“No!” Lance’s refusals were getting more and more heated. Arms folded over his chest, his attitude was clearly obstinate. “It’s…it’s just wrong!”

Kimberly looked at the costume she held out to the ever-stubborn Lance. “What? It’s a perfectly lovely costume. Tim wears it all the time. He doesn’t have a problem with it.”

“Then let Tim wear it. And feathers? Oh, come on now!”

“And I thought you were secure in your masculinity,” she teased. “It’s only one feather.”

His arms tightened against his chest. “I am secure. I could give you a list…never mind,” as her fair eyebrows shot up. “I simply refuse to look like an idiot.”

“Lance, unless you have another suggestion, I know this plan will work. I dress as Cinderella. You dress as Prince Charming. We walk through the Castle, go upstairs through a secret passageway, and exit out on the balcony. We wave at the guests below, pretend to waltz a couple of steps.… Oh, dear. Perhaps I should have asked earlier. You do know how to waltz, don’t you?” She decided to prolong the teasing as long as she could.

He rolled his eyes. “Of course I do. You don’t attend cotillions in Boston without knowing how to waltz.”

Her green eyes had a wicked sparkle. “I’ll ask you about the cotillions later,” she promised. “After we waltz, I drop my shawl over the wolf, and you do what you need to do with it. Simple.”

He stared at her. “You aren’t going to give this up, are you?”

She again held out the princely costume to him. “You’ll look dashing.”

Lance grabbed the clothes out of her hands. “I always look dashing.” He gave a loud sniff as he headed for the men’s changing room with the hope there was no one there who knew him—especially his security partner, Wolf. He’d never hear the end of it if Wolf was there.

The crowds parted as the royal couple swept past them. Kimberly had to keep hissing for Lance to smile as she daintily held up one side of her blue princess dress with her sparkling gloved hand. Dressed in dark blue tights, brown knee-high boots, and a white doublet with a golden cross embroidered on the front, Lance had to keep blowing the dark blue feather out of his face as it drooped from the flat velvet cap on his head. They stopped every few hundred feet to allow guests to take pictures. The guests were excited, especially the women who came across the pair. They hardly ever got to see Prince Charming. And such a handsome one, at that!

Lance finally got into the spirit of the moment when he was asked by a darling little girl to sign her autograph book. He had to change the ‘L’ into a wide flowing ‘P’ when he remembered how he was supposed to sign the book. He actually felt the relief flow off Kimberly when he started acting in a more princely fashion. He hadn’t realized how difficult he was making it for her.

“This way,” she whispered when they arrived at the back of the Castle. “We’ll be right back.” She gave an airy wave to the guests who were still waiting for pictures. Kimberly led the way into a Cast Member’s Only door. As they entered a small portico, Kimberly pointed toward the corner of the closet-sized room. “There’s a stairway over there.” She took his hand when the door closed, shutting off their source of light. There was a small fluorescent bulb under the first step of the stairway but it offered very little contrast once the door was shut.

“Glad you know where you’re going.” Lance’s eyes took a while to adjust to the blackness. He felt her fingers in his hand and, once again, enjoyed the touch of her even if it was encased in a light blue, elbow-length glove.

Kimberly lead the way to the stairs, but the narrow passageway up to the balcony only allowed one at a time up the stairs. “Watch your step and stay close.” Kimberly let go of his hand and moved up the stairs ahead of him. Lance reached forward in the darkness for her, his hand finding the small of her back. Feeling his hand just above the bustle that was part of her elaborate costume, Kimberly smiled in the security of the darkness. “Uh, not too close, Mr. Brentwood.”

“Hey, you said to stay close,” Lance reminded her with a little laugh.

“Okay, but be careful…it can be very dangerous in here.” Kimberly tried to sound menacing.

“Maybe I should hold on with both hands, then,” Lance joked as he matched her step for step.

“Don’t push your luck, mister.” Kimberly finally reached behind for his hand. “Here, just hold my hand. It’s safer than where you’re grabbing.”

