It was a warm, summer night when Irene Jane James told the story to her nephews. The whole thing began just as any night of babysitting ends. The boys began to whine because she told them to go to bed and she did not know how to reason with them.
"I want to watch the rest of Lion King!" Parker, the younger of the two boys, cried. He held his Goofy plush toy tightly against chest. Irene tucked the little six-year-old in. His older brother, Noah, sat on the bed across from Parker's, rolling his eyes.
"It's not like you've watched that movie about ten times today," he said sarcastically. Parker stuck his tongue at Noah. Noah went back at his Nintendo game, without any comebacks. Irene walked over to Noah's bed and pulled his game away. Noah gave her a dirty look.
"What the hell did you do that for?" he asked.
"Hey, watch you're language!" Irene yelled.
"Dad says it all that time," he said.
"You're ten years old. You're not allowed to say that kind of language," she explained. Noah placed his head against his pillow, pouting.
"You know, Aunt Irene, you can sometimes be a real bit…"
"If you use that language one more time, I'm going to wash it out with soap, do you understand?" Irene hissed. Both Noah and Parker cowered. They knew not to mess with her when she hissed. Irene was usually lenient about some things, like staying up about fifteen minutes later or having one cookie before dinner, but she had her limits.
Once, Noah and Parker were caught eating all of their Halloween candy before dinner, and Irene got so mad, that she made them eat every bits of food that was on their plate, including the vegetables. Noah and Parker ate most of it. They were almost about to throw-up from both the candy and dinner, when Irene let them go. She said that it was a warning. The boys learned to not toy with her after that.
Irene placed the game on the top shelf, as Noah climbed under his covers. Parker's green eyes brightened with an idea.
"Can you tell use a story?" he asked. "Just one before we go to bed, please."
Noah growled. "Bed-time stories are for babies."
Irene sat on the edge of Parker's bed. She gazed over at Parker's Disney paraphernalia. Looking at it gave her a story in mind.
"Have I ever told you boys of the true story behind Disney World?"
Parker shook his head enthusiastically as Noah groaned. Noah did not want to hear anything that had to do with Disney or anything he considered "babyish." Parker, on the other hand, sat up and was ready to listen.
"What is it?" he asked. Irene smiled.
"Have you wondered shat makes Disney World so special? Why do millions of people from all over the world flock over to this one park when there are faster rides, bigger shows, and cheaper prices at other places?
"I can tell you why. It's that delightful feeling that people get when they enter the park. People get chills down their spine when they enter the park. Feelings of adventure and excitement flood throughout the guests as they walk through the gate. It's as thought there really is magic in the park."
"I know what you mean," Parker exclaimed happily.
"And now for the reason why this feeling exists," Irene began. "There really is magic in the park."
"Oh please," Noah scoffed.
"No, I'm serious," Irene continued. "As people walk onto a ride, Disney characters and other magical creatures sweep by them, unnoticed, leaving bits of magic behind to give guests that magical chill down their spine.
"The problem is people can't see it. These creatures live in a whole other dimension, that to call the Hundredth Dimension. They are what people like to call ideas, some known to the world and others that are still waiting to be seen. Invisible to the world, they can see things that normal people can't see.
"Your aunt AJ and your uncle Conan, and I figured this out about five years, when I was about fifteen years old. We were able to enter the Hundredth Dimension because of our kindness, our imagination, and our names…"
AJ and Conan hated their real names. Our mom was an editor for "Holmes Monthly," a magazine with mystery stories, and our dad was a detective, so they thought it would be cute to name their children after famous mystery writers. So, on January 19, AJ was given the name Agatha Christie James, and Conan was given the name Arthur Conan Doyle James. Although our parents thought it was neat, the twins hated it. They were so happy by the invention of nicknames that they have gone by AJ and Conan since they were three
Me, on the other hand, was given a name that required no nickname. When I was born about a year later, my mom and dad could not figure out a famous female mystery (they thought I was going to be a boy and name me Edgar Allan Poe James). So they choose to name after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Irene Adler, from his novel A Scandal in Bohemia, who apparently was the only woman that was able to outsmart Sherlock Holmes. My middle name was inspired by Agatha Christie's character, Jane Marple.
The twins have always been jealous that my name wasn't as embarrassing as their's, but if it weren't for our names, Jess probably wouldn't have chosen us.
Confused? I'll start from the beginning. We were in line for Splash Mountain, which, of course, took forever to get through. AJ, Conan, began to play a game of Twenty Questions. We were trying to guess who Conan was.
"Are you bigger than a bread box?" I asked. I loved saying ever since I heard the saying in a commercial.
