'The Magic Kingdom'

Chapter 3
Reunion

Patrick was having serious second thoughts as he climbed the stairs of the student apartment block. What had he been thinking? Showing up unannounced on campus and embarrassing his son in front of his friends? With some trepidation, he buzzed the bell and rapped hard at his son’s apartment door, but nobody answered. In his haste to leave, he had forgotten to copy down his son’s mobile number, and just realized it wasn’t even on his phone’s contact list.

With a sigh, he shuffled downstairs, where he noticed a door marked “Common Room”. He slipped inside and found himself face to face with a boisterous menagerie of partying students. Beer bottles and popcorn were strewn about the floor and some head-wrenching music was blaring in the background. “Urmh, excuse me!” he tried shouting above the din.

All conversations ceased and twenty pairs of eyes turned to stare at the silver-maned intruder. A couple of guys tried to stuff some suspicious white joints into their trousers, while a menacing looking character waved a half-empty whiskey bottle in his direction. Unnerved, Patrick backed his way out the door and ran all the way back to his car.

Despondent, he checked himself into the poshest hotel he could find and ordered a sumptuous dinner of rock lobster and Kobe steak. It was only after lowering his tried body into the soothing warmth of his private Jacuzzi tub, wine glass in hand, did he finally feel his jangled nerves relax.

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The next morning, he went to his son’s apartment again and rang the bell. This time, footsteps approached, and the door opened a tiny crack, before swinging wide open. “Dad! What are you doing here… how did you know?”

“What happened to you?” Patrick stared at his son’s ashen face.

“Quick, come in, I’ll explain…” he was ushered in and the door hurriedly shut behind him. Sitting down on the couch, Patrick gave his trembling son a careful look-over. “Devin, what’s the matter?”

“I’m gonna get kicked out of college and thrown into jail!” the young man wailed.

“Whoa… whoa can you calm down? What is going on here?”

“I… I was trying to get some extra course credit, so I volunteered to help my professor with a clinical trial he’s running for a new Asperger’s drug. But I made a typo in the instructions for one of the participants, so he ended up taking one thousand times the recommended dose…”

“Oh my GOD did you kill him?!”

“Fortunately not, but somehow it shrunk him back into a child. Nobody can understand why, it seems to be unique to his body’s constitution.”

“Anyway, he’s one of my classmates, he comes from a poor background and could only afford to be here because he earned a full scholarship. Now he’s being forced to give that up because of the college’s minimum age requirements, plus his single Mum recently passed away, so he’s facing the prospect of spending years stuck in a state-run orphanage.”

“As you’ll expect, he’s totally livid, and hired a lawyer to sue me for criminal negligence. The police came around yesterday, took me to the station for questioning and detained me overnight. I only got back this morning after my law school friend used a process technicality to force them to release me…”

“Your law school friend? Did it ever cross your mind to call me for help?”

“But Dad, you’re never available…”

Patrick winced, as if he had been punched in the groin. But before he could collect himself to respond, there came a thunderous pounding on the door.

Devin opened it with hesitation, and a small boy barged in like a snarling pit bull. The first thing Patrick noticed was the unusually large ears that stood out from his head like flaps. He was wearing a dress shirt and pants and cradled a thick sheaf of papers under one arm, giving the impression of a miniature accountant. Jabbing Devin in the chest with his finger, he let loose a expletive-laden tirade of all the charges his lawyer had in store for him.

Patrick stood up and cleared his throat. Noticing him for the first time, the boy froze in mid-sentence and stared at him slack-jawed.

“You… you… aren’t you Patrick Penderwick? Of the Disney Imagineers? What are you doing here?”

“He’s my Dad.” Devin mumbled.

“Weren’t you the chief engineer on the Indiana Jones ride? And the Tower of Terror? And Star Tours?” the boy pressed on, his eyes sparkling.

“Urm… do I know you?” Patrick had his fair share of fans, but now was having the uneasy feeling of being worshiped.

“I saw you once – at the opening of the new Cars ride – but there were a lot of other people around so you probably don’t remember, but hey, you have some time now right?”

The sheaf of papers dropped to the floor as he fumbled for his tablet.

“Can you give me your opinion on this ride schematic I sketched out?”

Elbowing Devin aside, he cornered the surprised Patrick and thrust the tablet into his hands.