World of Disney - Chapter Fifteen (w/ Commentary Notes)

Chapter Fifteen: Time Zone – 2010 (After Temporal Displacement)

            Joanie felt exhausted beyond belief as she helped Sean and Buzz guide the Beast to the front of the park where they tried to make a quiet exit. However, that seemed easier said than done when half of the guests at the park, including reporters who went there as guests at first but quickly went to business after the “show” Joanie and the others put on, asking several questions that they could only answer “I don’t know” to. And even once they were through the front gate, the questions still continued. None of the guests seemed to have cared that they just walked out of the park, leaving behind whatever plans they had within the hour.

 

(Real World Note: Popular local news/media websites that cover Orlando-based theme parks like Walt Disney World include Orlando Attractions Magazine and DIS Unplugged, both of which keep tourists up-to-date on the latest additions to the parks and provide trip-planning advice. JeniLynn Knopp, who was featured as her own character in Tales of the Disneyverse, was once a news correspondent for OAM before joining the DIS team.)

            Meanwhile, Sean did his best to ignore the crowd and get to the nearest transit bus they could take back to the Muppet Theater. The Beast was only large enough to fit in one rather than the Explorer, which he would use to follow them back in. He saw one parked close ahead and picked up the pace, moving a short distance ahead of the others and hoping to get to it before anyone else did. Unfortunately, just when he was near the bus…

            “Sean!!!”

            He turned his head to see Kim, Meagan, Tracy, Bobo, Clifford, and Bean running to him, all with looks of concern, amusement, and confusion on their faces. “Oh, no…” he muttered to himself, just before he was met by their party and the one he had recently been with at the same time.

            Kim and Meagan’s eyes connected with Joanie’s at the moment their paths crossed. And, almost on instinct, the two redheads uttered upon seeing her, “Mama?!”

            Joanie raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?!”

            Even Tracy was taken aback from the sudden appearance of her cousin – at least that was who she believed it was at first glance. This young woman was younger…very much younger than the woman she met with recently, who still resides in a beautiful Floridian neighborhood across town. She wasn’t certain if this woman was someone who looked like Joan in her twenties or…no, that latter alternative was just too crazy to consider. But could it be so?

 

(Authorial Note: Livingston had chosen this moment in the story, when most of the primary players are all together, as the perfect reveal for Joanie on who Sean and company were. There needed to be an audience to bear witness to the moment as if it were a major news event - the presence of the reporters in this scene added on to that allusion.)

            “Joanie…” Tracy finally brought herself to say, “I-Is that really you, cuz?”

            Looking carefully at her, Joanie tried to recognize the woman addressing her. “Have we…met somewhere, Miss…?”

            “Tracy. It’s me – your cousin…Tracy.”

            Joanie nearly fainted from the shock of seeing the forty-something woman in front of her, whom – in actuality – was her “little” cousin. The first thought that came to her mind upon seeing her: Man, time-travel is a trip!

            With the reporters and other guests still surrounding them, Sean knew this meeting had to be taken somewhere private. Too many strangers were around to hear the craziness behind a young woman like Joanie being the mother to two women who were close to her age. It wasn’t still part of a show, as they were all led to believe from the moment Buzz and the Beast confronted each other atop of Cinderella’s Castle. In fact, he started helping Ciciley, Buzz, Kermit, Robin, Scooter, Gonzo, Fozzie, Rizzo, and Pepe guide the Beast into the transit bus, which sunk a bit under his weight.

            The bus driver, watching the creature enter and feeling the bus shift from its extreme weight, immediately ran out of the bus and confronted Sean. “Hey, man! This ain’t moving truck! Whatever the park officials told you, you tell them I can’t…”

            “Listen, here’s a hundred.” Sean gave the driver the money right away. “Just take this bus outside the resort grounds and into Downtown Orlando, until you get to the old Muppet Theater there. After then, you can continue on with your route.”

            The driver checked the authenticity of the hundred-dollar bill and grinned at it. “Whatever you say, my friend.” And with that, the driver went back into the bus and started the engine.

 

(Real World Note: Transit buses on the Disney World property never travel as far as outside the resort. Their routes are only between theme parks and hotels. If a driver ever were to do as the one in this scene does, he would not only be terminated but arrested as well.)

            Sean brought his attention back to the others and assured them, “Look, I’ll explain everything when we get back to the theat…” While in mid-sentence, he was suddenly met with the angry finger of Joanie.

            “You’d better, dude! I don’t know what secrets you’re hidin’, but we will discuss this later!”

            A chill went down his spine on her words, which sounded a lot like the scolding she would give him when he was a kid. Shaking his head, he thought to himself, Man! Time-travel is a trip! He watched Joanie go into the transit bus, with the others following. It took more promises of things being better explained in due time to get Kim, Meagan, and Tracy in as well. Once they were, the doors closed and the bus departed from the Magic Kingdom theme park.

            After watching it leave, Sean escaped from the crowd of curious reporters and guests by running across the parking lot area, just as another transit bus arrived. It drove right in between him and the crowd and parked there, separating them. Relieved to be free of the chaos, Sean took a deep breath and prepared himself for the chaos that would follow later at the Muppet Theater, when he once again met the angry stare of his young mother. How different she seemed in personality at an age younger than his own compared to the elderly, kind woman he met earlier that morning.

 

(Authorial Note: Livingston based some of the personality of the "Joanie" character on that of his real-life mother. Only "Ciciley Livingston," the mother of the character Livingston based on himself by persona and name in The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2, is based fully on Livingston's real mother.)

            While crossing the parking lot to get to his Explorer parked (ironically) in the “Lumiere” section, he was being watched by two figures from a 2006 Dodge Charger, unbeknownst to him. The two figures were none other than Joie and Gina, the latter expressing great joy in seeing Sean at the parking lot. “Aw, dude! It is him! That’s our little bro! How sweet is this?” Joie did not answer, which left Gina to look away from Sean and to her. Instantly, she saw her eye color change from their usual light bluish hue to a darker, redder one. “Oh, no. You’re ticked about something.” She heard her sister’s hands gripping the steering wheel tighter and tighter – almost on the verge of snapping it in half. “JOIE!!!”

            The gripping stopped and Joie relaxed a little – her eyes returning to normal. “I’m sorry…but did you see the way that chick was yelling at him a second ago?”

            “Who? The brunette?” Gina nodded. “Yeah, that did irk me a little. Who do you think those people were?”

            “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” She turned the key and revved up the Charger’s engine, much to the dismay of her sister.

            “Oh, c’mon, Joie! We found Sean now – let’s just go get him, head back to Baton Rouge, and live happily ever after, okay?”

 

(Character Note: No indication is ever given, other than the mentioning of Baton Rouge and abnormal physical traits, as to what type of parallel world Joie and Gina come from. The "Baton Rouge" reference gives readers one particular idea that their world is similar to our own with locations identical in name, but they are not to know how different in appearance it may be.)

            Joie’s eyes turned red again as she looked to Gina. “Are you kiddin’ me?! They could be the reason why he disappeared last night! I’m not just gonna leave without getting some answers first!”

            Gina tried to talk sense in her again, but the Charger had already sped out of the space it was parked in and racing across the lot, moving past other vehicles that honked madly as it passed through. Approaching his car, Sean heard the honking and screeching of tires and looked to see the Charger leave the parking lot in such an unruly manner. He shook his head, thinking he was the only one having a bad day, and climbed into the Explorer. However, right after he put on his seatbelt and just before he turned the key in the ignition…

            “Lil’ brother!!”

            Sean screamed insanely when he heard the voice, believing to be the only one in the vehicle, jumping so high that he banged his head on the ceiling. Once he shook off the pain, he looked across to see a young blonde woman sitting in the passenger seat with her arms outstretched and a wide smile on her face. He wasn’t certain how hard he bumped his head, but when he looked at her chest, he could’ve sworn he noticed a dark blue hue glowing through the shirt she wore of a different shade of the same color. It was more than that freaking him out that moment – rather it was the fact that woman somehow had gotten into his car without him knowing.

