All in Age: 6.5
“Madelyn, please get rid of the babies,” Justin implores her. I’ve counted fifteen babies on the limo seats and floor. Suzy is holding two of them, Madelyn another one, I took another one, but it’s not helping. And the babies are beginning to cry.
“Get rid of the traffic jam, Justin,” she tells him. “We have to get to Bordeaux, not Paris!”
“The babies, Madelyn!”
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As Madelyn descends with her super wheelchair towards the convertible limo, Justin suddenly returns to normal size.
He cups his face in his hands. “This is so embarrassing,” he says.
“Dad, why’d you turn into a baby?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he says quickly.
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“Grampa, what’s the matter with Dad!” Joy is frightened. “Grandma, why are you laughing?”
“I’m going to die,” he looks at his wrinkled hands. “It’s the end.”
Suzy can’t stop laughing.
“It’s going to be all right, Joy,” I tell her. “It’s going to be all right. It’s just his–”
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“Three!” Master Mind ends his count.
Justin’s face is all clenched in anger at the traffic jam in front of him, the one he had created.
It doesn’t seem that Master Mind is having any influence on him.
Master Mind lowers the rope ladder. “Grab the rope, Little Pirate,” Master Mind says loudly enough for us to hear. “I will take you to safety before this gets out of hand.”
Joy looks at the rope hanging just to the side. She takes Justin’s hand in both of hers. “Calm down, Dad. Calm down. Let’s have a birthday party.”
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We can see Paris through the driver’s window, not more than a few kilometers away.
“This is nice,” Joy lies down on some of the chairs next to Suzy and me. “What kind of a car did you say this is?”
“It’s a limousine,” Justin says impatiently as the driver begins to decelerate approaching the highway.
“Why’d you say ‘limo’ before?”
“Oh, no!” Justin says, looking forward through the window. “God damn traffic jam!”
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Justin is in a bad mood. He turns down Suzy’s idea to eat in Scaramouche, saying he just did that with the two of us. He turns down the idea of any restaurant, since it’s the Dream, and he doesn’t really need to eat.
“Look,” Suzy tells him, exasperated. “I understand you just went through this with the two of us. But we weren’t there. And, you know what, she wasn’t there,” she points to Joy. “How many times is her father going to turn thirty?”
Justin’s annoyance turns milder. “Just this once, Mom.”
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Justin appears on the ship, exactly in the same position as always, right down to the angle of the face and the position of the eyes.
We’re all there, waiting right where we knew would be the first place he looked at, all there, on a deck filled with colorful balloons.
As soon as he appears, Master Mind, Joy, Suzy, and I yell: “Surprise!”
Justin jumps back as a sword appears in one hand and a laser pistol in the other.
He looks around in panic.
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Suzy and I count the hours after Justin disappears.
We’ve talked to Joy ahead of time about what’s going to happen next.
After the initial shock of living in Justin’s dream, of having a granddaughter we never heard of, of going with her and Justin to visit other people’s dreams, of experiencing life-threatening adventures almost at every turn, Suzy started getting used to life here.
One day, a couple of months ago, she started inquiring about the dates. Justin created a calendar for her to hang on the wall in the living room, and she’s been silently marking the days.
Now it was time.
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“Of course you’re free,” Justin tells Joy. “You’re more free here than any kid I know in the waking world. Isn’t she, Charlie?”
Joy looks at Charlie expectantly.
“Uhhh…” Charlie is taking this question too seriously. “Sure, she’s free. But I got TV in the waking world. I can see cartoons and–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Justin interrupts him. “But you don’t have adventures in the waking world like we do here, right?”
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We are back on top of Justin’s Shroom when Joy suddenly starts talking about everything that’s happened, what Charlie said and what Suzy explained to her.
As she explains, Justin leads Joy back into the tunnel, past the plank, and onto the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
“Oh my goodness,” he tells her. “That is awful. I never thought about it.”
“Is she right, Dad? Am I that different? Can I never have kids?”
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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!”
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Master Mind grabs Suzy and me and activates his permanent jetpack. He flies us to Colin’s Shroom, next-door to Justin’s Shroom. Joy had already landed and gone into the tunnel, and Charlie, flying on his own, is right behind her.
We follow her in, Master Mind rushing forward.
“Dad!” I hear her yell. “Dad!”
As I go around the tunne’s bend, I see her standing on the edge of the tunnel. “He can’t hear me!” she tells Charlie. “Dad! Dad!”
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Joy is devastated. It is heart-wrenching to see her feel so bad.
She pushes Suzy away when Suzy reaches to hug her.
Charlie stands there, not knowing what to do. He’s not saying anything, he’s not moving, he’s just looking at her.
Joy sobs uncontrollably.
I don’t know what to do.
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When Charlie tries to explain what he means, Joy is so upset that I stop that discussion immediately. “We need your Dad,” I say.
But that doesn’t help. Justin can’t hear us and none of us dares even lean into Colin’s dream.
“I know who can explain this,” I tell Joy. “We’re going to Grandma Suzy.”
We leave Justin to play in Colin’s dream and go back to his dream.
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It’s been an hour now of the tentacle monster throwing Justin and Colin all around the city.
Colin is busy running, and Justin is busy… not using weapons he can create to stop himself from being beaten.
We watch from the tunnel, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind and I. Joy is growing impatient. “He’s not using any powers!”
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We can only watch from afar as Justin descends into a version of London that comes from horror stories. Joy and Charlie are seated on the edge of the tunnel that leads into this dream, the edge of one of the suns that shine into this world. Their legs are well within the dream, taking no risk. I lean on the round wall behind them, peering in. Master Mind stands next to me, watching Justin as well as Joy. He will stop her if she tries to get into Colin’s dream.
Justin lands next to Colin. A laser cannon appears on his arm, and he fires it at the tentacle that is chasing Colin.
Up here we don’t even hear the cannon fire.
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Colin’s nightmares are dark and terrible, ones that Joy could never survive.
Joy wishes to come along, and Justin relents only as much as allowing her and Charlie to sit in one of the tunnels and look down into the dream.
“You may not ever, ever, ever set foot inside Colin’s dream! It will kill you!” he says.
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At my helpless shouts for help, Justin comes running out of the house.
“Oh my god!” he stops in the pathway leading up to Bonny’s Revenge as soon as he sees Joy and the kids looking at weapons in the weapons cabinet. “Joy! No weapons! No one touch the weapons!”
Angela comes out running.
“Justin, what’s–Holy shit! Dad, Mom, there’s a huge ship parked outside your house!”
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Joy’s face grows red a bit. Her games, the ones famously confiscated during the lava god adventure, are not, uh, for kids. Suddenly, her face lights up. “I have a pirate ship!”
“No you don’t!” Tommy says immediately.
“Yuh-huh, she does!” Charlie helps.
“Wanna see?”
“You don’t!”
“Want to see my pirate ship, Grace?” Joy asks her.
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Justin opens the door. Joy hides behind Charlie.
Suzy looks at Walt. “It doesn’t matter. We haven’t seen her in months, so you better be excited to see her!”
Angela is in the doorway, holding 4-year-old Grace in her hands.
Suzy’s right. It doesn’t matter what happened or who Ethan is. I haven’t seen my daughter in months. In my mind, she’s still a teenager. What a woman she’d become!
“What’s up, fart-face?” Angela asks Justin.
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