All in Age: 7.5
“I want an apple!” Joy says at breakfast in Suzy’s and my home.
“Sure thing, sweet–” Suzy begins, but Justin raises a hand.
“Nope. Only cereal.”
“I want an apple for breakfast,” Joy says. “It’s healthy!”
Justin shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Why can’t she have an apple?” Suzy asks.
“She knows why.”
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“But what did he say to you?”
It’s been a day since we last saw Colin and Hugh, and Justin is trying to ask Charlie what made him run away yesterday.
Charlie keeps ignoring Justin’s questions as Joy and Charlie play with toys on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
“Charlie,” Justin pleads for the seventh time. “What happened? What did he say?”
Charlie looks up finally. “He said ‘poop’.”
“Huh? He said ‘poop’?”
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“Hugh. Nice to meet you,” Justin offers his hand. “I’m Justin.”
“Pleasure,” Hugh shakes his hand.
“This is my father, Walter. My mother, Susanne. And you just met my daughter, Joy. Her friend was Charlie. The big robot, that, uh, chased her in the flying ship,” he sneaks a look at Colin to see if it’s okay to mention a robot and a flying ship, “that’s Master Mind.”
“Pleasure,” Hugh shakes my hand. “Enchanted,” he kisses Suzy’s hand.
“Oh, laying it on a bit too thick, aren’t you?” Colin tells him.
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Colin stands there in the street as Hugh talks to Joy and Charlie about the documentary he’s shooting right now.
Justin stands very close to Colin. “Whatever happens, there’s no need for monsters,” he tells him. “No monsters. No monsters.”
“No monsters,” Colin whispers.
“Everything’s okay,” Justin says. “You can see that, right?”
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“This was all a terrible idea! A terrible idea!” Colin begins to scream as if he is facing one of his monsters.
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Joy gives Justin a look like she’s going to kill him.
“I’m not saying a dress,” Justin says. “I would never say a dress.”
“Good.”
“But look at these clothes,” he touches the formal clothes Hugh had given him. “Don’t I look good? Wouldn’t it be nice to try something else?”
“I’m a pirate,” she shrugs. “I like these clothes.”
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We stand in the middle of the street, Colin, Justin, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind, Suzy, and I.
We look around. This is exactly the way London used to look in movies I grew up on, with adjustments for the decades that have passed.
“Wow,” Justin says.
“Look at the graffiti over there,” Charlie points to a large wall with graffiti of a man’s face with his tongue sticking out.
Bonny’s Revenge hangs in the air just above the rooftops. Justin insisted that Colin host us in Justin’s dream, not in Colin’s. Just in case a nightmare breaks out and we need Bonny’s Revenge.
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“Nightmare Man is in one of the tunnels,” Master Mind says suddenly, standing on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
Suzy and I are on the porch. Joy is asleep. Justin and Charlie should fall asleep and appear in the Dream still a few hours from now. Colin lives in London but falls asleep around 1 or 2 AM his time. Madelyn, Amahle, and Yumio often appear in the Dream before him, living in South Africa, France, and Japan.
“I will ask him what he wants.”
I get up. “I’ll join you.” I’m always glad to join whatever’s going on. This dream world is the New World for me. I can’t get enough of it. “Suzy?”
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We return to Justin’s dream before Sandra wakes up. Justin is embarrassed by everything we’ve seen over in Sandra’s dream, but Justin’s behavior changes as soon as we get back to the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, their flying pirate warship that’s waiting for us at the edge of the tunnel in and out of the dream.
He is now a father and a hero. He docks the ship near our island, makes sure that I’ve got a good place to rest and heal, and then returns to the ship, asking Master Mind to join us so Justin can have some alone time with Joy.
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“I think this is a dream, Sandra. I think this never happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“Joy, don’t you dare touch Luis!” Justin suddenly yells. I still refrain from looking up.
“As if I would ever touch him!” Joy answers quickly.
“What do you mean?” Sandra asks again.
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The Justin in front of my eyes disappears, and Sandra runs to Justin and hugs him.
“Hey, honey, welcome back!”
She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the lips and he kisses her back.
Oh, my! I see Suzy look at the kiss with eyes wide open.
“Yuck!” Luis and Joy say together.
Justin straightens and looks around. “Joy, come here!”
Joy runs to him and leaps on him. He lifts her up and hugs her. She hugs him like she hasn’t seen him in years.
“Oh, my god,” Justin says. “You survived! Thank god! It must have been so awful for you! All alone!”
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“So what did the doctor do?” I ask. I know I’m in a dream, but being in a hospital, being treated by a doctor, makes me feel safer.
