As I come closer to wrapping up the rough draft of All Jacked Up Walt Disney World, I want to share another excerpt with you:

Sarah brought me a plate of food as she sat on the couch beside me. I had no idea I was in some kind of trance until she asked me a question.

"Jack, what's going on? Ever since we've been off work you've been staring out that window. There aren't even any clouds out there, so you're not actually staring out the window. What's wrong? Remember, we can only trust each other."

Can I really trust you? And if you do really care, you're also about to walk out of my life.

Sarah sat her own plate down. She touched my right hand with her left, as she turned her body toward me. "Jack, if we can't trust each other, who in this whole wide world can we trust? Baby, I want to help you through what ever this is. What can I do for you? Talk to me. Tell me. Lead me." She put her face in front of mine. "Tell me how I can help you. Let me in."

I looked into her eyes. 'Mickey knows all about me. Everything."

Her brows raised, then I saw the confusion in her face and the worry in her eyes. "How?"

"I have no idea. He stopped me this morning and told me everything about my life. Everything I've been sharing with you." Then, like a lightning bolt shocking my body, a thought hit me. I tilted my head and looked deeply into her eyes. "Did you tell him?"

Her mouth dropped. Tears flooded her eyes. Her hands clutched her chest. "Ouch! That hurts. How could you even think that? After how I've reached out to you, trying to be here for you. After giving myself to you. How could you...?" Her body starts shaking from her sobs.

Good job, Jack. Screw yet another good thing up. There you go.

"No, Jack," she said through sobs. "I haven't said a word to anyone." She stared at me through red, teary eyes. "Remember, we can only trust each other. Do you remember that?" She closed her eyes in pain and let the sobs continue.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. "I'm sorry."
 
Here's an unedited excerpt from All Jacked Up Walt Disney World. (Name may change a bit.) Hope you enjoy. Feedback is welcome.

She sat in the driver's seat, key in hand. She looked at me with the most seductive eyes I've ever seen on a girl looking at me. She put her foot on the pedal and wiggled her brows at me. When I didn't move, she extended her hand to me, then did a 'come hither' motion with her index finger.

Oh my God, I can't believe I'm about to actually do this.
 
"C'mon, baby. You know you want to." That wavy brunette hair is falling across her back looking like she just jumped out of bed, and it looks so good. Her eyes are so bright, it's obvious she's excited. Her smile shows she's completely comfortable with the idea of what we're about to do.

I climb in. As soon as my but hits the seat, she hits the pedal and I'm about to get whiplash. The air starts flowing around us. Her hair flaps a bit as we take off from right outside the Wardrobe Room and head South. We pass a couple of workers and she heads straight into the main hall that cuts a straight line right under the Magic Kingdom. I can't help but watch her hair, her face, her eyes. The smile grows wider, her eyes grow brighter, and her hair seems to get lighter with every second and each section of the hall that she drives us through. The lights are passing overhead, the wall sections are passing beside us letting me know that we are going at a decent rate of speed.

In just a few minutes we come to the section where the Utilidors split in three ways again. She lets off the pedal to slow down, then takes a sharp right, in front of the personnel office. Then she takes an almost immediate sharp left, then another sharp right in front of Stairway 18.

The hall turns at an angle to the right as we start to go around the circle of the Utilidors. She drives down a bit and some workers start telling us to slow down. She ignores them and we pass a first aid station and a break area on the left. On the right is Stairway 17, which goes to the Crystal Palace.

She comes close to knocking the legs off a couple of guys and they cuss her.

I look at her again and she's smiling bigger than ever.

"You do realize that you're throwing your job here away, right?"

The joy on her face continues to grow. "Oh, I should have done this a long time ago."

I try to sit back and enjoy the ride, knowing we will both be fired in the morning.

The hall makes a couple more curves to the right and we're under Adventureland now. We pass another hall to the left that contains Stairway 13 which goes to Liberty Square and Adventureland Veranda, and Stairway 16 which goes to Adventureland and Frontierland. There's also a break room and a bathroom down that hall.

"Hey, slow that thing down if you know what's good for you!" The voice yelling fades as she ignores them and keeps going.

The hall breaks to the right again and we pass Stairway 12 to Ye Old Christmas Shoppe, on the right. On the left are Stairway 10 to the Hall of Presidents and Stairway 15 to Legend of the Lion King. This leg of the Utilidors is a bit longer, so we keep going. Another hall shoots off to the left and contains Stairway 14 and goes to Liberty Square, Columbia Harbor House, and Peter Pan's Flight.

A lady jumps out of our way. "I'm reporting you!"

Immediately after that hall is the Lion King Green Room. Just past that is Studio D and the halls breaks again.

"You're gonna crash, you know that don't you!" Another voice that fades into the background.

This time there's the equivalent of a fork in the hall. Studio D is on the left of the fork and the Character Zoo is on the right. Going right, we'll pass the straight section we just came out of and go around to the other half of the Utilidors. Breaking left we'll pass another set of bathrooms and the Fantasyland Dining Room, then we'll be out in the daylight, ready to run off the property. The main wardrobe is in a huge room located in the middle of this fork.

She takes the left this time.

"Wanting to enjoy some outside air now?" I ask.

"Sure. Plus I'm tired of these workers complaining about our little joy ride." Her eyes and her smile are as bright as ever, though.
 
Happy 4th of July! Enjoy America's celebration of Independence with an excerpt from All Jacked Up Disney, which isn't available yet...

I could hear the rumblings of voices through the wall as he approached the door we were about to go through to surprise park guests. Getting closer to the wall, the voices grow in volume. I can hear boys and girls and parents. Hi and low pitches mixing together. Traveling in all directions as people are moving about.

We open the door and the cacophony of sounds bathes us as we watch the surprised faces while everyone turns and looks at us. You know they are wondering where in the world we just came from. How we materialized out of thin air.

"Hey, how are you guys doing today?" Sarah asks as she wiggles her body and waves to the crowd.

I make a few Goofy movements, then turn my attention to her again.

She starts walking through the crowd, acting so chipper as she passes each and every person. In other words, being herself. She lives to bring a smile to each face. She'll shake her hands, lift a foot at a time and shake it in the air, wiggle her rear, and bob her head if that's what it takes to get the patrons to smile and laugh. It's like they energize her. The more responses she gets from them, the more animated she becomes.

I don't think I'll ever be able to say the same about myself. Probably not such a good thing for Goofy to think. Then again, I didn't choose this career. It was thrown upon me.

As Sarah comes alive, I'm happy to slide into the shadows, so to speak, as people focus their attention on her. As they energize her, she energizes them. They feed off each other well.

Kids are coming up to her, hugging her, posing with her, and insisting on kissing her costumed cheeks. They may not know the real Sarah, but they absolutely adore Sarah's version of Minnie. They are in love with her. Not only the kids, but the parents. I see the trances parents slip into as they watch their kids be mesmerized by Sarah. Mom's eyes become glassy from tears of joy. Dad's faces flow with pride, knowing that they were able to provide this for their children and give them at least one dream that every child craves. Flashes erupt right and left as memories are retained forever, so each family can look back on this moment in time and say to each other that they got to physically be with Minnie at least once in their life. And what a magical person Minnie is. And always will be now, thanks to Sarah's example.

Anything for the Disney magic, right?