All in Age: 7
“You know what you need, Charlie? You need to learn how to fight!”
“Huh?”
We’re in Justin’s dream, playing on a planet Charlie created a few months ago called Playground World. Everything in it is taken out of playgrounds or amusement parks.
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“Joy, what’s going on?” Justin takes a few steps towards her with arms open after she asks everyone to get off her ship.
Joy shrugs and looks away.
“Joy, did I offend you?” Amahle says. Elvis, her seeing eye dog, appears at her side, and she begins to walk in Joy’s direction.
“GET OFF MY SHIP!” Joy yells at us, her face red. “Now! Everyone!”
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He docked the ship right outside one of the suns, and Master Mind went to check, quickly returning with Amahle.
“But even though I forgot my dream, my heart was pumping! I felt I had a great inspiration! There was music inside me. And I was certain I could feel what the color blue was, even though I knew I’d never seen it.”
“What?” Justin says. “Really?”
“You could see blue in the waking world?” Charlie asks, just as surprised.
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I dock Bonny’s Revenge right next to one of the suns, with the plank as close as I could get it. I’m not doing this as good as Justin or Joy or Master Mind. But it’s close enough. Suzy and I both put on one of the jetpacks that Joy had made permanent. Just in case one of us falls here or outside the Shroom.
Suzy’s first on the plank, and the plank begins to wobble as soon as she’s on it.
“Oh, no, no, no!” she says and comes back. “I’m not doing this!”
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It’s been a month since we’ve seen Amahle. Master Mind had been checking every day to see if she was waiting for us on top of her Shroom. But since she hadn’t been there for a long time, we’ve gotten out of the habit of looking every day.
It has been a month since we’ve gone into her dream and learned she was experimenting with colors and finding music that fits those colors.
We’re headed out today to Madelyn’s dream: Joy, Charlie, Justin, Master Mind, and I - when Joy spots Amahle standing atop of her Shroom.
“Amahle!” Joy yells.
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It’s been a week since we’ve seen Amahle. She usually waits for Master Mind at the edge of her Shroom before any other Dreamer arrives. But she hadn’t come recently.
When Charlie arrives, he and Joy decide to go visit her dream, and I remind them to never leave the Dream, certainly not to Amahle’s dark dream, without Justin.
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When Justin arrives, she convinces him to go, and we all go: Joy, Charlie, Justin, Master Mind as security, and me in the role of the-guy-who-just-wants-to-see.
We stand at the edge of the tunnel and look into the complete darkness that is Amahle’s dream. Even after spending a year with us, even after being able to somehow summon up and feel colors, Amahle’s dream is all darkness.
I know Charlie’s elevator is right there in front of us, taking us to the ground in her dream. But it’s drowned in the darkness of her dream.
“Let’s go,” Suzy tells me as soon as Justin takes our little granddaughter to her cabin to tell her a good night story.
For a change, Joy’s been up for quite a few hours before Justin arrived, which means she’s just tired enough for her father to put her to bed.
“Where are we going?”
“To talk to Justin,” she says.
We walk slowly up the ramp to the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. Master Mind is standing guard silently near the wheel. Justin is still in Joy’s cabin.
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I am surrounded by darkness. I’ve been here before, in Amahle’s dream, a dozen times at least. But it doesn’t get easier. And it doesn’t get less spooky that there isn’t even a little bit of light, so your eyes never get adjusted. We are right next to the sun in her dream, and yet there isn’t a photon to be found.
But then, that’s not the only change. As soon as I walk into Charlie’s elevator in Amahle’s dream, there is music. I don’t recognize many of the instruments. But I do recognize the voice. There usually isn’t a voice when Amahle’s music is played outside her head in the Dream. But now… She’s singing. Without any words, just singing…
“The music is making the hair on my hand stand,” Charlie says.
“It’s beautiful,” Justin says.
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We are on an island Justin created for this purpose, in the middle of the ocean in his dream. Bonny’s Revenge is docked to the side. Master Mind remains on the deck. He is always ready to leap into action, but with two dreamers protecting Joy, there’s probably not going to be a need. Quite possibly, it’s more likely he’ll protect Suzy and me. We stand right next to him, just in case.
“Ready,” Amahle says.
“Ready,” Justin says, fists tightening.
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I hardly have enough time to register that Amahle had accidentally dragged Joy underwater. Joy! I think, as Suzy gasps, and Master Mind from the deck of Bonny’s Revenge exclaims “By my evil maker!”
My mind registers too slowly that Amahle does not need to breathe in the Dream, while Joy does. Master Mind leaps off the deck, but even while he’s in the air, something even crazier happens.
The top of Joy’s sword appears above the water. As it moves up, it brings with it Amahle’s back. The sword is coming out of Amahle’s back.
Another split-second and Joy’s head emerges. Both her hands are on the sword, which she had put right through Amahle’s stomach to come out of the back.
