Chapter 26
Dizzy, Ana, Travis, and Michelle were being led by two Disneyland security guards wearing straw hats and white shirts tucked into black pants. They each had an ear piece stuck in their ear. Dizzy thought they looked like Disneyland’s version of secret service agents. The guards walked them through a door marked “Cast Members Only.” They walked down a long corridor, past offices and employee restrooms. Dizzy hoped they didn’t run into any characters walking around without their head pieces on. Seeing that would make Ana faint.
They reached a door marked “Private”. The shorter security guard held the door open and they entered.
“Can I get anyone something to drink?” he asked politely.
“No, thank you,” Michelle said. “We are fine.”
“OK,” he answered. “Please wait here. Mr. Pegg will be with you shortly.” He closed the door behind him and left.
The four of them sat in silence for five minutes. It had been a long day and Dizzy suddenly felt extremely tired.
“I hope this doesn’t take too long,” he said. “I am beat.”
There was a knock at the door and it swung open. Dizzy was expecting Mr. Pegg or another Disneyland cast member. But standing in the open doorway was Steve.
“Dad?” Travis said in surprise.
“Steve?” Megan asked. “What in the world are you doing here?”
“I told them my son was back here,” he said. “And they led me here.”
Steve entered the room and had a confident look on his face. Dizzy was worried. Before the door was able to close completely behind Steve, it swung back open and Mr. Pegg’s friendly face appeared.
“Good evening boys and girls,” he said cheerily. “And you are?” He turned and faced Steve, holding his hand out for a friendly handshake.
“I’m Steve Manning,” he said not returning the hand shake. “I’m his dad.” He nodded to Travis.
“Excellent,” Mr. Pegg said. “Truly excellent. Well, let’s get down to business, what do you say?”
Steve sat down at the end of the table. Travis stared daggers at him.
“I’m sorry Mr. Pegg,” Dizzy said, standing up. “But he shouldn’t be here.” He pointed to Steve who looked at him with a face full of rage. Dizzy felt his voice wavering, but forced himself to continue. “He was working against us all day. He had some guy follow us, chase us, even steal from us.”
“I did nothing of the sort,” Steve said. He turned to Mr. Pegg to explain. “I recognized a friend of mine this evening. He was the tall man in the red shirt. I am sure you remember him.” Mr. Pegg nodded yes, wanting Steve to continue. “Well you see, apparently my son and his friends here think he was chasing them, which is just nonsense. They were all following the same clues, were they not? Doesn’t it make sense that people would be at the same places at the same time?”
Mr. Pegg raised his eyebrows, considering Steve’s story.
“And you kids say that isn’t true?”
“Not at all!” Travis said. “He followed us all over the park.”
“Yeah,” Ana added. “And he stole my autograph book!”
“That is a serious accusation,” Mr. Pegg said.
“You are going to trust the word of some kids over an adult?” Steve said, slamming his fist on the table. “This is nonsense! Let’s just move this thing along. Isn’t there some prize money to hand out?”
“Yes of course,” Mr. Pegg said, taking a folder out of his briefcase. “Now since the winners are all underage, an adult signed the form when you registered for the Quest. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Dizzy answered.
“OK,” Mr. Pegg continued. “I’m sure you agreed to share the winnings in some fashion, but for legal reasons, the check must be made out to the adult on the registration form.”
“Yes!” Steve said leaping to his feet. “I signed their form! This is perfect. I knew I needed a backup just in case Charlie was too stupid to win this contest for us.” He caught himself at the end of the sentence, but it was too late. His lie was blown and he saw no reason to try to cover it up.
“Who is Charlie?” Travis asked.
“Is that Big Red?” Dizzy said. “So you were working with him!”
“So what?” Steve said. “It doesn’t matter now. I heard about the plan for this Disneyland Quest thing from a friend down here in LA. Then when Michelle went on and on about how much her kid loved Disneyland and knew everything about the park, I came up with this plan. Why else would I bring you or your two annoying kids all the way to Anaheim? Just to meet them? Ha! I knew I was going to win the prize money for this stupid contest thanks to your dorky kid. And as you all know, that form has my signature on it and I’m not giving you a dime. So make that check out to Steve Manning, would you? That’s M-a-n-n-”
Mr. Pegg interrupted him.
“I’m sorry but the form I have has the signature of a Ms. Michelle Walker. I am guessing that is you, madam?” He showed Michelle the form she had signed during registration.
“Yes,” Michelle said. “That is my signature.”
“What?” Steve screamed. “How is that possible?”
“When we signed up you left to make a phone call,” Travis said to his dad.
“Which was probably to Big Red,” Dizzy added, cutting in.
“Well, when you left,” Travis continued, “Michelle spilled her coffee on the original form.”
“That’s impossible,” Steve said. “I didn’t leave until we turned it in.”
“I wanted to be put on the team,” Ana said. “So the lady gave it back to us. Then Mommy spilled her coffee.”
“I filled out a new form and signed it,” Michelle concluded.
Steve’s face was red.
Mr. Pegg picked up the phone on the wall and pressed a single button. He spoke softly into the phone and before he was able to hang it up, the door swung open and two Disneyland security guards entered the room.