Kimberly led the way a few more steps and then came to a landing. Lance was able to join her as there was room for both of them. Another fluorescent bulb lit the floor. A muted green exit sign was hung above a door. “We don’t use the balcony very often. The guests prefer us down at their level for pictures. But, we used to use it for shows a few years back.” She paused and then added, “It is going to be bright out there when I open the door. You ready?”

Lance enjoyed just hearing her voice in the darkness. Without visual distractions, he could notice her tone more acutely. He wanted to continue listening to her in this dark, almost tranquil room. Begrudgingly, Lance quit protesting her plan. “Yep, ready if you are.”

They squinted at the brightness when Kimberly opened the outer door. They were on a walkway that covered the entire back edge of the Castle. Kimberly led them to the balcony. From the noise rising from the ground level, they could tell right away that they had been spotted. For the guests below, this was something different and the royal pair soon had a large crowd watching. Lance found himself in an unfamiliar panic. It was not just from having to wear the embarrassing tights and feathered hat, but also from being exposed to the masses on a raised balcony that made him feel like he was on stage with the sun as their spotlight.

“Dance with me.” Kimberly wondered why Lance just stood there looking like a deer in the headlights. She held out a dainty hand almost right in his face. It only took Lance the count of two before realizing what Kimberly was asking of him.

She was pleasantly surprised when Lance gave her a courtly bow at his waist. With his left arm tucked behind his back and holding her left arm up in the air with his right hand, he led her through a classic waltz step that covered most of the walkway, ending back at the balcony. When they stopped and faced the guests, a large round of applause went up.

The two took a bow and waved goodbye to the observers below. Lance had timed it so that, when they finished their dance, they would be standing in the middle of the balcony, directly behind the three shields that were attached just below the balcony’s ledge. As people below began to disperse, Kimberly let her shawl down off her shoulders and laid it over her arm, resting it on the edge of the balcony rail. She moved it over to cover the far right crest, the one that had the wolf depicted on its shield.

Lance took his cue and reached down over the rail to grasp the shawl. To the crowd below, the delicate garment must have caught on something sharp, because Prince Charming had a terrible time getting Cinderella’s shawl loose. Lance was able to wrap the shield in the shawl and used it as cover to lift the piece off of its heavy mounting hooks. The two-foot tall shield slid easily off the pins, but Lance had to lift it up a good four inches before it slipped free. When he suddenly ducked down behind the edge of the balcony, out of sight of the guests below, the shield was securely in his hands. As he worked on retrieving whatever secret the shield held, Kimberly covered for him by waving and calling greetings to the little girls below.

“Got it!” Lance gave her an over-loud whisper as he stood from his hidden position. Using the shawl once more as a distraction, he slid the shield over the rail and carefully back onto its hooks, the whole process not taking more than thirty seconds.

“That was quick.” Still waving, Kimberly glanced at Lance as he stood and handed her the abused shawl in princely, dramatic style.

“Yeah, well, I almost dropped it,” Lance whispered through a clenched-teeth smile.

“The clue?”

“No, the shield.”

“Oh, dear,” Kimberly winced, thinking about the horror if that had occurred. “Let’s not knock out anyone below. This might be hard enough to explain as it is.”

“It’s fine. Everything’s back as if we never touched the shield.”

“Okay. Good. Well, just keep smiling and let’s get off the Castle. This isn’t exactly an authorized appearance, you know.” She kept a pleasant smile on her face as she talked. “You ready to go?”

“Any time you are, Princess.” Lance walked a little gingerly as he headed for the door. Seeing the way he walked, Kimberly wondered if he pulled a muscle or something when he leaned over the rail to lift the crest. Lance leaned close to Kimberly’s ear so he could whisper to her. “You could have gotten me a costume with pockets, you know.”

“Where is it?”

“You don’t want to know,” he told her with a grin.

“Charming.”