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Amahle sits down on the deck and Joy sits cross-legged beside her. Amahle practices ‘looking’ at the orange sun, with Joy holding her hand.
When it becomes clear that this is going to be Amahle’s and Joy’s day, and that Justin is going to remain with Joy, Colin and Yumio each go to their own dreams. Madelyn goes elsewhere in Justin’s dream to dream about whatever she wants to.
Suzy, Master Mind and I remain on the deck.
Justin joins us in looking at them from the opposite railing, as we watch the two try out different things.
The setting sun Amahle has summoned moves right and left. Amahle shakes her head.
“She didn’t see movement,” I tell Justin and Suzy.
“Nope,” Justin says.
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Master Mind has brought Amahle from her dream back to Justin’s dream, where we’re all waiting for her.
Back on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, Elvis, her seeing eye dog reappears. Along with the cane in her right hand, which she moves to her left.
We wait for her to explain what the danger was that she sensed around us before she disappeared and woke up.
“I do not know what it was,” Amahle says. “I have never felt anything like it. It felt like someone was hitting me in the head.”
“What?” Joy is concerned. After all, nothing had been close to any of our heads.
“It was a pounding,” Amahle continues. “From inside my head. Like something was pushing me to the ground.”
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There is a deep sense of strangeness when Amahle disappears. Johannesburg disappears. The sunset disappears. And the full light of the two suns return. The half-darkness, was caused by Amahle. Now that I think about it, its creation was also aided by Joy holding Amahle’s hand.
And then there’s silence. Strange, awkward silence.
“What the hell happened?” Colin asks.
Joy is looking at her own hands.
“Joy,” Justin moves closer to her. “Do you know what happened? Do you know what she was talking about?”
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Amahle puts her right hand to her temple. “I will try.”
The last sunset disappears and all around us, on top of the permanent ocean, the streets of Johannesburg appear.
“Can you see it, Joy?”
We all look around. “We see Johannesburg, Amahle,” Madelyn says. “But there is no sun.”
Joy reaches out to hold Amahle’s left hand, but Amahle raises it to her temple as well. “Sun,” she says. “Sun.”
And a sun appears right above the horizon. An orange sun about to set. Unlike all other sunrises, this time the sun’s light does not influence the sky. The blue sky doesn’t change color. Just there, at the bottom, there is powerful, setting orange sun.
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“Joy, do you want to see a sunset from Japan?” Yumio says.
“Yuh-huh.”
Everything around us changes. In front of us is a river. Far ahead is a mountain, and the sun is setting behind it, its orange colors spreading across not only the sky but the mountain and the river.
Joy stares at it with eyes agape. Suzy gasps. Madelyn takes in a deep breath.
“Fantastic!” Colin said. “Where are we?”
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“Why are we here, Madelyn?” Justin says.
She had asked to take us to the middle of the ocean.
“I think it is time to show little Zhoy the things she cannot see in this world.”
“Like what?” Joy says.
“Zhoy, in this world you can see anything. But one thing you have never seen, I believe, is a sunset.”
“What’s a sunset?”
“In the…uhm…waking world,” Madelyn says. “The sun rises on one side, goes up, and goes down on the other side.”
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“Dad, give me a spray can,” Joy says, opening her palm.
Justin thinks for a second, then says, “What color do you want?”
“Red,” Joy answers immediately and with certainty. “For the Red Dragon.”
A spray can appears in Joy’s hand. It glows a soft-blue light for a brief moment and the light disappears. Joy has made the can permanent.
She walks over to the wall. “I have a message for Captain Badass,” she says. “And Grandma taught me to write.”
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“He watched us leave the dream!” Charlie exclaims. “He left your dream! That’s why he’s not here!”
Justin is beginning to pace back and forth in what now seems to be Captain Badass’ abandoned base.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he says.
“Why not, Dad?”
Justin exhales slowly. “I don’t know. How would he get from here to the suns? One ship was a dream ship, so it disappeared when I woke up and it hasn’t returned. His permanent ship is on its side in the ocean on Earth. How would he get from here to the sun?”
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Justin walks through the door.
Joy puts her hand on Charlie’s shoulder, stopping him from walking forward. As soon as he stops, she motions with that hand that they should wait. Her other hand is on her sword, ready to pull it out.
“Come in!” Justin says. “All clear!”
We all walk into the dome.
The look of the room is surprising. It is just an empty dome. There isn’t a table, a carpet, a chair, a piece of paper, a picture on the wall. There is the inside of the smooth dome. And then there are the telescopes - the three giant telescopes that I’ve seen outside begin inside, converging in the middle of the room.
“This is creepy,” Charlie says. “Where is everything?”
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Justin is armed to the teeth with two laser pistols, one on each side of his belt, and General Hawk’s Falcon on his back. Master Mind prepares by having two cannons come out of his exoskeleton, a different one out of each hand. Joy arms herself with a sword and a laser pistol.
Charlie and I remain unarmed.
Justin takes us to the moon.
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