I look down at my watch. "Quarter past twelve. We got time. Wanna walk around?"
"Sure," Em says. "Fifteen minutes to travel the world? Sounds doable."
We strike forth in the direction of France, which (illogically enough) requires passage first through the US, followed by Japan and then Morocco. Coming from Italy. Go figure.
The US pavilion is never terribly exciting. It's quite large and open, and suited for hosting events, but in the middle of the day, the large music stage lies dormant upon the lake. While the colonial-era city hall is impressive and beautiful, who comes to World Showcase to see where they already live? The exotic pagodas and koi ponds of Japan beckon. A trio of drummers, their tanned skin weathered with age and stretched over toned arms, thrash their drums upon the steps of the pagoda.
As soon as we enter Japan, though, Em accelerates towards its exit.
"Oh look, Aladdin and Jasmine!"
Morocco, right next door, is the closest that World Showcase gets to having a Middle Eastern-themed pavilion. (There were originally plans for an Israel-themed set, and there's certainly room, but it was cancelled. I'll leave you, dear readers, to speculate on why.)
Morocco is therefore the de facto home of Aladdin and Jasmine in Epcot, and these two do little to alleviate the crowds that tend to pile up here. Morocco is already a neat pavilion. Its architecture and design were, according to lore, actually sponsored by the Moroccan government, and there's a lot of history and beauty hiding behind those earthen walls. Its counter-service restaurant, Tangerine Cafe, stands front and center at the front of the pavilion and pumps out the agonizingly delicious smell of roasting kebab meat and honeyed baklava. People tend to stop here.
Em takes off pretty much at warp speed to stand in the "meet Aladdin and Jasmine" line. I shrug - I mean, we've got time, right? No big deal. I take a glance down at my watch just to reassure myself.
Big mistake. We've got about nine minutes until the next event on her adventure starts, and this line isn't going anywhere fast. This wasn't supposed to happen - we're going to miss the show with this little excursion.
"Em," I tell her, "we need to make it to France."
"But I really want to see Aladdin and Jasmine," she says, effecting a well-practiced pout.
I feel weirdly stressed out by this, more than I feel I have any right to. Deconstructing it, is it really rational to allow yourself to be stressed out that you won't get to see a couple of Frenchman stacking chairs because you're meeting a couple of actors portraying Disney protagonists?
But that's not really the issue at hand, is it? That's on the surface. I feel that what I'm really stressed out about is that my plans are being derailed. It wasn't really about seeing one thing or another, it was about following the plan I had laid out. And that loss of control is what's really getting to me right now. On a conscious level, I realize the absurdity of how it appears on the surface, but I also recognize that the surface elements aren't really what's stressing me out.
I mean, these are the introductory stages to something much, much bigger. And a lot of my plan depends on getting various pieces moved into various squares at exactly the right time. Anna has been an exceptional assistant chessmaster for me, and has already debugged many of my plans, but right here, I'm all alone. Is this a harbinger of bigger things to come? Will Emily derail more and more of the plan without even realizing it?
"What's wrong?" she asks, and gives my hand a squeeze. "You're being kinda silent. We can go if you want to."
We're at the head of the line. I snap out of my fugue and fumble for words. She caught my brain off guard. In an effort to reassert a little control over my malfunctioning larynx, I fall back on rote muscle memory: I check my watch.
Five minutes late. We've missed it.
"I'm sorry love," Em says. "I ruined it didn't I?"
Seeing her being so penitent over an issue that, to be honest, puts the trite in contrite, well, it finally jogs my brain to action. The moment I'd been hoping to set up is over, but in its place, hey, at least this'll make a great story. I try to wrestle my anxiety under control, feeling wisps of stress bleeding out of me, issuing steam to lower the internal pressure. It's not a bad feeling, letting it go.
A smile finally plays across my face. "No, love - how could you have ruined it?" I squeeze her hand. This whole plan is for her, after all, and sometimes you have to accept that what you think someone wants and deserves just isn't what is right for them.
Aladdin and Jasmine await. They're portrayed by a young actor and actress who are all smiles. It's early enough in their tour that the hordes of kids haven't worn them down yet. They seem relieved, though, to be talking to grown-up kids like us instead. Funny. I'd half expected the whole experience to be kind of awkward, dealing with a character, but these two are really natural at performing their roles and our thirty seconds are more relaxing than anything.
But our new friends are getting a rather pointed look from their handlers (the lady with the camera and her assistant) so back to the script it is.
"If you could wish for one thing, what would it be?" Aladdin asks me.
It's not often you're served such a slow pitch in the game of Most Nauseatingly Romantic Line of the Day, so who am I to refuse? I smile in thanks at Aladdin, then look at Emily. If I had a pair of sunglasses, now would be donning time.
"I've got everything I could ever want." Aladdin and Jasmine swoon, and Emily's smile is beaming with enough radiance to wipe out Alderaan.
"...but I bet I could rock a flying carpet."
"Good man," Aladdin mutters to me, through his big cheesy grin.
"Thanks!" I tell him, and then we're on our way. Awesome roleplayers.
Emily is hanging off my arm. "That was without question," she says, "the sweetest and the most sickeningly romantic thing I've ever heard."
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