Dani had carried an Alice in Wonderland dress across China.

For three weeks it stayed buried at the bottom of her backpack while we climbed mountains, wandered temples, and rode overnight trains.

Shanghai was the only place it belonged. It didn’t matter it was freezing.

The morning we left for Disneyland, she pulled it out, smoothed the wrinkles as best she could, and put it on.

Then she skipped to the metro.

~

Inside the park, Dani went right to the stores. Past the mouse ears, shirts, and light up wands, she stopped.

“Look at this.”

In her hand she held a booklet.

Inside were blank pages and a map of the park.

~

we stepped back outsid

“This one first.”

She was pointing toward Tomorrowland.

I thought she meant the roller coaster.

Instead, she stopped beside a little brass machine tucked into an alcove behind the lockers.

Thunk.

A stamp of a castle appeared on the page.

Only then did we head for the ride.

When we climbed off Buzz Light year, I started toward the next ride.

She was already walking in the opposite direction.

Another stamping machine hid beside the exit.

Captain Jack Sparrow startled me from behind.

I spun around.

He laughed.

Dani laughed harder.

Then she disappeared.

I found her a moment later beside another brass machine.

She insisted we ride the river boats because a friend wanted a photograph of the glowing crocodile inside.

She shivered the whole time in her Alice dress.

Next to her, I spent the ride shielding my camera from the spray.

She brushed water from her sleeves.

“I think there’s another one near here.”

I caught myself scanning the walkways for brass machines too.

At the Alice in Wonderland tea garden in front of the castle, she found it, half-hidden beside a doorway.

Thunk.

She stood in her blue dress and held up the passport.

“Finished.”

~

We found a locker.

“Let’s leave our bags. We’ll move faster.”

We were halfway back to them, when every light in the park went dark.

The castle came alive instead.

Music echoed across the plaza as thousands of people stopped where they stood and turned toward the projections washing over the stone walls.

When the lights finally returned, we resumed our run.

A security guard stepped in front of us.

“Park closed.”

I held up our locker key.

He shook his head.

~

An hour later, after waiting at Lost and Found while employees emptied every locker in the park, our backpacks finally appeared behind the counter.

Dani reached inside hers before anything else.

The little passport was still there.

Every page still stamped.