“Always. Let us be gone. Our admiring subjects await.”

“Don’t get lost in the role,” Kimberly muttered as they exited the balcony and headed for the stairway back to the ground level.

It took Kimberly and Lance almost a full hour to work their way through the delighted fans. They gamely posed for numerous photos again, all the time basically walking backward toward the backstage area where they would be able to change clothes again and head home. To make sure they had the least time backstage and the least possible chance of running into someone who might know they really weren’t supposed to be there, they aimed for the Cast Member’s Only door that was nearest to the changing rooms. And that meant more time with the guests.

Lance was very conscious of the plastic capsule hidden underneath his clothes. He had to be careful how he walked and was unable to bend over to have his picture taken with the little Princes and Princesses. This, however, proved not to be much of a discouragement to the moms who were more than happy to throw an arm around the handsome Prince Charming and pose for their own picture. Lance heard quite a few comments like: “Just a minute, honey. Mommy’s busy.”

When they were finally backstage, Lance leaned wearily against the closed door. “How do you stand that day after day?”

“Stand what?”

He closed his open mouth and just smiled at her. “Never mind. I’ll meet you back here after you change, and we’ll head to my place to check this out.”

Kimberly’s green eyes sparkled with excitement. She had to literally remind herself not to bounce up and down and clap her hands. They were still aware of the fact that they had made an unscheduled appearance and had basically ransacked part of the Castle—all of which was probably recorded for posterity in numerous cameras and camcorders. That probably wouldn’t go over very well with The Powers That Be should those pictures come to light. So, they needed to play it cool until they were safely off the Park’s property. Kimberly just grinned broadly and gave Lance a nod in agreement. Sweeping the hem of her blue gown up into her hands, she turned and ran up the steps to the dressing rooms. Lance had a vision of glass slippers and sparkling stockings as she disappeared from his view. Then, remembering his own predicament, he hurried into the men’s changing room. With the hidden capsule, the tights were not only embarrassing, but now they were also uncomfortable.

Whenthey returned to Lance’s apartment, Kimberly watched impatiently as he worked on opening the narrow capsule he had retrieved from behind the wolf shield. Right by his side, she reached out occasionally as if to do it herself; only to smile and pull her hand back.

“So, exactly where was this hidden?” Unable to keep still, she had to ask something.

Lance looked at her funny. “Behind…the…wolf…shield…,” he slowly answered.

She playfully swatted his arm. “No, I mean in your costume.”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“Eww.”

“Hey, you asked,” he mumbled, as he tried the seal again. This capsule was much narrower than the others had been. It had been nestled into the back of the shield, almost becoming a second backing for it. Painted the same color as the front of the shield, the blending had been perfect. If Lance hadn’t known what to look for, he probably would have just passed it by. Thinking about the timeline, he didn’t know for sure when the shields had been placed on the Castle. In the famous photograph of Walt walking through the back of the Castle moments before Opening Day, there were three empty places for the shields that would come later. Lance figured it was probably some date in the 1960’s that the shields were all put into place, including the more famous one on the front of the Castle.

Lance had taken the first animation cel he had found in Columbia out of his small safe and put it on his coffee table along with the clues. Kimberly, he could tell, was excited to be in on this find and subsequent unveiling of the next clue. He also silently tormented her by pretending to have an extremely difficult time getting the capsule to pop open. Watching her reactions out of the corner of his eye, he could tell she was about to grab it from his inept hands and gnaw the end off with her teeth if she had to. When she gave another impatient groan at an ineffectual turn of the end cap, Lance decided to end her misery and easily pulled the cap off.

She delightedly pounded on his shoulders and leaned closer to see what was inside. “What is it? What is it?” She was almost halfway over his shoulder.

Lance, who was enjoying her nearness, had to tease. “Well, if you’d like to climb into my lap, you might see it better.”

Deciding to jump over the bait and not take it, she nudged his arm again. “Now, don’t get fresh, Brentwood! What does it say? Is that another page out of Walt’s diary? Is there anything else in there? Can I see it?”

Lance thoroughly enjoyed her enthusiasm. “You’re a lot more fun than Adam was. After we did our ‘breaking and entering’ at the warehouse in San Francisco, Adam gave me a lecture on honesty.”

She gave him an adorable pout. “We didn’t break and enter,” she reasoned with a light sniff, “we just waltzed and borrowed. Completely different.”

Lance gave a full-throated laugh. Enchanted by her, his arm moved to give her a hug, but he pulled it back at the last moment. He still wasn’t sure where all this would lead and didn’t want to misstep and ruin things. He pretended like he was talking to a judge at their trial, “Yes, Your Honor. ‘Waltzing and Borrowing’ is a completely legal maneuver. If you will refer to Section 40, Line 14 of the ‘Waltz/Borrow Law of 1942’, you will see that we were completely within our rights as citizens…. Yeah, I can see that going over really well. So, what does our next clue say…assuming it is another clue. It looks like all the others we’ve come across.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t take the Bar.” She was having too much fun to worry about any legalities right then. It was more fun to kid him back and gloss over any wrongdoing they may have committed. As she examined the ragged, yellowed piece of paper, she began to nod. “Yes, this has to be the next clue. Listen to this: ‘The ‘African Queen’ wasn’t shot on Manhattan or Catalina. Too many elephants.… Look for El Lobo’.”

Also inside the grey capsule, along with the clue, they found a small animation cel. Kimberly and Lance now looked at it very closely, each of them frowning.

“I don’t remember that scene.” Lance handed the cel over to Kimberly.

“I don’t either. Perhaps it’s a conceptual drawing that wasn’t actually used in the filming of The Jungle Book. Wasn’t that the last animated film Walt worked on before he passed away?”

Lance made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Wow, wouldn’t that be something if this was the last thing drawn by Walt?”

Kimberly looked from the newest cel to the one Lance had found in Columbia—the Evil Queen’s Heart box. “Two hearts,” she murmured. “I wonder if that’s significant.”

The new cel was a drawing of the villain Kaa, the hypnotic snake from the animated film The Jungle Book. His lower body was wrapped around a tree branch with the jungle drawn in as a background. His upper body was off the branch of the tree and formed a large heart. There were no other characters in the shot.

“This is a strange scene.” Lance was thinking out loud. “Kaa wasn’t exactly a loving character, was he?.”

“Well, what all do we have here to work with? The Jungle Book, The African Queen, elephants, a snake, El Lobo again, and two islands, Manhattan and Catalina—one of each side of the United States. And maybe another heart,” Kimberly counted off.

“I’m going to see what I can find out about the movie The African Queen. I know Bogart and Hepburn starred in it, but maybe we need to know where it was filmed,” Lance suggested as he went over to his computer.

Going online, Lance brought up various sites dedicated to the classic movie. Among the various tidbits of information, he quickly learned that a lot of the movie had been filmed in Uganda and Zaire in Africa, but about half was filmed on a man-made river in a studio in England as a protection for the actors. There were some scenes shot also in Turkey. “Oh, that reminds me…,” he broke off.

Thinking it was some revelation about the clue, Kimberly eagerly looked over. “Yes? What?”

“Turkey. We didn’t have lunch. I’m starved!”

“Lunch!” she exclaimed, surprised. “How can you think about food at a time like this? We need to figure this out!”

“But I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.” Pointing at the computer screen, she waved him back to work. “Keep at it. We already have England and Africa to cover, and The Jungle Book took place in India. Now you’ve apparently added Turkey to the list. That’s a pretty broad spectrum.”

Muttering to himself about slave drivers and starving to death, Lance cleared the search engine on his computer. “I’m going to try something different. I want to see if there’s any tie to the movie The African Queen and Walt himself. He had to have put it in the clue for a reason.”

