All in Age: 9

Even though this is Justin’s dream, Amahle is the only dreamer here, and she controls the dream.

The dream changes an hour later. The Zulu village of Amahle’s mother in the middle of the desert changes to a bustling city street. I have never been, but I assume it is Johannesburg, the city Amahle grew up in.

From being inside a hut, surrounded by darkness, Amahle and Joy are in a small apartment building, surrounded by the same cloud of darkness. Bonny’s Revenge, with Suzy and me in it, hovers a few meters above the street, with buildings to every side.

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It’s not a person’s wail, it’s music that imitates a wail. The wail turns into a scream of pain. And the air is then filled with almost unbearably sad music.

“Amahle?” Suzy asks me. She’s heard the music of Amahle’s dream before, but not like this.

I nod.

“It is a tragedy, Pirate Mother,” Master Mind answers softly, his voice only loud enough to get over the music and reach us, who are leaning on the railing a few meters above him, looking down at him. “The Sunless One’s mother had died.”

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Suzy and I look over the railing. I hear Amahle’s voice.

“Joy?” Amahle says from within the darkness. “Are you here? Come with me.”

Joy steps into the cloud of darkness that surrounds Amahle just as Master Mind lands next to her.

For the second time today, or ever, I hear Master Mind make a sound that I never expected to hear from a killer robot. He growls in frustration.

“Little Pirate,” he says in a low but forceful voice. “Come out!”

“Take my hand,” I hear Amahle say. “I want to show you something.”

If this darkness is the same as the one in Amahle’s dream, Master Mind cannot see inside the darkness, but Joy can.

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Amahle is the first Dreamer to appear on Bonny’s Revenge’s deck. Since she is in South Africa, she always begins her dreams hours before Justin or Charlie. Madelyn, however, moves around in the world, and her dream time is often unpredictable.

Joy is still asleep in her cabin, and Master Mind, with his paper heart and his two halves sewn together, stands guard by her cabin door in case a dreamer appears on the deck and accidentally sends a danger Joy’s way.

Suzy and I are in our home, but we notice the sky darken and the clouds come. We look out the window.

I go out to the porch and see Amahle with her seeing eye dog, Elvis. But then the suns flicker off and on, off and on. Suzy grabs my hand in fear. They’ve never done that.

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Joy is tired, but she refuses to go to sleep. Suzy and I join her and Master Mind as she takes the ship to the ice mountains of Mars and climbs them, then skids down on the ice, then does it all again and again and again.

She does this for hours. Even when she clearly can’t really walk anymore, she climbs up very very slowly and does it again.

“What is she doing?” Suzy whispers to me as we watch her put one foot in front of the other.

I shake my head. I have no idea.

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At Charley’s question, Joy’s expression becomes serious.

“Where is Red, Dad?”

I’ve been here long enough to hear about Joy’s legendary friend, the Red Dragon. She hadn’t been heard of or seen since Suzy and I were summoned, since Joy first left Justin’s dream.

“I don’t know,” he shrugs. Then his expression turns more serious as well. “Why would you think I know?”

“I just realized,” Joy says. “That in all the adventures I had with her, in all the times I rode her, there is no way I wouldn’t have made her real. Red didn’t just disappear because you woke up, Dad. Red is permanent. No one killed her. So she’s still alive. Where did she go?”

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There, in the distance, amidst a sea of Shrooms, I see something yellow flying. It is as small as a faraway plane, but it is not the shape of a plane.

“A dragon!” Joy whispers in awe.

Justin moves with the speed of a pirate and covers Joy’s mouth with his hand. He grabs me with his other hand, and together, he walks us back to the shadow of the tunnel.

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