Dry

8:57 a.m., Saturday, June 25th

Two weeks after the Tap-Out ends, Disneyland is now clear of wildfire ash. The park is rebuilding and hiring many new people. As a ticket-counter waits for the gates to open, he’s surprised to see people waiting to get in. The ticket-counter realizes that these people need some hope and happiness after the disaster. He thinks, “Why else would so many need to be in the one place where magic still exists? Where hope is eternal? Where dreams never die?” (376).

Back home, Alyssa and Garrett fight over the bathroom. Alyssa wants to shower, but even with their supply of water, she can’t bring herself to use water so freely. She remembers how she, Kelton, and Garrett were airlifted out of the forest to an evacuation center and treated for their smoke inhalation. Things seem almost normal now. In the aftermath, however, people seem different, and they’ve reacted to the disaster in diverse ways. At school, some kids returned, some kids are known to have died, and some kids are still gone. In addition, Alyssa thinks about what happened to their parents—her mom was knocked out and taken to a hospital, and her dad spent the time in jail, swept up with rioters.