Holiday (Part 1)

"Daniel."

Tovala's low almost-whisper woke him up. She was leaning over him with an intent expression.

"Mornin'," he mumbled.

"We seem to have a visitor."

He followed her gaze to where a gray and black furry lump rested beside his feet.

"Jake, buddy. Decided to join us, huh?" He nudged with his foot. The lump rocked slightly, but nothing more.

He nudged again, harder. "Come on, bub, rise and shine." An ear moved.

He pushed his foot underneath and lifted. "Ordinarily I'd let him sleep, but there's something I want to find out. Wake up, Jake."

One green eye inched open and regarded them balefully.

It took some more jostling and coaxing, but finally the lump unwound, stretched out two paws, sunk claws into the blanket, and half the head seemed to split open revealing rows of sharp teeth and a long pink tongue. Tovala looked on in fascination.

"That's it, mornin's here." He held his hand out and wiggled his fingers.

Jake the Cat considered, then deigned to approach and get his ears scratched.

Daniel instructed Tovala in Cat Protocol. "Hold your hand out. Don't be impatient. Keep still, and let him come to you."

Jake examined this new hand minutely before lowering his head and pushing against it.

Dan grinned. "Aww, you got a head-bump. Means he accepts you. Provisionally, anyway. He'll let you rub his fuzzy head now."

She tried to copy what she'd seen him doing. Jake turned his head to a different angle, directing her fingers more to his liking. She found the cat's fur delightfully soft, and running her fingers through it oddly soothing.

Daniel stroked his back. "Good kitty."

A low buzzing, fluttering noise began. Tovala paused. "What's happening?"

Dan chuckled. "He's purring. Means he likes it. And, look at his tail. You can tell a lot about a cat by his tail. If the tail is low to the ground it means he's scared. If it's held level, he's uncertain. If the tail stands straight up, like this, you're looking at a happy, confident cat. If he's flicking and switching it around, he's agitated or annoyed. If it's all puffed up he's fixin' for a fight."

"Oh." She resumed what she'd been doing. He purred louder.

Having received his due, Jake the Cat flicked his tail, hopped off the bed and strolled down the hall.

Tovala watched him leave. "Did I do something wrong? Where's he going?"

"I'd say he's off to eat, drink or use the catbox. And with that, I think it's time to start breakfast. You're probably hungry again." There was a note of teasing in his last sentence.

"Breakfast sounds good. What will it be today?"

"Haven't decided yet."

Tovala regarded the steaming yellowish brown squares on her plate curiously. "These are…?"

"Waffles. I considered pancakes, but these cook faster. I put butter and syrup on them, like this." He showed her how.

She followed suit, and tried a bite. "Mmmm!"

He'd mixed enough batter to make another waffle and a half, which they polished off as fast as the waffle iron could bake them.

Daniel drank the last of his orange juice. "Let's wash the dishes now."

She helped him move them to the sink. "Why?"

"I want to take you somewhere, and we'll probably be out late."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

She made a little grumbly noise, but secretly she was amused. Where will he take me today?

While they washed the dishes he told her, "We don't know what's going to happen in court tomorrow. We don't know how our lives might be changed, and we've already done what we can to prepare for it."

She felt a little shiver at that reminder, and nodded solemnly.

He gave her a reassuring smile. "We do have today. So, I want to do something special. I think you'll like it."

He put the last cup in the dish rack and led the way towards their bedrooms. "Get ready for a long motorcycle ride. Oh, hey, are your boots done?"

She looked distant for a second. "Yes." She held out her hand, and they appeared.

They didn't look all that much different to him. "What did you do to 'em?"

"I'm not really sure. I just know they're better now."

"Can I see one?"

"Okay." She handed him a boot.

"Oof, that's heavy. Like the ones you made out of smartmatter."

Closer examination showed that the sole and heel were thicker than before. A new layer about a quarter-inch thick had been inserted, set off by being a different texture of black than the leather and rubber it was sandwiched between. The boot was also hard, like a thin layer of leather over solid steel. When he stuck a hand inside, though, it felt normal — stiff but slightly flexible. It was only rigid against forces applied from the outside. He had no idea how that could be done.

He handed it back. "Wow. If you kick somebody with that, it'll be like hitting them with a five-pound sledgehammer."

She couldn't think of anything to say to that. "I'll get ready."

Fifteen minutes later they pulled out into the road and were on their way. They made a quick stop at a gas station to fill up, then headed up a highway new to her, between rows of hills, surrounded by heavy traffic. The hills dropped away until she could see the ocean on their left as they rode across a wide flat space.

