'The Magic Kingdom'

Chapter 4
Living the Dream

“Dad, you know I’m not getting trashed five days in a roll. It’s Friday today and I need to have some fun. Can you please stop lecturing me on drinking?”

“Okay, okay, Devin. I’m sorry, it’s just, well you know…”

“Yes Dad, I love you too. Talk to you again next week?”

Patrick hung up as his secretary walked into his office with a cup of coffee.

“Mister Penderwick, it’s so sweet that your son takes the time to call you.”

“Yes, thank you Lynn.” he replied as he took a sip.

Keeping Devin in college has been the easy part. He was very much at home with large bureaucracies, and after a few carefully orchestrated meetings with the Dean and the Vice-Provost of Alumni Relations, the college had run the young man thru a perfunctory disciplinary process and let him off with a verbal warning. There hadn’t been the slightest peep of any potential expulsion.

But Devin himself was a much tougher nut to crack. Patrick soon realized that although his son was grateful for being rescued, 18 years of parental neglect couldn’t be waved away overnight. They had a number of awkward dinners together where they ran out of things to talk about and Devin ended up texting his friends on his phone. The night before he left though, Devin finally introduced his girlfriend to him, which he took as a sign that he was at least sufficiently trusted not to embarrass him in front of her. And then they had agreed to weekly phone calls.

“Mister Penderwick, Roy is here to see you.” his secretary announced as a doughty man with salt and pepper hair strolled in.

“Hey Pat! You know that kid you made me hire?”

“Urm… yes?” Patrick raised an eyebrow.

“Well, we finally sorted out his paperwork. Had to repurpose a contract the Studios division uses for child actors, but it worked. Human Resources needs you to sign off here, and we’re done.” He dropped a folder onto Patrick’s desk.

“So how’s he doing?”

“Much better than I expected, to be honest. Everyone was skeptical to begin with, but he does know his stuff and has some fresh ideas. His proposal to incorporate Maleficent elements into the Sleeping Beauty Castle refurbishment was surprisingly good. Even Geoff was sufficiently impressed to carry out a feasibility study.”

“Well I’m glad it’s working out.” Patrick signed and handed back the folder.

Roy stepped forward and leaned over the desk. “Now Pat, we’ve been working together for 25 years. Be honest with me, is that precocious boy really your grandson? You’ve never mentioned him before, and I know your kid just started college…”

“From an earlier marriage.” Patrick replied smoothly. “Home schooled. He lost his parents in an accident, so I’m taking care of him.”

After a brief negotiation, Jonathan had agreed to drop all charges and move in with Patrick. The boy liked getting up early and took a car service by himself to the office, and by the time Patrick got home from work late at night, the boy’s room door was closed and he was presumably asleep.

So for several weeks, Patrick hardly saw the boy except over the weekends, and he soon realized with a sense of déjà vu that he was repeating the exact same mistake with Jonathan that he had with Devin. So he made it a point to drive Jonathan home every day after work and spend the evening with him.

While Jonathan had retained all his adult memories and skills, it didn’t take long for Patrick to discover he was, deep down, really just a kid. The boy tried acting all grown-up during the day, but when he got tired, the illusion started to fray.

The first hint of this came when Patrick noticed him secretly watching cartoons on TV, and hurriedly switching back to the news when he returned to the living room. After a few days of this cat-and-mouse, Patrick set the default channel to cartoons, and assured Jonathan he needed to watch them for “research”. The boy never attempted to change the channel again, so they spent many hours watching cartoons together, during which Patrick observed the boy would crack up at the most banal of jokes.

Late at night, Jonathan would occasionally get jolted awake by a nightmare and stumble over to Patrick’s room, quaking & teary-eyed. It took much soothing and comforting before he would return to bed, hugging the stuffed lion he secretly hid under his sheets, and which Patrick pretended not to notice.

Over the weekends, Jonathan liked to go for long walks, so they would head to the surrounding blond hills and hike for the better part of a day along serpentine trails and cliff faces streaked with gunmetal rock, or drive west to stroll along the endless golden beaches of Santa Monica, with the foaming crash of ocean surf punctuated by the shrill cries of seagulls wheeling overhead. Patrick would regale him with old war stories about the early years of Disney and the insider gossip behind the rides, which the boy loved. Sometimes, when Jonathan was sure nobody was looking, he would surreptitiously hold Patrick’s hand. It was wonderful.

But the best part of his sort-of kid was how much the boy reminded him of himself. Unlike Devin, who had taken after his mother’s placid personality, Jonathan was a veritable firecracker – aggressive, ambitious and a relentless go-getter. Almost exactly like he had been back in his youth, he mused with nostalgia.

“I’m really sorry to hear about his parents.” Roy said. “He is a fine lad. Oh, and here is his expense report. You said you’ll take care of these personally.”

Patrick’s eyes bulged as he reviewed the line items. “What’s this? First class air tickets to Orlando? Club suite at the Four Seasons? A $500 in-room dining bill? What the heck did he order? A hundred ice cream sundaes?!”

“He said the trips were for ‘research’.” Roy gave him a sly look as he headed out. “Quite a chip off the old block, don’t you agree?”

Patrick groaned as he handed the expense slips to his secretary, shaking his head. Exactly like myself, he thought with exasperation as he swiveled over to the side, threw up his legs on the table and turned his attention back to the flickering computer screen.