“I believe Mr. Manning here needs to be shown the way out,” Mr. Pegg said to them, pointing in Steve’s direction. “Will you gentlemen care to escort him off of the property? And please put a message out to all security officers on patrol right now to look for a very large man wearing a red shirt. I don’t think it will take too long to spot him.”
The guards walked over to Steve, each grabbed hold of an arm, and dragged him toward the door. Ana noticed something pink sticking out of his back pocket.
“Wait!” Ana said running to Steve. Dizzy reached out to stop her but couldn’t. Ana reached into Steve’s pocket and pulled out her autograph book.
“Thanks for the book Steve,” she said and stuck her tongue out at him.
“Hey, Steve,” Michelle said holding her camera out in front of her. “Say ‘Mickey!’” She snapped a picture of Steve’s defeated face and the guards dragged him out of the room.
“I am guessing you are staying at the same hotel as him?” Mr. Pegg asked.
“Yes, we are,” Michelle answered. “Or at least we were.”
“Would you allow me the honor of sending some cast members over to your hotel to collect your luggage? The Mickey Mouse Penthouse at the Disneyland Hotel is available and we would love to have you stay with us.”
They all smiled and quickly accepted Mr. Pegg’s generous offer. Michelle reached into her purse and removed her wallet.
“Oh no, ma’am,” Mr. Pegg said. “This is a gift from Mickey. All expenses paid.”
“Even room service?” Ana asked excitedly.
“Anything you want, princess,” Mr. Pegg said smiling.
“Are you OK?” Dizzy asked Travis. It couldn’t have been easy to find out your dad was capable of something like that.
“Yeah, I think so. Maybe I should text my mom to come and pick me up. The funny thing is she probably won’t even be surprised at what my dad did.”
“I think that’s a good idea Travis,” Michelle said.
r /> “Well now,” Mr. Pegg said.. “I’m glad we got all of that business taken care of. Let’s get to those prizes.” He reached into his briefcase and took out four silver plastic cards. He set the cards down on the table in front of them with care.
“Wow,” Ana said, staring at the cards. “What are those?”
“These are the most special cards the Walt Disney Company has ever made. Only eight of them existed before today. Now there are twelve. They will allow you entry to every Disney owned theme park in the world.”
Dizzy stared at the cards in awe. He couldn’t believe that he would be able to come back anytime he wanted. He could use his prize money to pay for his family to travel to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World, something he never thought would be possible.
“Thank you, sir,” he said to Mr. Pegg. “For everything.”
“No, thank you Dizzy,” Mr. Pegg said. “For proving that there are still people who believe in the magic of this place. I thought I was the only one left.” He smiled at Dizzy. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” Dizzy answered. “Anything.”
“How did you know the last clue meant to go to the train station on Main Street? I was honestly worried nobody would be able to figure that one out.”
“The clue was pretty helpful,” Dizzy said. “But now that I think about it, there were a lot of hints from before the contest even began, weren’t there?”
A smiled appeared on Mr. Pegg’s face.
“How so?”
“Well,” Dizzy began. “Yesterday when you were introducing the Quest, you kept motioning to the vault behind you. I took a picture of it because the vault had the fireworks going off from the top of it, and it almost seemed like you were pointing beyond the vault somehow. And the only thing behind the vault was the train station.”
“Was there anything else?” Mr. Pegg asked.
“The spotlights last night.”
“What about them?”
“They should have just been pointing straight up into the sky. I thought it was weird that they kept coming all the way down and hitting the front of the train station. It didn’t register as anything important at the time though. Not until I read the last clue mentioning the vault’s true location that is.”
“You are right,” Mr. Pegg said after a moment. “I was afraid I had made the last clue too difficult. So I thought maybe I should start pointing people in the right direction a little early. There’s no harm in that, is there?”
Dizzy smiled. He really liked Mr. Pegg and was happy to have the time to talk to him about the Quest.
Mr. Pegg pulled out a small black checkbook and ripped out a check. He began writing the date and Michelle’s name on it. Dizzy was shocked that Mr. Pegg would be carrying around the Disney Company’s checkbook in his briefcase. He looked closely at the check and saw the name Carlton Pegg at the top. It wasn’t a check from the Disney Company. It was a check from Mr. Pegg himself.
“You are paying us the prize money?” Dizzy said as Mr. Pegg finished filling out the check. “I thought it would be from the company or something. We can’t just take your money.”
Travis looked at Dizzy in horror.
“Umm, we can’t?”
“Don’t be silly, of course you can,” Mr. Pegg said. He returned the checkbook to his briefcase and snapped it shut. “The prize money comes from me and let me tell you something, I am happy to do it. For a while there I didn’t think anyone was going to be able to win. I thought maybe my riddles were too tough. You wouldn’t believe how many pins I found lying on the ground throughout the park. Most people gave up before lunch! But you kids didn’t and you deserve every dollar.” He looked at Travis and Ana, making sure they understood that he was talking to them as well. “Now, is there anything else I can help you with this evening? Anything at all, just name it.”
Dizzy checked his watch. It was 7:50. The next parade started in 10 minutes. He had an idea.
“I do have one request.”