"Glad we're not going south," he called over the engine noise, pointing across the road at a long stretch of cars and trucks which were barely moving. "This is what they call Rush Hour."

At least the slowdowns on their side were moderate, and short. They passed groups of buildings, and more empty spaces. The ocean was visible most of the time.

She pointed to their right. "What's that?"

"A windmill. Well, a copy of one anyway. That one doesn't actually turn."

"A windmill?" Clearly, she wanted to know more.

"It's made to look like a traditional Dutch windmill. There's a country in Europe called Holland that's barely above sea level. They built up dikes — long, high banks — to keep the water out, but the land still flooded so, a few hundred years ago they invented windmills to power pumps. They tied heavy cloth sails over the lattice work on those long arms to catch the wind and turn the hub, that round part in the middle. That drove gears inside the cupola, that top part, and turned a vertical drive shaft connected to a pump at the bottom. It was far more efficient than having hundreds of men haul buckets of water and dump them in the ocean."

"Once they'd figured out how to make windmills for pumps, they made other ones to turn grindstones for grinding grain into flour. Again, it was much better than using men or animals to power them. They found a source of energy and harnessed it to increase productivity, get more work done with less labor, and raise the standard of living, at least a little."

A minute later she pointed at something towering ahead of them. "What's that?"

"A smokestack. It's for a big power plant."

"Power plant?" A large gray building was coming into view at the base of the smokestack.

"A place where they generate electricity. I think this one burns oil. It produces more energy than thousands of windmills, and it doesn't depend on the weather. Windmills are sort of finicky. If there's not enough wind, they don't produce usable energy. If the wind blows too hard they have to be locked down, or they tear themselves apart violently and fling deadly pieces hundreds of yards."

Traffic thinned out as they left the windmill and smokestack behind. Not only was rush hour winding down, they were traveling into a less populated area. Tovala watched the passing scenery with undiminished interest.

Twenty minutes later, she pointed to their left again. "What are those?" They were approaching two big round gray structures between the highway and the nearby ocean.

"That's the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Or at least," he added peevishly, "it used to be. They tried to make some repairs about ten years ago and bungled the job so bad they had to shut it down permanently. What used to be an important source of electricity for this entire region is now a massive cleanup job. They're going to demolish the whole site, they say it'll take ten years and four billion dollars — but I know it will take longer and cost more. These things always do."

About five minutes later the highway made a big curve to the right and they left the ocean behind. Hills rose in the distance on both sides. Ten minutes after that, traffic got heavier and they started passing more buildings. Another fifteen minutes, he moved into the right lane and took an off-ramp.

They turned left at the light, then turned right a few blocks later and made their way down a long, wide stretch of pavement with several buses parked along the sides. He stopped in front of a bus, shut off the engine and parked.

Tovala looked around. "Where are we?"

Daniel grinned. "You'll see in a minute. Can you put this motorcycle where you've been putting everything else? And make sure it doesn't fall over?"

"I…think so."

"Ummm…" He dithered for a few seconds, then decided to take the risk. "Try it and see."

"All right." The bike disappeared.

"Now bring it back."

The suspension settled slightly when it reappeared, but nothing else seemed different.

"Looks okay," he said, relieved. "Let's put everything we're not going to need in the saddlebags and you can send it away again. Day's heating up already."

They stowed their jackets and gloves away, she looked at the motorcycle and it vanished. The helmets went next.

"Damn, that's convenient. Parking around here is a pain, and expensive, even for a bike. You ready?"

"Yes…" She still didn't know where they were, or what to expect from the day.

They walked under a narrow green tent-like structure hand in hand and joined one of several lines of people waiting outside a small building. As usual, they attracted attention, stares, and those pretending not to stare.

"Mommy, look at that lady's hair. It's weird." Mommy shushed the little girl, herding her, Daddy and a little boy away. Other children pointed and spoke up, embarrassing their parents as well.

In the midst of this unwanted attention a thought occurred to Daniel, and grew to a concern. "They'll want to check our ID, and you don't have any. Think you can make yourself a driver's license?"

"Yes." She sounded quite certain about it.

He dug out his wallet, removed his license and showed it to her. "Here, you can copy from mine. Just substitute your name, and the birth date we came up with, and change this number. Oh, and make the expiration date…two-thousand-twenty. That should do it."

Her eyes narrowed for a second, she turned her hand over and produced a small colored card, seemingly from nowhere.

He looked over her handiwork and chuckled. "Everything looks right but the picture. It's way too good. The DMV always manages to make 'em look like a mug shot."

