“My name is Master Mind,” the strange half-robot tells me and Suzy in his weird metallic voice. “And I have heard what the two of you have just said about the little pirate.” 

“What little pirate?” I say. 

Suzy whispers to me, “He means Joy.” 

“Ahhh… Go on.” 

“You think this place is dangerous for a little girl. Let me tell you how I met your granddaughter.” 

She was no more than a baby when I met her, two years old, and already thought she was an adventurer. 

“I was created by a mad and evil scientist as a weapon that could defeat and subjugate the people of an entire planet.”  

“Oh my…” Suzy whispers. 

She sits down on the step next to him. I stand next to both of them. 

“I was very good. I still get a thrill thinking about it and I am sad to know that I will never subjugate another population again. Your son, Justin Shelley, pirate extraordinaire, tried to stop me. But I was faster than him, stronger than him, smarter than him. I caught him and his daughter.

“I imprisoned him, but I thought his daughter was harmless, so I allowed her to roam freely.” 

I sit near Suzy on the step, mouth half open at hearing this part of my son’s and my granddaughter’s life. 

“She roamed around in the mad scientist’s lab even as I killed him and then thousands in order to sow fear in the hearts of all. She found a piece of paper and a red pen, and she drew a heart on it because she felt that was what I needed. 

“As she did so, I had taken her father to be executed on the roof, and came in to take her as well, to execute her.” 

Looking at Suzy, I see she stopped breathing. 

“When I approached her, she stuffed the paper heart in my chest, between all the widgets and circuitry. ‘There,’ she said. ‘You need that.’

“I thought nothing of it but led them to the roof. As I was walking, the heart began to take hold within me. Feelings of empathy, love, forgiveness, sadness began to take root. I did not know what they were. They had not completely formed. Even now, even today, years later, the heart has not finished releasing into me everything it has within it. Even now, even today, I do not understand everything it has done and is still doing to me. 

“But by the time I had reached the roof, I knew that I should not kill the innocent, only the evil. I freed the prisoners and surrendered myself, asking to be imprisoned by your son and his daughter, and they put me in jail. 

“To this day, I dream of doing evil, I love doing evil, but my other side is stronger now. Barely, but stronger. And that is your granddaughter’s doing. She saved me. She saved a planet by saving me. And she saved herself by saving me, for I have saved her life yesterday and will do so again. 

“She is a strong little girl, as strong as her father, and perhaps even a better adventurer. I have heard her go through hundreds of adventures and survive every one. Your granddaughter is a heroine. You should allow her to continue to be one.” 

“Huh,” Suzy says thoughtfully. 

It’s true that it was an amazing story, but I don’t know if it helped calm me down. The fact that she was on the brink of death then… and yesterday… and probably many times in the middle… Oh, boy.

I stand up. “Thank you for sharing that, uh… Master Mind.” 

“Hmmmm….” he nods. 

I look at Suzy. “Shall we go see her?” 

“Definitely. You okay here, Master Mind?” 

“Oh, yes. I’m devising a thousand ways to kill your son,” he says calmly. Seeing that Suzy’s eyes opened wide, he adds. “Oh, it’s just for fun. It keeps me amused.”  

“Ah,” she nods sagely. “Let’s go,” she whispers.

I motion with my head at Joy’s cabin. 

We go in to look at our granddaughter. Our brand-new six-year-old adventurer granddaughter! 

(To be continued…)

—Told by Grampa Walt