Breaking into Disneyland ✔️

wishing well

I couldn't believe we had done it. My best friend and I had actually fooled the guards and hid inside the theme park after it closed.

"And what are we going to do now, genius? We're trapped in Disneyland until eight a.m. Any idea?" Cindy looked up from her phone and glared at me as if I had just gotten her into big trouble. It's not as if half of the sin doesn't go to her soul, but okay.

"We could get Leah out of the wishing well first, what do you think?" I said, peering from my hiding spot at the gate that the guards had locked just a few minutes ago. My heart was pounding like crazy, even though it wasn't my first time doing something against the rules.

"Fuck, Ash! I completely forgot about your little sister!" said Cindy, jumping out from her place behind the fort, "Stop giggling for once and let's get the poor little kid out. She must be scared to death."

I couldn't stop laughing as I followed my maybe-future-girlfriend while she angrily marched toward Snow White's enchanted forest. Sometimes I get the impression that Cindy cares more about Leah than I do. Or is it just her premature maternal instinct? Who knows? Girls will be girls.

"Hey, slow down a little Cinderella! These dwarves are looking at me creepy." I shouted after the blonde girl who didn't care at all that her best friend was lagging behind, looking fearfully at the short marble sculptures of Grumpy, Happy or Sleepy or whatever their names are. Whose phenomentastic idea was to stay at Disneyland after closing?

"Oh, you'll get a sneaker across your nose from Cinderella if little Leah isn't in the wishing well!" Cindy shouted angrily from the direction of the mushroom-shaped house. Yes, she isn't in a good mood today. It must be because Peter Pan said that only children can ride on Pirate Ship. Between us, she didn't take it very well.

When I crossed the pebble-strewn path, slipping between two oak trees that didn't look so scary at all during the day and nearly collided with the prince on a white horse, I get out into the clearing where was a house of seven dwarves and a small, not so deep, wishing well.

My beautiful maybe-future-girlfriend in a blue dress leaned over it, concern painted on her face. I approached the well with my hands on my hips, looking down at a hole maybe half a meter deep which was supposed to be a place where people throw coins and imagine a wish. Except down there were no coins, and neither was my younger sister.

"Oh my Disney! Where the hell could she be?" Cindy looked up from the bottom of the empty well, her voice an octave higher and her eyes a line wider, "We lost a child, for God's sake, Ash!"

I know I should have reacted more upset, but it was impossible to stay serious while looking at Cindy with Mickey Mouse ears on her head.

"Come on, Leah must be there somewhere. She couldn't go far. I watched all the time, and the guards didn't double-check this part." I said, muffling a chuckle and extending a hand to Cindy that looked like she'll sink into the ground.

"Did you go nuts?! A ten-year-old girl wanders around a huge theme park and you act like she's safely sitting in the living room watching Vinnie the Pooh!? Ughr, boys!" Cindy raised her hands in frustration and headed for the small mushroom house in quick steps.

I lazily shoved my hands into my jeans pockets and whistled the well-known song of the Seven Dwarfs, thinking where I would have gone if I were Leah.

"She's not inside! How could she be when it's locked? What kind of fool stays in a theme park when all the rides and places are locked?" Cindy came back vigorously tapping her feet, arms crossed on the puffed out chest. If she wasn't angry, she would look ridiculous.

"Come on, I have an idea where our Little Mermaid might be." I said, this time pulling her towards the aquarium at the other end of the park, near the sandy "island" that was supposed to represent Neverland.

While Cindy grumbled that I should give the phone to my younger sister, or hide her with me, calling me irresponsible, childish and some other names, I enjoyed the night scene of the world where fairy tales become reality. To be honest, I wasn't at all worried about Leah. Not really. Knowing the kid, she probably sits in front of a large aquarium and enjoys watching the underwater world. And if not, I'm sure the security will find her asleep somewhere under the tree in the morning.

I'd rather let her wander around her magical world for a while, than has "us-almost-adults" "drowning" her in "boring stories". She needs to breathe. While she still can.

"You know, we could get on a pirate ship while we're here?" I said, glancing at Cindy who was suddenly silent. Her lips were tightly pursed and her gaze focused far away on the semicircular aquarium in front of which, on the concrete, sat a little girl with Mickey Mouse ears.

"She's not going to make it, is she?" she said softly, relaxing her fists and leaning on my shoulder.

"No, I'm afraid she won't."

A heavy silence followed by a gentle breeze took its few minutes of glory while my maybe-future-girlfriend and I were standing and just watching the beauty of my younger sister Leah and her leukemia that she forgot for a moment in front of that wonderful underwater world.

Wiping away a tear that had somehow insidiously rolled down my cheek, I raised my hand, waving and shouting, "Come Leah, we have to fulfill Cinderella's wish from the wishing well."

"I'm coming!" she shouted cheerfully.