"Should I make it look worse?" she asked reluctantly.

"No, no. Should be fine," he assured her. "Now, let's put it in your wallet."

The line moved steadily until it was their turn in front of a window.

Daniel flashed a quick smile at the woman behind it. "Two year passes, for southern California residents."

"I'll need to see your ID." Her voice sounded a little bored. No doubt she repeated that hundreds of times every day.

They pulled out their wallets, opened them and held them up. She gave them a quick once-over and asked, "How are you going to pay?"

"With this." He slid a credit card under the window.

She nodded. "OK, this will take just a minute."

Not much more than a minute later she pushed the card and two pieces of paper back to him. "These are your temporary passes. Your regular passes will be mailed to you in a week or two. Welcome to Disneyland, and have a happy day." She had to repeat that hundreds of times a day, too.

He picked them up and Tovala smiled at her. "Thank you."

They made way for the family behind them. Daniel guided her towards a row of kiosks under an ornate roof.

She looked around. "This is Disneyland? An…amusement park. Is that right?"

He grinned, and squeezed her hand. "This is not just any amusement park, it's the amusement park. There's a lot of places like it now, but this one is the original. The first of its kind. About seventy years ago Walter Elias Disney had an idea, he planned and worked for years to make it real, and here it is. There have been some changes since then, but his basic design remains."

They joined another line of people. He waved a hand around them. "This whole place is here just for people to have fun. And make money, of course, but they can only do that if people want to come here. We're going to have fun, too."

She looked around. "Is it always this crowded?"

He laughed. "This is nothing. It'll really get crowded this weekend. Five, maybe ten times as many people."

She tried to imagine that. "Oh."

When it was their turn, the very young man at the turnstile told them, "I'm sorry, we don't allow cosplayers in The Park."

"What? No, she's not cosplaying, that's just her hair. It really is purple."

That seemed to confuse him a little. "It's not just the hair…" He recovered, and stuck to his script. "I'm afraid I can't let you in. Not like that."

"Hey, now, you can't discriminate against her for having purple hair." Were all their plans about to be ruined because of some stupid rule?

For a second he just stared at them, then at the line, and got out a phone. "I need to call somebody about this. Could you wait over there for just a minute please?"

Dan looked behind them. "Let's do what he says. We're holding up the line."

Meanwhile, somebody answered the phone call. They heard the local end of the conversation: "…cosplayer, only the dude says her hair's really that color…and the eyes…don't think they're gonna go quietly…"

"This trouble is because of me, isn't it?" She sounded a little down.

Daniel shook his head. "How people react to you is not your fault. I guess it's not really their fault, either. They're just not accustomed to somebody like you."

Turnstile Man put his phone away. "Somebody will be here in a minute. Thank you for waiting."

He resumed passing the more ordinary customers through. A few stared, but most pretended not to notice the detainees. It was several minutes before a man in a suit, somewhere between Tovala and Daniel in age, approached them.

He introduced himself as Thomas and explained the company's position to her. "You have to understand, we're dedicated to providing our guests a certain experience. We don't want that illusion broken with distractions. You're…distracting."

Daniel jumped to her defense. "Okay, I get that, but you can't discriminate against her just because her hair's an unusual color."

"If it was just the hair we might allow it, but…look at her. Can't you see? She's—" He wasn't getting through to this guy. He took a calming breath. "Do you really want to be surrounded by hordes of little kids thinking she's a Disney Princess?"

Daniel looked at his wife again, and the awful realization finally struck him. "Oh. Oh, no. He's right. You would look all Princess-y to them."

"So, you see the problem?" Thomas asked, relieved.

"Yeah. I just don't know what we can do about…" He regarded Tovala again, thoughtfully. "Do you think you could change your hair color?"

"Yes." She sounded confident.

"Just the hair's not enough," Thomas protested.

"Okay, what else can you change?"

"Let me see." She closed her eyes.

After a short wait Daniel said uncertainly, "Uh, Tovala?"

"Don't distract me." She sounded sort of distant.

They both watched as her hair gradually darkened, first around her head and then spreading to the ends. The change took about four minutes to complete.

She opened her eyes, now medium brown in color, set off by nearly black eyelashes and eyebrows. Her hair was a rich brown, with hints of deep red, and a more pronounced tendency to curl. Her lips and fingernails were dark red. Her sun tan had turned a bit browner, too. Her nose and cheekbones had grown slightly wider, her face and chin more rounded.

"Will this do?" she asked both of them.

Thomas had remained speechless throughout the process. Nothing in his life had prepared him for this.

Daniel was becoming inured to strange happenings where this otherworldly woman was concerned. This was just another one. The individual changes were minor, but the overall effect…

"Woah. You look like a completely different person. How'd you do that?"

"I'm not sure how it works. I just concentrated on making myself not so conspicuous." She addressed Thomas. "Will you let me in now?"

Her question shook him out of his bemusement. "What? Oh, umm, yeah. You won't cause any problems, looking like that. As long as you don't change back…"

"I won't. Not until we leave."

"All right then, let me see your temporary passes…"

He got them checked in, fastened plastic bands around their left wrists and wished them a happy day, rather absently, still processing her transformation. They rejoined the lines surging into the place and left him gazing after them in wonderment.

Tovala looked around, overwhelmed by the crowds, the noise, the bright colors. She caught his hand and held tight. "Where do we go now?"

Even her hand felt subtly different, which he found just a touch disquieting. He dismissed the feeling and led her up stairs and sidewalks to a rather aggressively quaint railroad station overlooking the main gates. "Let's start with the train."

They mingled with other waiting people. "This railroad runs all the way around the park. There are four stations, and three or four trains always following each other around the track so, you never have to wait more than a few minutes."

"Oh." She didn't have much else to say, her attention occupied with taking in all these new experiences. Soon a whistle shrieked somewhere to their left, followed by a steady chuffing sound, drawing closer. A strange machine hove into view around a curve in the track, shooting white clouds from both sides.

"That's a real steam engine. It burns oil instead of coal or wood, but otherwise it's a scale model of an engine from a hundred and fifty years ago. They're big on nostalgia here." He grinned at her. "So am I, long as they don't take it to extremes."

The train hissed to a stop, a woman in a blue uniform and cap opened a gate, and they joined the throng streaming through. They found seats, along with the rest. The whistle sounded again and the train moved out, picking up speed.

"This train gives you a good overview of the whole place. Those towers there are Cinderella's Castle, right in the center. Everything else is arranged around it."

The train chugged on. He pointed out other features until a voice announced, "New Orleans Square. Next stop, New Orleans Square."

The train stopped at another station. People stood up and left the cars, others got aboard. Daniel didn't move. "We'll go there later. For now, let's stay on the train."

Two stops later she interrupted his impromptu travelogue and pointed at a big white conical structure. "What's that?"

"Ah-hah, that's Space Mountain. It's a roller coaster."

That sounded interesting. "Are we going there?"

"Ehhh, let's try something a bit less intense to start with. Okay?"

"Oh, all right."

The train crossed a threshold into darkness. She looked around, seeing only black-painted metal support structures. "Where are we now?"

Her answer came from the train's sound system in the form of an announcement that they were about to visit the Grand Canyon. A vista opened up before them, sand and rocks, trees and strange animals. Music played. She was captivated, until the train passed through a short wooden tunnel, then emerged into another big space. This time the voice announced that they were entering Primeval World. The scenery and creatures looked much different here.

Daniel picked up where the announcements ended. "This is supposed to be what the world looked like millions of years ago, back when there were dinosaurs. They got a few things wrong, though. Not all of those dinosaurs lived at the same time. And they're pretty sure the Ornithomimus, the ones around that pool there, had feathers."

"The dinosaurs are long gone, though. Sixty-five million years ago a meteorite we think was about six miles across struck off the north coast of Yucatan. Today there's a town named Chicxulub near the spot, so they call it the Chicxulub Impact. It wasn't just the one big boom, either; it set off a whole series of catastrophes with effects that lingered for years. More than seventy percent of all life on Earth was wiped out, and the environment took hundreds of years to recover. The species that survived had to adapt to a very different world. It was the fourth or fifth biggest mass extinction event in this planet's history."

While he spoke they exited from the enclosed space, the whistle sounded, the train rounded a curve and a station was visible ahead. "Main Street. Next stop, Main Street Station."

She didn't look bored, so he went on. "The meteorite was vaporized, along with cubic miles of rock. It blasted out a crater over a hundred miles wide and twenty miles deep, and blew millions of tons more rock clear out of the atmosphere, to rain down over the next few days in the form of billions of meteors, everything from gravel to rocks the size of houses. Most of them burned up on re-entry, heating the upper atmosphere to four or five hundred degrees."

