It has been a couple of weeks since our journey to the Night Planet. Joy hasn’t mentioned wanting to go to the dream with no exit since then, but Justin, Suzy, and I all know that it’s a matter of time.
For the last few days I’ve been keeping a closer watch on Joy, half expecting her to go off by herself when no one is looking.
But the trouble this time does not come from Joy.
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“What’s consoles?”
“It’s, uh…” How would you explain computers and complex electronics to a child who lives on a pirate ship and has had only swashbuckling adventures all of her life? “It’s just games on a screen.”
“Do all the kids have consoles?” I see now that tears are forming in her eyes.
“Not, uh, everybody. But a lot of kids in Canada, and in the United States, where Charlie is from, and, uh, in other countries, too. What’s that matter, Joy?”
She looks down. “I don’t have a console. I don’t live in the real world. I don’t have a real shadow like Dad. I don’t know real games. I don’t have a real life. I just have this life. Everyone else has this life and the real life! Why do I only have this?”
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Suzy and I finally convince Master Mind that privacy for humans is important.
He gets on the ship as we look from the window.
He is searching for something. And, finally, when he finds it, he straightens and turns to look at us. He is now waving a flare gun.
I smile at him through the window and wave. “Okay,” I say softly. “Then pilot the ship, and when you can’t hear us, give us a flare.”
Master Mind nods his huge, robotic head. Apparently, he can indeed hear us from the ship through our home’s walls closed door.
Suzy looks at me and shakes her head.
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Justin has vanished. He has woken up. He won’t be coming back for fourteen or sixteen hours.
Charlie has vanished. He has also woken up. He also won’t be coming back for a long time.
Joy is in bed, fast asleep. We had put her to sleep in Justin’s old room, but she’d woken up in the middle of the night and moved back to her room on the ship.
She is fast asleep.
It’s been a long, long first day. Suzy and I are in our son’s dream, apparently, and this is our new home. We are grandparents to a daughter who only lives in the Dream. We’ve had a funeral. We’ve had to absorb changes.
Everything is different.
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As soon as Joy falls in the dark and says “Ow” Suzy’s hand, which I’m still holding, tightens.
Another bump is heard and Charlie calls out in pain and that’s it for Suzy.
She lets go of my hand and I hear her walk forward with determination even though none of us can see anything. “Justin! Stop that right now!”
“Mom! I’m teaching her a lesson!”
“Justin! You’re a father! You may never ever hurt your child! Never!”
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We all go down the ramp to the peer on the Night Planet.
I must admit, even to myself it is unsettling standing, walking, handling myself in a completely new place where I can’t see anything, not even a sliver of light.
Suzy holds my hand. “I don’t like this place,” she tells me.
“Me neither.”
I hear everyone getting further down the dock. We stay standing.
“Do you want to leave?” I ask her.
“Do you?”
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Justin guides Bonny’s Revenge into complete darkness.
One huge planet hides the suns and in its shadow, somewhere, is the Night Planet, a planet of perpetual night.
Joy holds Charlie’s hand.
Suzy stands next to me. But when darkness comes, I can’t see her or anything else.
There is silence, now. Not a yelp. Not a scream. Not a whisper.
“Joy?” Justin says after a few seconds. “Are you all right?”
“Mmmm-hmmmm,” she says. But her tone is forced. She is not all right.
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By this time, Charlie has arrived and landed on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge with his jetpack. He has been filled in.
“All right,” Justin takes a big breath. He’s taken us into outer space, and Bonny’s Revenge rests in front of a big patch of empty space. “Ready for the Night Planet, Joy?”
She braces herself and nods.
“Mom?” Justin asks.
Suzy looks at me. This is her first official time going on an adventure. This is not her life. It is not what our lives have been up to this point.
Master Mind has rejoined us on the deck while the two have been arguing. He is ready. He does not need to be asked.
“All right,” Justin says. “Just let’s be clear on the rules, okay? I’m going to bring back the Night Planet. There are not going to be villains on it. The whole point is to get Joy used to darkness and maybe get over the fear. That’s it. Whenever you want, Joy, Charlie and I can create light. Okay?”
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“Joy, I don’t want to hear it!”
Joy is pestering Justin again about why there’s a dream he says she can’t go to, a dream with no way out.
“Dad! There’s no such thing as a dream you can’t leave!”
“I was there. I saw it!” He’s short with her. He knows she’ll never give up, and he knows she can’t ever go there or we’ll lose her forever.
