Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

n the background, I heard a chorus of crying children

oc," I

er the veneer of professional medical and c

. I wanted to see if I could talk it over wi

til five. Can it

nerve to see him. "I don't think so-I

y, I can have an amb

mergency. I need to talk a

shion. "Julius, I've got important things

a sob. "I'm

en. When can

he Park. "Can you meet me? I can't really come to

ly make house

c I sounded. "Can you make an excepti

ave to get someone to cover for me. Let

ut my relief

uptly, and I found

said, ca

t know if he can help me-I don't know if

er why he was still my friend, even after

ice," I said, quietly

nutes," he said

ht, the Property stretched away for mile after manicured mile. The sun was warm on my skin, faint strains of happy laughter drifted with the wind, and the flo

and sat without a word. We both sta

else, isn't it?"

want to say something befo

ah

place, and I'm not proud of myself. If you two were breaking up,

id. I was too dra

room here, mov

Lil tak

a total bastard. I s

partly right,"

le slug in the sh

ionable silence unt

a sour purse and waited expectantly. I left D

cally, sometimes violently. I don't know what's wrong with me."

ly. "You need to be refreshed from your backup, get set up w

meeting his eye. "I just ca

allocate. There's a perfectly good cure for what's ailing you

at abou

o is mask the symptoms, while you get worse. I can't tell you what you want to hear, unfortunately. Now, If you

all this." I couldn't admit my real reasons for being so attached t

anyone's time to research a solution to this problem, other than the one that we al

y n

is body-I see from your file that you're stroke-prone-and you're going to get refreshed from your backup. The

ke up and be in love with Lil again. To wake up to a Mansion the way I remembered it, a Hall of Presidents where I could find Lil bent over with her head in

n't do it-no

I restored myself from my old backup, I'd los

saying, but there're complications. I gue

rip, then. I could've done that without com

I didn't understand it until he was

natomy drills... Truth is, the average doc today gets more training in bedside manner than bioscience. 'Doctor' Pete is a technician, not an

medical matters, even though he's only got one trick: restore from back

World, taking a canoe out to the wild and overgrown Discovery Island, and generally cooling out. Dan came by in the evenings and it was like

of the Bitchun Society. It had much of the functionality of my defunct systems, in a package I could slip in my shirt pocket.

Bitchun Society, albeit more slowly and less efficiently than I once may've. I to

. A quick check with the handheld revealed the worst: my Whuffie was low enough that someone had jus

lock. It emitted a soft, unsatisfied bzzz and lit up, "Please see the front de

ut the other people on the car were none too friendly to me, and no one o

ping my name tag to my Disney Operations polo shirt, igno

there," he said, brightly. I could t

re you?"

Square. By th

d never come down, as were Tim and her whole crew in aggregate. They were drawing from guests by the millions, and from castmemb

ming and changed into the heavy green Mansion

second cup waiting for me, and patted the bench next to him. I sat with him and sipped, waiting for him t

strolled over to the Mansion. It wasn't rope-drop yet, and there weren't any

ely?" he asked, finally, as we stood by the p

fice it to say, Debra's gang is number one with a bullet. Ever since word got out about what happened t

ding my molars. "So, what is it they've done

the Mansion, wearing a light cotton work-smock. He had a thoughtful e

uys!"

I nodded, not trust

ting stuff,

said, with forced lightness.

f from the Hall that we wanted to apply, and at the same time, we wa

hand on my forearm. "Really?" he asked in

uplink so that it can flash-bake. We've got some high-Whuffie horror writers pulling together a series of

lking through the preshow and then getting into the ride-vehicles, the Doom Buggies. But here's the bi

n stuff that'll just scare the guests silly. When a ghost catches you, lays its hands on you-wham! Flash-bake! You get its whole grisly story in three seconds, across your frontal lobe. By the time you've left, you've had ten or more g

nes for each of the "themed" areas in the Future Showcase. It went like this: first, we were cavemen, then there was ancient Greece, then Rome burned (cue sulfur-odor FX), then there was the Great Depression, and, finally, we reached the modern age. Who knows what the future holds? We do! We'll all have videophones and be liv

ake, tearing her way through the Magic K

aid that you had no designs on the Mansion, that you and Debra w

lood drained from his face. "But we're not taki

d, confused. "

," he

rehab and suggest any changes. She was good enough to agree, and they've come up with some great ideas." I read between the lines:

d he clapped his hands together. He really loves the Mansion, I thoug

towards Suneep's lab, jangling our bells at the rushing castmembers. "Th

ho?" Da

e probationary members right from the start. The

ok themselves off p

ark circles under his eyes and his hands shook with exhaustion. He

project wouldn't change midway through. Now it has, and I've got other comm

. "Suneep, believe me, I'm just as upset about th

d-hocs off my back. I've been holding up my end of the bargain, but where the hell have you been? If they repl

e're going to stop it. You can help. Just stonewall them-tell them they'll have to find

h," he drawled. "That'll help all right. Just tell 'em that they're welcome to make

else to do it, and that person gets all the credit for the wor

ly. "If you can just keep saying no f

looked

mise,"

hrough his already crazed hair.

on the back. "Go

ve worked. I

Adventureland conferenc

and you've tended it responsibly for years. She's got no right to move in on you-y

ing an hour before the meeting and closed up all the windows, so that the room was a kiln for hard-firing irritation into rage. I st

front, near Dan, or in the back, near me. She'd chosen the middle, and to concentrat

ng. "They're stealing your future! They're stealin

abbed a castmember by her hand and looked into her eyes

e castme

e another castmember. "Is it true?" he

naturally loud after the whispers. A ne

d, striding to the p

he crow

e shout

carry on with the plan, send them packing. They're only taking

N

thing, they've done the arithmetic and ensured themselves that th

cefully and salvage some reputation out of the thing-fig

ck-least of all the thing everyo

ing trouble for my profs and keeping my mouth shut. It was the early day

hey knew what they wanted: control of the Department, oustering of the tyrannical, stodgy profs, a bully pulpit from which to preach the Bitchun gospel

ing mid-semester at Convocation Hall. Nineteen hundred students filled the hall, a capacity crowd of bleary, cof

dozen grad students rushed the stage. They were dressed in University poverty-chic, wrinkled slacks and tattered sports coats, and five of them formed a human w

reality of the moment hit home for

ent. If you'll set your handhelds to 'receive,' we'll be beaming out new lesson-plans momentarily. If you've fo

you. You'll probably hear this a couple times more today

mediately, the University of Toronto Ad-Hoc Sociology Department is in charge. We promise high-relevance curriculum with an emphasis on reputation ec

ing her lecture for a while. Periodically, the human wall behind

g to our next class, the whole nineteen hundred of us rose, and, as one, started buzzing to our neighbors, a roar of

and we got the same drill there, the same stirring propaganda, the same comi

with mics and peppering us with questions. I gave them a big

urses would not be credited, that they were a gang of thugs who were totally unqualified to teach. A counterpoint interview from a spokesperson for the ad-hocs established th

ns, only to be repelled by ad-hoc security guards in homemade uniforms. Un

rs who worried that the ad-hocs' classes wouldn't count towards their degrees. Fools l

ing the seminars like encounter groups instead of lectures. The ad-hocs

n favor of a distance-ed offering from Concordia in Montreal. Forty years later, the fight was settled foreve

-and-restore may have object

nt, careful not to brush against one another as we walked quickly through the backstage door and started a bucket-brigade, passing out the materials th

service corridors and dioramas, the break-room and the secret passages

ting in the dim light. The gaggle of transhuman kids made my guts clench, made me think of

o

ing back what was ours, not punishing the interloper

u boss?" she said. Her friends thought it very brave, they

t will be for you and your Whuffie. You blew it, and you're not a part of the Ma

that you obsess over, that you worked for. "Now

new material to post to the anti-me sites, messages that would get them Whuffie

een open for an hour, and a herd of guests watched the proceedings in confusion. The Liberty Square ad-hocs pas

t the Hall of Presidents, Debra presided over an orderly relocation of her things, a cheerful cadre of her castmem

telepresence rigs and Lil went over every system in minute detail, bossing

caught sight of me, hand-s

said, and shook my hand.

masterful it was, but we got the

I've seen them since this whole bus

nough to get back together? My mood fell, even though a part of me said tha

done it without you, and it looks like

so. Are you coming t

ing on. I would almost certainly be persona non grata. "I don'

once he saw that I had no intention of

backstage break room when I heard a commotion from the parlor. Festive voices, happ

lf and entere

ot ready to shout something horrible at them, and that's when Debra came

s, frozen these long years in