All in Age: 9
“Asshole,” Joy says. “Asshole. Asshole.”
Suzy looks at me and shakes her head. Justin just cursed the villain he and Joy and Charlie were fighting and disappeared.
The villain vanished with him, but the bad word stayed behind.
“I don’t understand why it’s a curse.” Joy parked the ship next to our island and she, Charlie, and Master Mind came to talk to Suzy and me.
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Master Mind takes two steps forward, grabs Joy around the torso, and steps back.
“Hey!” Joy says.
Amahle’s spooky music rises.
“Guys, guys, there’s no need for panic,” Justin raises his hands. “This mummy is not going to move!”
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Colin, Madelyn, and Yumio enter our living room first. Then Justin does. Then Charlie and Joy, holding hands. Joy and Justin are the only ones who don’t seem afraid. Justin, perhaps, because it is his mummy. And I’m not sure why Joy isn’t more cautious. But at least she’s protected by five Dreamers who will leap to her aid if one Dreamer goes crazy.
Master Mind follows next. Suzy peeks through.
“Oh, my,” Suzy says. “There is a mummy in our living room!”
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It’s a busy morning on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. We have all our dreamers here at once when Justin arrives: Amahle, Madelyn, Yumio, Charlie, Colin, and now Justin has joined.
Joy, Charlie, Madelyn and Yumio have been playing Catch in the Clouds, all wearing Yumio’s mechas. Colin has been drinking tea with Suzy and me on the deck while waiting for Justin.
When Justin appears, everyone gathers and tells him the plan.
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“So why would she take so much trouble to break our mirror in secret and then hide part of it?’
Justin smiles at me. “What?! I know something you don’t know?”
“All right,” I tell him.
“I figured something out that you didn’t figure out, Dad?”
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“Yumio, you want to take Joy and Charlie to Mecha Planet? I’ll drop off my parents and join you.”
Charlie and Joy smile at each other in approval.
“Sure thing,” Yumio says. She jumps off the railing and into the air.
One of these big robots I’ve learned to call mechas - one of those mechas takes form around Yumio, and with it she is as tall as the mast.
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We wait for the Dreamers.
Madelyn appears first on Bonny Revenge’s deck. She says she heard nothing and knows nothing about the broken mirror.
Yumio comes next, flying in from her dream inside the body of one of her flying mecha robots that Joy had made permanent for her.
Yumio says she knows nothing.
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“Well, uh,” Suzy says as none of us have anything to add to the mystery of the broken mirror. “Let’s, uh…”
“You know what,” I say. “Let’s leave it till someone comes.”
“I’ll go get the broom,” Suzy says.
I know I should volunteer to sweep the floor instead of her, but, like always, I don’t feel like it, and she’s always done it.
“By my evil maker,” Master Mind says, staring at the pieces. “I have just organized the pieces in my mind.” Suzy walks in with a broom and a dustpan as Master Mind finishes his thought, “There is a piece missing.”
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Joy is asleep. The Dreamers who appear on Bonny’s Revenge - Justin, Madelyn, Amahle, Charlie - are all awake. The Dreamers who visit - Colin and Yumio - have woken up as well. Master Mind as usual guards Joy on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, and Suzy and I sit on the porch, talking.
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Can you create Glen Beach?” Madelyn asks Amahle.
Amahle exhales, and suddenly beyond Suzy’s and mine small island, Justin’s ocean is covered with a beach bustling with people. Suzy gasps. The sand is a different color, the beach umbrellas are colorful, too, and there are so many people here, families, friends, people who came on their own.
How could Amahle create such detail and such colors when she’s been blind from birth?!
“It is… magnifique,” Madelyn says. “I adore this place! And there is no need for suntan lotion!”
Amahle laughs. In a second, her clothes are replaced by a one-piece bathing suit with a kind of - I don’t know the name for it - the kind that has a kind of a skirt around it at the bottom.
“What is this?” Madelyn asks.
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“Stop,” Madelyn tells Amahle. “Stop with the music! Stop with the panic! Stop!”
Amahle looks desperate and the distant drumming doesn’t stop. “It is how I feel. I can’t help it.”
“I do not care how you feel,” Madelyn tells her. “I only care about you.”
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As usual, Amahle and Elvis appear on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge while Joy is still asleep.
“Amahle,” I call her from the porch, where Suzy and I are sitting. “Let me help you down.”
“I am perfectly fine, Walter.” She uses Elvis and her blind stick to lead her down the ramp which she already knows so well.
As she’s halfway through, Madelyn appears behind her on her wheelchair.
Amahle stops and listens. After a second, she says, “Hello, Madelyn. Comment ça va?”
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We are back on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
Joy and Justin are both clearly shaken by their conversation with the First Prisoner or The Guardian Spirit, or whoever he really is.
Justin stares at the horizon from behind the wheel, as he takes the ship out. Joy stands by his side, staring forward as well.
After a couple of minutes, as we fly past the clouds and into outer space, Joy hugs Justin. Justin stops the ship in mid-space and hugs her back.
“Red is not dead,” Joy says.
“No, she’s not.” He hugs her and doesn’t let go.
“She’s not a creature of the Dream.”
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“Stop, stop, stop!” Justin raises his hands. “We can’t believe this Guardian that he knows where Red is or that he’s a dream creature from outside my dream like the Fairy Flies. He’s a villain. He’s lying.”
Amahle clicks her tongue to indicate ‘No’. “Justin, you do not understand. Tell them what you told me,” she tells the Guardian.
The Guardian looks at Amahle in anger, then looks away. Amahe can’t see his expression, but she notes the silence. “All right,” she says. “Justin. He has told me he is of the Adroazni, a guardian spirit, and a child of the god Adroa.”
“So?” Justin says.
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Justin shakes his head immediately after the initial surprise. “He’s lying to us, Joy. He’s a villain and he knows we care about Red.”
Joy nods vigorously. “Lying. Red’s not dead and he wouldn’t know it!”
Justin takes her hand. “Shame on you,” he tells the Guardian. “It’s a good thing we never talked all these years. You are evil.”
“My friend is dead!” the Guardian yells at them as Justin and Joy turn their backs to him. “And it is your fault!”
“Shut up!” Joy whirls around. She takes off her necklace and throws it into the Guardian’s cell, where it lands on the floor. “I don’t want it! I don’t want anything from you!”
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“You,” he says. “What did you say to my daughter!”
I stretch my neck and see a man approach the bars. I have seen him before, but I did not pay him much attention, since Joy and Justin both pointedly ignore him every time they walk into the Infinite Prison. Now that Amahle says he comes from legends in the Congo, that gives more context to his black skin and his black hair that’s cut very short. The right half of his face is almost entirely covered by a metal mask, with room for an eye to peek through. But there is no eye behind that hole, but a soft yellow glow. Anything that is not covered by the mask looks human, including the other eye. He is tall, thin, and wiry.
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He crooks his head. “Amahle, which of the villains could possibly convince you that Joy is an honorary Zulu when you were very clear on the point that she wasn’t?”
“It was–” Amahle begins, when Joy cuts her off.
“No, Amahle!”
“He is your father, Joy. We do not keep secrets from him and there is no reason this should be a secret. It was the Guardian Spirit in your prison.”
“I have a Guardian Spirit in prison?”
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The next day, Amahle appears on the deck and ghosts of her ancestors fill the air. Suzy and I lock the door to our home. But a few ghosts just pass through the walls.
Thankfully the ghosts are not aggressive and do nothing but moan and wail.
I look out the window. Master Mind is taking the ship up and to the tunnels.
Suzy looks at the ghosts fly past her. I wonder how afraid she is, but she says, “Amahle is in so much pain, Walt. I wish I could help her.”
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Justin sighs. “Okay. Okay. Let’s all calm down, okay? This is a tough day. Amahle, you’ve yelled at Joy enough, we’re done with that. We’ll talk about it another day, when everyone’s not so excited.”
“You mean when I’m not so excited,” Amahle says.
“You have had a great tragedy. I don’t know what I would do if that ever…when that ever…” his eyes sneak a look at Suzy.
“I want to talk about it now!” Joy stomps her foot.
Justin stands between Joy and Amahle, his back to Amahle. “No! You can’t talk to her now.”
“Why not!” Joy demands.
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“Amahle, uh,” Joy finds it hard to speak. She holds the lion claw necklace in her hand. “When we were in your childhood home, uh…”
“She accidentally made a necklace real,” Justin says, clearly trying to help Joy find a way out.
“What?” Amahle is surprised.
“No, I didn’t!” Joy says aggressively. “It wasn’t an accident! I can control myself! I touched your grandfather’s necklace and made it real. I made it real and then I took it. I just wanted it so bad, and I thought, what’s the harm?”
Amahle’s face shows pain. “I thought you were my friend, Joy. I took you in. I showed you my past. I wake up in your world every day because we’re friends.”
“We are friends!” Joy looks down.
“Friends don’t steal!” Amahle explodes angrily.
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