"The entire planet rang like a huge gong, triggering earthquakes and volcanoes worldwide. Monster waves a mile high spread out, washing over everything in their path. Islands were scoured clean, and continents were flooded for up to a hundred miles inland. The crater floor was a vast expanse of red-hot magma where the Earth's mantle was exposed. When the sea rushed back in it boiled instantly, shooting a gigantic jet of superheated steam eight miles high into the stratosphere for a week or more, until the crater cooled down enough to not boil water on contact. Even then, it continued to heat the sea above it for centuries. Thick clouds, and dust from all the vaporized rock, blanketed the Earth and blocked out the sun for over a year."

"If a rock like that hit us now, it would be the end of our world. All of our civilization would be destroyed, and the whole human race could be wiped out. Even if there were a few survivors, they might not be enough to form a viable population."

Tovala was taken aback by this account of planetary devastation. She tried to think of a response, but could only say, "I see," as the train pulled into the station and stopped.

Daniel got to his feet. "Aaannnd we're back where we started. Let's get out here."

She squeezed his hand. "Okay."

They walked back down to a road with a number of vehicles puttering along or parked at the curb. He said, "We can get a ride from here."

She pointed at the big red vehicle to their right. "What's that one?"

"It's a replica of a London double-decker bus. Is this the one you want to ride?"

Something about the odd vehicle intrigued her. "Yes."

"Then let's get aboard before it moves out."

They found seats on the bottom level and the bus started moving. It ground slowly up the road, between two rows of brightly colored buildings. The sidewalks were crowded with people, and the bus avoided a few walking on the road. It stopped a few times to let people get on, until the road they were on joined another road that looped around in a circle.

He stood up and tugged at her hand. "End of the line. The bus just turns around here and goes back where we got on."

They made their way to the door and stepped down. Other people got on and the bus drove away. The road encircled a slightly raised area with a pedestal in the center surrounded by meticulously trimmed trees and shrubbery. Quite a few flowers grew here, too. So beautiful, and sweet-smelling. She took a deep breath, and smiled.

Daniel pointed. "That's a statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, his most famous cartoon character."

Ahead of them, a young woman with long brown hair wearing a fancy yellow dress was surrounded by half a dozen small children and a wider ring of adults.

Tovala remembered their delay at the entrance. "Is she a Disney Princess?"

"Yeah. I think that's Belle from Beauty And The Beast. Let's not get in their way."

They swung wide around the group, closer to the fanciful castle towering over the park's center. She gazed up at the towers and spires, but something else caught his attention.

"Oops. I was wrong. This is Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Says so, right here on this sign. Different fairy tale." He chuckled. "Different Disney movie, too."

She spotted something else. "Oooh, ice cream!"

Before he knew it, they were in front of the little stand. "I take it you want some."

She couldn't take her eyes off all the different colors. He considered, and when the girl, who looked barely old enough to be working here, called "Next," he said, "One Rocky Road and one strawberry."

He reached for his wallet, but Tovala stopped him. "I want to pay."

She pulled out one of the twenties he'd given her — was it only two days ago? — and handed it over. He took the ice cream cones while she put her change away and closed her purse. "Do you know, this is the first time I ever bought anything?"

"Huh. You're right, it is."

He held out an ice cream cone and she took it, just a bit dubiously. Strawberry she'd seen before, but what was this lumpy brown stuff?

He grinned. "Try it."

She did. "Mmm, this is good."

"Glad you like it."

Eating ice cream took precedence over talking for some time. They passed the statue again and meandered along a wide road. Just before they walked under a narrow gray structure held up by tall posts, a long, sleek vehicle hummed past above them. She watched curiously until it was out of sight.

"That's the monorail. It's, sort of a different kind of train. We can ride it later, if you want."

They turned left and joined a line of people standing along the roadside. They slowly shuffled ahead while finishing their ice cream cones. Rumbling sounds, screams and shrieks came from the gray and white bulk looming over them.

Daniel said, "That's the Matterhorn. It's a model of a famous mountain in Switzerland. The original is something like twenty thousand feet high; this one's around a hundred feet and there's a roller coaster built into it. This is the line to ride on it."

"Oh."

There wasn't much to do but wait, and look around. She saw the monorail train pass several more times, along the track she'd first seen, and another track that looped around on the other side of the narrow road above a big pool, or pond, with long boats cruising around in a wide curve. Three white and gray birds stood on a rock. Their heads turned, their wings shifted, and every minute or so they called out, "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Daniel chuckled. "That's the Finding Nemo ride. Those are the seagulls. Makes more sense if you've seen the movie. They're animatronic, like the dinosaurs in Primeval World. Machines that look like birds, with motors and gears to make them move, and speakers for the voices."