 

(Character Note: Much in the same way Joie and Gina come from another universe, Bella does as well. Her physical traits and abilities include her "mood heart," which works as like a mood ring that glows in different colors that correspond with her emotions, and phasing - although the latter is never mentioned in the story but is alluded to in this scene when she phases herself into the Explorer.)

            “L-Listen…whatever y-you want, take it!” Sean exclaimed nervously. “I gave the last bit of money I had to a bus driver earlier, s-so…”

            “I don’t want money, lil’ brother. I just want to give you a hug. I’ve been worried about yo…”

            The woman moved in closer to him and, in the blink of an eye, Sean unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out of the Explorer. He reached into his pocket to pull out his cell phone and began dialing numbers. While doing so, he told the woman, “Okay, make it easy on yourself. Either get out of the car or I’ll have the police come and haul your butt to jail. I’m doing it right now, lady!”

            Glancing at the phone in his hands, the woman’s eyes focused past it and to Sean’s chest. She frowned when there was nothing glowing beneath his shirt. “Oh, no. Something’s wrong.”

            Hearing what she said, Sean chuckled in response, “Yeah, ya think so?!”

            That’s when he heard the passenger side door open and the woman climbing out. He watched her move hurriedly away from the Explorer and down the parking lot with tears streaming down her eyes. It was that point when a good deal of guilt rushed through Sean, forcing him to hang up the phone and chase after the young woman. He wasn’t exactly sure why he felt so guilty about yelling at her and threatening to call the police on her, but he did.

(Narrative Note: Throughout the World of Disney series, characters in situations like this - meeting someone they barely know and want nothing to do with - have changes of heart in helping them. In most cases, the characters in question are spiritually connected to the ones in this story, mainly Joanie and Sean via their reincarnations. In this particular case, it is Sean's parallel self that influences the change in him.)

            “Wait a minute. Hold on.”

            The woman stopped and turned to him with tears continuing to come down her impressive green eyes. He noticed the glowing hue of her chest had changed from dark blue to a light purple. At first Sean believed it to be some kind of jewelry she wore that was an equivalent to a mood ring, but there was clearly no sign of jewelry on her. It spaced him out a bit, but he tried to get past it long enough to figure out what her story was.

            “Look…whoever you think I am…I’m not that person.” What he was saying didn’t seem to be helping out much, because she was on the verge of losing control again. Quickly, he changed the subject and asked, “What’s your name?”

            She looked down shamefully and answered, “Y-You call me…Bella. You had ever since you were a lil’ thing.”

            Sean sighed – the situation was becoming bizarre each passing second. Bella appeared to have known him well enough to actually believe they had been together since the moment of his birth. He couldn’t tell if it was a case of mistaken identity or total delusion from her. Whatever the case, he couldn’t leave this young woman feeling so heartbroken and confused all by herself.

            Without even thinking twice on it, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it? I’m heading no place in particular.” It sounded like a lie, but it was actually the truth. The Muppet Theater he knew wasn’t supposed to have existed within his time; but on the inside, it did…somehow, it did. “Maybe you can explain how you know me…and where you come from.”

            Bella showed half of a smile. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

            Sean laughed at that statement. “If you went through all I did today, you’d find that to be quite the understatement.”

 ---------------------------------

            As if the afternoon could not have gotten any weirder, Tracy seemed to have added onto that weirdness by touching every inch of Joanie’s face, from her forehead to her cheeks, doing everything from rubbing, pinching, and stretching. The weirdest part was how she gave her cousin permission to do it, realizing that it was all just to satisfy her amazement of meeting “Lil’ Mama,” as Meagan called her. Of course, the nickname did not stick for very long, once Joanie immediately demanded to not be addressed by such a ridiculous name and just be called by her real one. After a few more minutes of face-touching, Tracy stopped and just stared at her face.

(Narrative Note: The "face-touching" of characters has become signature through the series, especially for Joanie, Sean, and their reincarnations in the next installments. Other examples include Gigi - Joanie's first reincarnation - touching her face in The Marvelous World, Theresa - Sean's sixth reincarnation - having her face not only touched but rubbed with mud in Tales of the Disneyverse, and Adrienne - Sean's thirteenth reincarnation - having her face touched in World of Disney 3.)

            “Are you sure this isn’t some surprise you wanted to spring on us while we were here in Florida?” Tracy asked. “You’re not wearin’ botox or got facial reconstruction or something? ‘Cause if you do, you gotta spill, girlfriend! I could really use…”

            “It’s really me, Tracy!” Joanie snapped impatiently. “Bunsen Honeydew built a machine that somehow transported Kermit, Robin, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter, and myself from 1977 to 2010, as well as trapped my mother into some parallel universe where Disney Animation exists or something. All I wanna do is find where she is, get her back home, and end this nightmare once and for all.”

            Kimberly snickered. “This sounds a lot like that episode of The X-Files when Mulder ended up in the Bermuda Triangle and…”

            “Hey, hey! Don’t spoil it!” Pepe said. “I haven’t finished watchin’ it on JouTube, okay.”

(Pop Culture Note: The X-Files episode that Kimberly references is called "Triangle," the third of its sixth season that aired on November 22, 1998. Its plot centered on Fox Mulder waking up in 1939 and brought on board a ship that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, meeting contemporary characters as past incarnations. This episode, and the show itself, is a favorite of Kimberly Nicole's.)

            Joanie moved her fingers through her long brown hair, fighting off the headache she was experiencing at the moment. Seeing Ciciley sitting across from her and eyeing the Beast, who was sitting at the rear of the bus and still appearing mindless, she inquired, “Why didn’t Sean tell me? Why did he hide the fact that I’m your mother? Is he ashamed of me?”

            Ciciley shook her head. “No, no…of course not.”

            “Maybe a little.”

            “Meagan, shut up!” Ciciley said through gritted teeth.

            Sinking down in her seat, Joanie folded her arms and sighed in depression. Tracy placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort and told her, “I’m sure he has his reasons for not telling you. Maybe it was to protect the space-time continuum…you know he’s a huge fan of Back to the Future.”

            “No, I don’t.” Joanie remarked. “What is it about?”

            Tracy opened her mouth to explain, but stopped upon realization. “You’ll find out in another decade.”

            The topic of her twin brother reminded Ciciley of the fact that he was supposed to be tailing the bus they were on. She turned to Robin and said, “Is Sean still following us, Rob?”

(Character Note: This is the only moment in the story that the narrative mentions Ciciley and Sean being twin siblings. By this point, Livingston decided to give readers a subtle hint, mostly to assess how closely in hair and skin color Sean and Ciciley are, much like how Kim and Meagan share similar physical traits.)

            Robin hopped over to the rear of the bus and made one giant leap over the half-conscious Beast, landing atop his furry head, which made the tiny frog think a lot of Sweetums and how he would often let him do the same with him.

(Pop Culture Note: Robin and Sweetums have a friendship between them in Muppet mythology. The two of them appeared together in the 1971 Tales from Muppetland television special The Frog Prince, portraying adversaries. They sang one song together called "Two Lost Souls" during the John Cleese episode of The Muppet Show that aired December 3, 1977.)

            He looked out the rear window and noticed a variety of new-age vehicles driving behind theirs. Confused, he looked back and asked Ciciley, “What type of car does he drive again?”

            “It’s a dark blue SUV, sweetie.” Ciciley indicated.

            Glancing back out the window, Robin spotted one black vehicle driving close behind theirs. He wasn’t sure if it was an “SUV” or not (he didn’t even know what one actually looked like, since they were non-existent in his time), but he was certain it had to be Sean. With a smile, he told Ciciley, “Yep, he’s behind us.” And with that, he returned to his seat next to his uncle.

            Unfortunately, Robin was wrong. The vehicle he thought was Sean Thomas’s Ford Explorer was in actuality the Dodge Charger, driven by Joie, tailing the group. Every mile she and Gina crossed was one that she grew angrier on, her eyes like a wildfire in their red hue. Her intentions for following them were anything but positive, and as soon as they arrived at their destination, trouble will soon follow.

(UP NEXT: The future comes to Orlando!)