Is there a bedtime story about General Hawk’s people?” Joy asks Suzy and me.
Justin and Charlie both wake up and disappear well before Joy is tired enough to go to sleep. And the day is spent with Justin and Charlie calling her Dragon Little, and Suzy and I calling her Nestling. Master Mind, as always, calls her Little Pirate. And now it’s time to go to sleep and Joy has asked both of us to join her in her cabin and tell her a story.
“I don’t, sorry,” Suzy says, sitting on a chair beside Joy’s small cot.
“I can tell you the story of Icarus and Dedalus,” I tell her. “It’s not about General Hawk’s people, but it’s about people who created wings.”
“Okay. Tell me that,” she says and pulls the blanket up to her chin.
“That’s not a bedtime story,” Suzy says. “That could give her nightmares.”
“I don’t have nightmares!” Joy reminds Suzy impatiently just as I’m about to say the same thing. “I don’t dream!”
“Still,” Suzy says.
Joy sighs. “I didn’t feel good today.”
“Yeah?” Suzy says warmly, her one word inviting Joy to share more.
“In the beginning I liked it that everyone called me Nestling or Dragon Little. It made me feel warm inside.”
“Sure,” Suzy says.
“But… after a while, it just made me feel bad. I’m only Nestling to General Hawk. I’m only Dragon Little to Red. And I miss them both so much!”
Joy begins to sob and Suzy gets up and hugs her as Joy cries in her cot.
“It’s okay to miss your friends,” Suzy tells her. “Of course you do! And it’s okay to feel bad! Everybody does!”
I know what Suzy says is supposedly healthy, but I feel so uncomfortable with the crying, I tell Joy, “Come on, stop crying. Heroes don’t cry.”
Suzy disconnects from her and throws me a look that could kill.
Joy turns around in the bed and pulls the covers up to her chin again. “Only the best heroes cry,” she says matter-of-factly. “Now tell me a story.”
Suzy stares at her with her jaw slack and seems to shake her head in disbelief. Then she nods, and gestures for me to start telling the story.
I do. And as I do, Joy’s words and the strength of belief behind them keeps echoing inside me. Only the best heroes cry.
—Told by Grampa Walt