It had been a full first day for me and Suzy, a full first day in Justin’s dream. It had been a wild experience, seeing her new friends. There was Master Mind, the creation of Justin’s dream. There was Charlie, another dreamer. There was the army of flying bird soldiers. There were the ice pirates. And of course we had spent a day with the granddaughter we never knew we had.
It had been an even fuller day for Joy.
She had toured Justin’s dream world twice. She had begun to fix Master Mind. She had spent the day with us. She had been at General Hawk’s funeral, who had died saving her life. Justin had said that they will wait until tomorrow to finish sewing up Master Mind and that Joy needed a break with a friend. So Joy had gone off to play with Charlie in what she called ‘The Trampoline Stairs’, as Justin and Master Mind watched from the deck, and Suzy and I stayed home.
Suzy and I sat in the porch and watched the trampoline stairs in the far distance, as the stairs seemed to climb to some magic kingdom in the sky.
We saw how after a few hours, Justin disappeared. And now, only half an hour or so after Justin disappeared, Charlie disappears as well.
Joy brings Bonnie’s Revenge back to our island and comes to sit with us on our porch. Master Mind remains behind on board the warship.
“You look tired,” I tell her.
She nods. “I’m not ready to go to sleep yet.”
“Dearie,” Suzy tells her. “You know, we have a room in our house. It was your father’s room when he was a kid like you. It has a bed. You know, you don’t have to sleep on the ship. Do you want to sleep in his old bed?”
Joy jumps up in excitement. “Can you show it to me?”
Suzy stands up from her lawn chair. “Let’s go.”
I follow them in. “You know,” Suzy says. “Your grandfather and I, we can take turns telling you a bedtime story. Would you want that?”
“Yuh-huh!” Joy says and walks into the room. “Wow!”
She looks at the bed, at the old posters of Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf on the walls. She looks at the desk, at the books on the shelves. We hadn’t really touched anything since his high school days, and Justin never had the heart to take down the old tennis posters.
“Try the bed,” Suzy says.
I stand in the doorway, looking happily at my granddaughter experience her father’s childhood room for the first time.
Suzy looks at me. “We don’t really have any children’s books at home, but I remember most fairy tales. Which one do you think I should tell her?”
We discuss it for a minute and decide on Snow White. When we look back, we see that Joy is already asleep, fully clothed, with shoes on, on the bed.
Suzy takes off her shoes and kisses her on the forehead.
“Good night!” she whispers.
“Good night,” I whisper.
We leave the room.
—Told by Grampa Walt