The next day Amahle appears on the deck of Bonny's Revenge when Joy is asleep. Joy sleeps, by the way, with her lion claw necklace around her neck. She had refused to take it off during her waking hours and she has refused to take it off when going to sleep.
The sky darkens when Amahle appears. Sad music fills the dream and Amahle seems to hold conversations with a woman who is probably her mother.
Master Mind reminds her she is in a dream, and she asks him to take her to her dream.
Her mother disappears as Master Mind helps Amahle walk the plank into the tunnel. Her mother will no doubt reappear when Amahle enters her old dream.
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.”
I am always surprised by the fact that empathy is Suzy’s default in any situation.
A minute later all the ghosts vanish all at once. Master Mind had gotten Amahle into a tunnel, no doubt.
The next day when Amahle appears - always before any of the other dreamers - Joy is awake.
I go up the ramp to the deck to find the two talking and hugging.
Okay. No danger to Joy from an obsessed dreamer.
After a few hours, as the two are sitting on the deck, talking, while Elvis waits patiently at Amahle’s side, Joy touches the lion claws around her neck.
“Amahle,” she says softly. “I have to show you something.”
Joy stands up and gives Amahle a hand. “It’s in the Infinite Prison. Let’s go.”
I follow them when Joy looks at me. “Not you, Grampa. You either, Master Mind.”
They go in, with Elvis at Amahle’s side, and disappear as the stairs into the belly of this warship turn.
A few minutes pass and Justin appears on the deck, always in the same place, always looking in the same direction.
I fill him in just as Joy and Amahle come out.
“Okay, Joy,” Amahle says. “I guess you are an honorary Zulu.”
“Say what?!” Justin says.
(Be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt