Justin and Colin are on top of Big Ben, right underneath the tunnel, so Suzy and I can hear everything: The explosions, the destruction caused by the tentacle monster, and Joy calling out for her father.
“Joy! Look out!” Charlie shouts as a 3-meter tentacle heads their way.
Justin follows Charlie’s voice and looks down from Master Mind to the streets, and he sees Joy and Charlie just as Charlie clings to her like a human shield, and a rock appears all around them. Hopefully there is air to breathe within that rock.
“Joy! Oh, my god!” Justin yells “Colin! Colin! Stop!” he grabs Colin. “You’re having a nightmare! None of this is real!”
“What? What are you on about?” I hear Colin’s voice for the first time and realize that he is British. Which stands to reason since he’s dreaming about London.
Justin grabs Colin and activates the jetpack on his back. They land next to Charlie’s big rock, as the tentacle monster slams one of its tentacles against it.
“Hold tight ,Charlie!” Justin yells at him. “Colin, my daughter’s in there! My six-year-old daughter. You have to save her! Not by fighting the tentacle but by realizing this is a dream!”
“The monster will get me! It’s going to punish me! It’s killed so many people!”
“It hasn’t killed anyone! It’s just a nightmare. None of those people were real. And it was fun fighting together, wasn’t it? It wasn’t scary, it was fun!”
Colin hesitates as the tentacle monster assaults the rock. Master Mind continues to fly above them and well above the monster’s reach.
“But my daughter is real! She can really be hurt! She can really die! You have to save her!”
Colin raises his laser gun. Justin grabs it and lowers his arm. “No,” he says. “Stop the dream. Stop the nightmare. Dream about home.”
“What?”
“Dream about home.”
“Home is where the monster wants to–”
“There is no monster. It’s just a nightmare. You’re home, Colin. You’re home.”
And just like that, the tentacle monster vanishes. London is brighter and its streets are suddenly full of people.
“Good. Good.” Justin taps Colin’s shoulder. “Charlie, you can make the rock go away!”
The rock disappears and Charlie and Joy are there, holding hands. Charlie is frightened and looks around suspiciously. Joy is crying.
Joy leaps at Justin and he hugs her, holding her.
“Joy, Joy, what happened?”
“Dad,” she cries. “You said I was real! You said I was real!”
“All right, we’ll go home. Colin, this is my daughter, Joy. This is her friend, Charlie.”
“Nice to meetchoo, sir,” Charlie says.
“And you as well. Both of you,” Colin says in what is clearly a posh accent, as he looks at them dumbfounded.
“We’re going home. I’ll see you again?”
Colin nods, still in shock.
“And you’re going home?”
“I, uh, I am going home.”
Justin turns on his jetpack, and he and Joy, still hugging him as tightly as she can, fly into the sun on his jetpack.
Suzy and I take a few steps back. Justin lands with Joy. Master Mind and Charlie then follow.
“Let’s go home,” Justin says. “And tell me all about it.”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt