There are now five armed children in the tunnel, looking around at this strange green gateway from the dream to the sea of Shrooms.
“Look, look,” Joy calls out to the kids happily. “You’re free! We freed you! You don’t ever have to go back!”
The kids look at her without understanding. I don’t expect it will work, but I try again, “Do you speak English? Parlez-vous français?”
The same kid that answered before answers now. “Français non.”
A girl asks something.
Joy says, “This is the Dream. You were in a dream. You don’t have to go back. Out there is freedom!”
“Joy! Out there is not freedom,” I say. “Out there is more dreams! Where would they live if not in someone’s dream? Why did you free them?”
“Grampa, you weren’t there! They were slaves! He tried to make me into a slave! You have to free slaves!”
I want to ask how she survived, but I have to address the children. “But if you didn’t touch them, they would have just disappeared when the Dreamer woke up. They wouldn’t be slaves anymore. They wouldn’t exist!”
Joy purses her lips and turns her back to me.
“Come! Come with me!” she gestures with her hands to follow her. “I will show you the world! You’re free now!”
The children follow her hesitantly. Master Mind walks behind them.
“Master Mind, help me up!” I say. “Help me walk, please!”
He hesitates, then bends down to take me in his hands. He is right. I am weak. I’m not sure I can walk. “Why did you bring them back?” I said.
“They were already permanent,” he answers. “She would not leave if I did not take them.”
We go out the tunnel last.
The children are audibly gasping and talking to each other in amazement.
There is hardly room for all of us on the Shroom’s surface.
“Cool, huh?” Joy says. “You can all come to live with me and my Dad! You’re free now!”
“What? Joy! You don’t know them! You don’t know who they are! If you didn’t make them stay, they wouldn’t be here!”
Joy shakes her head and ignores me. “They’re coming. With us!”
The smallest girl is finding it hard to breathe. She’s panicking.
“Shh, shh, calm down,” Joy tries to tell her. Another girl comes up to her and says something. But the panicking girl takes a step back and slips off the round edge of the Shroom. She falls. We all scream.
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt