A pinnacle pierced the sky. A thin, stainless needle jabbing up over the horizon. And immediately, at that precise second, the crass hubbub of the highway ceased, as if an invisible boundary had been crossed. Behind us lay the hotels, motels, movie theatres, sporting complexes, and shopping centers that battled for the billion dollar scraps beneath the table of the Enchanted Empire.
Ahead lay a vast meadow shaven to a military crew. Even the roads changed here, into baby-smooth ribbons of concrete. Cars were efficiently funneled into vast parking lots that made the parking area outside our local mall look as pocked and pathetic as Roger's complexion.
Beneath the apex of this new world was an abstract 3-dimensional pattern. A black spherical head, from which extended 2 smaller spherical ears, the unmistakable icon of the ultimate mouse.
Lindy sighed, "I've always dreamed of this." The pastel-colored castle that seemed to grow down from the sky with every step we took, took her breath away.
It reminded me of Oz, the shining city in the distance, across the grass that sparkled as if minuscule mirrors had been attached to each blade to catch the rays of the early morning sun. The very sun seemed to beam on command from the mouse head.
Dreamland, Candyland, the residence of the modern imagination: turrets and towers of pink and pale yellow, designed and crafted with every iota of art and skill available to man. The castle and its city sprawled forth as we crested a gentle knoll to behold it. The castle ruled amid perfect streets lined with perfect deciduous trees, and perfectly contoured lakes and pools of perfectly blue water that emitted their own misty froth.
A roller coaster shot out of the mouth of a tunnel and spiraled down from the peak of an artificial mountain, trailing the shrieks of delighted children.
Dramatic variations of landscape and architecture occured in incestuous proximity throughout the realm. A cowboy in a 10-gallon hat and an astronaut in a silver helmetwalked in identical strides on opposite sides of the street, while glistening banana-tree fronds cast shadows on a futuristic submarine set to plunge into and explore the depths of an artificial lagoon.
Only 2 features united every portion, niche and centimeter of the empire. First, the relentless perfection. Not a tile out of place, not a smudge or speck of dust allowed to mar the pristine, multicultural surface. Second, whatever the style of any given corner a distinct and endemic form of animal life that we would never have encountered in the flesh was seen. Wherever we looked, we saw animals beside the pirates and sheiks and castanet-clicking senoritas in long, flounced dresses. All of these animals bore some likeness to their ancestors - beaks or stripes, or perfectly circular ears - but they were all approximately the same somewhat-larger-than-human size, and most of them wore clothes to cover their private animal parts. And all of them were smiling.
"Get your paws off me!" Jeff slapped wildly at afriendly chipmunk that tried to get him to dance in the street.
The rest of us stood in awe at the spectacle spread before us, until, at a signal from Andy, we were reminded of what we had to do.
Looking around to see Roger occupied, picking up maps of the Kingdom and chatting with one of the Seven Dwarves, we bolted away and soon lost ourselves in the crowd, that we might enjoy our visit to Disneyland, sans nerd. How it changed my life:-- You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
interesting stories for the world to read and respond to Click hereScroll all the way down to read replies.Show all stories by Author:  55903 ( Click here )
Halloween is Right around the corner.. .
|