He brought up a different search engine and typed in his request. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Gosh, I thought I had a brilliant idea. Wait.… Bingo! Look at this, Kimberly.”

She came over and leaned over his shoulder to see his computer screen. He closed his eyes briefly as the scent of her subtle perfume washed over him. Down boy, he told himself yet again. You have work to do. “Look at the seventh entry down. ‘One of the head designers frequently used the movie The African Queen as inspiration for the Disneyland attraction, The Jungle Cruise’.”

“Okay, now that you mention it, I do recall the first boats were designed to look like the one in the movie. But what about the Manhattan and Catalina references? Is there any mention of that?”

Lance kept reading and then went back to try a different search. “No, I can’t find anything relating to either Disneyland or the Jungle Cruise. But Walt did mention elephants. The majority of the elephants were added to the Jungle Cruise around 1964. That would fit in our timeframe for the clues.”

“How in the world did you remember that little tidbit? Did you just read it?” Kimberly wanted to know.

Lance was still engrossed in his search. “No, not now. But, I must have read it at some point in time. If I read it, I will remember it.”

“Fascinating.” She gave a half smile. “I’ll have to remember that…. There has to be something from either the movie or the ride that relates to those islands. Do you know anyone who works on the ride who might know for sure—someone who wouldn’t ask too many questions?”

Lance thought for a minute. His face broke into a wide smile. “Drew. Drew Briggs. You know him? He’s been around forever. If anyone would know something about the Jungle Cruise, it would be Drew. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn he had even ridden in the ‘Disneyland Rambler’! I’ll give him a call.… He’s probably forgotten I dated his sister by now.... Lovely little red-head,” Lance muttered as he looked for his phone book in his middle desk drawer.

“What in the world is a ‘Disneyland Rambler’? I’ve never heard of that.” Intrigued, Kimberly perched on the edge of Lance’s desk.

“You’ve never heard of the Rambler? I thought for sure your father would have told you about it.” Lance finally found the address book buried under a sheaf of papers in his drawer. He hoped Kimberly wouldn’t notice that it was what would commonly be referred to as ‘A Little Black Book.’ He tucked it off to the side as he turned to answer her, his gaze falling on the pink tips of her toes peeking out of her sandals.

Kimberly gave a knowing, feminine smile as she saw his attention waver and his eyes starte to travel up her leg. “Rambler? Hello!”

Unabashed at getting caught, Lance threw her a wide grin as he leaned back in his leather chair and told her the story of the ‘Disneyland Rambler.’

February 8, 1955

Earthmovers and huge excavation buckets were hard at work, gouging deep trenches and holes in the dry soil of Anaheim. With the tires alone being higher than the men working near them, the machinery looked like fierce prehistoric beasts, crisscrossing back and forth across the sandy soil. One lone palm tree, only the top few feet showing above a tall berm of dirt, seemed to magically float across the skyline, the flatbed truck transporting the tree unseen behind the huge wall of dirt.

A camera crew was set up in the bottom of the excavated riverbed; a large camera mounted on a tripod faced west where a dust-covered American Motors Rambler station wagon sat.

“This is our latest progress report from the beautiful region of Southern California. We are ahead of schedule and making good progress,” Walt Disney reported with a coy smile, proud of not just what was taking place around him with the massive excavation and sculpting the river bottom and shorelines, but proud of the surroundings that soon would encompass his vision, foresight and imagination. Much like his many years of acting out unseen stories to his animators back at the Disney studios, conveying what he saw in his mind’s eye, Walt now shared his future with the world through the magic of Television.

Disney held out one arm in a wide, sweeping motion, while he held a microphone in the other. “You can see how the earthmovers are scooping out rivers and lakes, literally transforming this area into a Tahitian setting fit for the embarkation of Disneyland guests on a wonderful excursion through Nature’s Secret World.

“Let’s climb on board our personal transport—our very own Rambler Cross Country.”

