It turns out it’s not that easy to get off flying elephants.
Justin returns, all smiles, just as Joy and Charley want to get back to Bonny’s Revenge, but the elephants’ wings prevent them from getting too close to the deck of Bonny’s Revenge while we’re all flying among the clouds.
No one’s really worried. Justin or Charley could just summon something up. Amahle and Madelyn, who have joined our dream in the meantime, could do the same. And Joy has the jetpack in case all Dreamers disappear. But the kids want to find a way to jump off.
“I know, I know, I know!” Charlie says. “I’m going to slide off!”
He maneuvers his elephant to fly just above the deck and behind the mast.He slides off the side, legs first, then panics and screams. He catches the elephant’s ear and hangs in the air, holding the ear with both hands.
“Damn!” he shouts. “I can do it! I can do it!”
“You can do it, Charlie! You can do it!” Joy yells at him.
All the grownups and Master Mind are looking up (except Amahle, who is listening), and no one is worried. Charlie’s a Dreamer. Nothing bad will happen to him.
“I’ll count! One! Two! Three! Let go!”
“I can do it! I can do it!” he shouts, then lets go. “Oh no no no no no no no!” he screams as he falls, then, just as he’s about to hit the deck, he vanishes.
“Awww,” Justin says. “It scared him too much!” And what he isn’t saying, what we all know, is that, being too scared, Charlie woke up.
“He’s going to come back!” Joy says. “My turn! I’m going to jump!”
Joy gets her elephant to fly parallel to Bonny’s Revenge. She stands on its back, at the same height as the railing.
Justin shakes his head. “It’s too far, Joy.”
“Young Pirate, do not be foolish,” Master Mind says. “You have never made such a jump.”
“I can do it! I can do it!” she prepares for the jump, bends down, looks back, looks forward. Then she straightens up. “I need some running start. Ooh, I know, I know!”
She sits on the back of the elephant’s neck again and by pulling gently on its ears, turns it around so that it is facing the deck. The elephant is perpendicular to the warship, and so its wings are not in the way. Joy gets up and stands on the top of its head, then bends down to touch the trunk and motion for it to rise.
The elephant, surprisingly, obeys. It raises its trunk and forms a bridge from its head to the railing.
Joy walks along the trunk with confidence. As she reaches the end, she stops, and starts dancing. “I did it! I did it! I did it!”
Charlie appears on the deck.
“Charlie! Look, I did it!”
“Oh, cool!”
Joy jumps off the trunk and lands safely on the deck.
“Wait, wait, I don’t know why I woke up. I have to do it again!”
“Charlie,” Justin approaches him.
“I’m going to do it until I get it!” he turns his back to Justin and walks towards the railing.
Suzy touches Justin’s back. “You know how to get Charlie to do it?”
Justin nods. “Yup. I just need a couple of minutes with him alone.”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt