Evan T. Boucher

The World of Today

There was the sign, the world famous sign. The sign read: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” I knew it was real and my eyes widened as I read the words engraved into the silver plaque that looked as if it was something straight out of a movie.

But it didn’t just seem that way, everything here was straight out of a movie. That was the beauty of it.

The rain and dark clouds were in the process of slowly retreating as the sunlight advanced across the sky. It seemed as if the two weather fronts had been waging war and the sun had just prevailed. The emerging sunlight glared off of the shiny, freshly wet ground and off of all of the puddles that still dotted the earth.

The people around us began to peel off their ponchos as if they were butterflies shedding their thick cocoons. We passed below the wondrous sign and the train bridge that welcomed guests into this world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. We moved past the cartoonish signs that advertised the park’s biggest attractions.

“Come ride the wildest ride in the wilderness,” read one sign that depicted a runaway train careening through a mesa style mountain.

“Come visit the briar patch,” depicted another billboard that showed a river drop ride through a wooded area. This ride scared me due to its drop from a rather extraordinary height.

“Visit Tomorrowland,” read another sign that displayed a futuristic setting with robots and spaceships and tall tower ride that also seemed to high up for me to enjoy.

All the Technicolor pictures filled my head as I tried to decide what I wanted to do first. As we exited the short tunnel that slipped under the train, our eyes adjusted to the recently unleashed sunlight and then they widened yet again with the sight we now were faced with.

It was Mainstreet USA. We were looking at the famous Mainstreet USA.

We began to walk right down the middle of the street. This is just like the sing-alongs I’d watched hundreds of times, I thought to myself. I found myself singing the song from my VHS sing-along tape in my head as we strolled through the happiest place on earth.

All along the endless street little shops were situated. There was an old-timey barber shop complete with a candy cane barber pole, an old cinema with a large marque that listed several mickey mouse cartoons that were showing, a city hall, a fire station that had a bright coat of red that shined as if it was the coat of a candy apple, there was an ice cream shop, a bakery, and there were several gift shops of course.

Each shop seemed to have its own distinctive smell that enticed guests as they shopped. The smells didn’t only linger about the innards of each shop as it appeared that each shop allowed its smell to drift out into the crowds situated sporadically across the street.

The ice scream shop and its surrounding area smelled of warm, cinnamon desserts, waffle cones, and sweet sugary pastries. The cinema smelled of delicious buttery popcorn and cotton candy. The whole street had an inviting, warm, and sweet smell that formed a full on attack on everyone’s senses as they ventured out into the park.

After wandering past the shops and crowds we found ourselves staring up at the world famous Cinderella castle. The castle’s towers and spires reached up and stabbed into the clouds as if they were one of the handles that are used to serve the park’s sweet cotton candy. The white brick that was trimmed in beautiful hues of blues and shades of greys accented each other while at the same time contrasting the perfectly green lawn and neatly trimmed foliage that surrounded the outskirts of the shimmering moat that circled the brick building.

I scanned the windows in hope of catching a glimpse of the royal family that I just knew lived in those wondrous walls. I followed the lines of the castle down from top to bottom to where crowds of people were gathered. Everybody had their disposable Kodiak cameras out snapping pictures of the magnificent structure. This reminded me that my parents had given me one of these cameras. I reached for my pocket and pulled out the camera.

I snapped a few pictures of the castle myself and then turned my attention to the pocket-map that my parents had also given me.

I carefully unfolded it. Each fold revealed new bright and vivid colors and hundreds of words in contrasting black ink. I finally unfurled the map and spread it wide open. To the crowds of people passing by, I probably looked like a mast of a sailing vessel with its sails fully expanded as it sailed across the sea.

I stared at the map. My eyes went from the area labeled “Mainstreet USA” that we had just walked through to the point on the map that was labeled “Cinderella’s Castle,” which is where we were at now. From there, I scanned the various other lands one titled “Adventureland” seemed to be interesting while the land that was directly across from it looking from east to west on the map, called “Tomorrowland,” was enticing as well.

“Where do you want to go first?” My dad asked me. “There’s Splash Mountain over there or the Haunted Mansion over there.” My dad pointed in every which direction as he tried to get his bearings on the park. He seemed to be lost without his wife around to point him in the right direction both literally and figuratively.

“There!” I exclaimed as I jutted my finger towards Adventureland and then slid my finger across the map until it rested upon the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

“Sounds good buddy, let’s go,” Dad said as he took my hand and we began to head to our destination.

After a short stroll, we arrived at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and got in the ridiculously long line that stretched for miles. The queue wound its way through the building like a snake. As we advanced through the line and got closer to the end we could feel the air-conditioned breeze that flowed throughout the building that carried the smell of sand and salt water. The sound of waves crashing against rock and then retreating filled the air and a calling seagull could be faintly heard as if it was sailing just overhead. We reached the end of the line where tiny boats were awaiting us. We boarded the boats as if we were pirates ourselves. After a short delay, the boat floated away from the docks and the crowd of people waiting behind us and our adventure began.

*****

We exited the ride and stepped into a pirate themed gift shop. The shop was stuffed with pirate lore and loot from wall to wall. There were flags, plastic swords, eye patches, treasure chests filled with toy coins and jewels, miniature pirate ships, pirate hats and bandanas, and small plastic telescopes. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I surveyed the sight before me. I was so overwhelmed and couldn’t decide what I wanted to buy first! I ran over to a barrel of swords and played with every single sword I could get my hands on. I scurried over to the chests of coins and jewels and nearly dove into it as if it was a small lagoon of artificial loot.

My dad observed my every move as I ran from toy to toy. He knew that he couldn’t buy everything that I was clamoring for but he could influence what I would want him to purchase for me. And that’s when he came up with an idea. “Hey buddy,” he said. “How would you like to go ride some other rides?”

“Sure,” I reluctantly said as I relinquished my grip on a sword and a handful of gold coins. I stared back at my dad with one eye due to the fact that my other eye was behind the eye patch I had snatched up and put on. “Can I get some of this stuff before we go?”

My dad removed the feathered black captain’s hat from my head to expose my messy mop-like hairdo and said, “I’ll tell ya what, I’ll get ya this hat now---”

“But what about all this stuff?” I questioned as I held up the sword and doubloons.

“Let’s see how the rest of the day goes okay? Where do you want to go next?”

“Okay. Let’s go to Tomorrowland now.”

*****

We stood in front of an attraction that was situated right in the heart of Tomorrowland, a land filled with robots, spaceships, aliens, and various other sci-fi themed matters. I craned my neck and squinted at the bright sunlight as I looked up at the towering metallic structure that stretched towards the white swollen clouds. Attached to the shining silver tower were several glistening planets that were as big as small cars. The pseudo planets spun and rotated on their individual axis in attempts to imitate actual globes. As I looked at it, the tower itself began to spin and rotate. As it spun, several long silver arms raised and extended from the spire. Fixed on the end of each arm was a small metallic spaceship. The small ships each contained two happy passengers, one of which appeared to have control of the rising and falling of the rocket and the arm it was attached to.

I wondered how the passengers of the ships could be having so much fun while being so high in the air. Because I was afraid of heights, I trembled at the mere sight of the people way up there and the mere thought of boarding a rocket myself.

My dad looked at me and saw how curious yet scared I was of this ride. “You wanna ride that one son?”

I slowly shifted my gaze from the tower to my father and said, “Kinda.”

“You afraid?”

“Yeah.”

“What would you say if I told you that you could get that pirate flag that you want if you go on this with me?”

I thought for a second and after some consideration I answered, “I’ll do it!”

My dad took me by the hand and led me to and elevator that would take us up to the platform on the tower where we would wait in line for the ride. A sign above the elevator read “Astro-orbiters.”

After waiting in line for a short bit, we boarded our spaceship and the ride began.

*****

We found ourselves exiting the Pirates of the Caribbean ride again and stepping into the pirate shop. And immediately ran for the coveted pirate flag. I snatched the flag off of the shelf as fast as a cannonball flying from a cannon and returned to my dad. We purchased the flag and walked out of the shop. I put the flag in the same bag that we had stored my captain’s hat.

After walking through the rest of Adventureland, we crossed into Frontierland. The red dust under our feet formed a small red cloud with each step we took as we passed several old west type buildings. We passed a saloon and found a shaded bench and decided to rest there for a while. An old rag time piano was playing in the background. The more time that had passed since departing from the tower in Tomorrowland, the more I realized how much fun I had flying in the rocket so high up.

“How did you like Astro-orbiters?” My dad asked.

“I actually liked it!” I exclaimed.

“Good. I thought you would even though it was pretty high up.”

I nodded and then reached for my pocket to pull out my map. According to the map we were in Frontierland, sitting in front of the Saloon and across from Tom Sawyer’s Island. A large steamboat paddled by, pushing through the small river-like body of water that distanced us from the island. A loud whistle bellowed from the boat and huge puffs of smoke arose from the ships’ stacks and drifted to the slowly darkening sky. When the smoke reached the sky, it seemed to blend with the gradually thickening clouds that loomed overhead.

As he removed his sunglasses, my dad noticed my scanning of the map and asked, “How about we head to Fantasyland?”

“Sure,” I responded. I wanted to get to Fantasyland so we could ride the world famous Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride. We stood and continued along our way to Fantasyland. I remembered that the map showed that we had to pass through Liberty Square, and area themed to colonial New England. Just as we reached Liberty Square, it began to downpour. I looked for a place to reach cover from the rain and as I looked, my dad took me by the hand yet again and led me to an awning that momentarily shielded us from the weather. I noticed how it seemed as if many other park guests had a similar idea as we weren’t alone beneath the covering. The more I observed the nearby people I realized that they were actually waiting in line. As I began to wonder what they were waiting in line for a loud wolf howl pierced the air and caused me to jump in fright. It was then that I recognized our present location: The Haunted Mansion.

My dad looked at me and instantly read my look of concern and slight fear and said, “We could go through The Haunted Mansion as we wait for the storm to pass.”

I thought about it but said nothing in reply, unsure of what to do.

“We’ll go back to the pirate shop and get you that pirate hook if you brave the mansion.”

I hesitated briefly, and then reluctantly answered, “Deal.”

We sluggishly shuffled into the line. Over the low mumble of the crowd of people and the sound of the falling rain smacking the surrounding cement I heard a faint organ playing that sounded off key and seemed to be floating towards us from somewhere further up the line. The line followed the awning through a cemetery that led us up to a broken-down gothic style mansion. We finally reached a door that opened into a dim foyer where the organ music appeared to originate. A Disney employee slowly closed the door behind us, making the room even gloomier and our journey began.

***

My dad donned his sunglasses and I squinted as we walked out of the dark and dreary mansion. The sun had resumed its reign over the sky and the park and was hard at work drying up the small puddles that once again spotted the ground.

“That wasn’t even that scary!” I proclaimed. “We’ll have to ride that again before we leave today.”

“Sure thing sport,” Dad responded. “Do you wanna go get that pirate hook now?”

“Of course!”

“Okay then. Let’s go.”

The red dirt of Fronteirland had darkened because of the rain. Our footsteps no longer resulted in small clouds of red dust and we had to constantly dodge the splashes of the puddles of the pathway. We were nearly back to Adventureland and the pirate shop when we arrived at the base of Splash Mountain. I gazed up at the peak of the mountain and once again my fear of heights began to set in as I watched the boats plummet down the flumes of the river that careened over the edge of the top of the mountain. Something about the ride and its surrounding environment made me want to ride it. On the other hand, I was a bit disinclined to venture up, and down, the mountain.

I turned to look at my dad and he was also turning to look at me. He knew what I was thinking and at the same time I knew what he was thinking in turn. “I’ll ride Splash Mountain if we go back and get the pirate eye patch!”

“Deal kiddo!”

“Race ya to the ride!” I exclaimed as we both trotted away to the attraction’s entrance.

***

I stepped out of the dark gift shop and squinted my eye-patchless eye in response to the fading sunlight. The feather protruding from my captain’s hat gently fluttered in the cool evening breeze like my pirate flag did as I proudly held it high as if an actual pirate surging into battle. My dad viewed me from head to toe and smiled. “Well son, it’s about time to head back to the hotel.”

“Awe do we have to? Can’t we go ride Splash Mountain or Astro-orbiters or the Haunted Mansion again before we leave?”

“Not today bud. It’s getting late,” Dad said as the sun began to set behind the massive castle casting a shadow that was as big as an airplane across Mainstreet.

“Okay, I guess we’ll have to ride them all again next time!”

“You bet Evan. Next time.”