The four-door station wagon began its journey down a wide trench dug into the soil, traveling over a raised trail that would later become the guide rail for the boats that would follow. A few trees were seen on the high sides of the trench as the car made its bouncing way along the dry riverbed.

“The first part of our magical journey will be these beautiful floating tropical gardens. You might not see them with your eyes just yet, but if you close your eyes and use your imagination, you will begin to see the flora and color that exists in tropical river valleys. As we go around this wide turn, we are now in Central and South America. See the bright flowers and birds that line the banks of the river on each side? This next sweeping turn heads us into the Caribbean, right into the heart of the everglades. These dry banks of dirt become a mangrove swamp with the help of your imagination. You can just see how it is infested with alligators.”

The television cameras show viewers at home eager alligators slipping into the dark waters, noses up as they approach nearer and nearer. Jaws snapping, the clip now changes to show three alligators on a circular track going around in a pool of water. In a voice-over, Disney’s voice is heard, “Made of plastic and steel, these life-like creatures are ready to menace unwary guests.”

The television transmission goes back to showing Walt in the Rambler, making a left hand turn along the dry river bottom. “One more turn and we go to Africa with birds calling from the treetops. Hear that noise? This is elephant country!”

The scene shifts to show a baby elephant playfully squirting water over its own head as the mother protectively hovers nearby.

The picture shifts to a backstage warehouse where a full size elephant stood on a wooden platform. Walt continues the narration: “As we can see, this huge bull elephant in our studio is a perfect match for the True-Life Adventure scene. Our artists are hard at work to make this big fellow identical to his real life companions!

“Our Rambler is now approaching the makings of a waterfall.” The camera pans to a slightly taller load of dirt that is being formed to the right of the station wagon, with a large backhoe building up its sides. “It may look like just a mound of dirt, but, with the use of our working model, we can see how beautiful it will be with the cascading water—all 4000 gallons a minute of it!

“We now turn onto the Congo River, the Zambezi, and Lake Tanganyika. See the lions stalking prey and the animals of the Serengeti Plain? Watch how the elegant giraffe bends down to eat the topmost branches of that tree. Now you can see how seamlessly the real blends into the plastic model as it bends down to nibble on some plastic leaves.

“This is Zulu Land, a forbidden and dangerous territory where we will sail past a cannibal village.” Walt paused, then pointed to a flat area on the port side of the Rambler. “See that clearing? That will be the natives’ village as they celebrate the kill of a lion! This dry waterbed we are seeing will become the marshy home of the huge hippopotamus. Look how lifelike our models are as they are being tested in that huge pool.” A large metal pool of water three feet deep was now being shown; a family of hippos moving higher and lower at the water’s surface could be seen, water cascading over their bodies as they emerged before sinking down again. “Now they are sinking out of our sight, ready to spring again at the next boat!”

The car continued its journey, weaving a little to avoid some potholes in the sandy bottom. “We are now at Lake Victoria, headquarters of the Nile. Our Rambler is now actually sailing under what will become a swinging bridge and an overhanging rock formation that will support the flowing waters of the waterfall we had passed in front of earlier.”

The scene shifted again to a small striped-canopy boat as it made its tentative way under the waterfall. Water cascaded over the top, split into three streams by huge boulders on the top of the fall.

“Hang on tight now. The Rambler gets rough running the rapids through this narrow gorge. It might look like barren piles of dirt, but imagine the white water rushing past our boat as we navigate the treacherous waters!

“As we make this last turn, we now emerge into the quiet waters of the International Dock. After disembarking, we invite you to wander through the tropical bazaar and find exotic plants and curios from around the world.”

Models of shops and restaurants are then shown, lining a busy shopping bazaar along the edge of the river. The arched dome of the Bazaar seems to offer guests cool shade from the bright sun outside. Pastel-colored buildings draw the eye and excite the adventurer’s mind.

Walt turned back to the camera. “What will we find inside?” With a wink, Disney smiled and finished with a cliff-hanger. “You’ll have to wait until this summer to find out!”