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Joy is exhausted. Charlie vanished, waking up, only after a few minutes. If he’d returned to sleep, he hadn’t returned to Justin’s dream.
“Take a break, everyone!” Justin says, and we all find a spot to sit and rest.
“Darling,” Suzie sits near Justin. “What happened in your life that got you to dream such an awful dream?”
Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that.
Justin gives it some thought. He hadn’t thought of it, either. “I don’t want to talk about it, Mom.”
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“I could see the zombies were about to get Grandma’s and Grandpa’s island!”
We’re heading down to the island which is the place of Suzy’s and my home in Justin’s dream. Joy is describing to Charlie how she survived.
“I went into the house. I knew that zombies weren’t that smart. I knew my weapons wouldn’t be enough. And I knew that ovens keep their smell inside.”
“So what’d you do?” he asks her wide-eyed.
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The four of us - Suzy, Master Mind, Joy, and I - all sit and stand in the tunnel for hours as Justin fights zombies below.
Master Mind and Joy are on the edge, looking down at the battle.
Justin keeps being overrun by more and more zombies, then kills them, then new zombies come, and so on endlessly.
Suddenly, hours in, the fighting stops and Justin looks around.
Joy sits up, more alert.
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I look down with bated breath. The little island is being overrun by zombies while Master Mind is speeding towards it with his jetpack. Joy, who was right there, can’t be seen anywhere. Justin, still obsessed, is fighting the zombies on Bonnie’s Revenge, which is now approaching the grey castle. He doesn’t know Joy is in trouble, and in his present state, he doesn’t seem to care.
The zombies below break into our home through the door and the windows. If Joy is there, I don’t see how she can survive. All she has are the laser pistol and the sword which she wears on her belt.
Master Mind lands in our garden and sprays dozens of zombies with bullets, all aimed at their heads.
Zombies fall, but I can’t see Joy’s small, blonde head from above.
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Some of the zombies throw their fellow zombies upwards to grab at the hull of Bonny’s Revenge, which is flying just meters above them. Justin is screaming something at them, but I can’t hear what. He is obsessed by his dream, just like Joy said.
Even as the zombies crawl up the hull, Master Mind leaps off the deck and jumps hundreds of meters back to our island. I can’t believe he can do that.
Master Mind lands accurately next to me.
“There was only one jetpack, Little Pirate,” he hands it to her. “Save yourself.”
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It’s been a few weeks since Joy’s seventh birthday and Justin appears on the deck of Bonnie’s Revenge.
Joy is on the island with Suzy and me. Master Mind is on the ship.
“Justin!” Suzy calls out to him. “We need your advice on something.”
Justin goes to the ship’s wheel as if he hadn’t heard his mother.
Land appears in front of the island and, in its center and not too far away from us, sits a grey castle.
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“I want my dad!” Charlie cries and begins to breathe hysterically.
I put both hands on Charlie’s shoulders as he cries. “Charlie. Charlie. Listen to me.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Joy is standing there, full of shame, her shoulders and arms raised, as if she’s trying to be inside a turtle’s shell. She’s ashamed. She’s taking personally the fact that Charlie apparently can’t ever dream of his father again, as if it was her fault.
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Charlie had just tried to summon his father, and even with Joy’s help - I don’t know if that actually helps or not - but in any case, he failed. And then Joy said it was her fault.
“When I met Eddie,” Joy begins to explain, clearly feeling horrible, “we played, and I… I touched him. I wanted to play with him so much! So he became real! And then he died…”
Charlie shakes his head. He doesn’t understand.
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“I can see him,” Charlie says. “I can see him in my mind. I’m trying to bring him back.”
“Go ahead,” Joy says. “You can do it!”
Charlie seems to be straining. “Just the dad who plays with me, just the dad who plays with me, just the…” he sighs and opens his eyes. “I can’t do it!”
Joy puts her hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Try,” she says. “I’ll help you!”
Charlie closes his eyes and now so does Joy.
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I sense some tension from both Charlie and Joy.
“Huh. What about your dad, Charlie?”
Now they both tense up. It’s not subtle. I’m missing something. They’ve said quite a few things over the last few weeks about Charlie’s father, but I’m not sure if any of it was about the real world.
“My Dad… he… he died. Because of me. And then we moved. And then every time I dreamed about him he ended up killing me.”
“Really killing him!” Joy adds.
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“You do it,” Joy tells Charlie and gives him the large iron key.
Charlie takes it with reverence. He puts it in the lock of the iron bar door and twists it.
It twists and his jaw drops. “It’s easy to open!”
“Now open the door,” Joy tells him.
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