Dave and Doug "Discover the Magic" at Disneyland Park
Page 7 of 9

In this out-of-the-way corner, we examined the book again, and reviewed all that we had done. There seemed to be one last page, so we turned it over with high expectations. But, our hopes were dashed. The last page was torn out! And the picture that was facing it was scribbled out. Pinned to the inside back cover was a note from…Captain Hook.

Now that there were pirates involved, Jamal suggested we look for clues. Sure enough, hidden in a corner was a pirate flag, wrapped around a chest. Jamal took the flag, pulled out the chest, and opened it up. Inside there wasn’t any treasure, but there was a large map of Tom Sawyer Island. On the map were instructions leading to a spot marked with an X.

Jamal looked in the chest again, and found eye patches, hooks, and swords. This suggested a plan of action. We would disguise ourselves as pirates, take the map, go to the island, and find the treasure. Maybe we would even learn to whom the book belonged, as well.

After turning our cowboy bandanas into pirate caps, and arming ourselves with swords, we had to choose pirate names. Jamal was Captain Curley (though he did admit that some of his previous crews had called him Stinky Bottom). I chose Redbeard the Pirate. And Dave became the feared Captain ADMIN. Jamal then gave assignments: he would carry the map (although Dave and I both eagerly offered to carry it), Captain ADMIN was appointed lookout (a task he took to quite easily), and I was told to provide the “muscle�? needed to take on any pesky pirates. Singing a pirate song, we headed off to Tom Sawyer Island.

As we made our way out of Adventureland, however, cast member Brandon stopped us and said that Jane was at the base of Tarzan’s Treehouse, and might be able to help us. Jamal showed her Tarzan’s picture in the book, as Terk looked on with interest. Jane confirmed that the book wasn’t hers—but did offer to teach us some gorilla language. Did you know that, “Ooh ooh ah,�? means “Hello?�? And that. “Ooh ooh eeh,�? means “How are you?�? And that if you say, “Ooh ooh ah, ooh ooh eeh,�? it means, “Hello, how are you?�?

With those instructive words ringing in our ears, we made our stealthy way to the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts. Once in New Orleans Square, Jamal explained, we should act natural, wait for a raft to come over from the island, then storm it and take over. After flawlessly executing Jamal’s fool-proof plan (and letting a number of others join us), we looked again at our map and plotted our route.