“Absolutely not!” Justin says adamantly to Joy’s fiftieth request. 

We’ve been living on top of Justin’s Shroom and in the tunnels without going to any dream for three days now, which are three of Justin’s nights. Justin has not appeared once dreaming of those terrible demons, and so everyone including Justin agreed we could go back to Bonny’s Revenge. 

But instead of returning, Joy wants to go look for all the missing Dreamer children. Charlie can’t be the only child around, and everyone we’ve met so far is around Justin’s age. 

“There aren’t going to be any demons!” Joy insists. “You dreamed them up!” 

“No. No, no, no, no, no!” 

“Well, now, son,” Suzy intervenes, putting a calming hand on Justin’s shoulder. “What is the difference between going into new dreams looking for child Dreamers and going into new dreams the way you always do?” 

“Because, Mom,” Justin is insistent. “We’ve looked far enough away. We’ve been lucky and no one has died. You don’t know what dangers are hiding  in the other dreams!” 

“It’s all the same!” Joy says. “We’re careful! You saw that I’m careful! We’ll be fine!” 

But Justin won’t have it.

“I vote we go,” Charlie raises his hand. 

“I don’t see a difference between this and what you’ve done so far,” Suzy shrugs and raises her hand. 

“I would like to explore more of the world around us,” Master Mind raises his hand. 

I look around at the others and say, “I think it’s the same thing, son.” 

Justin’s eyes jump from one to the other, and seems shocked. “Well, this is not a democracy! We do what I say!” 

There is silence. I don’t want to argue that point. After all, he’s just trying to protect his daughter’s life. Joy seems to be about to explode, when Charlie says weakly. “Well, technically… As long as we’re not in your dream… you can’t tell me what to do.” He looks at Joy, then at us. “I mean, right?” 

“Right!” Joy smiles a big smile. 

“So…” Charlie puts on his jetpack made permanent by Joy, taken from Bonny’s Revenge’s deck. “I’ll just…” he’s moving very slowly. “Turn this on…” 

Having put it on and strapped it to himself, he pushes a button and rises into the air. 

“And I guess…” he hovers in the air just above us. “...I’ll go now and… look for more children… Yes?” 

Joy, a huge smile on her face, points in one direction. “That way!” 

“Uh… Bye now!” And Charlie whizzes off past dozens of Shrooms, past any Shroom we’d looked at before. He lands on it and walks into a tunnel, disappearing from sight. 

Joy throws her hands up in the air in frustration. “There, Dad! You got everything you wanted! Happy?” 

And she lands in Suzy’s lawnchair, facing the Shroom that Charlie had gone into. 

Justin bites his lips, gathers inner strength, and then says simply, “Very.” 

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt