” Joe said to Mattie, the two of them standing again. “We don’t know how this will affect their memory of the past few weeks.”

Amanda’s anguished cry pierced the air. “No!!!” Amanda’s rescue team was trying to tell her to get off the carousel—and away from Finn. “I won’t leave him!”

As she raised her arms toward the team, Joe shouted, “Everybody back!”

Amanda pushed—not only her handlers, but also much of the surrounding equipment—lights, antennas included. The lights exploded as they struck the ground, throwing a shower of sparks twenty feet into the air.

The carousel began moving again. It rotated faster and faster, Amanda’s pushes responsible.

“Do something,” Joe ordered into his radio. No voices replied, the antennas down. Joe hollered. Brad barked orders. The crew ran around trying to fix things.

The carousel continued gaining speed. Amanda had one arm around Finn, one holding on to a carousel horse pole.

Charlene smiled and said under her breath, “That’a girl!”

Maybeck saw a blur of color running from the crew side toward the carousel. “What’s that?” he asked his handler.

Philby overheard and looked in the same direction.

Willa, too. She saw the form clearly. “Not what,” she said so the boys could hear her. “Who!” Adding, “That’s the Dillard.”

Joe overheard her. He saw the blur along with the others. “DILLARD!” he cried. He threw his unresponsive radio to the pavement in disgust. “Who authorized that DHI?”

The Keepers and Jess looked on as the carousel’s next rotation revealed that Amanda, Finn, and the Dillard were struggling to hold on against the centrifugal force.

When the carousel came around again, only a few of the gathering, including Maybeck, saw Finn’s arms wrapped around Amanda.

“See that!? He’s alive!” Maybeck called out.

The Keepers cheered.

Another blurring revolution of the carousel. Only the bedsheet remained, wrapped around a horse, fluttering like a fallen flag.

“Oh no!” Jess said. “Where are they? Where did they go?”

“Sir?” one of the crew called.

Joe and the Keepers saw the man kneeling by a boy’s blue-outlined image lying on the asphalt.

The Keepers rushed to help them.

“It’s Finn!” Jess shouted.

“Careful!” Joe called, as the Keepers reached the hologram.

The kids skidded to a stop. It wasn’t Finn. It wasn’t Amanda. It wasn’t the Dillard.

Jess felt drawn toward the facedown boy. He wore strange old-fashioned pants with wide suspenders. Jess didn’t understand her attraction to the boy, but she couldn’t stop herself either; something felt weirdly familiar about him. One of her future dreams? she wondered. She kneeled, despite calls not to touch what was clearly a patchy and faltering DHI. Willa joined Jess, and together they tried and failed to roll the boy over. Half his face was visible. Jess tried to touch him gently. “I know this kid…” Willa said.

“Me…too,” said Maybeck. The others nodded in agreement. “But how? How’s that possible?”

Joe was with them now. He, too, studied the unidentified boy. He asked Maybeck, “Do you remember nothing about where you’ve been?”

“Where have we been?” Maybeck asked, perplexed.

“And for how long were we there?” Philby said.

“Where are our parents?” Charlene asked. “Our families?” She looked around. “What’s going on, anyway?”

“I’ll be darned,” Joe said. “Nothing?”

The Keepers didn’t bother to answer.

“What happened to Amanda and Finn?” Mattie asked.

“And the Dillard?” Willa said.

Joe looked up at the empty carousel. “I think we may have lost them.”

“What do you mean?” Philby complained, and he shuddered head to toe. “Anybody just feel that?”

All the others responded, nearly simultaneously. “Yes! Tingling.”

Philby reached and touched Willa’s shoulder. “We’re weakening.”

Joe’s cell phone rang. He carried on a brusque conversation with whoever was unfortunate enough to be on the other end the call.

“We’re going to return you,” he said, addressing Philby. “All of you.”

“Meaning?” Charlene asked somewhat rudely.

“To the Central Plaza,” Philby said. “Our DHIs are degrading.” He half stated this, half proposed to Joe, who didn’t contradict him. “The Cryptos want to return us as soon as possible.”

“Sir!” With the degrading of the holograms, some physicality had returned. Two of the crew had managed to roll over the DHI of the boy. “He’s wearing a Cast Member pin. One of the old, metal ones.”

“Nineteen fifty-five,” Philby said as if remembering the name—or trying to—of a long-lost friend. “Why do I know that date?” he asked.

“The name?” Joe called over. “The boy’s name?”

One of the attendants called back. “The name on the tag is Wayne.”