"Yes, I'm way bigger than a bread box," he said. AJ pondered for a moment.
"Are you real?" she asked.
"I could be," he said. That confused us. He said he was quite valuable, but yet people run over it all the time. how could something so treasured not be real? It couldn't be love or anything like that, because that's real. That's when AJ's chocolate chip brown eyes glittered. Her lips curled into sneaky smile.
"You are the streets of gold," she said. Conan nodded. I smacked my head. Duh! He used that one last month. Still, it was pretty clever idea.
We decided to end our game after that, because we were at the front of the line. I noticed that were going to have the front seats. Score! I saw the excitement on AJ and Conan's faces when they realized it, too (we have this weird thing where we know what we're thinking without talking. We're pretty close, even though we're not much alike).
Just as I was going to celebrate out loud, I could hear a child from behind talking to his mom.
"Mom, do we have to leave?" he asked. He wasn't whining. He was just curious.
"Honey, we have to go back home," she told him. "We can't stay here forever." I felt sort of guilty. I looked at AJ and Conan and I could tell that they were listening in, too. I saw the frowns upon their faces. We all had the same idea. We sighed and turned around.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Conan said. The mother and her kid looked at me.
"Would like to cut in front us?" I asked. "I'm sorry for listening, but I heard that you are leaving tomorrow. We have front seats, but we thought your son would enjoy it more than we would."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yeah," AJ answered. "We're sure." The mother thanked us before she and her son walked in front of us. The boy's smile seemed to lift up my guilt. As the cast member placed us in different rows, he looked up at my siblings and me, almost surprised.
"That's a pretty nice thing you did," the cast member commented. I looked up at him. I was surprised at how distinct his facial features were. He had hair redder than mine, with freckles bigger than mine. He had one light blue eye, like mine, and a hazel eye, like Conan's. His braces looked like train tracks across his teeth. He wore horn-rimmed glasses that haven't been popular since Bobby Kennedy was a boy. Plus, he was as tall as Frankenstein. I swear I could find this kid in football stadium with ease.
"Thanks," AJ said, not even caring about his looks. I thinking she was actually trying to flirt (she has weird taste in guys).
"You know you don't see kindness like that any more," he said. "What's your name?"
" Agatha Christie," Conan said, trying to tease he. She snapped her towards him, giving him a dirty look.
"And his name is Arthur Conan Doyle," she said. Conan gave her a dirty look, while growling. The cast member's eyes widened.
"Are you serious?" he asked. "Are you guys actually named after famous mystery writers?"
"Yeah!" I exclaimed. Now, both of the twins snapped their heads toward me with dirty looks.
"That's so wicked!" he said. AJ looked back to the cast member and changed from a roaring lion to a sweet lamb.
"Really?" she said. "Thanks." Ugh!
The cast member placed his in his pocket and took three bracelets out. Each one had a silver Mickey Mouse head charm, but in a boyish way. Each bracelet was a different color: red, blue, and green.
"No one knows about this, but these bracelets can you get to the front of line on any ride," he explained. We gasped.
"Are you serious?" Conan asked. The cast member nodded. I grinned.
"Thank you…ah…"
"Jess," he said. "My name is Jess." He held out the bracelets. Conan looked down at his arm and his eye's widened.
"Cool scar," he said. "Where'd you get it?" Jess looked at his wrist where a three-inch scar could be seen. Unlike the guys, AJ and I were more worried about how horrible it looked.
"I fell down the stairs," he said. "I had to go to the hospital and get stitched. I got more scars on my back."
"Cool!" Conan said. What is up with guys and scars and bruises? Every guy thinks it's cool that they hurt themselves in some way. Gross!
I gave a sigh of relief when the log boat floated in. Conan took the bracelets and thanked him before we got in.
I sat next to Conan fighting on which bracelet we wanted. We both wanted the green one. By the time we nearly we reached the drop, he agreed that I get sit in front of the next ride if he got the green one. So we each put our bracelets and gave our normal silly faces. By the end of the ride, we were bolting to the place where they showed our pictures. Sadly, we couldn't be found anywhere.
"God, don't you hate it when our pictures," AJ commented.
"Ah, guys, I think I found our picture," Conan said, but he sounded sort of nervous. AJ and I came over We looked at the picture.
"Where?" I asked. "I can't see us."
"But that's our picture," he said. "There's the mother and kid sitting up front." I looked and realized that it was them sitting up front. But there was no one in the second and the third row…and that's where we were sitting.
"That's impossible," I exclaimed.
"It's as though we've disappeared," Conan said.