Charlie has been on the flying elephant for a good fifteen minutes now. The elephant is flying right above the deck, just the way it was before Charlie fell and woke up.
Madelyn leaves for another corner of Justin’s dream to have her own dream. She takes Amahle with her, to leave at another corner of Justin’s universe and have her own dream.
“You can do it! You can do it!” Joy cheers him on from below.
“I know I can do it, I just need a few minutes. My legs aren’t positioned right.”
He sits there with both legs to one side. He tries to move them one way, then another. “The ears are in the way, see?”
“Do you want me to go up there with you and we’ll do it together?” she asks.
“I’m fine. Just one minute.”
We wait a few seconds. Then Joy tries again, “What if we put a big pillow here to cushion your fall?”
“I don’t need it. It’s not going to hurt me. I just need a minute.”
“Okay.”
Time passes, it feels like a few minutes.
“Okay. I’m ready,” Charlie says. “I’m ready.”
He starts slipping down slowly, controlling his fall. Then he turns and grabs the elephant and climbs back up. “Okay. Okay. I just need fifteen more minutes.”
Justin sighs. Joy doesn’t seem impatient at all. “You can do it, Charlie! You can do it!”
“Okay. Just fifteen minutes,” he says.
Hours pass like this. Charlie finally disappears again, waking up fully this time. Justin wakes up, and with him the flying elephants disappear.
In all that time, Charlie never got off the flying elephant again. And he refused to get help or to stop trying. The kid feels really bad.
—Told by Grampa Walt
Hashtags: Joy, Justin, Grampa, Grandma, Master Mind, Charlie, where are all the children, Madelyn, Amahle, flying elephants