They reached the 'Matterhorn Bobsleds' entrance. The line split up into a row of sub-lines leading to tracks where yet another type of train-like conveyances pulled in, stopped, and departed again. At last it was their turn. Two cars linked together stopped in front of them and the people inside got out.

A tall, skinny teenage boy cut in front of them and claimed the front seat. Dan helped Tovala into the second one before sitting in the back seat while three more people got into the car behind them.

He stuck an arm around her seat and pointed. "There's the seat belt."

They both buckled up, an attendant checked everybody's belts and signaled the operator. The cars jolted into motion.

He thought of something important. "Oh! This roller coaster is safe. Nothing bad is going to happen to us, no matter how it feels. Millions of people ride on it without getting hurt, so, don't use your force shield or anti-gravity. Don't wreck the ride, okay?"

She nodded. "All right."

They traveled around a curve and headed up a steep slope, rattling and clanking.

He told her, "There's a chain under the track that pulls the coaster up this part. When we get to the top it unhooks, and we roll downhill from there. I think we'll get up to about forty miles an hour, but it seems a lot faster."

Halfway up he removed his sunglasses and held them out. "Here, take off your shades and send them away so they don't fly off our heads and get lost."

"Okay." She squinted in the dazzling sun, but understood why losing their sunglasses would be worse than this temporary inconvenience.

They reached the top with one last clank, pitched over and plunged what looked and felt like almost straight down, rapidly picking up speed. Other riders screamed and waved their arms about. Daniel hung onto the handgrips. They raced down, and up, and around steep curves, through tunnels and along the edges of cliffs, lurching from side to side. Some of the people kept hooting and shrieking. One of the loudest screaming teenage girls sat in the front seat of the car behind them.

At length the ride slowed, they rounded a final curve and rumbled to a stop back where they'd started. She climbed out.

He stepped up, groaned and stretched. "How'd you like it?"

She turned to face him, her eyes sparkling, her whole face lit up with excitement. She grabbed his hand and headed for the exit. "Let's ride again!"

He followed her, grinning. "Uh-oh, I've created a monster. You were a secret coaster fiend, and now you've been triggered. O the horror!"

When they reached the road he turned away from the Matterhorn line, saying, "I've got another idea. I think you're ready for Space Mountain."

"You said it's a roller coaster, too. Is it like this one?"

"It's, uh, well, it's different. I think you'd like it."

"Okay."

He looked around, then set off at a determined pace. "It's…this way. I think."

They walked along twisty roads, between big round buildings. She produced their sunglasses and they put them back on.

"What's that smell?" she asked, then followed her nose to the source and read the sign. "Popcorn. Mmm, it smells really good."

She bought a box and they continued on their way, munching popcorn. The Space Mountain entrance was only a short distance away.

The sign above it caught his attention. "Huh. It says Hyperspace Mountain. Wonder when they changed that?"

Instead of going inside, he led her to a place off to one side with a display screen on a kiosk.

"What I thought. The wait for Space Mountain is already over an hour." He held his left hand near the device, then said, "Hold your hand over it, like I did."

He watched the screen and nodded. "There. We're on the waiting list. Now we can do whatever we want for the next hour and…sixteen minutes. What do you want to do?"

She chewed, swallowed and looked around. "I don't know. There's so much…"

"That's right. There's too much here to see all in one day. That's another reason I didn't want to do the Matterhorn again. You keep repeating the same things, you'll never know what else you're missing. I know, let's ride the monorail. The station's back that way."

They finished their popcorn. She flipped the empty box into a trash can as they passed. "Why did you put us on a waiting list, instead of getting in line? What's different?"

"Time, mostly. We got to the Matterhorn early, before the line got too long."

They turned left. She saw a monorail train moving away from them.

"See, there's a hard limit on how many people a ride can handle in one day. If more than that number want to ride, some folks are going to go away disappointed, and nothing can be done about it. There's just not enough capacity for everybody. So, they have to choose who gets to ride, and who doesn't, and do it in a way everybody can accept as more-or-less fair."

He gave her a questioning look. She nodded thoughtfully.

"So, in the Beginning was The Line," he intoned with mocking grandiosity, then went on in a normal voice, "The lines here were notorious. If you wanted to go on a ride, you had to wait in line along with everybody else wanting to go on the same ride. Like we did for the Matterhorn. Got boring after a few minutes, didn't it?"

"Well, yes…"

"Now imagine how boring it would be to stand there for an hour. Or more. When it's finally your turn, you take your ride and then…you get in line for something else. That's your day. Standing in one long line after another in the hot sun, bored and impatient, waiting for rides that might last five minutes. Makes for a piss-poor ratio of fun to not-fun."

He snickered and added, "Could be worse. Could be raining."

He seemed to find that funny, but she didn't get the joke. She dismissed it with, "I see. That's not how I'd want to spend my time."

"Nobody did, but that was what they had. Years ago they came up with the electronic waiting list and it's a huge improvement. The computer reads the R-F-I-D chips in these arm bands, puts us on the list, tells us when it will be our turn, and does the waiting for us. We just have to show up on time. They probably allow us a couple of minutes, but if we're too late we'll lose our turn and have to start all over."

She squeezed his hand, both of them tinged with yellow from the popcorn. "Then let's not be late."

A long ramp led up to the station. Soon a monorail pulled in, humming, and stopped in front of them. The doors opened with a low hiss.

He tugged on her hand. "Look, there's room in the front. Let's ride there."

The front compartment had a big domed window with a long curved seat under it. The view was much better than from the rows of seats in the cars behind them. The doors closed, and the monorail slid smoothly out of the station.

They were viewing Disneyland from higher up this time. The track curved and looped, she pointed and asked, "What's that?" again and again, keeping him busy describing the features they passed.

The monorail crossed over a road, stopped at a station, crossed back and passed between some buildings and right through others. "Where are we now?"

He waved a hand, encompassing the view. "This is the new part. They call it California Adventure. Originally, a huge parking lot took up this half of the property. A while ago they wanted to add more attractions, they needed to find space for 'em, but the surrounding area was all built up. Buying land would have cost far too much, so the only way they could put up anything new was by taking over the parking lot. That's why parking is such a pain around here — it brings in more customers but they've got no place to park."

"Oh." She pointed at a tall reddish-brown structure. "What's that?"

"Tower Of—" He stopped. "Huh. Well, it used to be the Tower Of Terror. Now it's something else. Wow. Look away for a few years and everything up and changes on you. It was…probably still is, they'd have to tear the whole thing down to change the mechanics… Anyway, it's sort of a high-speed elevator that zips up and down like it's out of control. It's not, of course, they just try to make it feel that way."

"Can we ride it?"

"Not today. We're sort of limited to the other side for now. Besides, there's more over there than we can see and do in one day. That's why I got the year passes. We can come back as many times as we want."

The monorail whizzed past the ex-Tower, turned left and ran beside a road, turned a few more times and pulled into the station where they'd started.

He got up when the doors opened. "Come on, let's get out here and find something else to do."

They joined a stream of people leaving the monorail station. "See anything you want to check out?"

She looked around, feeling a little lost. "Everything. I don't know this place." She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "I will rely on your guidance and advice."

He squeezed back. "I'll do my best." A short distance farther on he said, "Here, want to try this one?"

A big sign overhead marked the next attraction as AUTOPIA. Popping and sputtering sounds came from behind a wall of bushes. The walkway passed through a break in the, hedge, that's what it was called, and they stopped at the end of another line of waiting people.

In due course they reached their destination: a wide expanse of pavement with raised ridges spaced about eight feet apart, and rows of small open cars lined up over the ridges.

Daniel led the way to one of the cars, started to get in, then stopped and stepped back. "I've got a better idea." He took her to the last car in the lane. "Here, you drive."

"Me?" she blurted out, startled. She turned a wary look on the little red car sitting in front of them, its engine plugging along patiently. Her nose wrinkled at the exhaust fumes.

"Why not? You'll want to learn to drive, and this is an easy way to get started. Go on, get in," he urged her in a positive, encouraging tone. He moved in front of her and climbed into the passenger seat, forestalling any further objections.

She hesitated some more, then walked behind the car, stepped over the side and cautiously settled herself beside him.

He grinned. "That's good. Now, both hands on the steering wheel…that's right. There's a gas pedal on the floor by your right foot. Don't push it yet, wait for the cars in front of us to pull out."

The whole vehicle vibrated slightly in time with the engine noise. She was a little nervous, and it showed. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

He spoke soothingly. "You'll be fine. They let little kids drive these things because there's not much to go wrong. The cars are confined to their own lanes, they've got small engines, they can't go very fast, and they've got springs in the bumpers so even if you do hit another car it's no big deal. Try not to, though. This is not supposed to be a Demolition Derby."

Pygmy engines revved and cars ahead of theirs started to move away. "Get ready. When the road's clear ahead, push the pedal down just a little. Push it gradually until the car starts to move, then hold your foot still. Keep it slow at first."

The stuttering noise from the car ahead of them became faster and louder, and it sped away. She eased her foot down, their car made similar noises, vibrated harder, and started to move. It shifted to the left, then bumped and shuddered. Alarming scraping noises came from underneath.

Daniel put his hand on hers. "It's okay, you're just hitting the lane guide. Turn the wheel a little bit to the right…little more…that's better. Now keep it straight, centered over that raised strip."

Tovala nibbled her lip and tried, but the little car seemed to have a mind of its own, willfully determined to wander left or right every time she thought she'd gotten it to go straight for a second. She had to keep correcting constantly, twisting the steering wheel back and forth, eyes glued to the 'lane guide' where it disappeared under the front of their car.

He put his hand over hers again. "Try giving it a little more gas. That might help."

She bit her lip harder and pushed her foot down. The engine's hammering noise increased, and their car sped up. The hand resting on hers pushed and pulled, guiding her, and the car's course steadied. She started to relax, just the tiniest bit.

"This is a lot harder than it looks when you do it," she complained.

"Bear in mind, I've been driving for almost thirty years. I didn't do so good at first, either."

The road curved to the left, and their car bumped into the lane guide several times. "Uhh. How long did it take you to get better?"

His chuckle was kind of sheepish. "Quite a while, actually. There's one mistake I was making, that took me a long time to get over. You're looking right at the front of the car, aren't you? Trying to correct every time it strays an inch off center?"

"Yes…" They bumped again. She tried grimly to follow the guide, with less than complete success. "But if that's a mistake, how else can I do it? I have to keep the car lined up with the road, don't I?"

"That's the mistake. What you have to do instead is, ignore the car."

She fought the wheel in silence, bump by bump. When she spoke, she enunciated each word clearly, separately, with emphasis. "That does not make any sense at all."

"I know, right? And yet it's the most important part of driving. You have to look pretty far ahead, and aim yourself where you want to go. Because if you're in the right place, the car you're in has to be. Too bad they didn't teach us that in Driver Ed. Would have saved me a lot of trouble."

He let her think that over. "Look ahead, and try to imagine that you are traveling along the road about a foot and a half to the left of that guide strip. If you can do that, the car will go right where you want it to. If you're looking at the road right in front of the car, by the time you notice it's not where it's supposed to be, you're already out of position. Even your super reflexes can't correct fast enough."

He shut up then, took his hand off hers, and let her focus on this very different approach to driving. She seemed to improve, then the car wandered and bumped the guide. She growled, did better for a short distance, and bumped again.

"This is not easy," she informed him.

His voice was warm and understanding. "I know. You keep wanting to look at the front end, to check your lane position, and then you get stuck there. It's a temptation you have to resist. Just like it was for me."

The road twisted and looped, passed around trees, crossed over and under bridges. A monorail whisked by above their heads. As her driving improved, she pushed the little car faster. He kept quiet and let her concentrate.

They rounded a big curve and saw rows of cars stopped in front of them. They were back where they'd started. Tovala took her foot off the gas and the car stopped almost immediately.

"Oh, yeah, when you let up on the gas it automatically puts the brakes on. Try giving it just enough to keep moving."

She pushed it again, tentatively, slowly crept up to the car ahead of them and stopped. They got out of the car.

"That was fun, after I got used to driving." She took his hand. "But not as much fun as a roller coaster."

He checked his watch as they departed from AUTOPIA. "Lemme see, we're due at Space Mountain in…"

"Fifty-one minutes." she tossed off casually, most of her attention on her surroundings, and the noisy crowds.

He juggled numbers in his head. "You're right. How did you know that?"

"I just thought about it, and I knew."

"You just knew. So, you've got a clock ticking away in your head now?"

She lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Sunday afternoon you showed me your watch, and then I saw the clock on your computer. Ever since then, when I think about it, I know what time it is."

He chuckled. "So you do have a clock. I wonder if you can set an alarm."

She considered the question. "Yes. I will know when it's time."

"Can you set it a little early, so we have time to get there?"

She nodded. "Already done. The alarm is…adaptive. When it alerts me will depend on how far from Space Mountain we are."

"Wow, that's a bit more than I expected."

"I'm learning more about myself every day, but there is still so much I don't know," she said wistfully.

"Well, not much you can do but keep at it."

She found his words unsatisfying, but impossible to deny. "I suppose not. Should we put ourselves on some more of those waiting lists?"

"Good idea." He pivoted to the right. "Let's head this way."