Suddenly, Justin just appears in front of my eyes. “Dad, Dad, are you okay?”
“Shooting fairies!” I hear Joy yell. And finally I see her. She’s sitting on one of the chairs, below my eyesight as I’m lying down, my face up. She is so worked up.
“Hey, buddy,” Justin takes Luis in his arms. “Sandra, who’s the girl?”
Joy jumps to her feet. “You! Say that to me again and I’ll make you permanent and then kill you!”
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I wake up on some kind… bed? I’m not sure. A young woman, around Justin’s age, is looking at me. Behind her, that ceiling! I’m in a hospital!
I try to get up quickly, “Where am I? Joy? Master Mind?”
I see Suzy’s face looking at me. “Shhh,” she says. “Lie down.”
“Oh, my, my,” the woman says. “You were very lucky, Walt. The bullet went right through and didn’t hit anything major.”
“What’s going on?”
“The doctor was just in,” Suzy says. “He took care of you. He dressed your wound. You should be fine.”
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“Where is he? Where is he?” I hear Suzy’s voice echo in the tunnel.
Suddenly she stands in front of me. “Oh, my god. Oh my god!” She leans closer to look at the makeshift tourniquet around my shoulder and screams right into my ears: “Oh my god! What did you do?!”
“He got shot, Grandma,” Joy says simply.
“Got shot, huh?!” She clearly knew I was shot before she came here. Master Mind must have told her. “You almost died! Is that what you’re doing hanging around with Justin, going from dream to dream, getting shot?”
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Joy lands on Sandra’s Shroom and calls us over.
There isn’t a time when Sandra’s name is uttered, that Joy doesn’t make a face or even a noise. But this girl does what’s necessary. She knows there are no doctors in our vicinity, and Sandra is the only medical person we know, even though she’s a Labor Delivery Nurse, and not an expert in bullet wounds.
But when we look down, the dream is empty of its dreamer. Sandra’s home is still there as well as Charlie’s elevator, both having been made permanent that time that Joy ran away from home. But Sandra isn’t here.
“She’s also in Toronto,” I say. I’ve heard she’s Justin’s neighbor, more or less. “It’s going to be a few hours until she or Justin get here.”
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Joy is crying into my chest and doesn’t stop. I hug her with one hand, but awkwardly. I don’t know how to comfort a child who feels responsible for two deaths. I don’t know how to comfort a child who survived a slave camp for a day while figuring out how to save the other children.
What did happen there? I wish she would stop. My shoulder still hurts.
“Little Pirate, if you keep crying, you will make me cry,” says Master Mind. “I do not wish to cry at this time.”
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“I’m sorry it’s not perfect,” she says. “It’s what we have.”
Master Mind eyes them warily. His weapon is still on his arm. He has not returned it to the inside of his exoskeleton.
“Yeah, you’re good,” Joy goes one by one. “You’re good. You’re okay. Okay!”
“Okay!” One of the boys says.
Joy suddenly grabs his arm. “I’m sorry!”
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The three children stand together, heads down, bowed as if ready for punishment. Two of them are crying. The dust of their friend is still between us. Their other friend fell off and died.
“Ah, Master Mind, Joy,” I use a gentle tone, sitting on the Shroom, leaning against its stem, feeling the bullet wound in my shoulder. “I don’t think they’re dangerous now.”
“They are armed, scared, and we cannot communicate with them,” says Master Mind.
“No, no,” I shake my head. “They were kidnapped like Joy and trained to be slaves. We killed one of their own. They see us as the enslavers now. They won’t do anything.”
“We are not your enslavers!” Joy says. “We set you free! You’re free!”
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“Master Mind!” Joy calls out, halfway through her ‘Noooo!’
Master Mind drops me quickly but softly to the Shroom and activates his jetpack. Looking around, I see he is the only one with the jetpack. Madelyn’s, Charlie’s, and Justin’s jetpacks are all in the tunnel. And mine, too.
Master Mind is in the air above us, about to zoom down, when he stops. “I fear it is too late!”
Joy stands on the edge and leans to look down. So do the other kids.
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There are now five armed children in the tunnel, looking around at this strange green gateway from the dream to the sea of Shrooms.
“Look, look,” Joy calls out to the kids happily. “You’re free! We freed you! You don’t ever have to go back!”
The kids look at her without understanding. I don’t expect it will work, but I try again, “Do you speak English? Parlez-vous français?”
The same kid that answered before answers now. “Français non.”
A girl asks something.
Joy says, “This is the Dream. You were in a dream. You don’t have to go back. Out there is freedom!”
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